Scuba diving photography!! Help

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liamwingfield

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Liam
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Hi
I am a qualified open water scuba diver and soon to go on to do a underwater photography course. Already being a photographer I have a Nikon d5000 with 18-55mm kit lens, and soon to get 50mm 1.8 and 70-300mm 3.5-5.6. I Have being trying to find a suitable underwater, waterproof, thick, durable case to go on my dslr which I can still access all of the buttons conveniently and can function lens etc. If anyone could help would be highly appreciated. Cheers:):):):):)
 
liamwingfield said:
Hi
I am a qualified open water scuba diver and soon to go on to do a underwater photography course. Already being a photographer I have a Nikon d5000 with 18-55mm kit lens, and soon to get 50mm 1.8 and 70-300mm 3.5-5.6. I Have being trying to find a suitable underwater, waterproof, thick, durable case to go on my dslr which I can still access all of the buttons conveniently and can function lens etc. If anyone could help would be highly appreciated. Cheers:):):):):)
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Where are you based?. If you can get to charing cross go and talk with Paul at cameras underwater. Have a look at iklite housings. But be warned, cheap and underwater aren't two words that go together. The key to underwater is wide (& close) forget the 70-300
 
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I dived in the Maldives many years ago. One on of the trips this Italian chap turned up with some wizzo double handled housing for his SLR. It was vaguely comical watching him trying to work it all underwater, forgetting to control his buoyancy, and having to be held down by his ankles by the group leader as he threatened to head for the surface like a cork!
 
think of the cost of your camera & lenses - if you want to go underwater add a 0 onto the end ;)

housing, port, focus/zoom sections (lens dependent), strobe (or 2) & sync cables & arms all add up very quickly
 
As others have said, the cost of a good housing for a DSLR can cost more than the camera. A cheaper alternative, but still capable of giving good results might be a camera actually designed for underwater work. You don't say where you are, but if you are in the UK, check these guys out:

www.oceanleisurecameras.com

They specialise in the field and should be able to give you some ideas as to the best way to proceed.
 
Housings for SLRs start around £2000 by the time you've added ports, lens gears etc, plus they weigh a fair bit so be prepared for excess baggage charges if going abroad.
If your on a budget you can now get housings for quite a few compacts - camera plus housing for under £500.
Check the Divernet forums - loads of info there
http://forum.divernet.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20
 
As the others have said, if you thought on land photography was expensive, underwater photography is a whole 'nother league and it's not worth skimping on the housing - the cheap ones are more hassle than they're worth...

Excellent results can be had with a compact so look at that route or nowadays something like a Nikon J1 plus housing would be a very attractive option. It will still set you back £1k or so and you will need a strobe so add another £400 or so for that...
 
I priced up a housing for my 50D and that was just over 2K and that was without strobes or anything else I might have needed.

look into a decent P&S with housing, so much cheaper. I got mine for around £350 all in strobe camera and housing etc, and it takes some great pics of even=ything under the water.
Ok it aint no DSLR but sacrifices have to made if you cannot afford it.

spike
 
I had a Juji F50D I think and the matching housing arm and strobe and it was fantastic. All in for £500 and that was 5 years ago, if you thnk you are going to realy go ballistic on this hobby then you will have to dig deep, if you just want to try it go the compact route and learn the art. As I discovered underwater photography is way more difficult than land photo's
 
How many dives do you have? If not many i'd get a point and shoot. There's too much going on with a DSLR in a housing when you're trying to get on top of buoyancy and enjoying the dive. I've missed out on so many dives by concentrating on the camera, I even missed a minky whale because I was taking a photo of yet another random yellow fish.
 
boyfalldown said:
Where are you based?. If you can get to charing cross go and talk with Paul at cameras underwater. Have a look at iklite housings. But be warned, cheap and underwater aren't two words that go together. The key to underwater is wide (& close) forget the 70-300
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We've spoken to Paul at the NEC a couple of times. He sold us our G10 plus housing and S90 plus housing. Unfortunately a 2 year old and impending newborn mean we don't get to dive anymore.
 
Julie1979 said:
We've spoken to Paul at the NEC a couple of times. He sold us our G10 plus housing and S90 plus housing. Unfortunately a 2 year old and impending newborn mean we don't get to dive anymore.
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my 5 year old means I can't dive anything like as often as I did. Oh well.
 
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