Bob Jarman
(K=3145) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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Welcome to the new world Alan! your about to get bit by a great pastime.
There is a ton of info on the Nikonos system. Probably the best is "The Essential Guide to Nikonos" by Jim Church. I highly reccomend that as a part of your set-up. It deals with techniques as well as proper care and maintenence.
Macro is by far the easiest thing to shoot with a Nikonos, and will almost always get the best results when you first get started. Get some tubes and a framer and its pretty automatic.
For normal and wide angle shooting....meter the water column. than you can close down or open up to darken or lighten the blue, but you will get a decent ambient exposure that way. Than just set your strobe for your primary subject based upon the guide chart that came with your strobe. Make sure you reduce the flash from the guide number for highly reflective subjects.
Estimating focus on normal shooting wll be your biggest challenge. Especially at f-stops around 5.6 or less. If you get a chance before a big trip, get in the pool and get used to looking and estimating distances. Or look put your mask on, walk around the house and move the camera to what you think is 3'. than take a yardstick and measure. Make it almost second nature to discern the distance to subject.
As far as film...Velvia for macro shoting and Provia for normal is my choice.
Enjoy!
I wrote an artical on the basics of underwater shooting for usefilm a while ago if your interested. The link is here:
http://www.usefilm.com/showarticle.php?id=22
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Alan Smith
(K=167) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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Thanks. I still haven't been out in the water with it yet. I have this pesky college/degree thing to deal with for a few more weeks. Anyway, that's helpful advice. You said meter the water column. I'm not sure what you meant by that. I'll read you article, maybe that will help.
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Bob Jarman
(K=3145) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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Point the camera at the open blue water, with no reef or fish in it, and get a meter reading. That way you will get a perfect exposure of the background, which should be the water, and your flash can light the subject.
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Bob Jarman
(K=3145) - Comment Date 4/29/2003
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Of course that will not apply if you have no water in the background :)
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Bob Whorton
(K=2740) - Comment Date 5/3/2003
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Sound advice from Bob there.
I am a passionate Nikonos user too!
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Phillip Cohen
(K=10561) - Comment Date 5/6/2003
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Alan, you will love the camera it really works nicely. I use Kodak E100SW when I shoot with the V. Seems to warm things up just a bit and you get really nice saturated colors. One thing you should consider if you can find one is the Nikonos close up kit. It comes with a lens that fastens over the camera lens and a set of frames on an arm. When set at infinity, everything in the fram will be in focus. You can get some really neat photos close up, which is where most of the good shots are without worrying about focus. You will have loads of fun I am sure, just make sure to clean and grease the back O ring everytime you load and the camera will last forever.
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Des Paroz
(K=422) - Comment Date 5/8/2003
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Hi Allen
UW Photography must be one of the most compelling, rewarding and frustrating endeavours known to humanity
Welcome to the world
The NikV is a great camera.
Start with macro, as Bob mentioned, and also consider getting a wide angle.
Key tips for UW Photography include
- get close
- get low
- look up
- have a good strobe
- don't point the strobe at the apparent subject, but the actual one (while focusing on the apparent one)
- get close
- use good slide film (Velvia is good, but I currently prefer Kodak E100VS or EliteChrome 100 Extra Colour - same thing)
- Be patient
- Bracket heaps
- Try alternative positioning for the strobe - try to minimise the amount of water between subject and lens that you light up (to reduce scatter)
- Did I mention get close?
And most of all - have fun
One cardinal rule, always take the time to prepare your camera properly. If you don't have time to take your time, dive sans camera.
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Jim F
(K=8859) - Comment Date 5/13/2003
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The Nikonos V is a great system, a real addition is the 20mm lens. aith enough light, you get great DOF with this lens. I have seen some offered at a fairly reasonable price on e-bay. Of course in money is no object, look for the Nikonos 15mm. It is a lens in every pro's bag, but is expensive. I think Fuji Velvia is the top choice for underwater colors.
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Richard Carey
(K=15) - Comment Date 6/6/2003
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Hi Alan,
I'm getting too old to dive anymore but I used the Nikonos V for about 15 years. It's a great camera. All of the above suggestions are very good. I have a few more. For starters try using the rig in TTL mode. That way you can just shoot,set the diaphragm at whatever you think your depth of field needs to be it simplifies things in the begining. There is another way to get macro and that is with extention tubes. These go between the camera body and the lens. Each tube has it's own framer. Either way macro is great and I think you might find that you're shooting it half the time.
Do night dives with your camera, there's neat critters out at night as you probably know .
Don't forget to watch your air!! You can get very engrossed in picture taking. Nobody needs a good camera with a bent owner.
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Dennis Wiener
(K=236) - Comment Date 11/13/2003
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Definitly get a wider lens than the stock 35 that comes with the camera. If you cant afford the 20, or 15 try and find a Sea and Sea 16mm adapter. While not as sharp or fast as a true wide angle lens, it still takes nice pictures at a lot lower cost. Also it can be taken on and off ( it screws onto the 35mm lens) in the water. I bought mine over 10 years ago so I don't know if its still made or not.
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