Dived at Bare Island today to test my Sigma 50mm in the Aquatica rig. All went well and managed the two shots you see here.

I’ve painted the Weedy Sea Dragon just for something different . . . . . OK, I did it to save the image. Visibility today was poor to say the least and I had lots of particles suspended in the water, the image didn’t come out too bad in the end!
There is also a shot here of an Upside-down Pipefish (Heraldia nocturna), I’ve included it because it took me 20 bloody minutes to get it! These guys can be seen free swimming but I have never seen them do that, they are more often seen in pairs swimming upside-down in little caves.
So the experience today with the 50mm was good, it’s a Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro which requires the Aquatica extension part # 18456, although on their website Aquatica suggest their isn’t a need for an extension ring. It is possible to limit movement of the lens and in that way no extension ring is required but for full functionality you need the 18456 otherwise the front of the lens will be hitting the glass.
Speaking of extension rings, I forgot to mention in the last post that I picked up some reflections on the 8 inch dome with the 10-22mm shooting into the sun, that is reflections from the front of the lens. Aquatica quote the # 18453 port extension for the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. The # 18456 extension fits and that will bring the front of the lens closer to the dome. I’ll possibly jump into the pool mid week to test.

I had exactly the same issue with that lens and Ikelite and moving to a shorter extension fixed that issue with no apparent down side.

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There is a UK based dive wear company called Fourth Element that support the OW-USS, and it struck me, when adding them to the OWUSSAustralasia site, that I am entering a fourth phase of my underwater photography life.

I started off with a little Canon S40 in a Canon housing, added a Sea and Sea strobe and not too long afterwards went to a Nikon Coolpix 5000 in an Ikelite housing. Strobe upgrade also occurred and I initially added one and then a second Ikelite DS-125.

Phase three seemed like giant step at the time as I upgrading to a dSLR with a Canon 350D, also dressed in Ikelite.

And now phase four, a Canon 40D in an Aquatica housing.

The first thing I noticed about the Aquatica rig was how compact it is when broken down. The Ikelite housing is effectively a plastic block with an opening at the back and a rugged one piece handle and base set, whereas the Aquatica is an alloy body that breaks into two even pieces with detachable handles and no base.

The Aquatica form provides better options for travelling so for example the housing will go into my backpack and the handles into my main luggage.

Aquatica housings come with either two Nikonos strobe connectors or a single Ikelite connector. As I have Ikelite strobes the Ikelite connection was an obvious choice. This means that I am back to shooting manual rather than eTTL (TTL = strobe power automatically adjusted, circuitry included with Ikelite housings).

I’m happy with the transition back to manual, I feel I have got on top of it after just one dive and I feel it’s a better way for me to go in terms of image production.

One thing that does concern me is where the strobe cable enters the housing, it appears to be stressed coming in right on top of the camera, I can see this breaking at some stage (memo to self, email Aquatica and ask them about this).

Aside from that issue the general build quality of the housing is good. Control connectivity to the buttons is precise, a snug fit so that the controls are immediately responsive. I really noticed this on my first deep dive (45 metres), the response from the buttons and dials was excellent.

I did have a control hiccup one day, one control fail to grip a camera dial when the camera was loaded. From that I have learned that testing all the controls and having a set of Allen keys at hand are important with this housing. Resolution to that specific issue was to tighten the offending control.

The primary reason I moved to Aquatica was the better port system, that is, a bayonet locking system. My previous system relied on, to a point, pressure to hold the port in place. I believe that system was responsible for a minor leak I had one day, and that minor leak was enough for me.

There are a number of different port systems out there and they all have their pro’s and con’s. A possible con with the Aquatica system is that there have been reports of it moving after being closed. I don’t see this as an issue, there is a locking system that lock’s the first piece of the port to the housing. It is a tad hard to get to reopen (I use an Allen key) but I prefer that to the latest version of the lock (on the D300 housing) which has an external knob, mine is totally internal and despite it being hard to get to, that’s one hole less and I’m happy with that.

Another superb Aquatica feature is the Aqua View. This viewfinder extension is just fantastic. Its not cheap but having now completed 5 dives with it, I’m never diving again without one! OK, maybe the bigger viewfinder on the 40D is a factor in my pleasure with the Aqua View, but still what it gives me is an even bigger viewfinder and more importantly the ability to look straight into the viewfinder since there is clearance for my reg. I have already noticed that I’m doing less image cropping in my digital darkroom.

There is a learning curve when using the viewfinder with the 100mm lens, the challenge is aiming but practise will make perfect and the pro’s massively out-weigh that con.

So, diving experience to date….my first couple of dives were macro, Canon 100mm lens. The rig is heavy and negatively bouyant underwater.

There are a number of reasons for this, as an alloy housing, there is a snugger fit to the camera body so less air inside and the ports are heavier, especially the macro port which has a heavy glass front. The Aqua view is another heavy piece and add a couple of heavy strobes like the Ikelite DS-125 and you have a rig that, after an hours diving, is difficult to manage.

Worth it? Yes, but I don’t have to put up with it. Aquatica have a buoyancy compensation float available but I use the connection point to mount a Fisheye light so I’ve just purchased some Stix floatation arms that go on my ULCS arms. I haven’t dived with the Stix setup yet and will report in on performance when I do (hopefully tomorrow)

While on the topic of arms, I have a mix of ULCS and Ikelite arms, what I have noted is that the Ikelte clamps don’t hold well with the Aquatica connections even though they are all supposed to be 1 inch balls. The grip with my ULCS clamps is excellent, so I use the Ikelte clamps at other points in the arm set.

I’ve only done a single deep dive to 45 metres with the 8 inch dome port (I’m not using the 9 inch glass megadome), no strobes. Without the strobes buoyancy was slightly negative so the housing was really easy to manage. I loved the responsiveness of the controls, with my older housing at that depth the controls would have been a tad sticky.

OK, so what else do I have to tell you..not much more really at this point, hopefully get a couple of dives in this weekend and will be able to add more after that and I’ll add a few photos to this post over the next day.

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Hi, thanks for dropping by. If you haven’t been here for a while you’ll notice the site format has changed to a blog format.
I’ve been focused on my work and developing other websites like the OW-USS blog sites and unfortunately the development of this site has suffered.

Up top and to the right there is a link to the old site, at the moment thats a better place to view my pic’s catalogue (if it can be called a catalogue!)

So what else is happening? Well since I sold my Canon 350D / Ikelite housing setup in December I hadn’t been taking photo’s underwater, but I’m glad to report that my new Aquatica setup for the Canon 40D has arrived and I’m back at it!

My first couple of dives with the new “rig” were macro focused at Bare Island in Sydney (100mm lens). The following weekend I managed a couple more macro dives on the Saturday and on the Sunday I went for wide angle and visited the wreck of the Tuggerah at 45 metres.

So without further ado, here are a my first underwater Canon 40D images;

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