am in the market for underwater photo equipment. this will be my first experience with underwater photo. i am completely confident in my abilities in b&w processing and picture taking in general. i am going for high end equipment because underwater photo is the reason that i got dive certified in the first place. also this will be used for my career as a marine biologist and i plan to dive for a long time.

first scenario: Nikon D100 6mp SLR, Nikkor 60mm Macro and 18mm wide angle, Aquatica housing both dome and flat ports, Ikelite 3944.75 SubStrobe DS-125 Digital Package with TTL Sync Cord and Deluxe Ball Socket Strobe Arm strobes, and other digital equipment. I am not very comfterable using digital imaging software but i could learn with a little effort. the advantages would be instant results under water and learning quickly from my mistakes. digital also seems to be the future of photo (even though i will always love film). disadvantages are i need a new printer and computer to handle the photoshop and the printing of digital images.


I was wondering what everyone thought about this set up for starting UW photo. i need to stay with the nikon because my film camera is a nikon and i want to be able to keep the lenses intechangable.

Welcome to Wetpixel!!!!!!!!

That's an excellent way to start.........good choices

Two thoughts........consider the 12-24mm lens and you might want to take a look at the new D70

Karl

i was actually looking at the d70, but i would like to know the difference between the two cameras are. i looked at the stats and it is difficult to know what the difference between them is. they look very similiar, but the d70 is like five hundred less. what's the deal?

The viewfinder on the D70 is smaller than the D100.

The D70 does not shoot uncompressed NEF

The flash sync on the D70 is MUCH faster.

Cheers
James

what are the advantages or disadvantages of these features? and which would make a better UW camera

Smaller viewfinder :cry:
Uncompressed NEF :?: (I never use NEF anyway)
Faster sync speed
$500 less because it's plastic rather than metal and therefore lighter

I've just bought a D70 but not yet got it so I'll be able to do some side to side comparisons.

I thing the D70 memory buffer is better too..

The larger viewfinder on the D100 is a clear advantage. It makes it esier to compose and focus wile loo9king through the peephole with your mask on. I am a bit apprehensive about this as I haven't tried a DSLR yet. People are getting some great photos out of the digital rebel though and the viewfinder is the same.

D70 only shoots compressed NEFs. This is an advantage because the compressed RAW files are much smaller and the D70 processes compressed files faster than the D100 processes uncompressed. That means you can fit twice as many on your card (almost). The D70 also shoots faster in continious mode. This might not be important underwater if the strobe can't keep up. I'll test this as soon as I get mine and tell you.

Flash sync speed. I'm still learning and this one I don't understand yet. I think this means you can use shutter speeds up to 1/5000 with a strobe?

The $500 will buy you a nice piece of glass too. Either way I'd get the kit lens. I was amazed at how close it focuses while practicing photographing flowers at lunch today.

1/500th with a strobe.

Cheers
James

Is the smaller viewfinder a reality, or an early misinterpretation of a spec?

I haven't seen one yet to know.

Karl? :-)

It's a reality according to some of the folks over at dpreview that own both the D100 and D70.

I got the D70 not too long ago and still wait for Sea and Sea housing to come. As far as continuous mode goes, using a Transcend 45X 1GB card shooting NEF (not NEF with JPEG) after the initial 4 fps (or was it 3fps) burst until the buffer is full, the D70 was shooting continously at about 1 fps which is probably just about the right speed for my Ikelite DS125. In the single shot mode, I find that there is not need to wait for the camera to write NEF file at any given time at all as it takes longer to recompose and shoot than the camera to write.

I have both. The D70 v/f is 12mm wide, the D100's is 14mm.

The image seen through the viewfinder is proportionally larger too.

The ability to shoot at very high shutter speeds courtesy of the d70's electronic shutter is however, amazing.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp...message=8243461

I haven't tried this, but I will. Probably not that useful underwater although a sync speed of 1/500 is.