Careful when you say that cost is not a huge concern... Check out the pricing for Nauticam housings
Nauticam is the top of the line for milled aluminum housings. A bunch of other aluminum options like Aquatica and Isotta but Ikelite is the cheapest.
Yes, those are rather costly.
Still, cost really isn't a big concern for me. Having said that, I am not one to waste money on something I don't think I need or something that I won't really use. That's why I didn't replace my 1D X with the MkII or MkIII, or replace my 600/4 II with the MkIII or RF versions – what I had met my needs. But I also didn't hesitate to preorder the R3, and if an RF 300/2.8 comes out, or an RF 600/4 II that is a true redesign that adds optical benefit (as opposed to just removing mass), I'll order those as well.
At this point, I'm treating underwater photography as I initially treated buying a DSLR – something I want to try, but I'm not sure I'll become passionate about. When I bought my first DSLR (in 2009) I set a budget for myself of $2500, as an amount I was willing to spend on something that might just gather dust after the first blush wore off. Knowing axioms from my film SLR days that lens > body and from my P&S days that an onboard flash is weak and is synonymous with red-eye, I bought a T1i/500D as a body only, the EF-S 17-55/2.8 for a standard zoom and the EF 85/1.8 for portraits, the 430EX strobe, and a Manfrotto CF tripod and ballhead, and that came in just at my budget. Clearly, photography became something I was (and remain) passionate about, and to date I've spent well over 20x that initial outlay.
Same approach here, a $2500 outlay for something I may do just this once or very infrequently is acceptable to me. The iPhone housing, three lights (two white flood/spot and one Fluor), dual tray (and one single, because it comes with the Fluor), grips and flex arms, a handle so the light not mounted to the tray can be used as a dive light, two extra batteries for the lights, the custom barrier filters for housing and masks, and some ancillary stuff like the red filter for a flood light, desiccant capsules for the housing, cases, D-rings and snappy-coil lanyards, and the outlay is ~$2400.
If this turns out to be something I will do often, I have no problem spending what is needed for top-shelf gear. A Nauticam housing, ports and some high power strobes will probably come in at about what I paid for the 600/4L IS II. I still don't think I'd use the R3 in that scenario, especially given your initial comments on cropping for underwater photography that launched this discussion. The cost difference between the Nauticam R3 and R5 housings would pay for 2/3 of an R5, so I'd probably go that route.
The other factor is that while I can do above-water photography any time, I'm not fortunate enough to live near good diving (sure, one
can dive in New England, but I'd prefer not to). That means diving is limited to vacations, and up until now I've been the only diver in the family. My oldest child may or may not enjoy it, my other two kids have no real interest in it, and my wife is not a fan of being in the ocean (pre-children, we went to Belize and I dove the Blue Hole along with some wall dives, she came along as a snorkeler, and she and a couple other non-divers were dropped off in a lagoon filled with barracuda as the boat motored off – she's never really forgiven me for that...experience). I am fortunate to really enjoy being with my family, so going off on a solo dive trip (or just me and one kid) to a warm-water destination is not very appealing. That means a substantial investment in underwater photo gear would see limited use in the best case scenario and I may just stick with the smartphone setup. Another benefit to that is if I go 3 years between trips where diving is an option, I may have moved on to a new phone and a new MILC, but the phone housing will probably still work fine and that would not be true for the camera housing.
Email
[email protected] to check if they will do one for the R3 or not but if you are okay with R8, it will be a smaller setup.
They have a page for it on their website, where they indicate, "We are considering supporting this exciting flagship full frame mirrorless camera from Canon. We do not yet have enough information to suggest a timeline." I take that to mean that if they get a sufficient number of expressions of interest, they will make one. Contrast that with the R8 page, "We anticipate supporting this exciting new full frame mirrorless camera from Canon. We do not yet have enough information to suggest a timeline," which probably means they can't determine the timeline until they actually get a camera in their hands.
Still, for this trip at least I will stick with the iPhone housing for underwater.
I preordered the R8 because I'm considering taking that instead of my R3 on this upcoming family trip. Shooting will mainly be architecture and shots of family, so I don't need the speed or AF capabilities of the R3, and the ergonomics are less important since much of the shooting will be on a tripod. For that use case, the smaller/lighter body while keeping the FF sensor is an advantage.
Underwater lighting is very important. You can always shoot without video light/strobes and adjust white balance in post but lighting becomes the creative side of things. The main issue is particulate in the water column. Video lights aren't as powerful as strobes (like above land). In theory, with 2 lights, they need to be set wide of the housing and intersect their beams at the subject distance to minimise backscatter. You can get more creative for macro with side lighting/ fill etc but the complexity rises quickly. I am using a snoot at the moment with one strobe for macro to get nicer light but it is tricky.
Agreed. The dual tray with flexible extension arms will give me sufficient flexibility, I hope. The flood beams are 90° (underwater), the spot beams from the same light heads are 11° (underwater), which can provide a snoot-like illumination. Since the iPhone also has an ultrawide lens (13mm FFeq FoV), the pair of lights can also be used to light a wider scene.
I have done Fluor dives before in the Maldives and they are amazing. You need to comfortable with night diving and have at least Advanced Open Water PADI certification. Doing the PADI underwater photography course is not bad but the main advice is get low and shoot at the same level or upwards to the subject (not from above).
You also need a yellow filter for your mask and the lens.
You need a bunch of power from your strobe/video lights for the excitation of course - the more the better. The SeaLife light has very narrow beam.
Difficult to focus in those wavelengths so having a additional red or blue light for fill means you can see the reef ie not bump into stuff that is not fluorescing.
Ikelite have some nice articles on the subject and I will be going to Wakatobi/Indonesia in a couple of months which is a mecca for fluo snorkel/diving.
https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/advanced-techniques/fluorescence-and-luminance
https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/cheat...ter-photography-camera-settings-and-technique
I've been told that at moderate depths with morning / late day dives, Fluor shooting is also feasible. The SeaLife Fluor light has a beam angle of ~50°(underwater), which is wider than the iPhone tele (77mm lens, 33° FoV) and matched to the binned main camera images (48mm equivalent, since it's 2x2 binned from the 24mm lens, 48° FoV).
The Fluor light comes with generic mask and camera barrier filters, but I actually ordered custom barrier filters for the smartphone housing (one that snaps on in place of the included red filter) and for our masks (because the generic is not a good fit for either of them).
For the fluorescence setup, I plan to use the dual tray with the Fluor light and one of the white floods with a red filter on the other side to use for focus/fill.
https://www.ikelite.com/blogs/cheat...ter-photography-camera-settings-and-technique
Assuming that you will be editing in post, then red filter is pretty useless for stills as it reduces light in general. Adjust white balance in post. Red filter helps for video as changing video in post is more difficult.
My preference is to handle that by adding light, instead of using the red filter to reduce the already relatively low amount of short wavelength light to balance out long wavelength light lost with depth.
Check if TTL can be used or not. Most strobes are manual although the Ikelite ones can handle TTL or manual. The TTL convertor for Ikelite is USD400 by itself though. The other thing to consider for strobes in the future especially for macro is to have the video light/modelling light on-axis with the strobe. Very difficult to aim strobes when the they aren't aligned with the light.
Good point. The SeaLife strobes do support TTL, but from what I can tell only via optical coupling which means only for cameras with popup flashes (irrelevant for now, as I'm using constant lights not strobes). But as I said, if I go the MILC route, I'll buy what I need for it.
