Underwater lighting

[cboater]

I am moving from UW P&S system (snorkeling) to UW DSLR. I hope to acquire a used Nikon DSLR UW outfit SOON. (Nikon's D100 and 28-300 zoom has been my primary land system since 2003.)

If I can find a DX compatible camera/housing, but it does not include lighting, what kind of lighting system and what strength external strobe will I need? I am guessing that I will start off W/A and move to macro eventually.

Any suggestions will be VERY helpful, until I can take an underwater DSLR photography workshop when I get back to Bonaire.

By the way, if you have an outfit for sale, please let me know ASAP.

Thanks,
Laura

[Jonathan Bird]

Well, I'm biased, but I think the Ikelite DS-125 (http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/ss_dig125.html)s are about the best strobe on Earth. They are being replaced with the DS-160 (http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/ss_dig160.html), which I have yet to try, but it is essentially the same strobe but more powerful. A lot of people are upgrading, so there will be a lot of used DS-125s on eBay. Keep an eye peeled for them!


Jonathan

[cboater]

Jonathan,

Thanks for the reply. I had been looking at the DS 51 and wondering if I could get by with that initially and move up later. What would the DS 125 give me that the DS 51 does not have?

Also, if you know of someone wanting to sell a complete Nikon DX compatible DSLR outfit (camera, housing, lens, port, lighting or most of this), I am interested.

Laura

[Jonathan Bird]

What would the DS 125 give me that the DS 51 does not have?


Hi Laura,
It is vastly superior. More powerful, faster recycling time, and most importantly a wider beam. The DS-51 is a wonderful little macro strobe, but that's it. Also, the DS-125 has a rechargeable battery pack that allows it to make a LOT of shots.

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

I concur about the DS125. I've never used a strobe so powerful, fast, and generally excellent that comes in such a small, light, and convenient to pack package. -Clay

[Ken Hawk]

What about canon, you could not get much better than this for the money :D

http://www.uwphotochat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=588

Ken

[dbh]

I prefer the Inon line of strobes. I use 2 Inon Z240 strobes and now they have a Z240 Type 3. The Inon's are about half the size & weight of the Ikelites, which is huge for travel. They also use AA batteries in lieu of Ikelites proprietary battery packs. If you are halfway around the world, you can always find AA batteries. I doubt you can find Ike battery packs. I would bet anyone here any amount of money that the Inon's are more reliable (less sent back for problems). They are bulletproof! Below is a link for a side-by-side strobe comparison put together by Bob F. I find it VERY useful.

http://www.digitaldiver.net/strobes.php

I would suggest contacting (or looking on their websites) a couple of the major u/w camera shops (Reef Photo or Backscatter) and see what they have in the way of used housings for Nikons. I know quite a few people have traded in D70, D80 and D200 housings when they upgraded. They may not have used camera bodies but you can pick one up off Ebay fairly cheap. I would also suggest starting out with the Nikkor 60mm f2.8. You can shoot everything from a nudibranch up to 2/3 of a Reef shark with this lens. It Auto Focuses very fast and is tack sharp.

That being said, if you end up with an Ikelite housing, I would use one of their strobes. With any other housing, I would go with an Inon.

HTH,
Dave

[tarczy]

The Inons are great for all the reasons Dave has posted. Only problem is that if you've paid the moolah for the TTL metering circuitry, and want to benefit from the technology, then the Ike DS-125s are the way to go.

I guess Inon has their D-2000 series but they seem to be only compatible with Inon's film camera housings.

Soooo, I put up with the weight and the proprietary battery typical of the DS-125s in order to benefit from the TTL circuitry. One of these days Inon will get it together and develop a flash that works with TTL. :rolleyes:

[dbh]

The Inons are great for all the reasons Dave has posted. Only problem is that if you've paid the moolah for the TTL metering circuitry, and want to benefit from the technology, then the Ike DS-125s are the way to go.

I guess Inon has their D-2000 series but they seem to be only compatible with Inon's film camera housings.

Soooo, I put up with the weight and the proprietary battery typical of the DS-125s in order to benefit from the TTL circuitry. One of these days Inon will get it together and develop a flash that works with TTL. :rolleyes:

Mark,

The Inon's TTL works great with Sea & Sea TTL convertors as well as Heinrich- Weikamp convertors......just not Ikelites. I agree that they are the strobe to use if you use an Ikelite housing. But Ike strobes have NO TTL advantage with ANY other housing on the market. Not only that, Inon's sTTL is light years ahead of any optical firing system Ike has which is huge for digital compact users. Several DSLR mfg. have already gone the optical strobe firing route (Nexus & Seatool off the top of my head). I believe it is the future of DSLR's.

Dave

[Warren_L]

If you can swing getting a decent strobe system to begin with, it may be cheaper in the long run since you won't likely need to upgrade any time soon. While the DS-51 is a decent little strobe, I think you'd be less than satisfied with it for any serious wide angle work you might do.

I bought my first DSLR system about 5 years ago, and have since upgraded camera bodies and housings twice during this period, but am still using the same set of strobes (DS-125s) since day 1 and see no need to upgrade them (other than wanting to get the DS-160s but not really needing them).