My new u/w photography rig....

[kwajwreckdiver]

Got my new u/w photography rig in about a week ago. It's built around the Nikon D300, and has the following items-

Sea & Sea MDX-D300 aluminum housing
Tokina 10-17 wide angle lens
fish eye dome port
twin Sea & Sea YS-250 strobes

And assorted cabling and whatnot. Anyway, it's HUGE compared to my old SeaLife Reefmaster DC600.

I kinda had a brain-fade when I ordered the system, and didn't order a macro lens. I was thinking more of the panoramic shots of shipwrecks and plane wrecks that I shoot a lot of. But I've since corrected the oversight on the macro lens.

So I've been running around Kwajalein shooting everything in sight, getting used to the DSLR. I figure about two weeks before I'm in the water with it. I want to get used to how to set f-stops, apertures, etc.

I've posted three pics of my new system, one shows the old SeaLife DC600 next to it. Sorry about photo quality.

Now a question- for anyone here that uses the Nikon D300, what settings do you use for underwater shots?

Cheers!

Dan (having lotsa fun with the new rig!)

[lars2923]

Now, we will be expecting you to post some of the pics you take..

Sweet.

Cheers,

[Sarah]

That is a nice setup Dan!

[alcina]

Dan - great rig! How's the getting used to it going?

You asked about settings to get started - how're you going with that? Here are some quick tips that might help for wide angle:

- in relatively clear blue water I usually start around 1/160 for my shutter. I find slower than this give me a background that is a little wishy-washy; faster and it might be a little too dark blue. I have to admit that I'd rather have my water slightly "too" dark than "too" light, but that is a personal bias. This should give you a starting point that you can tweak for your personal tastes.

- I also usually don't use wider apertures than about f8...and usually I start at f11. You'll need to experiment with this setting a bit, too. Everyone is different on what they like. Wide angle is nice because you can get away with wider apertures than you can in macro a lot of the times. Which is very helpful if you need a little more light in!

- get up nice and close. That Tokina can focus crazy close to your port so use that.

- watch your lighting. Wide angle can be a bit of a bear and it's easy to get snow, especially on the edges. Take a dive or part of a dive to play with not only how far out you have your arms for particular shots, but also the angles you set your strobe heads to. It's worth the time.

Have fun and shoot til your fingers bleed!

Did you get your macro lens yet? Which one did you go for? Did you get a wet mate dioptre (like a Woody's), too?