Sealux Housing for Nikon coolpix 500

Coming from past experience with Nikonos equipment, recently I had the chance to test my new digital equipment:

- Nikon coolpix 5000 with 19mm

- Sealux housing with 19mm dome port

- 2 Ultalight double 8’ arms

- 2 Nikonos SB105

I am quite satisfied of this equipment. With one lens and one dome port I cover the equivalent of 19-35mm focal length, with good depth of field, and good macro/close-up capabilities. The Sealux housing is not the smallest in the market, but it is certified up to 90 meters, and has all the camera’s controls. I like the ergonomic of the Housing, in particular the optimal inclination of the LCD, which allows you to keep the housing/camera in a natural and comfortable position. The management of the traditional Nikons speedlights is perfect, as well as the TTL (like) control.

These are the features I straggled with.

- Shutter lag. I have not yet found an optimal set up. I will test in the future the new firmware 1.7 update to check the improvement.

- Speedlight correction. After several tests I feel the best range is within –0.7 and 1.3.

- Light reflection on the LCD screen (only in shallow water and/or particular conditions). I solve this problem with a home made a hood, which is not yet perfect from the esthetics point of view, but it really works perfectly in any light condition. I build it myself using normal hobby tools (2 hours of work), large enough in order to be able to press the 3 push buttons on top of the LCD. It is made of thin alloy, painted with black marine painting, and attached to the housing with normal bi-adhesive water resistant tape. Looking to the pictures, you can see that I stared from a paper model, and then worked on the alloy.

I tested the equipment in Alghero – Capo Caccia (Sardinia, Italy). The area is full of caves, often with strong current and suspension, and far different from the conditions you find in the coral reefs in terms of sea life richness, colors, and light conditions.

These are the coolpix 5000 setting I used:

- Speedlight: auto and always on

- Speedlight correction: within –0.7 and –1.3

- Aperture priority and exposure time between 60 and 125

- ISO 100

- Metering: center weighted

- White balance auto: on

- Lens: normal

- Autofocus: on (set to macro when needed)

- All the other setting: default

I would be interested in feedback and suggestions regarding my first pictures with this setup.

Housing

UW Pictures

Hi Paulo,

Why did you set the speedlight to Always On. That will just use up batteries firing the internal speedlight, right?

I set it to Internal and External Active and then push the button on the back to turn off the internal speedlite - leaving only the external strobes active.

HTH

James

Hi James, thanks for your reply.

Let me first remind you that I was using firmware revision 1.6.

My understanding and experience is that when you set the speedlight to auto, and the external speedlight is connected, the camera detects it. In this condition the external one is used for lightening, while the internal is used only for pre-flash operation (with the Sealux housing made in metal, it is completely useless). I also set the speedlight to fill flash to be sure the external speedlight fire in any condition. I never managed to turn the internal flash off to avoid the pre-flash.

My understanding is also that if you set to int&ext active, both will fire.

With Firmware revision 1.7 it should now be possible to set the internal speedlight off.

Try a preset WB. Auto white balance slows down shutter lag. FW 1.7 is a big improvement over 1.6 as far as AF and shutter lag. For very close macro I go to 1/250 or 1/500 and -2 on speedlight control. Using custom settings I have set my function button to WB so I can quickly go thru the WB presets to set the one I like. Though with the ablility to shoot RAW now that shouldn't be so important. Go to the posts on Tired old eyes to see the post on using the Extend a view with your camera housing. I use it with my Ike housing and it makes the LCD really easy to see. Like looking through as SLR. :ph34r:

Hy Paulo!

I agree with Dave; the 1.7 firmware its really better!

You can switched off the internal speedligth, and the AF and shutter lag are really improved.

I work with auto WB, the next weekend I´ll try to change it like Dave do, it could be better!

Thanks Dave!

Your welcome. Note with the DS 125 strobe I still get a preflash even if I tell the camera to turn off the internal speedlite. As I understand it this also happens with Nikon strobes and is to allow the camera to determine the WB. :ph34r: