Lots of pics, I just got an underwater enclosure for my SLR!!

[Taqpol]

Here we go, I'm finally to the underwater pics! This stuff really blows me away, I can't believe how well some of these turned out. It was a little different as some of my corals are really close to the surface of the water and the focal depth on the lens I was using is not that great so there were some corals I was physically not able to get a good shot of (like my Red Planet ).

Before when i would take top down the best I could get was something like this:

Or when the fatty fish gets in the way:

While I think both of those pictures are good, you have a lot of trouble with the lights reflecting off the surface of the water, the water not being perfectly still and distorting your pictures, or getting salt water on your expensive camera when the freaking trigger tries to squirt at you.

Compare those pictures to this one.

Not only is the picture much crisper, but DANG! I've never even seen that side of the coral!

Green Birdsnest

Cali Tort + Red Birdsnest

Green Digitata

Maricultured Colony + ORA Spongodes

Purple rimmed Monti cap

 

[Taqpol]

Zoa corner

Picasso hosting + Chevron Tang

ORA Birds of Paradise

The only good picture I've ever been able to take of my ORA Borealis:

I still think the main reason to be able to take top down/underwater pictures is for clams.

These last two are my absolute favorites.

Chalk Bass: "What the ___ are you doing?"

My Sargassum trigger now has a buddy, his reflection.

 

[Taqpol]

I took a lot more (non underwater) pictures, including some coral macros during this shoot, but I posted them all over in my build thread (click on my username, go to homepage).

Any comments, suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking!

 

[IPT]

pretty sweet! How does one handle focusing in this situation? I am guessing your head was above water .

 

[Dino]

Please do tell - was it a tad frightening the first time you plunged several thousand dollars worth of equipment into saltwater?

 

[jkeeton]

Please do tell - was it a tad frightening the first time you plunged several thousand dollars worth of equipment into saltwater?

LoL now that was funny, and so true, awesome pictures what box did you get I have been wanting to get one my self but cant seem to do it.

 

[Taqpol]

pretty sweet! How does one handle focusing in this situation? I am guessing your head was above water .

The enclosure does have two little finger "bags" in the lens area that you can try and use any zoom/focus you have, but for the most part I absolutely had to rely on auto focus. For the most part my head was above the water, but it was definitely a tight fit!

Please do tell - was it a tad frightening the first time you plunged several thousand dollars worth of equipment into saltwater?

Hahaha, per the manufacturers instructions I dry tested the bag by putting lining it with tissue paper, sealing it up, and dunking it under water (in my fish tank). I held it there for five minutes and brought it back up, all the tissues were bone dry but it was still a little bit nerve racking doing it with my camera. About 95% of the time I only had my lens sticking through the water as well, so that eased some of my fears.

LoL now that was funny, and so true, awesome pictures what box did you get I have been wanting to get one my self but cant seem to do it.

Don't let my fiancee know I figured out the price (I asked for a Vortech MP10), but it seems like these guys have dropped in price a lot:

http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-Underw...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1260816936&sr=8-1

For less then $100 its a pretty bang up deal, and will be practical this summer as we go on our honeymoon to some as of now undecided pacific reef.

I would say its totally worth it. It can fit a really long, wide lens, easily bigger then something like the Canon 100mm Macro. My only complaint was that it was hard to get my camera in there (Rebel T1i) with the battery grip on it.

 

[kevinbeth]

cool

cool

I would freak sticking my camera underwtaer. That took major @$%^

 

[AcroSteve]

Do they make one for a D200?

I looked real quick, but did not see it.

 

[NP_Reef]

looks great man

 

[Taqpol]

Do they make one for a D200?

I looked real quick, but did not see it.

I'm pretty sure all the bags on Amazon are the exact same thing, but you're right, the Nikon one did not list the D200. I don't know much about the Nikon cameras, but if the D200 has the same body as say, the D300 then you will be set. From what I can tell the enclosure is very universal.

 

[Taqpol]

looks great man

Two thumbs up.

Thank you very much!

 

[Recty]

How does that bag work? Does it somehow lock onto the end of the lens?

I'm thinking if I had my camera in that bag, what keeps the whole setup from shifting a little bit so that you arent taking pictures straight through the glass on the end anymore?

For what it's worth, if I did do it I'd be using my 50mm lens which is pretty short.

 

[stylolvr]

I just got an Olympus Styus Tough6000, which is waterproof to 3 meters normally. I was hoping to be able to get some shots like this with it, but am still crazy nervous about dunking it. Talk about litterally 'taking the plunge'. The pictures are amazing Taqpol!

 

[corigan]

Awesome photos. So much better than before. I have an underwater rig and got a housing that allows full button control from the outside. It is just a cheap oly c-5000z, but I think i paid around $250 for it and the housing at the time on a refurb deal. I have taken some great pictures with it diving, I should try to get it in the reef tank though the housing is a little bulky for my small reef.

As for zooming underwater, that really doesn't work well. First thing they teach you in photography with diving is not to zoom, just get closer..

 

[Taqpol]

How does that bag work? Does it somehow lock onto the end of the lens?

I'm thinking if I had my camera in that bag, what keeps the whole setup from shifting a little bit so that you arent taking pictures straight through the glass on the end anymore?

For what it's worth, if I did do it I'd be using my 50mm lens which is pretty short.

The part for the lens telescopes like an accordion to fit really small or fairly big lenses. As much as I could I held the camera like I normally would, with my right hand on the shutter and my left hand holding the lens/lens bag and pulling it back so that the acrylic pane was pressed parallel to my lens glass.

Is it a 50mm prime? If so that is a sweet lens and would work perfectly. For the most part I was shooting around 50mm anyways and then cropped into the picture using photoshop for "zoom". Gotta love 15 mpixels.

I just got an Olympus Styus Tough6000, which is waterproof to 3 meters normally. I was hoping to be able to get some shots like this with it, but am still crazy nervous about dunking it. Talk about litterally 'taking the plunge'. The pictures are amazing Taqpol!

If they say its water proof and they don't give some warning about saltwater, just do it! If it breaks I'm pretty sure they'd have to replace it for you.

Awesome photos. So much better than before. I have an underwater rig and got a housing that allows full button control from the outside. It is just a cheap oly c-5000z, but I think i paid around $250 for it and the housing at the time on a refurb deal. I have taken some great pictures with it diving, I should try to get it in the reef tank though the housing is a little bulky for my small reef.

As for zooming underwater, that really doesn't work well. First thing they teach you in photography with diving is not to zoom, just get closer..

The real rigs are definitely better, but I always found them at over $1000 a pop. I guess buying refurbished is the way to go.

I thought about trying to fit my 100mm Macro in there for my zoom but A.) It might have been too much zoom for some of the shots I took, B.) I don't think I would have been able to hold it as steady, and C.) Its expensive! As I mentioned above when I try this again I'll definitely use my 50mm Prime.

 

[stylolvr]

Well put! Here goes nothing! I will start a new thread with pics in a bit.

 

[Recty]

Is it a 50mm prime? If so that is a sweet lens and would work perfectly. For the most part I was shooting around 50mm anyways and then cropped into the picture using photoshop for "zoom". Gotta love 15 mpixels.

Yeah, it's the Canon 50mm f/1.4. It should be good for it. I'll probably stop down to 2.0 or so just so that I get nice crisp photos, but it should still be letting in plenty of light.

I mainly just wanted to make sure the thing was somehow staying flush with the front of the lens so I wasnt dealing with diffraction. So you actually have to pull the front of the lens cover tight back into the lens to keep everything lined up? That's too bad, that will be hard to do while also trying to snorkel and swim

 

[Taqpol]

Yeah, it's the Canon 50mm f/1.4. It should be good for it. I'll probably stop down to 2.0 or so just so that I get nice crisp photos, but it should still be letting in plenty of light.

I mainly just wanted to make sure the thing was somehow staying flush with the front of the lens so I wasnt dealing with diffraction. So you actually have to pull the front of the lens cover tight back into the lens to keep everything lined up? That's too bad, that will be hard to do while also trying to snorkel and swim

Ask me again in six months, I'll tell you how hard the snorkeling was.

I also wouldn't worry too much about it. It is a very thin acrylic pane so the diffraction isn't going to be nearly as bad as shooting at an angle through 1/2" glass or whatever your tank is constructed with. Overall I think the photos were a little bit less crisp then some of my more conventional shots, but the accuracy of color and entirely new angles made up for it in my mind.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

Very nice shots, what happened to this camera?