I started this hobby with an ikelite housing (intended for a 5d) for my 5d ii. I have a few years experience in topside photography but quickly became frustrated with underwater photography. Refusing to give up on it, I upgraded to an aquatica setup. My setup is as follows:
Aquatica 5d ii housing
Aquaview view finder
9.25" megadome
2 DS 160's
Canon 17-40
Sigma 15mm
Port extension for 17-40
I took the housing into the pool today for a test and was blown away. I wanted to give a quick writeup on my findings for others out there who are considering the upgrade. I will have a more in depth review later when I have had a chance to do a more substantial test.
First, the megadome. This is an incredibly well crafted piece of gear. I was fortunate enough to get all of this gear together at a great price. However, had I paid full price for the dome, I would still feel that it was worth every penny. The difference in sharpness between the photos with an ikelite 8" dome and the aquatica 9.25" dome, using the same lens, were amazing. This isn't a fault of ikelite, I think that the glass and size of dome is the reason for the improvement. Also, my current setup has the lens seated perfectly at the start of the dome opening, whereas, with the ikelite setup it protruded into the dome. The ikelite setup was definitely a high quality setup and one that served me well, however, I do think that aquatica produces a higher quality product. It also demands a higher price tag. For over-under shots, the water beads right off and the shots came out perfect.
The aqua view finder: Again, I got this for basically free. This is the one piece I can't really speak about right now until I do a more in depth test. The viewfinder wasn't very necessary with my test and I suspect it will really shine for macro work. I will update on this later. However, I will say that the build quality is phenomenal and consistent with the rest of the setup.
Later this week, I will post a comparison between the 15mm from sigma and the 17-40 L.
For now, I would like to thank everybody who has been so helpful to me while I was getting all of this gear set up. Here is an example of a shot I took today with the 17-40. The photo hasn't been adjusted at all.
The resolution is seriously degraded with the small file. The halo effect you see around the fern isn't there on the full raw file. Also, at 100% crop on the original, the fern is very sharp. You can see all of the veins in the firm very clear.
I should have mentioned, the strobes were not used for this shot.
