Best system setup for cave and wide angle photography

Hi Guys

I would like to do some photography on my dives and the type of stuff I will be doing would be cave and wreck diving while travelling so, while my initial demands narrow the choice down there is some scope for choice of brands and whatnot.

My first requirements are:

• low weight for travelling
• good quality for internet publishing

This leads me to think that micro 4/3rds would be the best option

My second requirements would be

• Good low light to make the best in caves and wreck
• a good wide angle setup for both these

I had been mooching around at the Panasonic and Sony range with Nauticam housings and had hoped for peoples thoughts on these, or others as systems.

Cheers

Jools

Hi Jools,

in caves it takes a lot of strobes to get good pics....
Have been using only two ( one on the camera, other at buddie ) and in that way you can only light small spots....
If you wanna light a bigger room, it takes 5 to x strobes.
Have met slovakian cave divers in Tulmum, one camera, 5 divers and 10 strobes.....

Had a Sony Nex5 in the nauticam housing before, now changed to Olympus OMD5, and now i am happy.

Regards,
Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang

What didn't you like about the NEX-5?

Jools

Hi Jools,

the fisheye was a converter, so not to compair with a real lens.
Was not sharp in the corners as i would have liked it....
And there was / is still no longer macro lens available....

The setup was very small, that was the good thing.
But there is now the housing comeing for the new OMDe 10. That looks small as well.

Regards,
Wolfgang

I agree with the lighting comments - spend your cash on the strobes (I use inon Z240s because they are small) and the triggers for them (Hedwig can help you out with triggerfish). One on camera and one off camera is a good start, two on and two off is even better. More than that takes a bit of practice to co-ordinate.

For the camera, go as wide angle as you can for caves. I use a dSLR and know nothing about m4/3 so can't help you out there. Good luck with your shopping!

Hi Liz

Thanks for that.

How do you find your DSLR for travelling with weight on airlines? I think there are more options for picking up a second hand DSLR than a 4/3 so that may be an option for me to start with.

Jools

Hi Jools,

I travel with a Canon 5D Mark III (0.97 kg) with a 16-35mm f2.8L lens (0.83 kg) and 8" dome (1.36 kg) plus a laptop (1.60 kg) in my carry-on baggage, a Tumi backpack (1.64 kg). With other bits and pieces, the total is 7.6 kg which is doable on most airlines. Additionally I carry a small (laptop size) unconspicuous hand bag that holds four LiIon batteries for my four 80W video lights, this totals 6.5 kg. For most European airlines this is way over the limit, but (knock on wood), I have managed to sneak in with 14 kg of carry-on. But Jools, I guess you could consider British Airways with their luxurious 2x20kg carry-on allowance...

I put the camera housing (3.3 kg) and the extension port (0.49) in the checked-in luggage. For a cave diving trip my checked-in luggage weighs a total of 55-64 kg. This includes everything except tanks and weights.

You can find pictures of my gear here:

http://cerella.fi/?page_id=2092

and samples of cave and mine video/photo footage here:

http://cerella.fi/?page_id=2045

and here:

http://cerella.fi/?page_id=2201

As you can see from the samples, it is possible to illuminate fairly large spaces with 32000-100000 lumens if you have a sensitive camera. More is always better.

Richard

I pack in quite a similar way to Richard, and really sweat bricks every time I enter an airport.

I usually travel with full cave diving kit (including drysuit and stage regulators), Canon 5DII with wide angle and macro set ups and 4 strobes. I find it impossible to fit into an allowance of 2 x 23 kg bags checked and 7 kg hand luggage - and all the dive gear + photography equipment means I don't usually have room for clothes! It is a nightmare. But the photos make it worth it. :-)

If you'd like to see some of the cave photos I've managed to capture visit:

http://www.inspiredtodive.com

I can do 2 x 23kgs, plus an excessive amount of hand luggage when travelling with Canon 5DII, 14mm lens, Aquatica housing and a full set of OC cave gear (Armadillo, 2-3 regs, reels, fins, primary torch and backups, drysuit, etc, etc). Depending on the airline I normally put the camera, strobes and housing together and carryon the whole lot in a soft backpack. Cables, batteries, chargers, two more strobes and other stuff gets checked. The backpack is small enough with the 8" dome port that it fits in the overhead locker. Carrying it through the airport that way and with laptop in the other hand usually gives me shoulder pain which is a small price to pay for keeping an eye on it.

SLR housings are heavy, there's no avoiding it. I think mine weighs over 10kgs ready to dive...I haven't weighed it because I spend so much time lumping it through caves that the number would just depress me.

If you're travelling for tech diving you're already over the standard baggage limit and the camera will just be the icing on the cake. Choose your airlines, routes and destinations appropriately

Richard, Alison - thanks for sharing! Tempts me to get back to caves ...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a much smaller setup using 10Bar for Nex5r. The total weight including a bracket, housing, camera, dome port, two z240s, one video light of 2000Lum is around 7Kg. However, I can't imagine what this will go if I shoot caves....with dSLR with wide angle..

An alternative is using the full frame brother of Nex5, the A7. Nauticam has launched a housing for A7