Optical Ocean Sales Guides to UW Photography Available
Martin Heyn and I have put together a couple of free .pdf guides that gives new underwater photographers a starting place, and more experienced photographers gain basic knowledge of strobe positioning and usage. Basic Tips for UW Photographers: Is a 17-page guide that gives you a number of ways to work on improving your phoots. Brief descriptions of ideas are illustrated with example photos. Basic rules on shooting angles, composition, lighting and much more are presented.
Basic Principles of Strobe Positioning: Is a 14-page guide that gives practical approaches to positioning and use of one or two strobes for more successful lighting solutions. Macro and wide angle setups are shown with photos and tips on strobe usage.
We hope you'll enjoy these brief guides as a starting place for your own creative images to take off!
Optical Ocean Sales, LLC is proud to announce it has expanded into a retail sales center conveniently located on Lake Union at 1800 Westlake Ave North, Suite 201 in Seattle, thus continuing it's 8 years of service to the diving community. We are the only dedicated underwater photography equipment store in the northwest. Optical Ocean’s new retail location gives the community the opportunity to put their hands on the most popular brands. In addition we strive to be a center for continuing education, travel information and first-rate personal service, crucial when dealing with such complicated systems.
Jack Connick, owner, has been a life-long photographer "ever since I owned my first Exacta". His experience includes a combination of 25 years of experience as a professional graphic designer and art director, along with developing his underwater photo portfolio during trips to 10 countries around the world. He has extensive Pacific Northwest cold water diving and photography experience with extensive ties to the Seattle diving community.
Martin Heyn has joined the Optical Ocean Sales team as Business Development Manager. Martin brings 30 years of diving, photography, and sales experience to the Ocean Optical team. He has traveled much of world enjoying the hobby and is founder of the website www.aquabluedreams.com.
Optical Ocean are stocking dealers for Nauticam, Olympus, Ikelite, Fix, Zen, Athena, Sea & Sea, Light & Motion, 10Bar, i-torch/i-DAS, Seahorse, Fantasea, Big Blue, MAHA Power, and are adding new products all the time. In fact, they are the largest dealer in the northwest for many of those lines.
There is a great selection of underwater photo equipment available through the store; cameras, housings, ports, gears, strobes, focus/video lights, arms and trays. Also included are Seahorse cases and many other accessories. Optical Ocean Sales has many unique packages that are ready-to-go. They also stock many of the parts photographers need such as o-rings, manufacturer specific silicone grease, strobe diffusers, dedicated batteries and more.
All items are also available online at OpticalOceanSales.com at it’s easy-to-use and informative web store. Orders are shipped promptly both domestically and internationally, or available for in-store pickup.
Classes and trips will be starting soon for all levels of divers and underwater photo enthusiasts.
Map here. Open 10-6 M-F and 11-5 on Saturday, unless they're off diving.
For the most up to date store information “like” us on Facebook.
Optical Ocean Sales, LLC 1800 Westlake Ave N., Suite 201 Seattle, WA 98119 1-800-359-1295/ +1 206-284-1142 Email: Sales@OpticalOceanSales.com
Optical Ocean Sales has the new Ikelite, 10Bar housings and Nauticam housings in stock for the popular Panasonic high-quality LX-5 point and shoot camera. This camera has great features, with excellent control and a high-end lens and processor. It features a wide 24mm lens and leading edge video capabilities, in a small easy-to-use format. This article will review some of the differences between the housings available. All are rated to 200’. In the end it is up to each diver to find which best fits them.
The Ikelite housing is the largest physically, but that can be an advantage in cold water with gloves. The controls are standard Ikelite bent rods that you jiggle the switches with. With practice, they work pretty well, but they take some getting used to. The Ikelite housing is clear acyrlic, so you can see the entire camera. The knobs are large and are easy to use with gloves. It uses two non-standard screws to mount to a tray. It has built-in TTL with Ikelite strobes, which works well with all their DS strobes. It's hard to rig with optical sync strobes though. There is no method of mounting a focus light to it.
It's the most economical, at $549.95. The Ike housing relies on external wide angle lenses like their WP-20 - the problem is that the LX-5 has a 24mm lens and has to be zoomed in a fair bit to avoid vignette, thus negating the field of view with that lens. However, the new Nauticam wet mount wide-angle lens works fine, giving you back the 24mm that you have above water. It's small and light as well, but it doesn't really give you true wide angle.
With the Olympus PTWC-01 lens you can get a greatly increased 100+ degree field of view, although you do still need to zoom in. That lens is fairly heavy and large, not something you'd want to take on/off underwater.
Macro is no problem. The Ike housing (as do all it's competitors) has a 67mm threaded port to screw on an external diopter macro lens.
The 10Bar housing is redesigned from the their popular LX3 version and has the history of a year's run to work out any bugs. It is made from rugged aluminum, smaller, probably a little bit heavier in the water with a clear back. It's a step up in price at $709. Due to its design it is easier to grip than the Ikelite, but both will probably be used with a tray and handle. It uses a standard tripod mount screw. It has both hardwire and optical sync. It works great with a strobe like the Sea & Sea YS-01 or 110a, which have built-in optical D-TTL. The electrical sync bulkhead is a 5 pin nikonos style and supports legacy strobes like the Sea & Sea YS-90, or a Nikon SB-105, but only with the manual power settings on the back of the strobe. The controls are pretty good, dedicated, but you need a sense of feel with them. The knobs are small and close together, a problem if you are wearing gloves. All features of the camera are supported, including flash up and down. It uses a standard single mounting screw and fits most trays on the market.
Both the 10Bar and the Ikelite will have some issues with the LX-5's rear dial control. It can be pushed and turned and is quite tricky to make a control for. You can use other controls if necessary, or just use fine motions with it.
Probably the biggest advantage of the 10Bar is that it has several wide angle options, including the above "wet mount" 67mm lenses (with the same vignette issues); or unscrewing the port and using the Panasonic add-on wide angle lens with the 10Bar replacement wide angle port and dome (dry mount). The later can give one of the widest fields of view and can focus closely and sharply. These port replacements do not vignette and give very high quality results.
The Nauticam NA-LX5 has probably the finest build quality and design. Although more expensive at $950, it is aluminum and very well thought out, with excellent, ergonomic controls. It sits in your hand very nicely and controls are under your fingertips. All camera features are supported. The best feature is that they broke out the push and the turn function of the "joystick" rear dial on the camera into two distinct controls, making it positive and direct to use. This is much better than having one control that you try to turn without pushing. Buttons are fairly close together, as they are on the camera itself, but better than the other housings. Gloves can be problematic. There is a handstrap option for the right side, but it isn't big enough to fit a glove for cold water use. There is both a "coldshoe" mount and a threaded port for a ball mount on top of the housing to support a focus light.
The Nauticam housing is smaller as well. It does rely on external wide angle lenses, like the previously mentioned Nauticam wet mount replacement lens, or the Olympus PTWC-01 and Inon offerings. There are several tray options available for it, and it too uses two mounting screws.
Hopefully this article can help divers to compare the available housings. These are three excellent housings and only Optical Ocean Sales has all three in stock. Come on in so you can see them side-by-side and see what works best for you and your budget.
For those who want a smaller camera and housing to dive and travel with the new Micro Four-Thirds format may be the answer. Micro 4/3rds format cameras combine a DSLR sensor in a point & shoot-sized body with DSLR features like interchangeable lenses, HD video, etc. Cameras and lenses are available from both Olympus & Panasonic. While Panasonic lead the way with the GF and GH series cameras - the GF-1 has been very popular (along with the 10Bar GF-1 Housing). I like the Olympus E-PL1 micro 4/3rds DSLR as it has less fussy controls to house than the Panasonic GF-1, and offers a good value for it's $599 cost.
The sensor is about 6 times larger than even high-end point and shoots and the camera has many more features and better responsiveness. It does rely on push-buttons and s/w for control, no dials, which does take some getting used to from a full-sized DSLR. The trade off is size and weight. As it is software-driven, and is sort of “dumbed down” as it comes from the factory, it does take some time to set up and get used to. Turning on the super control panel really helps, as it offers one push menu performance for most common camera functions. Another trick is that you can set up both the “my modes” and the function buttons to switch multiple operations at once. You should budget for the Olympus 9-18 wide angle lens which is considerably better in quality and speed than the kit 14-42 lens. DPReview's camera review here
Not a bad housing, but not up to the standards of the PT-E06 either. Lightweight. Only 135' depth rating, plastic construction that's not all that robust, but should be quite serviceable. Single o-ring, voluminous construction due to inclusion of VF-2 viewfinder, which is pretty near worthless underwater (has less pixel density than the view screen). Controls are ok, well labeled, ranked in height. Zoom control is poor for use with gloves - indented into the side of the housing too far. Zoom gearing not all that smooth, but ok, better than the 10Bar. Not all controls accessible - ie you have to remember to open the flash before loading - no way to pop it later if you forget. Port is removable, but so far only one on market. No support for 17mm, Panasonic 45mm macro, although more third party ports will be forth coming I'm quite sure. Macro port adapter a little less than robust, if not clipped in perfectly it can fall off. Fiber optic sync only. One year international warranty.
The WA-100-EP Zen Dome looks to be very high quality glass and optics, better than the 10Bar. Customer Christine Kornylak took some great shots with it in the Channel Islands. 10Bar EPl-1 $1069 (fob Seattle). Includes 17mm pancake port & 14-42/9-18 semi dome port + 14-42 gears (9-18 gears coming $85). Includes spare orings, spare control tips, cleaning kit, carrying bag, etc.
Very rugged aluminum construction, working depth up to 200', tested to 300'. Aluminum screw thread ports. Decent build quality, but Chinese construction (much improved over earlier housings). Dual oring construction throughout (housing back, ports and controls). Metal controls, 2 ranked (menu & ok buttons). ALL controls are supported - you can bring the flash up and down. Zoom control is a push in and turn method, a little less than easy to get used to. Both manual focus and zoom supported. Supports lenses from both Olympus and Panasonic. Macro lens support with extension tube, no manual focus. 67mm macro screw thread on 17mm port and 14-42 flat port. Small, but negative in water by about 2# or so. Fiber optic or electrical Nikonos strobe connections. 2 year warranty, but out of HK, although I handle bad-out-of-box, and you are provided with control parts, etc.
Semi dome is good quality, but plastic. Probably not as good of corner sharpness and optics as the Zen, but the shots I took with the lens at 9mm turned out fine, view below.
I think there's good and bad points for both, and I've had customers who liked either for various reasons.
Lighting Either will need a Lighting Package. I like the Sea & Sea YS-01 strobe with this, although the YS-110a is also a good choice. The YS-01 is powerful, has TTL and a target light and has a 100x100 degree beam angle. For those on a budget, the YS-02 is also available for $110 less, but it lacks auto TTL operation and a target light, both very valuable features. Two strobes are preferred, especially with the 9mm lens. A focus light is necessary, as it is with any DSLR system, the Big Blue 1x5AFO would be my choice or for better video capabilities, the Fix LED500 or LED1000. The S-Tray fits these very well and is adjustable for various diving conditions. See "Light My Fire" for more information.
While I personally still prefer a full-scale DSLR for photography due to ease of use, speed, and available lenses, these smaller MicroFour Thirds camera systems seem to be the wave of the future, especially for use under the waves!
Shots taken with Olympus E-PL1 in 10Bar Housing with 9-18mm lens and 2 Sea & Sea YS-110a strobes.
Well, Eight Marker Buoy Dive Club members dove West Race at Race Rocks near Victoria, BC on a nice morning with 8-10 kts of north wind blowing when we got in...and 25kts with 6 foot seas when we got out!!
We were a little early for the slack when we got in on the west end, but it dropped off and we all had a good dive in somewhat murky viz. I hit 85' for a bit right at slack, but moved back up the wall to 70' for most of the dive. Tons of invertebrates, soft and hard coral in technicolor was the rule, not too many fish.
Upon surfacing, half the group drifted down the channel east, so 4 of us "hung" out in pretty big rollers and high wind for a while by the rocks. Rob saved my a**, telling me to swim forward, as I had drifted backwards too close to the rocks and almost go rolled onto it. The boat had a heck of a time getting all of us back on board, but we managed it. But what a rodeo.
There was no way to do a second dive. Normally placid Main Race was a maelstrom. So then we had to "beat" our way back to Victoria slowly working our way along shore and working the speed up and down with the waves pounding us. Everyone was pretty sore and cold when we got back.
Half of us were done for the day, but Rob & Kirby along with Karin and Doug did a dive off the breakwater in the lee and had good conditions.
I was the lucky winner of a discount voucher towards a dive trip on the Nautilus Explorer liveaboard at my dive club’s banquet. After debating about an Alaskan itinerary, I decided on the January 4th trip to the Revillagigedos Islands, 300 miles SW of Cabo San Lucas. This would be my second visit, having gone on a club trip 5 years ago with Judy Brooks on the Solmar V. It would also be a longer trip - 10 days with 8 days of diving.
Boarding the boat early Tuesday morning, I found that I was only one of two Americans on board with the majority being a dive club from the UK, and the rest a mixture of manta ray researchers and support divers.
Dr. Bob Rubin from Pacific Manta Ray Research and Guy Stevens, a biologist from the Maldives Manta Ray Research Project led the team. They are amongst the top researchers in the world, even shown on BBC specials, so we were in for a treat - having lectures and slide shows from the experts each night on various aspects of these huge pelagics.
We would learn that there are now two distinct species of manta rays. The Reef Mantas, smaller and usually more numerous, that frequent the inner islands of places like Hawaii, Palau, Yap and the Maldives. The Giant Manta Rays found in Mexico, are true pelagics, believed to travel great distances in the open ocean before showing up at sea mounts near deep water in places like the Revillagigedos Islands and the Cocos. These fish are much larger - up to 22’ in wingspan. Scientists have now found physiological evidence of to separate these species like the remnants of a stinger in the Giants. All Mantas are filter feeders, only about 200,000 years old as a species, with advanced physiology like warm-blooded brains for faster brain activity in the cold 350-meter depths they dive at night.
“But would we see many rays?” was the question in our minds on the 26-hour ride out to the islands.
Arriving at San Benedicto, our warm up dive at The Canyons was so-so, a few folks saw some hammerheads in the distance and I saw only one Silky shark. Our next site was El Boiler, probably the most famous spot on San Benedicto Island, and certainly the best spot in the islands for interacting with Giant Manta Rays. We were not disappointed. Each dive had up to four at a time playing with us, delighting in “bubble baths”, and letting us pet their bellies.
It’s truly one of the most awesome experiences of my life to come eye-to-eye with large animals like this and have them literally stop, lift a wing, and wait for us to come tickle them. All of the 36 different mantas we would see on the trip were females and the scientists confirmed that most that are seen in shallow waters are female. Nobody knows why. The scientists were busy, retrieving their recorders and tagging new mantas with sonic pingers.
The weather was with us and after debating about making a break for Roca Partida, a rock another 50 miles out to sea, we dove most of the next day with large numbers of mantas and a few dolphins around us.
It was a bit windy as we arrived at Roca Partida, but the currents were pretty reasonable (by blue water standards anyway) and we ended up spending two days there, doing eight dives. Although visibility was a bit limited at times, we saw nearly every large animal you can imagine (except a Whale Shark, damn it). More mantas, dolphins, white tip reef sharks, schools of oceanic white tips, schools of scalloped hammerheads, huge schools of tuna, trevaly, and every imaginable bait fish came by. If there wasn’t action looking out into the blue, there were green morays, small octos and other animals on the rock.
Though the currents had most of us clinging to it’s sides, I found a spot I dubbed Jack’s Nook, just a narrow cut in the rocky wall on the south end that I could duck in and watch the world go by. We saw large schools of oceanic white tips, and once a hammerhead got so close that I had to kick it with my fin (they are normally very shy). One manta followed us around like a puppy dog, until we’d go around the rock (it was possible to do three loops on a dive), and then swam up with a big greeting when it saw us again.
After diving Roca Partida, we were afraid that Socorro Island would be a let down. Boy, were we wrong. Punta Tosca had tough conditions, very strong currents, real mask rippers, strong surge and so-so viz. However, on the first dive hunkered on the rocky ledge at 100’, we were surrounded by a couple of hundred hammerheads, literally swimming through our group! There were also silky sharks, a pod of curious dolphins and more. I left that vantage spot to swim back up into the bay and saw a pod of dolphins swim overhead a bit in front of me, with a huge shark following them. It paused behind for a few seconds, just long enough for me to make out the blunt head of a 16’ Tiger Shark. It was at least twice as big as the dolphins, which were totally unconcerned. I, however, decided to become one with the rocks.
After they swam off, ok long after they swam off, I headed up to the point. Seeing breaking surf above me, I turned to spot a very curious silky shark behind me. Even after I turned towards it, it kept coming, making me take a defensive position again in the rocks. Damn, I hate being on the bottom of the food chain. After it left, I swam all the way back to the boat, alternatingly happy that I left my large DSLR rig in the boat, and pissed that I hadn’t taken a shot during one of the best dives I’ve ever experienced.
Cabo Pearce also on Socorro would be yet another great site, with amazing encounters, over two days, with a school of dolphins. One female was delighted to spot us, and 250 miles from civilization, swam up to us and presented her belly for a good rub and even a close hug. She would not leave until everyone had petted and rubbed her, completely taken with us. They repeated this behavior the next day, and even drove off a large silky shark as it swam by chasing a bait ball. She came back and invited us to rub her tummy some more. This was again a life-changing dive for me. There was most definitely communication going on, on a mammal-to-mammal basis, and I will never forget it.
The last day we went back to San Benedicto and El Boiler for another 3-4 dives with the mantas. The last dive, in the last 10 minutes of a setting sun, proved to provide me the best photo opportunities of the trip, as I inverted the contents of my tank and refused to come up.
My thanks to the Nautilus Explorer, it’s great crew and guides, and my new dive buddies in the UK and elsewhere!
Photos were taken with a D300 in a Nauticam housing with Tokina 10-17, Sigma 17-70 and Nikon 60mm lenses, and two YS-110a strobes.
Olympus's new 4/3rds camera the EPL1 is here (or nearly so). I met with my Olympus reps today and got a through briefing.
The camera is awesome, but is very "dumbed down" out of the box. It has some great features, many of which are more easily accessible from their Super Control Panel. It works much better after a good tune-up.
Auto focus is very reasonable, and can be sped up by limiting it to spot focus. It is much, much faster than a P&S, a little slower than a DSLR. The 14-42 kit lens that ships with it, is ok, and will work for a variety of shots. It close focuses to about 4", better uw, but it will need a 2x macro diopter. The 9-18 is much better, is an internal focus lens (the barrel doesn't extend) but still an f4 lens - it seemed to focus faster and would focus to 15cm.
I think that this camera would benefit from some better quality lenses - the Oly 17mm is awesome, but is not compatible with the housing, it will vignette. I think I might look at some of the Panasonic oferings. Like the Zeiss 45mm macro - a whopping $899. I've asked them to try to see what other lenses will fit the housing and they said they would. Be prepared with your biggest c.c. Good glass costs cash.
A couple of cool things. Two "My Modes", switch the whole camera around at a flick of a button. A programmable function button. One button movies and this is really cool - it will continuously auto focus while filming - something that the DSLRs can't do in video mode.
The PT-EPL-1 is budget housing, no doubt, but still is quite functional. They were after a price point and I think hit it. The package for $1200 street price is awesome for the quality it will do, but it's best for macro and wide angle. All functions are accessible, it's compact and easy to handle. I have to question adding in the electronic viewfinder, we'll have to see how usable it is uw.
Ship dates are still up in the air a bit. Some cameras may get here earlier for pre-orders, but housings and most of the line probably won't hit until late March.
I'm on my way down to Cabo to catch a 10 day liveaboard trip to the Revillagigedos (aka Socorros) Islands on the Nautilus Explorer. I'll return to the office on Jan 16th.
During that time Optical Ocean Sales will be in the good hands of my new assistant Kalen. Orders and estimates will be happening, but shipping may be slowed a bit. Limited technical advise will be available. There will be No phone orders taken, but emails will be returned by her.
I look forward to a renewed energy (I need a vacation!!) and having lots of photos to share in the New Year!
I often get asked "What strobe should I get for my camera and housing". Here's a rundown on all the current strobes that Optical Ocean Sales carrys right now.
The Fantasea NanoFlash is a small, light and easy-to-use strobe. It has a guide number (power) of 12, so ii is fairly low power. Many people like them for tropical diving and for close up shots. It is a strobe-in-a-box with 3 power settings and several diffusers of varying strength. It will work with all digital cameras. Uses 2 AAA batteries that last about 2 dives.
I used to sell the UltraMax Strobe as a good value for a beginning diver. Unfortunately, recently we experiencing quite a few failures and I've discontinued selling it.
Next up is the new Fantasea Remora strobe, actually has the same flash tube and power as the UltraMax, different electronics and design. Much better power control; 10 to 100% dial and a very good lens and diffuser that spreads the light better. Much faster recycle time than the UltraMax. Still a 60 degree beam angle and also narrow vertically. Has a mount for a small NanoFocus light for aiming. However it does not have a sealed battery compartment, although a good seal on the door. It is floaty in the water, but not as much as the UltraMax. It’s a good step up for newer photographers with point and shoot cameras. I’ve been test shooting it with a Fuji F200, photos are here.
Probably the best small strobe is the brand new Sea & Sea YS-01. Sea & Sea has done their homework and come out with a less expnsive, smaller version of the popular YS-110a. Like it's big brother the YS-01 has D-TTL, automatically adjusting the light duration, as well as 10 steps of manual power. It also has a target light which will shut off during exposure. It's beam angle is the same 110x110 degrees and it has a very fast recycle time of 1.5 secs with NiMh batteries. This unit gets my vote as one of the best uw photo products to come out this year.
Up from that is the Sea & Sea YS110a, guide number of 22, 13 steps of power control, bright target light, 105x105 degree beam angle, D-TTL auto control operation. Legendary Sea & Sea quality, with a sealed battery compartment and lighting fast 1-2 sec recycle time. It also has a hardwired sync port and can be used in conjunction with Sea & Sea's TLL converter. This is an excellent strobe with automatic operation and is a great companion for advanced point and shoots and DSLRs. I shoot tow of these with my Nauticam D-300s housing.
Sea & Sea also offers the awesome YS-250PRO which delivers a whalloping guide number 32 of power, and instant recyle with it's integrated battery pack. It has TTL with a light and audible signal and also has 12 steps of manual power.
Olympus offers two strobes; the UFL-1 and the UFL-2. The UFL-1 is older and basically a rebranded Sea & Sea YS-17. Although well- built with a sealed battery compartment, it is weaker than other competitively priced strobes (guide number of 14) and over-priced for it’s feature set. But it is popular with Olympus point and shoot owners.
The Olympus UFL-2 is designed to work well with their PT-E05 & PT-E06 DSLR housing systems. It has TTL automatic operation that can be controlled from the camera and a target light. It isn’t as powerful as the YS-110a, but is well integrated into the Olympus system with fairly rapid recycle time.
We also carry all the Ikelite strobes; The DS-51, DS-160, DS-161 and DS-200. These are powerful, generally well built with good recycle times. They have sealed battery compartments or battery packs, and some manual control. The DS-160, 161 and 200 have target lights. They are ideal companions for Ikelite housings that have built-in TTL including all their DSLR housings and many of their compact housings. Other housings with hard wired Nikonos ports work well with them, but there is no TTL.
The new DS-161 is the first strobe to include an integrated 15 watt video light as well as a target light.
For the Ikelite Ultra-compact housings we recommend one of the other strobes we carry like the Remora, or Sea & Sea YS-01 or 110a. We do not recommend the Ikelite AF-35 as it is weak and underpowered. Ikelite makes light controllers that work with point and shoot cameras to see their flash and sync with the Ikelite strobes. The controllers work fairly well, but are awkward and outdated, They are just another electrical connection to fail in our experience.
All strobes are available with whatever tray and arms package you like. All tripod screw mount point and shoot housings (most all have this mount) will fit all the trays we carry. Ikelite Compact and UltraCompact housings will only fit our flat tray. Olympus and Sea & Sea RDX housings will only fit our DSLR Tray. See Optical Ocean Sales Lighting Packages.
Clearing the Fog About Fantasea Big Eye Wide Angle Lenses
Although I am a dealer for Fanatsea, I'm first of all a diver and photographer. I care a lot that my customers have a good experience with the products I sell. There have been some reports on dive forums as to reported "fogging" of the inside of the Fantasea Line Big Eye lenses.
Fantasea is concerned with the quality of their products and do stand behind them, to the extent of pulling bad ones off the market, or testing and retesting until they are sure there are no problems. Case in fact is that the Remora strobe was held off the market for nearly 7 months due to some very minor issues. That gets expensive. But it is a better strobe now.
I contacted Howard Rosenstein, the president of Fantasea about their manufacturing process. According to his engineers the lenses ARE manufactured in a completely humidity controlled environment, aka clean room conditions. He will have more information posted soon. They are taking steps to improve the mounting skirt on the G10 model and looking at the shock cord attachments to see how they could improve them. I think some small Fastec quick release buckles would help.
After ascertaining that they were unable to do true cold water dive tests in Eliat (!), Howard readily agreed to my taking a lens out of stock (nothing special about the unit), and doing some dives with it. I used a Fuji mount, but this is exactly the same lens and came from the same as other early adopters according to him. I told him I would give him my results first, but that they would be published on ScubaBoard and my blog unedited.
I tried to the best of our local conditions here in Seattle to recreate the issues surrounding this lens. I am not a trained engineer/product tester, my approach was to basically punish the lens and use it under local conditions like any other diver would.
Temperature & Fogging Not having 80F days here, I gave it some temperature bath tests and couldn’t recreate any fogging.
I repeatedly plunged the lens into my hot tub at 104F for 10 mins and then a cold ice bath of 50 degrees. I didn’t see any immediate problem or when I left it in the cold bath. Tried 3x times. No fogging on the inside of the lens at all. Yes, definite fogging on the outside, which immediately is removed upon immersion. No other problems.
Dive Testing I did a total of 3 dives with the lens and Fuji F200. Again not empirical, but enough to see if there are defects in the design.
First dive was at the Seattle Aquarium where I'm a volunteer science diver. They have an open-system 400,000 gal tank we get to feed the fish in. It has filtered water, but otherwise is directly linked to Puget Sound.
I set up the Fuji F200, FXF-200 housing with the Big Eye lens and one Remora strobe.
Air temps were mid-60s+ warmer in the sun, and water about 52F. I warmed the lens again over a hot air duct as much as I could and then left it in the sun on a cement pool surround for 30 mins. I brought it into the tank, cleared it and observed it on the surface, then again at the bottom at 25'. Took shots for 20 mins and again observed the lens. No fogging, or other problems in rather bright conditions were found.
I would say that the Remora's beam coverage horizontally was quite good, but vertically I observed a rather sharp fall-off with this lens, even after swiveling it upwards considerably.
Second and Third Dives, were off my friend's boat out on Puget Sound. Air temps were about the same and water was bout 52F on the surface and 48F at depths not exceeding 65'.
I took about 120 shots with the Fuji and two Inon z240 strobes, which I used for their much broader power and coverage to see if I could induce the light flare artifacts noted by users.
I again observed the lens at the surface, and throughout the dive for fogging and found none.
I was finally able to recreate the issue of lens flare and by adjusting the strobes and swiveling the camera very slightly format he sun, I was able to eliminate it. Lens flare with any dome is always a problem and for best results you should use longer arms and move your lights behind the camera and swivel them outwards to use edge lighting. This also reduces backscatter.
Here's a series: Pronounced flare
A "fog" looking flare
No flare
Conclusions By in large, I found the lens to be a ball to shoot with. As you set the camera in macro mode for focus, you can get extremely close and have amazing depth of field with the lens.
It also is ideal for close-focus, wide angle shots. There is a lack of corner sharpness, but this is to be expected with a point and shoot set up. I have shot the Inon dome and yes, I would say it is sharper, but it is also about 1.5x the cost. By my eye I think many users would enjoy the sharpness and coverage offered by the lens. It adds a big tool to the average P&S'ers toolbox.
If you definitely are seeing moistureinside the lens, you have a service issue and Fantasea will repair or replace the lens under their one-year warranty. See: Fantasea Customer Service
More photos can be found here:Fuji F200 Shots (the Big Eye are the last 12 shots in this set - Note, all photos are directly from the camera with no retouching, etc.)
I hope this clears up some issues with this product, they are very popular and remain in short supply.
Test shooting the F200EXR in Fuji's WP-FXF-200 housing and two of the new Fantasea Remora strobes has led me to believe that it's a good uw photo rig, not perfect, but quite capable of wonderful shots at a reasonable price - if you shoot within it's limitations.
The Fuji F200EXR camera is Fuji's foray to using innovative Extended Definition and Range in a point and shoot camera. But underwater I've found little value to this technology, mainly because they've crippled many of the controls to make them simpler for the "average" user. This leads to the camera getting confused. For instance set to EXR mode, you cannot fire the strobe in DR D-Range Priority sub mode. You are limited to Resolution Priority, fine, but then it uses too slow a shutter speed. Setting it on EXR Auto picks the low-light, Hi-ISO SN sub-mode, as it thinks (rightly so) you are shooting in low light. Which is sort of ok for available light shots, but gets grainy and worthless with an external strobe.
But not all is lost. There is a manual mode that works pretty well. You can access the extended range if you set the ISO to 200 or above. Then you get extra Dynamic Range, which is cool. But again, under the "what was Japan thinking" they crippled the manual mode, you can select shutter speeds, but are limited to f/3 or f/9 at wide angle, (and higher f/stops at greater telephoto extension of the lens)! Ok, so set it to f/9 and use the shutter speeds and strobes to control your shots, it's not a bad situation, just annoying. There is also a "P" mode that has an "Auto" setting, a not-so-good idea underwater (as it is on nearly all cameras) and an Aperature priority mode. which is ok, except that once again it picks too slow a shutter speed uw when you use a flash. There is a dedicated underwater scene available, and it did ok on available light shots. It might do better in bluewater (filtering cyan cast) if you weren't using an external flash, but I couldn't test that.
You can generate up to 12MB images, depending on which mode you are using. I wish the camera manufacturers would bring back RAW output, it costs them nothing to do so, the F200 does a nice job with JPEGS however.
The WP-FXF-200 is a decent, $170 housing, small and with all camera controls available. I did remove the large flash diffuser to attach the sync cord, it didn't work well when just put on the front of it. I taped off he inside of the housing to remove any light leaks from the internal flash. The housing is depth rated to 40 meters (132'), and I tested it to 95 feet in cold water without any incident. About the only problem I had was hitting the mode dial on the back of the housing with my thumb.
Several really good good features make this camera very responsive and easy to use underwater.
One is "Dual IS Mode", it's built-in image stabilization mode. I found this worked pretty well, steadying some shots at the lower shutter speeds it selects on some of the auto modes, but again it only seems to kick in when you zoom. The second is sort of a sleeper; located under Power Management is a "Quick AF" mode, speeding up auto focus and supposedly using more power. In my test shooting, it made the F200 respond much faster, with very little shutter lag, a bane to most P&S photographers. BTW, "Face Detection" also works on fishes - kind of cool, moving the auto focus around as the fish moves.
Speaking of power management, I found on an hour or more of fairly steady shooting that I only used 1/4 of the lithion battery, much better than older Fuji models. Shooting movies will use it much faster.
The F200 focuses quite well in low-light, and if you don't mind grainier shots, can take good available light photos and hold both the highs and lows in a (flatter looking) shot using DR. A focus light makes it work that much faster.
Another high point of the camera is it's built in macro mode, simply awesome, most of the time I can touch the housing to the subject and it is exceedingly sharp. Coupled with Fuji's rich, saturated colors from it's great sensor, I personally think it's amongst the best P&S cameras, especially for macro, even without additional lenses. You just need to be aware of it's design limitations, they may be deal-breakers for you.
Fantasea Line has developed a range of available wide angle and mcro lenses, red filters and adapters to fit the Fuji housing. Their Big Eye FXF-100/200 restores the refraction you loose underwater, not truly super wide, but still gives a very nice result. They will have an adapter to take 67mm lenses as well, which opens a whole range of accessory lenses from a variety of manufacturers.
Settings I gravitated to are using Manual mode, f/9, ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/60th for W/A and moving the shutter speed way up to 1/1000th and ISO 100-200 for macro, for the sharpest shots.
The Remora is a new product for Fantasea and represents their first true amphibious strobe. It has a guide number (power) of 18, which seems to be true in my experience. The recycle time is quite fast and the strobe features a 10-100% varible output, usually found on more expensive strobes. Although it uses nearly the same flash tube as the UltraMax UDXS strobe, they have a better lens and diffuser that gives off a nice quality of light. The color temp is daylight balanced.
About my only two complains, ok 3, are:
No sealed battery compartment, if it floods, it's toast. Most other competing strobes have a separate compartment. It does have a curved back that leads water away from the opening very well. They held this product off the market for quite some time to improve the seals, but even my prototypes worked fine down to 90'.
A rectangular flash output, you have to watch which way you spin them, I use mine upside down/angled pretty often. This gets a bit annoying.
Controls on the side. Again depending on their orientation you have to really bring the whole rig down to see the adjustment. You can turn them without looking, but a couple of times I adjusted them the wrong way.
With use, you'd get used to some of these quirks.
All that said, it is a decent strobe for the money, and you can mount a focus light for targeting it. It needs a sync cord, and my testing shows that for best operation with two you should use two sync cords.
Street price of the Remora is about $200, plus a $30 cord. The next strobe up from it price-wise, is the Sea & Sea YS27DX which has a GN of 20, a much wider beam and 8 steps of adjustment. It is smaller physically and has a better build quality and sealed battery compartment. I'd definitely pick this strobe if you can afford it's $350 cost. But for it's value the Remora looks like it has a nice niche.
I used a prototype of the new Optical Ocean Sales Flat Tray (available in early September), along with handles and arms to hold the strobes. It makes for nice control of the rig and the balance overall was just slightly negative.
Compact DSLR Systems; Comparing the Olympus PT-E06 and Sea & Sea RDX Systems
I get quite a few emails asking about the Olympus PT-E06 and Sea & Sea RDX systems, as they are light, compact and relatively inexpensive. Sea & Sea's RDX housing has a received a recent upgrade for the Canon T1i 500 camera which has video, 15MP, and a lot of other new technology. It also has a more expandable lens base than the Olympus E620 or Nikon D60. Lets look at a comparison, keeping in mind that both are systems and you really need to figure lenses, ports and strobes into the picture.
Both the Sea & Sea and Olympus housings are reasonably small and lightweight, quite neutral in the water, and easy to swim. This is due to their plastic polycarbonate construction. The S&S has a 200’ depth rating, (the Oly is 140’), has metal latches, beefier build quality and controls. The Oly is a bit lighter in build quality and its overall look and feel, but both work well and fit your hands easily. You can substitute a different viewfinder to the Sea & Sea.
The S&S has two hardwire strobe ports in addition to the dual optical sync ports that both feature. You can add a TTL converter and it uses a better, industry standard bulkhead (plug) - more choices on strobes down the line. The Oly has one bulkhead and it is proprietary, only hooks to Oly strobes. Both are easy to load; camera goes on a tray that slides in and locks down.
But most people use fiber optic sync anyway as it is cheaper, easier and the Olympus UFL-2 strobe provides nice TTL, controllable from the camera, but it is a less powerful strobe than the Sea & Sea YS110a (same price for both strobes). In my experience its recycle time is also slower. The YS-110a allows for D-TTL with the fiber optic connection. Some have used this strobe on the Olympus system with good success. There is also the less expensive, manually controlled YS-27DX strobe. It's less powerful, but you can buy two of them for about the price of one YS-110a, and it’s not a bad product.
The ports are quite different. The Oly uses a screw on port. Each lens pretty much requires a different port and they are a bit limited to working with Olympus lenses. The dome port for wide angle is high quality glass, but pricey. Their ports include a focus gear to drive the zoom. There are third party ports that offer different options.
The S&S uses a bayonet mount. The RDX system has a standard port that accommodates the “kit lens” as well as the 60mm macro! You can buy an adapter ring and then you have access to a very extensive array of NX S&S ports. You have choices on dome ports, etc. for various wide angle lenses Third party lenses are supported to an extent. Focus gears are sold separately.
Sea & Sea supports a pretty expansive list of lenses and more are being added all the time. You can piece together different rings and adapters with various ports to work with other lenses, which you can’t do with the Olympus. This also becomes a factor when traveling, as you have to take several ports for the Oly, but maybe only a couple of ports plus adapters for the S&S.
As far as trays and arms, Sea & Sea sells the excellent, but again pricey Grip Stay-L RDX tray that will fit either the Oly or S&S housings. It has pistol grips and lots of adjustment with a cool quick release clamp. However, Optical Ocean sales will be offering a new DSLR tray with taller rubber grip handles for about half the cost of the Sea & Sea offering. It will also fit both housings and is lighter weight but sturdy. It should be available in a couple of weeks.
So overall, the S&S is more expensive going in, by about $7-800 more, but you’ll cover more lenses and get a higher quality, and more flexible, system overall. Like all DSLR systems, you want to put your money into lenses, ports and strobes, as these can be used over and over as you progress with new bodies and housings.
If I was to be buying a system at this level, the S&S RDX-500/Canon t1i 500 with the YS-110a strobe is what I’d get. It’s a better camera than the Nikon D-60 or the Oly E-620, albeit more expensive.
Adventurer, diver, sailor, photographer, writer and sometimes graphic designer.
Proprietor of Optical Ocean Sales, LLC.
Volunteer scientific diver for The Seattle Aquarium.
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Martin Heyn and I have put together a couple of free .pdf guides that gives new underwater photographers a starting place, and more experienced photographers gain basic knowledge of strobe positioning and usage.
Basic Principles of Strobe Positioning: Is a 14-page guide that gives practical approaches to positioning and use of one or two strobes for more successful lighting solutions. Macro and wide angle setups are shown with photos and tips on strobe usage.
