lens compatability

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whacky

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This may well be a silly question but.

I have bought a nikon d70 secondhand with no lenses, how do i know if lenses will have their full functions, auto focus for example.

The reason i ask is that I am going to use it while diving and want to be sure that i get the right lens for the camera
 
whacky said:
This may well be a silly question but.

I have bought a nikon d70 secondhand with no lenses, how do i know if lenses will have their full functions, auto focus for example.

The reason i ask is that I am going to use it while diving and want to be sure that i get the right lens for the camera
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I hope you haven't missed an R out of driving ! :)

The D70 has a focus motor so basically any modern Nikon lens should be fine unless they are specifically for the full frame cameras but they are far more expensive anyway and you wouldn't buy one by accident!

The AF-S lenses have a motor in them so they work with D40, D40x & D60 as well as all others

....... off topic ..... Oh look I'm a forum regular now and no longer quite chatty! arrr

The AF lenses do not have a motor so do not auto focus on D40, D40x & D60
 
cowasaki said:
I hope you haven't missed an R out of driving ! :)

The D70 has a focus motor so basically any modern Nikon lens should be fine unless they are specifically for the full frame cameras but they are far more expensive anyway and you wouldn't buy one by accident!

The AF-S lenses have a motor in them so they work with D40, D40x & D60 as well as all others

....... off topic ..... Oh look I'm a forum regular now and no longer quite chatty! arrr

The AF lenses do not have a motor so do not auto focus on D40, D40x & D60
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Nope definately no "r" there.

This is the lens I am looking at first lens.

Been taking me a while to get round to the whole photography been waiting for a opportunity to get a underwater set-up as that's where I plan to do a fair bit of my photography. But will be giving land stuff a go to.
 
whacky said:
Nope definately no "r" there.

This is the lens I am looking at first lens.

Been taking me a while to get round to the whole photography been waiting for a opportunity to get a underwater set-up as that's where I plan to do a fair bit of my photography. But will be giving land stuff a go to.
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I have done some underwater photography. I am a BSAC advanced diver (other than a boat course!). Biggest problem is lack of light but its a fantastic challenge. I look forward to seeing some shots. I used a purpose made underwater camera but I cannot remember the name of it now. (I would get it in a multiple choice!). When I bought mine I couldn't afford the underwater flash to go with it (hence the lack of light!).

My favourite dives were wrecks and being a diver you'll know that any wreck under about 30m is destroyed by numpties so all the good ones are deeper and as such there is even less light! I took a whole film on a sub at 55-60m with all the dive lights on it and got 1 reasonable print!

Not dived for 12 years now and sold all my kit about 3 years ago :(
 
I've just finished my Divemaster with PADI, two expensive hobbies combined to make an even more expensive hobby.

I actually have the strobe already but it's a bit overkill for my P&S canon. Much deliberating has lead to me switching to Nikon purely as Nikon seems far more popular for underwater photography. Which means that there is more seconhand kit available.

I have some of my efforts on my flickr here
 
Nikonos that was it ! I have remembered the camera I had at last !!

Anyway here's me back in 1996!

me_under_water.jpg
 
60mm is too long for diving, surely? I'd have thought a wide-angle would generally be more suitable.

Also, are you really sure you want to take a DSLR diving? A modern P&S would be a thousand times easier to use underwater...
 
StewartR said:
60mm is too long for diving, surely? I'd have thought a wide-angle would generally be more suitable.

Also, are you really sure you want to take a DSLR diving? A modern P&S would be a thousand times easier to use underwater...
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I agree a wider angle would be best for diving. You want to be as close as possible. With underwater photography you have all the problems you have with land based photography and then some. There is a serious lack of light and even when you do get light the whole spectrum penetrates water to varying degrees. You will loose red light in just a few meters (which is why any non flash assisted underwater photography tends to look blue). You therefore have a light colour balance problem too. Then you have a problem with detritus. Even the clearest water has bits in it. You cannot really make use of onboard flash either because if you do the flash will reflect off the detritus and it will be like using your high beam in fog. You have to use your flash on an arm so that it lights your subject from an angle and you do not then get the problem.

All in all a very technical type of photography. Yes it is true point and shoot would be easier but you could say that about most photography. You will get the best pictures with a decent DSLR but you will also get some really bad ones too. One problem with using a DSLR is the inability to change all your settings under water. The housing would be very expensive and more prone to flooding it it had dozens of attachments to connect to the internal buttons. For this reason it will probably have a cord which attaches to the remote socket inside and effectively you will need to set up your camera out of the water before you dive. As any good diver will tell you, all dives should be planned but with a camera they need to be planned more!

The waterproof housing was the reason that I chose the Nikonos camera all the controls were waterproof because the camera was waterproof not the housing.

All in all a very rewarding hobby but one that can get very expensive. There are advantages in getting the housing ie you can use the same camera out of the water too.

You will need an underwater flash if you ever hope to take pictures beyond about 5-6 meters and I would agree a wide lens would be best. Because of the light problem a fast lens would also be of use. A fast 24mm would be nice but to begin with a nifty fifty would be a good start (a very fast and cheap lens which would be wider than the 60) shame there isnt a nifty 24 or 20 (I'd buy one!).

One last thing for safety recreational divers always dive in pairs, you will need a patient buddy if you have your camera! Also you need to consider where you are diving with it. All that bulky kit is prone to get tangled up underwater so be careful.

I look forward to seeing some pictures.
 
That's very helpful, cowasaki. Last week I was in Cameras Underwater in London, asking about whether it was possible to hire waterproof housings for DSLRs. The chap I spoke to advised me that unless I really really want to use a DSLR, and unless I'm a reasonably experienced diver (neither of which is the case), then I shouldn't go down the DSLR route. He said that with a P&S you can enjoy the dive and take pictures if you feel like it; but with a DSLR the camera just takes over the whole dive. He was very persuasive.
 
StewartR said:
That's very helpful, cowasaki. Last week I was in Cameras Underwater in London, asking about whether it was possible to hire waterproof housings for DSLRs. The chap I spoke to advised me that unless I really really want to use a DSLR, and unless I'm a reasonably experienced diver (neither of which is the case), then I shouldn't go down the DSLR route. He said that with a P&S you can enjoy the dive and take pictures if you feel like it; but with a DSLR the camera just takes over the whole dive. He was very persuasive.
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I totally agree hence the point about having a patient buddy !

Nobody will want to dive with you twice! They are all happy to go for the first dive so that they have a picture to show their friends but after their first dive is spoiled that it!

As divers you spend lots of money for a weeks diving and might loose one or two days then due to the nature of the sport you dive twice each day so you get maybe 8-10 dives out of a week. Sometimes they might be 10 minutes long depending on depth. The last thing you want is to spend it waiting for your buddy to take some pictures whilst you twiddle your thumbs.

I also had a really cheap waterproof housing costing about £30 that took a disposable camera. I bought it for taking training shots in the pool but it was ok down to about 6 meters so was ok on some dives outside. This was ok because it didnt ruin the dive. I have not seen any modern housings but I suppose that they have come a long way in the last 12 years! I would think that a housing on an IXUS or similar would be really good but for the absolute best pictures a DSLR with outboard flash would win but you need to be experienced at diving before contemplating taking such kit underwater.

I was basically an advanced diver (equivalent to CMAS ***) - there is no PADI equivalent, their highest award is not as advanced as a BSAC dive leader which is the one below BSAC advanced diver. I dived to 50 meters or slightly more on air and taught diving to others. This is the sort of level you really need so that the diving is virtually second nature (Although you should never ever treat diving like that - it is dangerous). You need to have fantastic buoyancy control - I mean really really good (can you hover at any depth and at any time throughout your dive - if you cant then you need to practice and/or get more training).

I had some books on underwater photography but they all went on ebay when I sold all my diving kit (Other than my corrected lens face mask, fins and boots).

I loved diving but you spend so much time getting there, training, servicing your kit, cleaning your kit, replacing your kit, getting bottles filled, waiting etc My favourite dives were on deep wrecks. On a dive like that I had 2 15l cylinders plus a 3l pony. I had a serious torch plus a backup. I had a pair of decent regs plus a spare reg on each cylinder. I had two knives and emergency beacon. SMB. underwater bag and all the normal stuff. You couldn't dive to that kind of depth unless you were doing it regularly due to the possibilities of oxygen toxicity etc - its like mountaineering you have to aclimatize. Anyway you got to the wreck, clambered to the side looking like a christmas tree and then entered the water. Dropped to the right depth as quickly as you could to give you more time down there and looked at your dive computer..... 4 minutes (without decompression stops)..... 4 minutes!!! After spending 10 down there you had to spend twice that on the way up hanging around.

It was fun though :bonk: but expensive
 
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