SLR camera housings

[ratfink]

Hey everyone

I'm now about 97% convinced that I might as well be searching for the Holy Grail rather than searching for a decent and reasonably priced housing. I currently use the Sea and Sea MX-10 which I have some great shots with but I really want the flexibility of super-macro and an off axis strobe (which I'm amazed isn't availbale for the MX-10).
SLR housings seem almost to appreciate with age, so second hand seems like a no-go.

About the cheapest I've found is the limit-150 (www.limit150.com) which would be good as a next step but it doesn't allow you to screw around with the aperture for those really cool black backgrounds.

Advice?

cheers
rat

[icarus pacific]

Hi fink,

Nice screenname. (Right. )

Anyway, I think you're going about it the wrong way. Before you do anymore flailing around, first decide what 355mm film or digital camera system it is that you want and can afford based on your abilities and budget. Then go looking for a housing. Now I did'nt say buy the camera first and then the housing(s), but just go looking for both compatibilities with what you want to do then see if there's a housing for it.

I've been shooting U/W for a looong time and I started out pretty high end at the time, going with the Canon F1 system. It was and is a great system in that there are the usual interchangable lenses, drives and such, but the big thing is that Canon, as well as Nikon, have a Speedfinder, ( the Sportsfinder, DA1 for Nikon) that is a much bigger viewfinder to let you see through the interfaces of mask, water and housing. And then as importantly there were housings available from Ikelite, Oceanic, Gates and a couple other smaller outfits. My strobes were both Subsea and Oceanic. Several newer versions of the F1 and housings later, I'm using what I think is pretty much the ideal setup before I go to digital, and that's the latest verson Canon F1N with an Aquatica housing, and Ikelite strobes. With full control access, a bitchin dome for the 17, 20 and 24 mm lenses and a couple of Ikelite 200's, I'm really happy with it. But again it's a pretty high-end deal...

You can pick up this gear (and that for Nikon's probably easier) for considerably less than the newer digital stuff from mail order houses back on the East coast and from ebay as well.

Housing-wise Ikelite still makes housings for these cameras and you can find an Oceanic Hydro 35 or an Aquatica from time to time from the same sources. Both of these housings will give you control over your exposure and let you get that "cool, black background" which while it is mainly a function of stopped down metering, is also aided by creative positioning of the strobe(s).

Before anything else though, I'd recommend you read through some U/W photography literature and get a better idea of the complexities involved and then really get good at the diving part, as things seem to just happen while you're composing that last shot of that anemone...

Good luck!

sven

[ratfink]

Thanks Icarus for your advice. I was ideally looking for a housing for my Canon (rather than going through the hassle of changing to Nikon) and I actually found one!!! (that is to say I bumped into someone else who had found it). It's a German made housing called Bruder (www.bruder-uw-technik.de). The housnigs aren't as pretty or refined as the others but they work just fine, all the controls are there, and they're cheap (got mine for about 1000 Euros) - which left me enough money to get a f*** off Subtronic alpha pro strobe (4300K, 1.5s recharge, 200W). For the amount of photography that I do it's perfect.
The kit is of course noticeably bulky and a bit of a pain to cart around the place but I've got my shots back from my trip to Similans and they're great. The autofocus and 28-80 zoom was a godsend especially for those clownfish - too shy to get up close to- shots. Only thing I have to do now is sort out the TTL - it didn't flash at all on this setting but did on the manual ones so I had to make up a slate with all the setting information
Oh and I probably want to add a small float to the strobe koz the housing is neutral and the strobe just neg.

Happy days.

rat