New here, what gear will I need?

Hello there, I am not new to topside photography, but I am completely new to underwater.

I am looking to take very specific shots. I am not interested in any reef shots. I will not be scuba diving with the cam. I am looking to take shots similar to this:

and also half in and out water shots as well of fish and our boats. my questions:

1. will i need a strobe?

2. i currently have a Nikon D300 and i was thinking of getting a housing for this camera. how fast do the cameras come out of the housings?

3. can i still take topside pics with the camera in the housing or will i need another camera topside?

4. i am also interested in video. should i skip getting a housing for the d300 and instead get a d7000 and housing? or maybe a used 5d mkii and housing? i would love a d800 and housing, but thats too much money.

basically we fish a lot, and i am interested in taking pics and video of the fish boatside. here's my video page to get an idea: https://vimeo.com/channels/woozy

thanks

You are welcome to buy a housing, for your needs Ikelite would probably be fine. You will want it with a Dome Port. The issue is not all housing support all lenses so whoever you buy the housing from will need to know the lenses you have in hand. The D7000 and 5DMKII would work great.

Have you considered something like this? http://www.ewa-marine.com/index.php?id=90

If you only want to take photos that are about 3' deep, you probably do not need a strobe (unless you are planning on taking photos in low light). If you want to go down to about 40', you will find that the long wavelength colors dissappear. The red light is absorbed by the water at 15'. So if you want reds in your photos, you need to take your own light source down. That means a strobe.

The Ikelite housing should work fine for your fairly minimal application. The D300 should be fine for stills. I don't take video but if you want that you might want to do the D7000. The thing is if you are OK with just stills, you can probably get a housing for the D300 used at a discount. If you go for a more up to date camera like the D7000, you will probably have to go new for the housing.

Housings are kind of complex. Rushing things is a perfect prescription for a flood. I would think that in order to get you camera out of the housing, you would want to immerse the housing in fresh water before opening it. You then want to dry it off (with a towel). Then you can remove you camera. Also it is really nice to have something protective to put your housing in.

I prefer putting my camera in a housing when I am not rushed. So taking shots then top side and then putting your camera into the housing is probably not the best idea. A mistake can cause a flood which can be fatal to your camera and lens. But if you take your underwater photos first, you can probably take your camera out and shoot afterwards with a high degree of safety assuming you don't get the camera doused in spray or something.

Now, I have noticed that on boats where the divers were all photographers, most of the topside photos seem to have been taken with advanced point and shoots. They take their DSLRS in their housings and dive with them. The point and shoots are for photos of people on the boat. So you could think of that option also.

thanks for the responses. my wife wanted another body anyways, so maybe i will pick up a d7000 and a housing, and leave the d300 topside for stills. so i guess a d7000, an ikelite, a dome, and a wide angle? i have a tokina 11-16 f2.8. will this lens work?