Thanks to Ikeltie I recieved my housing with dome port on Friday and took it out Sunday (May 19th). Definitely the dome port and Nikon 19mm lens is the way to go. Was able to get all the way from close macro (close to a SLR equivelent of 1:1) to wider than a Nikonos 15mm. Used one DS125 with synch cord. Worked fine in macro for all shots except very close macro which were blown out. I got some good close macro but will need to work on the settings. I have 4 days to study my first images then I go out again.

First conclusion is the Ikelite housing works fine and once you shoot with the wide angle lens is a dome port you may never shoot the camera any other way.

More and maybe pics to follow later.

Glad to hear that. I received that exact setup last week myself. I will be taking it u/w in a few weeks. I have had great luck messing around with it after I finally got everything setup properly. The only issue I have seen with the housing is the exposure compensation button. It is on a tapered part of the camera and the housing button would not make contact with it. I changed the pad to a smaller diameter one and it works fine.

My EV botton got stuck in the down position UW and it took me awhile to pull it up. I may look at a different button for it. This is the only problem (and not much of one) that I had with the housing.:cool:

I just got my wideangle dome port too and can't wait to try it out!!!

On my last trip out w/ the 5000 I didn't have the domeport yet but I wanted to shoot some wideangle. To see what some of the pictures look like taken at the 28mm zoom check out the last couple of pages at:

http://www.reefpix.org/flowergardens

It's literall unheard-of to be able to shoot macro, closeup, mid-range and 28mm wideangle on the same dive all with one camera!!!!!

Cheers
James

Your right there James. If you could get this versitile a lens for an Housed SLR you would be in UW Photog heaven.

The standard lens might be better for working small skitish animals or for very small macro such as pigmy seahorses, but the 19mm lens is perfect for every thing else. Will go out again Friday.

photos posted, see members linked for link.

A few user tips on using a CP 5000 in an Ikelite housing.

Very close macro can be burned out when using the 19 mm lens and a DS 125 strobe. To get good results I had to back off the strobes a ways from what would be normal macro strobe distance. I then dialed in -2 on speedlight power and boosted the shutter speed to 500. I attribute this to the very close focusing distance when using the wide angle lens.

Be careful about inserting the camera with the 19 mm lens. You have to pull out the AF lock switch, insert the camera far enough to insert the AF lock switch behind it, make sure the AF lock switch is down and then insert the camera the rest of the way.

I cut out a section of the base plate just large enough to allow change of battery without removing the camera from the housing base plate. There seems to be plenty of support left for the camera as long as you are careful to remove just enough of the base plate.

I'll check out that tray mod. I stripped the threads on one of my cameras. The CP5000 has metal threads, but I don't want to have to take it off after every dive.

What's the best way to hook a lanyard to this housing? I drilled a hole in the base and put a quickring through it.

I slip the lanyard thru the strobe arms (I use TLC and UL). I like the idea of drilling a hole. A hole for the lanyard is one of the few missing items of the housing.

I only had about a half an hour to hop in the pool and shoot my first u/w pics. I didn't have time to mess with settings, but I thought some of you would like to see these pics. They are with the 19mm lense and dome port. The pics were shot fully auto, no zoom. I switched to macro for the 1' and 1" shots but still used no zoom. I have been able to get in closer out of the water when I tried.

First pic shows my scuba frog dog toy (for size) with cement shoes and the quickring I put in the base of my Ike.


6' distance


3' distance


1' distance


1" distance

What store did you but the dome port from? B&H & Adorama seemed to think I was crazy when I asked for it.

LOL, I even gave them the Ike part number.. It was painfull..

You may have to e-mail Ike directly. You can get his E-mail from the forum here. He had one sent my distributor for me. You can get the part number from Ikelite's CP 5000 page.