Underwater photography with the Sea&Sea DX-1G

Review by: Rob and Joke Maller

Because we were one of the first in Holland to shoot with the Sea&Sea DX-1G set, we would like to share and pass on our experiences. We are both diving for about 7 to 8 years now and have been underwater photography enthusiasts for quite a while: one does want to show off to family and friends right!?

Thus we started with the cheapest camera we could find: an analog all-in-one set by Sealife. After meddling around we managed to get shots that still enabled people to see what animal was on it, but it was not a major success. Then we came in contact with divers who already owned a digicam and we followed with a Sony P2 and the MPK-P9.

This improved our skills but the nudibranchs by others still surpassed ours! So we upgraded to better set yet again and went through a number of Olympus cams, the last being the 5050, before we now ended up with the Sea&Sea DX-1G.

Why we chose this one we'll tell later on.

The equipment

Our set consists of the following equipment:

• Standard DX-1G set, which is the Ricoh Caplio GX100 camera in a Sea&Sea underwater housing
• 2 Inon D2000 strobes, connected via Fantasea fiber optic sync cables
• The Sea&Sea wide angle lens for the DX-1G
• Fish-Eye tray and flex arms
• Fantasea Nano focus-light with clog shoe flex-arm on top of the housing

Some of the features and specifications of the GX100:

• 10 megapixel camera with a 24-72mm optical zoom lens (35mm equivalent)
• Macro mode: wide zoom from 1cm / tele from 4 cm
• Aperture: F2.5 - F9.1 (wide angle), F4.4 - F15.8 (tele)
• Shutter speed: 1 - 1/2000 sec
• Recording modes: RAW/JPG
• White balance: Auto, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, manual, bracketed
• More specs: click

Let's translate this to what an underwater photographer will find important:

Most of the non-SLR cameras have an aperture limited to F8 (smallest opening). This results in a reduced of depth of field, and we wanted a camera that could do better.

The DX-1G can go up to 15.8 at tele macro, and this significantly increases the DOF, and now enables us to get both the front and rear end of a tiny nudibranch in a shot without any blur!

The wide angle performance of the DX-1G is also superb, even without our wide angle conversion lens. The 35mm equivalent of 24mm allows for nice wide angle shots out of the box.

With the Sea&Sea wide angle lens attached it will deliver up to 16mm, which is SLR-worthy!

Experiences under water

During our first tryouts we discovered that the LCD display is quite dark when the camera is set to Manual. When switched to Aperture Priority it does light up to normal brightness, but we then loose control over our shutter speed of course, which is not ideal in the murky Dutch waters. In clear tropical regions with an abundance of sunlight this will not be an issue though as the camera will choose a suitable speed in those conditions. We did drop this issue with Ricoh, and hope that a future firmware upgrade will resolve this issue.

To get a good comparison with our previous camera we started to look for the most difficult photo conditions. As a test subject for macro we could enjoy some Hermaea bifidas, an almost transparent sea slug that the DX-1G could handle without effort!

A tiny shrimp also popped up in our viewfinder and proved no match for the camera's auto focus.

The camera does focus without effort on the selected target, which can easily be moved around in the display for optimal composition.

During our first dives we did not have the wide angle lens, but still were able to deliver some nice wide angle shots. But after adding the lens we were ecstatic with the results: little to no distortions and no blurry edges. This really is a Sea&Sea masterpiece!

Controlling the set with thick diving gloves is manageable, but not real easy.

The single button short-cuts for control do help, but we have still attached a small rod with rubber cap to the set so we can push buttons just in case.

As for strobes we encountered quite some difficulties. We started out with two Sea&Sea YS-110s. Shooting TTL via the slave cable did work fine, but only in Aperture priority. Letting the camera then control the shutter resulted in strange speeds like 1/13 sec which are useless under water, and the camera lacks a setting to limit the shutter speed. When we set the camera to Manual mode we could not get it to play nicely with the strobes.

When we tried shooting with two Inon D-2000 strobes we initially had the same issues. But we finally discovered the cause: the camera's internal flash it positioned higher than the connections on the housing and thus does block some of the light. We solved this by filing of the end of the slave cable (see photo), thereby exposing the fiber more.

Problem solved and we can now use the strobes to their full potential!

Summary

When we compare the DX-1G to our previous set, the Olympus 5050 and PT 015 housing, we come to the following conclusion:

Pros:

• Aperture of 15.8 at tele-macro
• Very short shutter lag
• 24mm wide angle out of the box
• Over 200 shots on a single battery
• Solid housing
• Many controllable settings
• Excellent value for money

Cons:

• Dark display in Manual mode
• Tricky slave strobe connectivity

And to answer the final question: is this cam suitable for the newbie underwater photographer?

Someone with a profound knowledge of setting aperture, shutter speed, ISO values and the like can use this set to get great shots all over the world. When set to automatic, the results rely upon clear waters and sufficient sunlight.

We are very happy with the Sea&Sea DX-1G!

Review by: Rob and Joke Maller

Also check out the lumpsucker movie created by Joke.

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