Underwater Housing

[dendronepthya]

I picked up an underwater housing for my Panasonic GF-1 camera. I picked the GF-1 to build around because it has amazing live-view with really fast autofocus. My plan it to use it mainly for when I go diving or snorkeling, however I tested it out at my greenhouse today:

The build is really impressive. The front half is a big block of aluminum. The company "10Bar" is in Hong Kong and is also the depth rating. 10 Bar depth is about 300' which is about 250' deeper than I ever plan on going.

The controls of the camera took a little while to get used to, but I think with a little bit of practice it will work out ok.

Here are some shots taken with the camera fully submerged

This camera setup probably won't replace my Canon setup for photographing corals, but it was fun to play around with, and it is a different perspective than I normally am able to get. In the future, I hope to upload some photos from the ocean, preferably with a whale shark in it!

 

[dendronepthya]

In the mean time, here are a couple pictures of the fish in my 300-gallon rubbermaid tanks. They looked really confused because they aren't used to people sticking large objects into their home!

 

[Wolverine]

I really like that second shot with the reflections off the top of the water.

 

[dendronepthya]

Thanks! The pictures look different to me coming from an underwater housing than shooting through the glass of an aquarium. There are two reasons I can think of why this would be the case. First, I think it has to do with the quality of the glass on the port of the housing vs. the quality of the glass in a typical aquarium. Second, the camera while in its housing is always perpendicular to the port optic so you do not get any distortion from shooting at an angle like you can sometimes shooting through the glass of an aquarium.

The downside to this method of shooting in the tank though is that it pretty much has to be hand held, so it might be difficult to get smaller aperture shots at ISO 100 without introducing hand shake and motion blur from longer exposure times. The Panasonic GF-1 does not have in-body image stabilization unfortunately. The pictures taken above were all with their 20mm f/1.7 pancake. They make a 45mm macro along with Leica which has in-lens image stabilization that people are raving about. That might be an option if I ever get more serious with this underwater stuff.

 

[dendronepthya]

I've never done this underwater setup stuff before so it took a little trial and error in shopping for base plates and arms. This stuff is REALLY expensive, but I'm glad I'm done with it. I'm looking forward to going diving and snorkeling

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

WICKED setup! I bet you've never seen the contents of your 300g from that perspective before. ^_^

 

[dendronepthya]

No doubt! While I am super excited about eventually taking it diving, it would have made no sense at all to buy if I didn't have some regular use for it. Living in Ohio, I don't get to the ocean a lot.

 

[Recty]

All I can say is cool

I'd like to get set up like this someday, hopefully before I go to Hawaii again.

 

[Alex0219]

WOW! Absolutely amazing! I love those shots and the set up! Can't wait to see some pics after you go on a dive!

 

[IPT]

way cool!! Man, you could use that set up to get some great lighting on super close up Macros of bugs and flowers too! Have fun, can't wait to see the dive shots.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Yes I was dreaming of terrestrial applications for such a contraption myself.

 

[dendronepthya]

I've had to learn a lot about flash units because of this setup. For terrestrial photography, I didn't like using a flash a lot because I do a lot of photography in low light restaurants and having a flash go off would not be very polite for the other diners. All my photography was with huge aperture lenses and high ISO.

Anyhow, I digress. Flash is absolutely needed underwater unless you are only a few inches into it, and I had no clue what the heck I was doing. This particular setup is sort of cool because the strobe units can be wirelessly triggered by the small flash on the camera. I bought a fiberoptic cable as well in case I'm shooting in murky water because in those situations you do not want a flash so close to the body. It would light up all the little specs of crud in the water between you and your subject. Pretty cool stuff though.

I'm going to Miami in April and will go snorkeling. Does anyone know any good snorkeling spots down there or should I just be thankful I don't run into a gator?

 

[Recty]

Visit the Florida Keys if you can! Good snorkeling, good photography opportunities for sure.

 

[reefpix352]

Great looking little rig. I have been toying w/ the idea of getting a FIX housing for my Canon S90. I already have a "monster" setup for my DSLR.

Cheers
James