Nikon D300/Sea&Sea MDX-D300 underwater photography

My name is Nuno Sanches e Silva and I have been exploring our underwater world for about 7 years. Apart from my passion for underwater photography, I also have great interest in technical diving and am currently a decompression procedures diver.

My underwater photography experience started with a Sea&Sea Motormarine III with one Sea&Sea YS-90 strobe until the moment I upgraded to my first SLR, a Canon EOS 350D housed with the Sea&Sea DX-350D.

With the release of the new Nikon D300 full with extraordinary features, I decided to switch to the other side and become a Nikon shooter.

The equipment

Camera

The Nikon D300 is equipped with a 12.3 effective megapixels 1.5 cropped CMOS sensor, a new 51-point autofocus system featuring 15 cross-type sensors and a viewfinder that provides 100% coverage.

ISO 200 to 3200 in steps of 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV with additional settings of approx. 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 EV (ISO 100 equivalent) under ISO 200 and approx. 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 EV (ISO 6400 equivalent) over ISO 3200

The shutter speed performs very well with 6 fps continuous shooting using the standard Li-Ion battery.

One of the new features is the two liveview modes that enable shooting while confirming subjects in the LCD monitor. Also worth to mention is the extraordinary 3-inch LCD with 920,000-dot (VGA) resolution and a 170° ultra-wide viewing angle.

For full specs, please visit the Nikon website.

Housing

To take my Nikon D300 underwater I use the new Sea&Sea MDX-D300 housing.

The MDX-D300 is machined out of a solid block aluminum and designed to have the Nikon D300 fit snugly inside. Please note that this housing is actually slightly smaller than the Sea&Sea housing I had for the smaller Canon EOS 350D.

In order to use TTL with Sea&Sea strobes, an external TTL converter (Sea&Sea External Converter III) has to be purchased additionally. This converter has an adjustment knob that allows you to centrally adjust the strobe power or even switch the TTL on or off while underwater. Please note that the only converter that works is the version III. Previous versions do not work.

The housing brings as a standard a built-in leak detector and a .66x pick-up viewfinder (.8x optional). The housing has one 2-pin connector and one 5-pin connector. The latter is used to connect the external TTL converter. This housing is rated for a maximum depth of 60m / 200ft, weights 2.5 kg and measures (WxHxD): 330x163x136mm.

Wide-Angle Set-up

For wide-angle I use the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye lens together with the Sea&Sea Glass Dome Port.

Macro Set-up

I currently use two different lenses for macro shots: the old Nikon AF 60mm /f2.8 D and the Nikon AF-S VR 105mm/f2.8 IF-ED. In both cases I use the Sea&Sea compact flat port, just changing the extension rings.

Nikon D300's Main Highlights Underwater

TFT LCD Monitor

The first thing you will notice in this camera is the massive and crisp LCD monitor. The Nikon D300 has a high resolution, 3.0" TFT LCD (922,000 dots) that delivers full-color VGA. And is this LCD sharp? Yes, VERY sharp. This allows you more than ever to ensure that your shots are sharp where they should (e.g. eyes) while underwater and it will spare you some disappointments when you get to notice that the image is not as sharp as you though it was while you were down-there.

ISO sensitivity

One of the main improvements in this camera is the high quality sensor allowing you to shoot at low-light conditions without too much noise. The Nikon D300 allows you to shoot at a staggering 6400 ISO. In my opinion such high ISO only really works above the water since underwater shots with an ISO higher than 800 consistently delivered shots with too much noise to be accepted for more than for the use on a webpage. Nevertheless, 400 ISO consistently deliver excellent quality shots with hardly any noise.

The camera has a noise-reduction option that reduces the noise in your pictures even with high ISOs. There are four noise-reduction options: off, low, normal and high. Obviously, setting a highest noise reduction option in the camera will also result in a less sharp photo

Another excellent feature in this camera is the option to use the Auto-ISO function. When enabled, the camera will determine the best ISO based on the current light conditions. In order to avoid pictures with an ISO that is too high, it is possible to determine beforehand what the maximum ISO is that the camera can automatically choose for your picture.

Active-D Lighting

Active-D Lighting improves the level of detail in highlight and shadow areas under high contrast conditions. This feature works great underwater although it will make the camera shoot slower than when this option is switched off.

6 fps Continuous Shooting

The Nikon D300 provides 6 fps continuous shooting which is of great help for your shots of fast animals such as sharks or dolphins.

LiveView

This new camera includes liveview shooting which allows you to shoot without looking into viewfinder such as with compact digital cameras. The camera supports two AF methods: Tripod and Hand-held.

Although this feature might be helpful in cases where it is too difficult to shoot while looking in the viewfinder, I did not feel that this was very useful underwater, although this might help people who are just switching from a compact camera to a DSLR.

Viewfinder with 100% Coverage

No more shots with something unwanted in the corners of your pictures. The new viewfinder offers 100% coverage allowing you to properly compose your photographs.

Downsides

Full-screen Shooting Information

Although the Nikon D300 allows you to check you shooting information on the full-screen, this is only presented for a few seconds. In order display the shooting information on the back screen, the "info" button has to be pressed.

Although not a big issue, I believe that it would be more helpful to have an option to automatically activate the shooting information in the back screen as soon as the shutter button is half-pressed.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a high-performance camera but do not want to spend the big bucks on a camera such as the Nikon D3, the Nikon D300 is a great solution.

Although pricey, this camera has a mix of features that are great for your underwater photos and will surely help you achieve better quality shots.

Review by Nuno Sanches e Silva.

For more information on me and my photographs, please visit my website at http://www.nunosanches.com or my blog at http://nunosanches.com/journal.

Add to:     Del.ico.us     Digg     Reddit     StumbleUpon