Our first underwater camera was a 2MP Canon iXUS V2 in a Canon WP-DC600 housing. This is the camera we used in Sharm El-Sheik, unfortunately meeting a watery grave on Gordon Reef at 25M — Shaun kept the housing in his BC pocket and when pulling it out the housing opened. Two learning points, don’t keep a housed camera in your BC and add a strip of Duct tape over the opening mechanism.
Following this we purchased a replacement Canon iXUS V3, sporting 3MP, but using the same housing. This is a great little camera and was used for all of the shots on the White Sands pages. Although we only used the internal strobe, we were able to get some great shots, especially of Macro subjects. We have dived with many people with more recent and more sophisticated cameras who were getting very poor results. The answer is to get close, reduce the distance the strobe has to travel and eliminate back scatter. Close means less than 1m from the subject, and often much closer—sometimes a little unnerving with lion fish and morays, but we have never had a problem. For wider angle shots, the only successful method is manual white balancing with a dive slate. Just remember to re-balance if your depth changes significantly. This does generate more noisy images, won’t win any prizes, but makes for very nice “souvenir” shots.
It rapidly became obvious that 1 camera shared between 2 divers was not an ideal solution, so we decided to add a second camera, a 5MP Olympus Camedia 5060WZ housed in an Olympus PT-020. To get around the challenge of the small internal strobe on modern digital cameras we also added an external Olympus strobe. This is a neat solution whereby Olympus has provided a housing for the FL-20 flash gun, the PFL-01. The flash gun is fired using a sync cable connecting directly to the camera allowing TTL control. Although not very powerful the FL-20 is still significantly better than the camera strobe and as it is external can be mounted on an arm at a distance from the camera reducing back scatter and allowing the strobe to be aimed for better creative control. There have been some reported issues with the PT-020 housing, but we have had no problems and really enjoyed using it. The camera supports RAW allowing white balance to be set after taking the shot, this transforms the quality of the images. However, RAW needs software support, we have Photoshop CS, but PhotoShop Elements 3.0 now supports RAW, plus there are many free or low cost tools that can be down loaded from the web. Using this camera we took the shots in the Velidhu 2004 and Nassau galleries.
The 5060 also provided very much greater control over exposure. There has been a lot of discussion about settings and using “My Mode” to save specific groups of settings. After doing much research and inputting a variety of different settings, we found that we junked all this and used the camera primarily on Shutter Priority. The camera will sync with the FL-20 strobe up to around 1/1000s. Varying the shutter speed from 1/125s for blue backgrounds to 1/640s for black enables a lot of control over the ambient light. The only other major issues are to switch back and forth between Macro and to remember to switch the strobe on or off (especially when using a red filter).
We also used a UR/Pro Red filter on larger subjects down to about 20M. This worked very well, but does reduce the exposure by about a stop and so forces use of a lower shutter speeds which without use of the strobe can lead to blurring. This is great for wide angle and for larger critters.
Shaun's latest acquisition is an 8MP Canon EOS-20D digital SLR with Ikelite housing with twin DS125 strobes. This has now replaced the Olympus camera. Initially it was a major struggle to get used to using the camera eyepiece to frame shots rather than the display on non-SLR cameras. However, this became second nature after a while, though I did find it easier to use a mask with black sides rather than clear to increase contrast in the viewfinder. Getting used to using two strobes was also a learning experience, it is very easy to generate snow storms with bad placement. This camera was used to create the Velidhu 2005 and Filitheyo galleries.
We have used 4 lenses so far with the camera:
Canon EF-S 10-22mm - Very wide at the 10mm end and able to produce very bright sharp shots. However, lighting and composing wide angle shots is very difficult and I have had limited success so far, but are persevering.
Sigma 50mm Macro - Great little lens for getting close ups, either fish portraits or high magnification Macro. The drawback to this lens is that it is very nosiy and slow to focus. As a result I have acquired a Canon EF-S 60mm Macro for our next trip.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm - This is the kit lens that came with the camera. Not a great lens, but very versatile, and can be used behind the same dome as the 10-22. We found ourselves using this a lot, when not quite sure what a dive site would deliver. At the 18mm end it is ok with large subjects such as Manta, whilst 55mm makes a good portrait lens.
Canon EF-S 17-85mm - Bought to replace the 18-55 this lens is an excellent all rounder and rapidly became the favorite for its versatility in situations where I was unsure what would swim into view.
Heidi has stepped across into Digital Video with the aquisition of an Ikelite housing for our Sony digicam. We hope to post some video to the site soon...
Suppliers
Nautilus — Excellent German underwater Digital Housing supplier, primarily dealing in Consumer and Prosumer kit
CamerasUnderwaterUK — Can supply more or less any piece of kit you might need. We purchased the new Ikelite Housing from them for the Canon 20D. Service and delivery time were outstanding.
digitalEyes — A German on-line store. Stocks more or less everything you can need from cameras and lenses through to housings and strobes
Ikelite — Housing manufacturer. Huge range of equipment
Underwater Photography
The forums are a fantastic way to pick up knowledge or ask basic questions
Wetpixel — Best source for Digital SLR
Digital Diver Network — Greater focus on Prosumer Cameras
Digideep.com — Good for finding out if there is a housing for your camera
DigiFish — A Dutch website (in English)
UWPMAG — Underwater Photography Magazine, free to download — do it now!
