From: stevek@gobi.UUCP (Stephen Kogge)
Newsgroups: rec.scuba
Subject: Re: UW housings for cameras (NIKON?)
Date: 30 Jul 92 00:30:47 GMT
Organization: Underwater Imaging

In article <1992Jul28.033856.340@emr1.emr.ca> gardell@ccrs.emr.ca (Felix Gardell) writes:
>....
>My question relates to camera housings.
>I understand that the optics are slightly better on 
>a regular SLR in a housing than in a specialized         
>underwater camera.  Is this correct?

	Depends on what you are trying to do.
	In general I would agree that an 8008 or F3 with a 55mm, 60mm
or 105mm lens is much better than a Nikonos with either the 35mm or
28mm lens for most work. If you are into wide angle shallow water work,
the 15mm Nikonos is superb - it outperforms either the 20mmAF
or 20mm manual lens except:
	a) you cannot sharp focus the Nikonos
	b) you cannot view and frame the Nikonos - you have to
		learn where the lens is pointed.
	Be sure to use a macro lens that goes to 1:2 or better 1:1 - there
are a lot of small critters and things down there. The 2 to 3 foot minimum
focus on the Nikonos is a limitation - it seems that every time you
put the close-up tubes on a Nikonos a Manta ray (or equal size animal)
swims by. ;-)

>Certainly it must be better to buy a housing for
>a good SLR than to spend thousands of dollars on
>underwater camera equipment!  The disadvantage of
>a housed camera is probably its limitation to hook a
>high-power flash to it (or is this possible?)

	You will eventually find that the more planning (time)
you put into the picture the better it will be. This usually means
turn off all the automatics.
	The better flash units are usually quite large such as
the Ikelite 150 or the Yellow Sub by Sea and Sea. These have
special cables for use with the Nikonos but most housings use
either the Nikonos, an EO or one of wet or dry connectors.
	It is probably easier to connect an underwater flash to
a housed camera.
	There is a limit to flash power - at some point all you do
is light up the particulates - you want to be able to drop the
flash power. A 1/2 and 1/4 power mode is very nice. Look for a flash
that can produce 100 full power (not ttl/auto flash) flashes per
charge/battery pack - many flashes cannot produce 36 full power
flashes.

>
>I own a NIKON FG with a variety of lenses (50mm, wide angle,
>and telephoto), and would like to use this equipment
>in a housing. 
>
	Ikelete makes plastic housings for most cameras. I see too
many broken plastic "things" on dive boats - I prefer cast aluminum
which does not break (the same way :-) ). Tussey made the F3 housing
now he makes an 8008 housing. You want all the controls (F stop,
shutter speed, modes, manual focus...) brought to the outside.
Again I had "automatic" controls make the wrong guesses all too
often, then I was convinced to go full manual. Underwater photography
is not the same as surface photography.

>Had anyone got any suggestions of the type of equipment 
>that is available on the market?  Is there a flash
>that could be bought to use on my Nikon?  
>If possible, please give me some price indications and
>supplier addresses.

	Cast metal housings are often over $1000, each lens port is between
$200 to $500 (each lens needs a different port).
	Ikelete (317 - 923-4523) plasic housings are much less.
	Check with pro underwater stores such as AB Sea (310 - 645 8992).
Helix caters to Nikonos and getting them to deliver anything else has
led me to find other dealers such as AB Sea. If a dealer try to convince
you that the Nikonos is the best, take it with a grain of salt, listen to
what they say and call around, good dealers will tell you what they
have and will usually tell you about other dealers if they cannot help.
Good dealers will bend over backwards to provide replacement/repair
and loaners - for a shock ask Helix what their return/repair policy
is(nt). Al at AB Sea all but hand carries a replacement to you, Ikelite
repairs the same day and ships express (would you believe 48 hour turn
around!).
>
>Finally, how safe are camera housings?  Do I run a great
>risk in destroying my camera equipment?

	A complete flood will not hurt the housing but you will be buying
a new camera - the same is true to some extent for the Nikonos.
	So far I have had a few leaks in the F3 housing (my fault each time)
and the flood alarm warned me on the first few drops. O-rings are real
easy to mis-align or leave hairs/strings behind, in another case I
skipped the full break down and clean up/tighten up between trips and
the F stop knob pulled off underwater, the shaft ran in just far enough to
to allow a few drops inside - I hate the sound of that alarm going off.
	One hint - never just put your camera in the housing on the first
dive of a trip - either test it (without a camera) in a water tank in 1
to 2 ft of water for a few hours or put a weight in a sock and dive the
first dive with a weight and a sock (in the housing) instead of a
camera. This has saved several of us many times. (The sock keeps the
weight from doing too much damage.)

>Felix Gardell                                      Work:  " A generation ago    
	Ps
	I would love to set up my photo's in a ftp site but my publisher 
tells "over my dead body". Copyright proof is getting worse all the time.
Sorry! I do have a pix of Cathy Church and Howard Hall when I was in
Cathy's shop on Grand Cayman from a few weeks ago - I will see about putting
this one in an anonymous ftp directory. I will look for pix of the "outrunner"
the "reef runner" and the new "little cayman diver" for those who read
the excellent story about Cayman Brac. Yes! get Cornel to bring you to dive
sites when you are in Cayman Brac!

	Steve Kogge
	stevek@uimage.com
Newsgroups: rec.scuba