Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Underwater Photography Primer
nonetheless.
-- Dan Carey, September 14, 1999
There are basically only two types of underwater phtography worth investing time and money for.
Firstly the amphibious camera of which only the Nikonos V and the sea and sea motor marine II
approach giving acceptable results. The advantage or disadvantage is that both cameras are basically
what you would call manual. You have to set the focus distance yourself, the aperture and onthe MMII
the exposure. This is fine for those land based photographers who learned from the basics but not for
those who jumped into the F5 arena and used P mode all the time (sad yuppies). Having said that the
Nikonos V is the industry standard amphibious camera and NOTHING can beat its 15mm wide angle
lens.(not even housed 15mm)However, macro shots with the Nik V are a bit of a pain as you can not tell
if the subject is in focus or not. The next step is to use a housed SLR. Nikon dominates this arena 100 to
1 at least! There are a number of manufacturers who do do housings for canon (INON, Sea and Sea) but
these generally are for the cheap machines such as the Kiss (rebel i believe in the US) which doesn;t
even have auto-focus tracking. Try photographing a darting clown fish without this feature! The best
housings on the market are Nexus, Subal, Aquatica, Inon and Sea and Sea. Don't even think about using
an Ikelite housing. Yes, they are very cheap but they are rubbish. I don't know anyone who is happy with
them. Most people end up with rubber bands strategically placed because the shutter is so hard to
control! My solution to the myriad of housings is to have a F90X with 105mm macro or 60mmmacro
housed in a Sea and Sea housing with a Nik V screwed on top with a 15mm lens. Thus i can take macro
and wide angle on the same dive. It works a treat! Hope this is of interest.
-- Howie Wong, September 30, 1999
Before considering what equipment to use, I would suggest getting an u/w photography course. My
girlfriend finally followed my suggestion and took the Padi u/w course; the quality of her pictures has
improved dramatically; she now understand better the limitations of her gear and might refrain from
taking a pic if she knows it won't turn out OK. The 100$ cost of the course is a small investment,
considering the cost of all the pics one has to throw out ... For myself, although being an avid topside
wildlife amateur, I prefer to enjoy the dives without having to worry about handling the gear. Maybe one
day ...
-- Herman Hiel, October 14, 1999
At a request of a photo.netter, here is the information for the underwater photo mailing list, uw-photo.
Basically, to subscribe, you send an e-mail message to majordomo@world.std.com with "subscribe uwphoto"
(no quotes) in the body of the message.
Here is part of the welcome message from Ken Hancock, list administrator. I have snipped out the rest
for brevity.
http://www.photo.net/underwater/primer (13 of 23)7/3/2005 2:18:13 AM