Nikon D500 Subal Questions....again!

I've just got back from a fantastic Indonesian Diving holiday, the first to use my new (to me) D500/Subal setup in anger. Probably got more "keeper" shots than ever before with my previous set up

Q1/ Battery life - realised early on Live View drains the batteries BUT it is great for looking at changing settings (ISO/SS/fStop). Even with Live view off for most of the time, difficult to get 2 straight dives out of them (150 shots). Have an original Black and a grey B type battery, tried someones A type - a little better, not much. Didn't even try low or high speed just in case battery drained. Got fibre optic manual strobe, flash set at lowest option 1/60 power. Anyone similar issues or answers??

Q2/Info in the bottom of the viewfinder disappears after a couple of seconds, anyone any ideas how this can remain on? Searched the manual - no joy, was really, really annoying....

Q3/ Using the Nikors 60mm and Tokina 10/17 - would have been great to have a diopter a couple of times how do people attach use one with the Subal ports??

Q4/ What other domes do people use with the Subal housing and Tokina 10/17???

First thing I would suspect would be the age of the batteries, are they Nikon of aftermarket batteries?  I'm sure Tim will chime in with D500/Subal  advice, but my understanding is one of the advantages of DSLRs is long battery life, so this is why I am suspecting the batteries might be past their best.

Hi Mags

I'm glad it went well. Do post some pics!

As Chris says, I can offer some thoughts on the D500 and Subal.

Q1. I can pretty much always get 3 dives out of a D500 battery - and even then there is usually enough life left to maybe squeeze in a 4th dive. I'd suggest getting a couple of new batteries. (I never use Liveview though!)

Q2. Let me check and I'll come back to you. I'm sure you can extend the time before the display switches off.

Q3. I use both the 60mm and Tokina 10-17 (and the Nikkor 105mm). Are you thinking of a diopter to reduce the closest focusing distance? Or magnify the image? If so, there are a number ofd ways:

a. You can screw a close-up lens to the 60m lens inside the port.

b. You can attach a close up lens to the front of the 60mm flat port using a bracket which lets you swing the lens into or out of position. Check out the SubSea diopters and holders. I'm not aware of anything you can do with the Tokina other than using a 1.4 Teleconvertor which will give you a slightly reduced field of view but allow you to get incredibly close to the subject - pretty much touching the dome.

Q4. With the Tokina I use either a 100mm dome port or the DP-FE4. Both work well. The 100mm allows you to get very close without risking smacking a bigger dome; and gives more room to squeeze strobes into the housing to light very close or CFWA shots. I'm sure you can use other domes (230 for example!) but it becomes a bit pointless. The 100mm dome is not very good for over/unders; but the DP-FE4 isn't bad.

6 minutes ago, TimG said:

Q2. Let me check and I'll come back to you. I'm sure you can extend the time before the display switches off.

Mags

Try changing setting C2 (Standby Timer) in the Custom Settings menu and extend the default 6 seconds to whatever you want: 10s, 30s or more.......

You may find that a hotshoe flash trigger with it's own battery to fire LEDs into the optical cables may help. And with the Nikon Z50 at least, having the flash set to 1/32nd power does not mean you can shoot 32 images on a charge; it simply won't shoot at all unless it's fully charged. So you get just a few. The flash trigger solved this.

2 hours ago, PeteAtkinson said:

You may find that a hotshoe flash trigger with it's own battery to fire LEDs into the optical cables may help. And with the Nikon Z50 at least, having the flash set to 1/32nd power does not mean you can shoot 32 images on a charge; it simply won't shoot at all unless it's fully charged. So you get just a few. The flash trigger solved this.

I'm not sure what flash set at 1/60 power refers to - the Nikon D500 doesn't have a built in flash so a flash trigger is the only way to trigger strobes.  This of course should have no influence on camera battery life and even if you can set the flash power in the menus I don't believe it would have any impact.

Tim confirms my thoughts re: batteries I would suggest a new Nikon battery to see how it goes.

My bad: I didn't realise that the D500 had no pop-up flash!

1 hour ago, PeteAtkinson said:

My bad: I didn't realise that the D500 had no pop-up flash!

Yeah, if I remember rightly, the D500 was the first Nikon to drop the built-in flash - other than the Dx flagships gripped bodies.

15 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

First thing I would suspect would be the age of the batteries, are they Nikon of aftermarket batteries?  I'm sure Tim will chime in with D500/Subal  advice, but my understanding is one of the advantages of DSLRs is long battery life, so this is why I am suspecting the batteries might be past their best.

That's what I initially thought but they are all Nikon and checked in the camera - comes up as New

14 hours ago, TimG said:

Hi Mags

I'm glad it went well. Do post some pics!

As Chris says, I can offer some thoughts on the D500 and Subal.

Q1. I can pretty much always get 3 dives out of a D500 battery - and even then there is usually enough life left to maybe squeeze in a 4th dive. I'd suggest getting a couple of new batteries. (I never use Liveview though!)

Q2. Let me check and I'll come back to you. I'm sure you can extend the time before the display switches off.

Q3. I use both the 60mm and Tokina 10-17 (and the Nikkor 105mm). Are you thinking of a diopter to reduce the closest focusing distance? Or magnify the image? If so, there are a number ofd ways:

a. You can screw a close-up lens to the 60m lens inside the port.

b. You can attach a close up lens to the front of the 60mm flat port using a bracket which lets you swing the lens into or out of position. Check out the SubSea diopters and holders. I'm not aware of anything you can do with the Tokina other than using a 1.4 Teleconvertor which will give you a slightly reduced field of view but allow you to get incredibly close to the subject - pretty much touching the dome.

Q4. With the Tokina I use either a 100mm dome port or the DP-FE4. Both work well. The 100mm allows you to get very close without risking smacking a bigger dome; and gives more room to squeeze strobes into the housing to light very close or CFWA shots. I'm sure you can use other domes (230 for example!) but it becomes a bit pointless. The 100mm dome is not very good for over/unders; but the DP-FE4 isn't bad.

 

 

Thanks Tim - Yep I will post some pics shortly, Q2 if I can get that to work I won't have to use live view, Q3 I'll look into option b, Q4 Have the 100mm dome, I'll look at the DP-FE4

14 hours ago, TimG said:

Mags

Try changing setting C2 (Standby Timer) in the Custom Settings menu and extend the default 6 seconds to whatever you want: 10s, 30s or more.......

Tim you are a Genius, thank you

3 hours ago, Mags said:

Tim you are a Genius, thank you

Not what my partner usual says, but thanks, Mags  Very happy to help