Underwater Digital Photography. Is it Ready?
-- by Rick Lowery
Digital vs. Film
The argument is floating around about digital vs. standard print film over which technology to use when you head underwater. Every message board, scuba or photography related is showing heated arguments over the subject, and me being the opinionated SOB that I am, I had to throw in my two cents.
Where is digital by comparison to print photography? If you look at the resolution numbers, digital is way ahead of the game. Analog 35mm is roughly the equivalent of 512x512 in the pixel arena. Digital now sports cameras in the 2000x1600 pixel range, giving you a staggering 3.2 million pixels per picture. So why do people keep harping about analog?
Simple. There is so much equipment and expertise out there on the analog front that it cannot be ignored. Camera manufacturers number in the hundreds, with countless lenses, flashes and other types of gear for the analog world that one cannot ignore the market support for the product.
Staggering Costs
Something terrible happens when you sink into the cool blue waters, though. Camera and equipment prices skyrocket when you even mention the word underwater in the photography industry. A Nikon higher end camera body runs around $500 - $700. Make that an underwater housing and you double the cost. Digital is no different.
At the moment, there are no exclusive digital underwater cameras. So, what you have to do is buy the digital camera, then find a housing for the camera to take it under water. My recommendation if you do decide to go digital is to find the housings first, then go camera shopping. Not many of the digital cameras out there are supported with underwater housings. And BOY are these housings expensive.
This humble author bought a Nikon Coolpix 950 summer of last year. Being an amateur photographer, I never thought I'd ever have the opportunity to bring this camera underwater with me, until the fateful day I surfed to the Ikelite website and saw it. The Ikelite housing for my Nikon 950. The housing itself costs as much as the camera, touting a staggering retail price of $950. It's a trifecta. The Nikon 950 sells for $950 and a housing to boot at $950. Not a casual expense to leap into.
Many digital cameras exist on the market today. It seems like 10 new models and manufacturers pop up each month to add to the fray of hardware already available. Improvements on the technology are added each month as well. The one limiting factor keeping many of these models from submerging is the ability to attach an external flash. Internal flashes on any camera simply do not have enough power and illumination to generate enough lighting for an underwater application. The Nikon 950 is one of the few digital cameras on the market today that support an external TTL flash.
OK, bottom line?
So where am I going with all this information? Digital, on a pure resolution scale, is far ahead of analog. On a supported hardware scale, digital is still in its infancy. Additionally, the print technology for the common photographer is not yet up to par with respect to print photography. Higher end photo shops can print digital images that match celluloid prints in quality, but these services are still expensive, and the printers astronomically so.
Why go digital then?
So what advantages does digital have? Quite a few.
If you purchase a large memory card for your digital camera, you will not have to change film. Film can get up to 48 exposures on a roll in some cases. With high quality 1600x1200 image settings on my Nikon 950, I can take 160 pictures on a single card.
Images that turn out less than desirable can be discarded. After you download the pictures, you can pick from the very best images to be printed. You can't do that with film.
While underwater, you can SEE the results of your efforts. This is my number 1 argument with film. You travel half way around the world to dive the site of a lifetime, take 36+ pictures with your film camera, only to discover that the picture you took of your wife hugging a black tipped reef shark has another divers fin in front of the lens. You can't roll back time. With the digital camera, you can review your pictures before you leave the dive site.
You can take animation shots. The Nikon 950 has the capability to take short animations with it's burst capture mode. Hitachi has the capability to actually make short mpg movies as well as stills. Try that with a film camera.
OK, the REAL bottom line
All in all, digital is still in infancy compared to film cameras when one is thinking about underwater applications. Still, it is the humble opinion of this author that Digital does present a valid solution for the amateur photographer / diver with regards to underwater photography. With the ability to take so many pictures underwater and the capability to review your images before you leave the dive site, I think digital is the way to go. Technology won't wait for us, however. What we buy today will be outdated ( but not useless ) in 6 months.
What did I do?
I'm a lad who has thrown his Nikon 950 into an Ikelite housing and hopes to become the next Ansel Adams becomes Shark Food. I needed better docs and a bit of better training before I took my setup into the water for the first time. Alas with poor visibility and zero training, I came out with less than average shots.
So what went wrong?
A few things.
I got the gear together right before I went diving. I discovered this 3 days before my trip. I bought the Ikeleite Substrobe 50TTL from my local dive shop for full retail and paid overnight shipping to get the pup. After all that, I should have taken a few days in a pool to learn how to use everything underwater. My shots came out mediocre and my fish shots came out un-viewable. Plus, past 20 feet, red disappears so we WILL need to use that red filter that comes with the Ikelite housing.
The next problem was the Ikelite documentation. The documentation I saw with my equipment was very poor. It tells us in the documentation to use the A record mode on the 950 but turn the internal flash off. Two problems. #1, we can't turn the internal flash off when in A record mode. #2, we can't use an external flash in A record mode. We have to go into the M record mode and turn of the internal flash and set up for an external. I discovered this the day after returning from my dive trip. All of our underwater shots will need to be taken in M record mode as well. Don't fret though. If we keep all of the other settings the same, our autofocus, autometering and auto shutter speed will remain intact.
l needed a flash cable and a flash arm as well. All in all, full retail, this cost me near 600 bucks for my strobe / arm setup. I've seen in some ads in the back of diver magazines where we can get the strobe for MUCH less than that.
Now, with all of the above information and hopefully a bit of better visibility from the neptunian deities, I should come out with pictures that will make Stephen Frink take out a contract on my life.
Lets talk batteries. I stopped using Alkaline batteries in my camera. They die way too quickly. I bought some Nexcell 1350 MA AA NiMH batteries for 2 bucks each, and they lasted me the entire dive on one charge. 40+ minutes of constant on, and 30+ shots and the low battery never flashed. I highly recommend them. Search the net for Nexcell and you'll find them, or I can send you a link if you email me. I think you can even get 1400 MA versions now.
Find the best batteries ( Nexcell ) at : http://www.thomas-distributing.com.
How does it work?
Simple! ( or kinda! )
I wouldn't try to win a speed contest loading it. There's a slide plate that the 950 mounts to, similar to a tripod mount. After one attaches the 950 to the plate, attach the TTL cable, slide the camera in, and push the various control knobs into place.
Snap down the three outside locking mounts and inspect the o-ring seal through the plexiglass backing. I like to submerge it in freshwater ( if the boat has a fresh tub ) and check for leaks before I drop into the salt.
I imagine its as simple as any other camera housing to use. The Ikelite has one advantage over the rest that I've already mentioned. It's entirely clear plexyglass. If it started to leak, you'd see it and hopefully get the hardware out of the water before the salt water got into the camera.
Additionally, the Ikelite housing allows for every single camera function to be operated by the user while submerged.
My impressions
I don't do impressions! Although the documentation was poor, and the costs were high, I think I have a great setup. Hopefully with experience, I'll have some gems to show off on this site very soon.
