Notes on Photography

As you might have already guessed, we underwater photographers are utterly at the mercy of our gear.

We had all sorts of equipment failure on the trip, which is normal for trips like this. I've never been on a liveaboard vessel full of underwater photographers and not had equipment failures. This week's staff and guests collectively own ten housed, digital SLR rigs, one film SLR rig, and one digital point & shoot.

Cameras:

Seacam/Canon 1Ds Mk II Digital SLR Seacam/Canon 1D Mk II Digital SLR Nexus/Nikon D100 Digital SLR Sea & Sea/Nikon D70 Digital SLR Sea & Sea/Canon D60 Digital SLR Subal/Nikon D2X Digital SLR Ikelite/Nikon D70 Digital SLR

Ikelite/Canon 20D Digital SLR Aquatica/Fuji S2 Pro Digital SLR Subal/Canon 10D Digital SLR Olympus/Olympus 4000 P&S A film SLR rig of some sort A Nikonos of some sort -- backup

The following strobes were used:

Ikelite DS-125 and SubStrobe 200
Sea & Sea YS-120 and YS-90DX
Nikonos SB105
Housed Nikon SB-80 flash.

Equipment failures included:

Ikelite/Nikon D70 flood: one of the screws in the bottom of the housing came loose
Ikelite eyepiece floods: two Ike eyepieces filled with water
Subal/Nikon D2X: needed control adjustments before working properly
Acrylic dome ports: seriously abraded by shark skin denticles (repairable)

Henderson 5mm hyperstretch wetsuit: seam came open
Wetsuit zipper: broke off

There were twelve notebook computers on board, and we spent most of our "free" time processing images. It was neet to see everyone's own shooting and processing style, and many of the participants learned a lot about digital workflow and image processing almost literally through osmosis (it's a small boat for so much gear). :)

Eric's Photography Notes

Before this trip, I had been shooting wide-angle mostly with a Canon 16-35/2.8L USM lens. Canon's professional wide-angle zooms are generally considered to be crappy, and while I've used the 16-35 to take quite a few images that I really like, I decided that it was time to switch to using prime lenses. As a result of that decision, I spent most of the four dives in Palm Beach testing various lenses with domes and extension rings. Here's what I discovered:

Canon 16-35/2.8L (0.9' min focus on land), Superdome - no diopter, focus nearly to dome
Canon 20/2.8 (0.8' min focus on land), Superdome - no diopter, focus nearly to dome
Canon 24/1.4L (0.6' min focus on land), Wide Dome - no diopter, focus at 8" from dome
Canon 35/1.4L (1.1' min focus on land), Superdome - no diopter, focus to around 6" from dome

I chose to use Canon's 24mm f1.4L USM lens with the smaller dome because it focuses to 0.6' on land, and can focus properly even when used with a small dome. Although I haven't sat down to do a formal test, I found the 24/1.4L to be sharper overall when used with Seacam's Superdome than when used with the Wide Port.

Seacam's 9" Superdome is really nice because even lenses that can only focus to 1' on land can be used inside of it without the need for a diopter. I've tried Canon wide-angle glass with diopters, and on a full-frame camera, edge softness is unacceptable -- even worse than using the 16-35L without a diopter.

I also chose to use Seacam's standard Pro Viewfinder on this trip. It's much, much lighter than the S45 viewfinder I normally use, but doesn't offer such a large image (and looks straight through instead of at a 45-degree angle). It did take a few dives to get used to using the Pro viewfinder, but now that I am used to it, I may use it for all wide-angle work because it makes my rig both lighter and easier to handle.