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Digital Underwater Photography
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Hey everyone,
Im new to Photography Ireland, i joined awhile ago but never got on to start some posting, but hoping to do alot from now on. I wasnt too sure where to post this topic but figured since it had to do with Digital that i would post it here.
Im a canon user and looking to get a camera for scuba diving. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a housing brand or anything like that? I got a quoted price of 4000GBP (from a reliable store in the UK online) but that is without the camera. This was for a Subal housing.
I found a sea and sea housing for 1000GBP (again online through a reliable store) but just wanted to know if anyone has any idea about the two housings? Obviously if someone was to tell me that the sea and sea housing was not great i would try to get the money together to purchase Subal if i was going to have reliability for it. I was on an underwater photography forum and heard that the epoque housing has had incidents of leaking, i know that this is more then likely down to the photographer him/herself but i also want to be sure i can get a good safe reliable housing, that wont leak – unless i myself have caused it!
Hope someone has some ideas because im really stuck and wish to purchase this housing and camera by the end of March!
Lovelife
“If you cant dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit” – Giulio’s Photography BlogHi Lovelife.
I haven’t done any scuba diving or underwater photography, but a mate of mine has & uses one of these housings on his Canon 5D. It seems to be at a good price from Ffordes photographic in Scotland. (without leakage problems so far :D )
http://www.ffordes.com/product/11011317113281″ onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;“Ikelite” have a lot of housings etc for underwater stuff which covers a good range of cameras.
Subal housings are amongst the best out there and are aluminium jobs with total dedication to your SLR.
Both Sea&Sea are also very good and even Ikelite, which used to be THE budget brand is nice these days (apart from their finicky port mounting system). My only Subal housing is still analogue (F4 Procase). I have though used their D300 housing and it was of course very nice. I do use an Olympus compact housing for macro shots for a scientific database, but still hate them (compacts in general) for their their start-up lag, crappy menus and highlight blowouts. .
If I were you, I’d just go with one of the cheaper SLR housing manufacturers (Personally, amongst the more affordable offers, I’ve seen some nice Sea&Sea, Epoque and perhaps Nexus for Canon). UK-Gemany is perhaps the best if you have “special needs”, i.e. custom requests, just mind his funny English; I’ve had two of his housings (one film and one digital) and they’ve been super reliable. Pic-quality is going to be comparable for all manufacturers. The Subal and similary expensive (alu-)houings used to be better-value-for-money and for pros they still are: Reason: Pros tend to use them almost daily over several years perhaps, so the initial purchasing cost is quickly offset by their longevity and advanced ergonomics. These days though with people buying a new digital body every 3-5 years or so and only diving on a handful of occasions/year, the enormous cost is in my book largely unjustified. Also, you may not need full access to ALL features of your camera as chances are that by the time you’re familiar with them, (and realise that you don’t use them after all) you’re itching to get a new system as strange as that is.
Anyway: Here are some other good manufacturers I can think of ad-hoc: Hugyfot, Seacam, Aquatica, UK-Germany, Sealux, Patima/Epoque and Nexus.
Also take into account cost of decent ports, lens-choice, zoom, aperture (and perhaps focus) gears, spare synch cords and strobes to name a few basics.– You just missed the worlds largest water-sports exhibition, the annual “Boot” (read “Boat”) In Dusseldorf, Germany, which hosts all major uw housing manufacturers and would have given you a better hands-on idea perhaps. I’ve bought at least a quarter of my UW gear there over the years and made many valuable discoveries that swayed my purchasing decisions.
A word, re: servicing. It is worth getting housings serviced at least every couple of years, so I’d suggest to buy from someone who can handle or suggest a servicing agent. I’d stay within the EU to keep shipping charges and turnarounds at bay.
Am happy to help with particular recommendations depending on end use and budget. All the best and good light!
One afterthought: I don’t know your background, but I’d want to make sure I had done at least 50, or so, dives before I’d consider a DSLR purchase, as otherwise the limiting factor is you anyway.2/2/2011: Another afterthought: One advantage compacts have over many DSLRs is that you have live-view at least; although not as good as a magnified optical viewfinder with proper D.O.F. view (a reason I still use my F4 with its superb action-finder). Optical magnifying add-on finders for DSLRs are almost essential if you don’t want to be frustrated by only being able to see glimpses of your composition due to the distance to the finder, created by your mask and the housing, but often add another thousand € or more to your purchase.
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