Equipment
Equipment
Underwater photography has been an evolution for me. My equipment has evolved too.
1997: Subal Miniflex housing for the Nikon F801
This was my first housing and in many ways still my favourite. Bought on June the 25th 1997, the day Jacques Cousteau died, I learned a lot of what I know about U/W photography by using this housing. Compact, well designed and easy to use I still regret selling it. There is a happy postscript to this story; see below:
1998: Nikonos 3
I bought the Nik 3 as a backup and used it exclusively with a Sea and Sea 15mm lens. All of the 1998 wide angle "President Coolidge" photos were taken with this after the glass fell out of my fisheye port in Vanuatu! It too got sold to fund the Coolpix.
2000: Amphibico housing for Canon MV1 digital video
I use an Amphibico Explorer housing with my Canon MV 1 digital video camera. The camera (circa 1997) is now a dinosaur but the housing is superb and a joy to use.
2002: Subal CP5 housing for the Nikon Coolpix 5000
After using the Miniflex so successfully from 1997 until 2002 I became aware of the tremendous potential advantages of digital cameras underwater. The Coolpix offered some of these, but suffered from some serious drawbacks related to unpredictably innaccurate TTL metering and shutter lag. A camera firmware upgrade and the purchase of the Subal wide angle port improved these problems a bit, but not to my satisfaction. I finally became so frustrated with my inability to take photos with the ease that the F801 offered that I decided to move on about 12 months after buying the system.
2002: Aquatica A80 housing for the Nikon F801
I had kept my F801 body when I sold the Subal Miniflex housing and got the opportunity to buy the Aquatica with the 8" dome port at the time when my frustration with the CP5000 was at it's highest. When compared to the Miniflex this housing is huge and mechanically "agricultural" (although still streets ahead of Ikelite which my friend Gill uses). The spectacular Howard Hall viewfinder makes up for any other problems. It is the best underwater viewfinder I've ever seen, bar none, and is fantastic for use with the 16mm fisheye lens.
2003: The future: Subal housing for the Nikon D100
The Coolpix was intended to be a temporising measure, to give me an underwater digital until my definitive full size CCD, 25 megapixel digital SLR becomes available. Given the failure of the CP5000 I've moved ahead to digital SLR.
I have bought a Nikon D100 which I am currently using on land while I wait until I can afford to buy the Subal housing. The D100 is to put it simply, fantastic. There is no shutter lag, it's an SLR and the metering works. The control layout is much more intuitive and I find it far easier to use than the Coolpix. If I want TTL I'll have to house an SB80DX in the available Subal housing, which I'll probably do.
The world turns and things change.
The Subal D10 housing is now a reality, along with a housed SB80DX to give me TTL. For secondary lighting I'm using either a Sea & Sea YS90DX or an Inon Z220-S.
I'm using the amazing 10.5 fisheye (see Vanuatu Wrecks 2004) for which I've had to buy the new Subal FE2 fisheye port, and the 12 to 24 zoom lens which I think less of. I also have my old friend the Micro Nikkor 60mm again. When combined with a 2x teleconverter the 60mm can give up to 3x life size which makes for amazing super macro possibilities.
The D100 setup is wonderful; everything that a housed digital should be and most things that the Coolpix wasn't.
The Aquatica housing which came to me from the USA via Canada has gone to Spain.
And best of all, I have another beautiful Subal Miniflex N8 housing for my F801. I'm not selling this one; I intend to be buried with it :-)
Equipment acknowledgements:
Most of my equipment has been purchased from David Hill at
Sea Optics
here in Adelaide, South Australia. I can highly recommend them. Everything
that hasn't has come from Ebay.
Film images have been scanned using a Microtek Artix 4000t 35mm film
scanner, and judiciously interfered with using Photoshop 5, 7 or CS.
This website was constructed using Microsoft FrontPage 2000. It was
so easy I didn't even have to ask a teenager for help.