dSLR - Getting started

Hi all - my first topic here at Wetpixel

I am planning to get into UV-photography witin the next year or so. As I know that this probaly will become my greatest passion, I have decided to move straight up to a dSLR camera at once instead of first purchasing more "compact stuff" to see if this is my thing.

I think I'll start with learning close-up photos first. Another poor student told me that that in the beginning, one single external strobe may do it for macro photography, but that I definutely need 2 strobes when getting into wide-angles. Is this sort of true?

So; what gear to buy? It all seems like a jungle out there! I have been considering the Nikon D70 camera, which I can buy second-hand for a reasonable price. Does anyone have hints about affordable quality housings for this camera?

What lens is siutable for close-up photos of fishes and other creatures? What port for this particular use, lens & housing?

And the flash - Is it possible to control this from the camera or is the best bet to learn it all the hard way with manual controllers right from the beginning?

Other things to consider? Any helpful hints to avoid making the same mistakes you guys probably did? :twisted:

In general, I looking for quality gear that I may keep for a longer period as my uv-photography skills and habits extend.

Best regards,

Martin, Norway

Hi Marty.

Welcome to the forums. And to uw photo. You'll have a great time, finding out the challenges of uw-photo.

The d70 would be a fine camera to start with. For housings, at least here in the US, nothing comes close to ikelite for quality, and value. Not sure how the pricing will break down for you.

For macro, yes, you can get by with a single strobe, though you may not always like the shadows you get. A great single strobe, for macro is the ikelite ds-50.

As for lenses, the standards are the micros, 60 or 105. In very clear tropical water, the 105 is good, since it gives you more working distance, for small reef fish and such. But hard to get a decent shot of anything much larger than a butterfly fish, since you have to be too far away.

The 60 also goes 1:1, but you have to get closer to do it. In less than clear water, the 60 is almost always better. And it lets you get shots of turtle sized things, if the subject presents itself.

The one thing to keep in mind - an ideal P&S digicam may actually be better, underwater, than a DSLR with a small view finder. Back in the 90's folks would pay big bucks for nikon F4s and F5s, and action finders, and big housings, just to get the large view for use underwater. Since P&S digicams allow the use of a large LCD for composition, and the DSLRs do not, a great digicam, with really good AF, shutter lag, and image quality, would win, for many folks.

So far, nothing close enough to perfect has been around. But it looks like the sony V3 and/or nikon 8400 may be there. Final reviews are due out any day now.

After using a film SLR, n90s, for over 10 years, and now a canon G2 in an ikelite housing, for a couple years, I really like the low bulk and travel weight of the compact setup! And hate the frustration of the crappy auto focus. So, while I've been on the verge of getting a D70, I keep hoping that the digicams will get good enough autofocus to allow me to keep the low bulk setup.

Don

Thanks for your points of wiev, Don!

A couple of times, I've borrowed a Canon Ixus. The LCD screen for sure makes composition easier. I've been considering solutions like the Canon G5 or Olympus 6060. Solutions like these, come out a lot lower in price.

Though, I'm afraid that I'd soon upgrade to a dSLR solution anyway - and spend a lot of money on buying new stuff twice :roll:

If you are near wanting an SLR's performance, you would find the G5 and Oly's very frustrating. The canon G's have lousy auto focus, and it gets worse in low light. The oly's have nearly as bad AF, and MUCH worse final shutter release lag. The 5060 is .250 seconds, final shutter lag! The fish will be in the next reef by then!

I've been searching and searching a searching, and the only ones that look like they will really do the job, are the sony f828, (but kinda long tele for UW), and the sony V1. The minolta A2 looks like it would be quite good, but no housings for it over here. I hope the nikon 8400 or sony V3 will REALLY work..

Fingers crossed.

Don

In the early days, you may find that close-up and macro yields more images that you're happy with than wide-angle, but starting off with a dSLR will make the wide-angle learning curve a lot shorter than it is for people who start out shooting film. The instant feed-back from the display on the back of the camera, allowing you to see instantly whether an exposure basically worked or not - makes a big difference.

Two strobes on long arms are the optimum set-up for wide-angle, but it's possible to make spectacular wide-angle images using only ambient light - look at some of Alex Mustard's work and discussion of shooting wide-angle with filters elsewhere on this site. A single strobe can work very well for many CFWA (close-focus wide-angle) shots where you use the strobe to illuminate a close main subject in the foreground, while the background is illuminated purely with ambient.

When you say you want to do close-ups, you probably are actually taking about what u/w photographers generally call "macro" shooting. True macro refers to an image shot at a magnification of 1:1 (on a slide), but the term is used more loosely. The main lenses used by u/w shooters for this are macro lenses (such as the 60 mm and 105 mm micro lenses in the Nikon system - the Canon equivalents are similar) which can also be used for close-ups.

For wide-angle, many would say the wider the better, but there are a range of choices. On a reduced frame dSLR, the Nikon 12-24 mm zoom is a magic lens, giving about the same angles of coverage that a 17-35 zoom does on a full-frame film SLR.

The ports you need will depend on the housing and lenses you select. Macro lenses are used with a flat port, which may also offer a manual focusing option. Wide-angle lenses require a dome port. Most shooters can get away with one of each, adding extension rings to accomodate alternate lenses of different sizes.

I'd consider going with a well-established housing manufacturer with a wide range of products. One advantage of this is that if you later one to upgrade to a new model camera and housing, you should be able to continue to use all the ports and other peripherals you purchased initially. Ports are generally not inter-changeable among housings from different manufacturers.

Frogfish