Nikon D7100

I have just bought a Nikon D7100 and an Ikelite underwater housing. However, I am wondering if the design of this housing is suitable for my needs. For starters, there is no way to attach it to your BCD when diving. I am concerned in case it is lost at sea and I can't retrieve it. My primary concern is making sure I can dive safe and I would like to be able to have my hands free at times so I can focus on my diving I.e. descending down a line in a strong current whilst managing the buoyancy in my drysuit/BCD. Does anyone have a genius was of attaching the camera handles to your BCD?

Secondly, I'm taking it to Australia for Christmas. Any tips on packing it in hand luggage for a long flight? I only have a 7kg allowance so can't use the hard case I was hoping to use to transport it.

Lastly, can you get away with one strobe in the tropics or are two necessary? I won't be diving below 15m but appreciate light (colour) is lost as shallow as 6m.

Thank you for any advice or information. This is a whole new world of photography for me. Any tips for using this camera underwater greatly received.

Thank you kindly.

Hi GL...

Congrats on your new system. I use a D7000/Aquatica system and have been very happy with it...

Regarding a tether, none of the housings come with a ready-to-go tether. There are several springy things that are available commercially, but I settled on a hunk of rope and a stainless bolt-snap. The chord is about 30" long. The Aquatica handles are hollow, so I run the free end up through the handle, and have a monkey-fist knot on that end, where it emerges from the other end of the handle. This is further held in place by the fitting that screws into the handle to hold the strobe.. I clip the bolt-snap to a D-ring on the right side of my harness or BCD. This system has the further benefit of being used to wrap around the arms to create a nice carrying handle out of the rope.

There's an old thread here, with pics of my stuff in the second post: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42619&hl=tether&do=findComment&comment=288632

As for one or two strobes, I don't think there's much argument to made in favour of having one, other than the one you make... weight and space. You will end up with some shadows and so on, and there is a risk with not having a "spare" strobe should that one fail. I'd suggest taking a second sync chord as many strobe problems are actually chord problems.

As for packing, well, good luck. I use a Pelican 1510 carry-on roller. Size-wise it's good, but it weights 42 pounds with my housing, one body (in the housing), two strobes, three lenses, chords, flat port, extension rings and a 45° viewfinder... and my strobe arms. I'm pretty good at sliding it past check in, and only once I had to gate check it on a puddle-hopper. If you know you have to check it, use a hard case, pack the least fragile items and put the rest in a pack or pockets. A friend is leaving for the Philippines in a couple of weeks and he's trying the photo vest route...

Congrats on the housing!

First of all, as for attaching to your BCD, I never dive without the BTS coil strap. You can attach it to the tray on one end with the D-Ring and to your BCD on the other. During the dive you release the clip and after you finish, you clip it back so it stays close. Great for putting on your fins or freeing your hand without worrying it will fall into the deep blue.

Traveling with this type of gear is never easy. I tend to separate and put the less sensitive things on my checked in bag (arms, trays, accessories, sometimes even strobes). You can carry the camera and lenses in a side back which can be brought on board the flight in addition to the carry-on, helping you to lower the weight of it.

As for the strobes, one is great, two is better It's completely possible to make do just with one strobe, and it will definitely improve your skills, forcing you to position it correctly and use it wisely. Two strobes just make your life easier, but transporting more difficult.

You're welcome to read some of my tutorials, maybe you will find something useful.

Good luck!

Hi Geo-lea

Like Stoo, I made up a lanyard with about 18" of cord with a stainless steel carabiner at each end. One end clips on to the arm of my (Subal) housing, one end on my BCD. SImple, easy and cheap.

And like Stoo, I use a Pelican 1510 roller case and have been doing for about 12 years. I've had no problems at all - touch wood and have used it on long-haul, European and Red Sea charter flights always in the cabin. It sure is heavy when fully loaded but it does provide great protection on flights and in, e.g., camera rooms or liveaboards for all those bits of gear you're not using. If you are REALLY limited to 7kgs a Pelican could be tricky as the case alone could weigh almost that. Can you buy extra? Maybe not for cabin baggage. Is it worth trying it with a fall back plan of checking the case? With a Pelican although I wouldn't be enthusiastic about checking it, it shouldn't have a problem surviving being in the hold. If you had a jacket with you that could hold lots of gear, you could always off-load stuff at the check-in if need be to the pockets and around your neck....

Two strobes definitely .

I shoot a Nikon D7100 in an Ikelite housing and I travel with it.

I'm not a fan of Pelican hard cases. While Pelican cases provide great protection (and yes, I've used 'hard' Pelicans lots in the past for photo assignments), the cases are pretty heavy. I like to keep my camera system in the cabin with me when I do airline travel.

I do have a Pelican case, but it's not the hard variety. It's a Pelican Gustofson Photo Safari soft camera roller case. I found it in a local camera shop. It was lightly used. My entire D7100/Ikelite housing, three lenses & strobe w. arms system fits in it. This particular case has a zip-off bag that my dome ports (6" & 8") fit in. The zip-off bag also rides in the cabin as a carry-on.

I've never seen another camera case like mine, but there are some that are very similar. The cases made by Thinktank are similar. I was actually shopping for a Thinktank case when I found my Pelican case.

I posted some photos of my underwater system and Pelican case system on my Cortez Blue Photography Facebook page a while back. If you do Facebook just do the 'like' Cortez Blue Photography on Facebook thing and you should be able to see what I use. It's amazing what fits in that Pelican soft case.

Of course, if you'd like more information about using a Nikon D7100/Ikelite housing system feel free to PM me. My system works great and I've produced some good work with it. You can look at my photos at www.cortezbluephotography.com.

I attach my underwater rig to my BCD with two straps. When attached to my BCD d-rings, the rig sits right in the neighborhood of my belly button. I felt it was important to be able to use both hands for something other than hanging on to my rig without losing the rig or having it dangle off me. The strap system I made makes handling the rig really easy when it enters and exits the water. If you're interested in seeing what the strap system looks like, let me know and I'll try to send you some photos.

I also pack (in regular checked luggage) a soft cooler that I use to transport the assembled rig to dive boats & sites. I put the rig in the cooler between dives. Last year, my 8" dome port got scratched on a dive boat out of La Paz when the crew dropped it into the boat's camera tank. I won't ever use a 'community' camera tank again.

-AZTinman

It's a Pelican!

-AZTinman