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any underwater photographers here?

Paratom

Well-known member
After some attempts with a leaking Nikon AW 1 I am now investigating to either buy a housing for my EM1 or maybe just go with the RX100 under water. The second having advantage of quite a bit lower cost.

Any forum members doing under water photography who like to exchange their experience?

PS: my third option is to use my old Nikonos V and get the images scanned

Thanks for any ideas, Tom ...who plans to get back in to scuba diving
 

ggibson

Well-known member
I only get to dive infrequently, but I love taking UW photos.

I bought an Olympus E-PL1 with housing when they went on clearance and took it to Grand Bahama last year:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamgibson/sets/72157633007251459/

It was a pretty affordable upgrade to my previous Sealife camera, and quite a substantial difference in image quality. I used it with my 9-18mm and the flat port for the shark dive, which was perfect. Not as wide or perfect in the corners as a dome would give, but it is still much wider than the kit lens (which has OK image quality, but not great).

I found the Olympus housing to be very well made. It's a bit large and heavy to pack around (and dive with) though. I dive on vacation and don't like being encumbered. The Olympus housing is about as much gear as I'll tolerate. I've thought about switching over to the RX100, since it seems to be reasonably smaller and lighter in a housing. But since I can take advantage of the 9-18mm lens that I already have for a m4/3 setup, the Sony doesn't go as wide and would cost quite a bit more.

You could go for a EM1 housing, but I've seen those are quite expensive and large. Maybe consider housing one of the less expensive (older) Olympus cameras like I did? You can probably get a housing+camera for less than it would cost to house the EM1.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
....
You could go for a EM1 housing, but I've seen those are quite expensive and large. Maybe consider housing one of the less expensive (older) Olympus cameras like I did? You can probably get a housing+camera for less than it would cost to house the EM1.
thanks.
yeah, I agree about size and price of the em1 housing. And since it will be only for occasional use a few times a year I really should not go for the "big and expensive" alternative.
I also don't what to become a "slave" of too much equipment when underwater. I was that sometimes in earlier times with my Nikonos gear.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
in earlier times I used a big flash with my Nikonos for about everything in short and medium distance, as long as the water was clear enough. But then I used 50/64 and 200 ISO film at that time.

So I believe I would want an external flash in a certain distance to the camera.

I also like wide angle, so on RX100 I would need an external wide-converter, on the EM1 I could use a 7-14 or 9-18mm
 

mmbma

Active member
1. did the sharks get attracted by your flash? :)
2. You mentioned a leaking AW1. why, too deep?
 

Paratom

Well-known member
1. did the sharks get attracted by your flash? :)
who obviously did not like me.


2. You mentioned a leaking AW1. why, too deep?
1. no, never. however the big flash was good to defend myself against a triggerfish

2. I just used it for snorkeling so depth should not have been the problem. I have no idea but I am not convinced any more if this is really a camera for underwater use.
 

ggibson

Well-known member
I actually did not use a flash on my E-PL1 on any of the Grand Bahama dives. I had just purchased the kit, and didn't have a flash for it yet. Depth on the shark dive was only 45' and we went in mid-afternoon so there was enough light from the sun, luckily. We were in deeper waters for the other dives, so some of those shots could have used a strobe.
 

Dr. Brad

New member
Would love to see some pictures you took when you get a moment to post some here. Or, come to think of it, I could not be so lazy and I could just have a look at your flickr pics! :)
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Here is one I took with my Nikonos V in Thailand about 8? years ago. This Manta was awesome. When he left he did swim a "roll" like saying "good buy, I had fun"
 
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