Results from the Digital Rebel/300D in an Ikelite housing...

Taken over the last week in Truk Lagoon. To say the least, I'm very happy with the system.

Using the kit lens...

Using the Canon 50mm macro lens...

Using the Sigma 14mm...

More to follow of course.

Jay,

Man these are looking good! The kit lens looks very usable, which is good news to me as it is the only lens I have for UW use.

Looking forward to your whole report. Dealer said mine was in his shop today!

Dave.

Jay:

Bravo man! Ike couldn't have picked a better person to ship his first production 300D housing to. These photos are OUTSTANDING!

Cheers

James

The coral and colors from Truk photos always seems especially vivid and spectacular.............

May I ask which flash you are using, and what settings ? and how was the

manual controller.. and by the way the pictures were great !

Thanks.

Yea James, I promised Ike I'd try to do the system justice...man talk about pressure to perform :wink: Honestly, if he hadn't sent me the first housing, I likely would have delayed the trip...it was that important to me to use this camera for my Truk shots. Not only did he get it to me in time, it was actualy a day earlier so I could get one more overnight shipment in the event that something was missing. It wasn't needed.

For light I'm using two Ikelite DS-125 strobes. Settings are, of course, shot dependant so I can only answer that for a given shot. In general, I shoot the camera in "M" (manual) exposure mode. If there's lots of natural light, I use 1/200s shutter speed and ISO100, then set the aperture accordingly to get the background exposure I want. I then shot a series of shots with different strobe power settings, assuming the subject will stay put long enough.

The manual controllers are very useable and give much finer control of the strobe power. They also put the strobe power control on your housing handle wich is very nice. It's certainly possible to connect the camera directly to a DS125 and use the power settings on the strobe but you'll be limited to 4 power settings.

The kit lens is very useable, no question. It suffers somewhat at the wide end but it's by all means good enough for most users. The great thing about an SLR is that you can go out later and buy the Canon 14mm L lens...when you have an extra $1500 Here's a shot from the kit lens at 18mm...

Jay, what were your impressions with the focusing and lack of shutterlag?

Was it enough of a benefit to offset having to decide if you are going to shoot macro or WA before you go down?

How often did you wish you had the other lens on a dive?

I'm on the fence myself. I'm very interested in your candid observations of the difference between the two systems.

Karl

Jay,

Thanks for the writeup. When you get back and have time to think about it - why did you feel that the photos just wouldn't be worth taking if you could not use your D-Rebel? Is it THAT much of a difference compared to your old Oly setup?

Cheers

James