I’m new to the forum so please bear with my newness.  As the title says, I’m trying to decide on which system I want to go with.  Each camera has it’s advantages.  I’m new to digital so a lot of this is somewhat daunting.  I plan on doing a lot of diving and I’m really looking forward to honing my photo skills.  I’m set up to go to some great places this coming year: Bonair in Aug, Australia aboard Mike Ball’s boat in October, possible Fiji in April and Bali next Oct.

Whichever system I go with will definitely be an investment.  Have been doing my home work but still having a hard time deciding.  I would love to have the D2X.  Long term I think that it is going to hold up as a superb, rugged camera.  But its size and the expense of the housings are somewhat daunting.  The D200 on the other hand is an exceptional camera and its smaller size makes for a more compact system especially with some of the housings (the S&S;comes to mind) along with being a somewhat more inexpensive system in the long run.

I guess my question to the assembled experts here are this:

1.  Which system do you recommend along with what housing and maybe lights to go along with the camera and why do you like the system
2.  Where do you recommend purchase
3.  Any regrets with your system

Thanks for any help you all have to offer.  I’ve learned alot already from reading some posts.  Hope to someday run into some of you.

Stay wet,
Dave

Hi Dave and welcome to our forum,

this is really a hard decision, both cameras are excellent, both have a reasonable
number of manufacturers, that build housings for them. But unless you are not going
to be professional with photography, which would mean that you make your living
from that, I would go for the more compact rig -> Nikon D200. All of the listed housings
for the Nikon D200, which are available (green) are good. The difference between them
is just much more depending on your personal usage of cameras, how this is supported
by the housing.

For the lights I would either recommend the ikelite strobes or subtronic.

so thats just a quick one for the moment..

/lars

Similar Response to Lars

If you a) are stupidly wealthy and don’t care about spending $10,000 plus on a setup
or b) are planning on at least making the money back through use of the equipment
then buy a D2X setup

If you are just planning on being a very talented amateur then I would go for the D200.

Giles,

Well I guess the question is what is the definition of stupidly wealthy?  Guess if you have to ask then you probably aren’t.  After doing a lot of research here and over at wetpixel I’ve decided that my kit will be based on the D200.  Now the question is what housing?  I’ve sort of narrowed it down to either the Sea & Sea or the Hugyfot.  The latter one is really sexy and sure looks compact and functional.  The reviews here have me leaning that way.  Of course it is top dollar but I guess you get what you pay for.  The other issue is strobes.  I’m looking at probably starting with just one and then as my skills develop I’ll go with two.  S&S;make some nice ones as do the Inon.  Need to do some more research in that area.

Thanks for any and all help.

Dave

I have recently upgraded from Olympus C5050 with Sea & Sea YS 90AUTO stobes.

I chose the D200 simply because I am in that amateur category.  I chose to start with the Nikon 60mm for macro and 10-17mm Tokina for WA.

For housing choices, I decided to use the Aquatica housing adding the viewfinder.  I wanted a mid-range housing, and spend more on the extras such as the viewfinder.  I live in Seattle, WA and wanted something made relatively close for easy service, as long it is on this continent I am happy.  I dive 100+/year, so downtime needs to be minimal.  Aquatica was great in recommending the exact ports/gears for the lens choices I made.

Also, I have decided to go with the Ikelite DS125 strobes.  I needed to upgrade the stobes, and have had issues with the YS90’s being unreliable in the past, so I decided to go with Ikilite.

I have taken the housing (no camera) for a test dive.  Practice photos in the pool.  So far, so good.  Hope to get in the salt water today with the full package.

Ultimately, I feel certain I would be happy with any of the other housing choices, I feel it is a matter of just getting out there and using your gear.....

Dear Dave,

welcome on from my site… I would be nice to know how you
finally decided and were you bought it. To help you a little bit
with your decisions I would like to point out our Gear Reviews.

In that section we have reviews for both housings online.
However these are subjective views of the owners.

Dear Kathryn,
Your comments are helpful.  My situation is very similar.  I am in the process of upgrading from an Olympus 5050 Zoom.  I never used an external strobe with my housing and I enjoyed my pictures with only the internal flash. 

Now I am considering the Nikon D80 or D200.  I am also considering the Ikelite housing… my question is… is it absolutely necessary that I also purchase an external strobe for this new housing, or can the flash work from within the housing (as it did with my Olympus 5050)?  I can’t tell from the Ikelite pictures of the housing… it looks like the flash wouldn’t work at all over the size of the lens (there might not be room for the flash to even pop up?).  I am just trying to save a little money for a while and put off buying a strobe if I can. 

Any guidance would be appreciated.  (I also live in Olympia WA...but dive where it’s warmer!)

For the D80 or D200 in an Ikelite Housing (or any other housing I can think of off the top of my head) or for any dSLR camera (or most other cameras) you will need a strobe of some sorts.  The internal flash on the dSLR cameras are usually not available for lighting, and not for a D80/D200 in an Ikelite housing

On some Point and Shoots if you get close enough the internal flash through the diffuser can work with small subjects, but really you want a strobe

Some smaller strobes run about $300-$400 and you may find some used ones.  In the grand scheme of things (meaning cost of housing, ports, gears & cameras) the strobe, arms and adapters are not too crazy dollar wise and the only real way to take photos.  (You could try Magic Filters and White Balancing as a start if you do not want to sink as much into the system to start)

Magic Filters