Digital Camera to supplement Nikonos 15mm

I would really like to make the foray into UW digital but am overwhelmed by the options available to me. Because I already own and love my ultrawide (weitwinkel) setup (Nik w/15mm), I am considering a dedicated macro digital until affordable dSLRs are full frame. I envision my subjects to be between 1" and 6", and oftentimes fish.

Would I be well served with a consumer cam ala Oly 5050 and strobe (nice and compact) or should I seriously consider a more versatile housed dSLR ala D70, etc? My biggest concern is the ease/reliability of focus and composition. I understand the shutter lag issue but feel this to be less important than focus reliability.

Second, which consumer/dSLR cameras and corresponding housings/flashes allow TTL for macro? Would this be a deciding factor to you?

I am very impressed with the progress that digital UW photographers have made and consider forums like this one to be an enormous asset to the diving community. Thanks in advance!

Matt

The Nikon 12 - 24 mm produces excellent images with DSLR cameras as long as the sun in not in the frame.

I have not tried it on close focus wide angle as of yet. I am very curious if it will produce the almost 3 D type images that the Nikonos 15 does on these shots.

For your macro question, If you want to use TTL with a standard TTL strobe like the Nikon SB-102,103,104 ,105 or non "DS" Ikelete strobes. your best bet at this time is the Fuji S-2. I have shot lots of macro and standard type images using TTL with this camera. all with excelent results.

Chris

It really depends on what you want to use the images for. If you only intend to use them for web publishing, then you may be able to get by with a consumer camera like an Olympus 5050 or Canon S50, both of which have cheap consumer housings. These have limited super macro capability because they don't do manual focus very well, and you will also have to deal with shutter lag. An external slave strobe would work fine.

If critical focus through the viewfinder is important, then Chris' suggestion is a good one, especially if you want TTL.

Cheers

James