aa webweb magazinemagazine UnderwaterUnderwater PhotographyPhotography Apr/May 2004 Ikelite 5060 Ikelite D-70 Roatan New macro Fantasea CP-3N Fuji F700 Mokorran Beginners digital Jonah EOS 10D Top Dawg Mini Lumpsuckers Improving WIDE OF THE MARK If you are new to underwater digital photography the equipment can be bewildering. Choosing lenses can be especially confusing. Take wide angles. They’re great in low visibility and essential for photographing large subjects like wrecks and whale sharks. But how wide is wide? 95 to 100 degrees is what most professional underwater photographers consider to be the benchmark or standard wide angle focal length. Narrower angles often just don’t cut it. The Inon UWL100 provides up to 100 degrees. That’s twice the coverage of most cameras’ built in lenses. And substantially wider than the Olympus C5060’s own 70 degree wide angle lens and port combination. Conveniently the UWL100 is also a wetlens. You can remove and replace it underwater, changing lenses to suit your subject. And if you find even 100 degrees restrictive, you can add a dedicated dome port and expand your view by 30%. Inon make some of the best thought through and user friendly accessories for the underwater digital photographer. Ocean Optics continues its quarter century tradition of providing the best equipment, advice and aftersales in the business. 13 Northumberland Avenue [email protected] Ocean London WC2N 5AQ www.oceanoptics.co.uk Tel 020 7930 8408 Optics Fax 020 7839 6148 2 4 Editorial Contents Underwater Photography 6 Readers lives Underwater Photography a web magazine 22 Roatan 35 Improve your Apr/May 2004 8 News & Travel shots e mail [email protected] 12 New products 43 Beginners digital by Peter Rowlands 47 Jessica Taylor by Bruce Dickson 27 Mokorran by Deb Fugitt 15 Fuji F700 by Charles Hood 39 New macro by Jessica Taylor by Charles Hood 50 Calypsophot 31 Lumpsuckers by Steve 17 Top Dawg Warren by Alexander Mustard 53 Reviews Cover by 55 UW Photographers Code of Conduct Deb Fugitt by Peter Rowlands with Mark Webster 3 TTl, D-TTL, I-TTL..... Editorial A big thank you to one of you When I was a lad learning One was a flash ready light indicator of breakdowns occured with the TTL underwater photography, to trigger an and the other two were for the TTL system more than anything else i.e. external flashgun you needed just two automation. shutter or mechanical problems. wires. When these were shorted out Now three extra connections may Now, with the digital age, we are by the camera the flashgun (usually) not sound important but if you count being offered not only D-TTL but fired. the number of connections between a now there is I-TTL. To be perfectly If you had aimed the flashgun flashgun with a removeable lead and a honest I haven’t the enthusiasm to correctly the resulting flash would housed land camera there are no fewer find out what all the fuss is about. It light your subject and create a good than 35 separate contacts (maybe sounds fantastic but I’ve got to the exposure as long as you had chosen more on some systems) all of which point where I’m happy to shoot the correct aperture which is have to kept perfectly clean and dry. manual flash exposures now that we dependent on the flash to subject Should any one of those contacts be have LCD screens which show us our distance. greasy or get a drop of saltwater on results immediately. Our “film” costs This simple system hung around them, the TTL performance could fail. nothing so there’s no problem in for a long time before “TTL” (through The result would normally be a small taking another shot if it needs the lens) flash metering appeared. output of light when the camera was correcting. On the face of it this was a big fired and this could fool the operator I can hear the rumble of TTL breakthrough in automation. A sensor into thinking that all was well.....until supporters howling “What about fast looking at the film measured the they got their films back and found moving subjects, eh?” and I agree that amount of light falling onto it and, them all to be very underexposed TTL can be useful in these situations Tony Matheis was the only UwP when there was enough, it quenched indeed. but photography to me is all about reader to send a photo of the flyer the flash and saved its power for the I’m not trying to put the fear of catching the moment in a single frame included in the last issue. next flash. God into you, just merely making a and to do that I preset my camera and Rob Shumaker, owner of Scuba In the main this new system point. TTL worked fine for the flash to get a good shot at the right Sphere Dive Shop is seen here in FT. worked well but it introduced more majority of people including me but, time and right distance. True having a Worth, holding the "Dive Shop Flyer" connections between the camera and speaking as an underwater camera motor drive and fast recycling TTL from UwP17 that is now displayed in the flash - three more to be precise. repairer, I would say that the majority flashgun will allow you to take more his shop. but how often have you done that and Rob Shumaker ended up using only one frame from Scuba Sphere Underwater Photography the sequence? 6703 Camp Bowie Blvd is published by PR Productions I guess the conclusion is that you FT. Worth, TX 76116 13 Langley Avenue, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6QN choose to use what suits you. 817.731.1461 I think I’ve chosen the easy email:[email protected] Tel & fax 00 44 (0)208 399 5709 route. e mail [email protected] 4 What links these sites? London’s premier watersports centre 11 - 14 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5AQ Tel: 020 7930 5050 Fax: 020 7930 3032 email:[email protected] www.oceanleisure.co.uk 5 considerable real estate to go through them all. I Taiji dolphins Readers Lives recommend that he spend some quality time—both I'm writing about the article on the dolphin during, and after the dive—to learn what his new slaughter in Taiji, Japan that appeared in issue 17. meat here. The article is correct in that whale meat digital camera is really capable of. I've lived here in Japan for the last 20 years and is available in some coastal supermarkets, but is Eric Cheng have run up against the Japanese attitude towards certainly no where to be found elsewhere. This is Editor, Wetpixel.com. [email protected] killing whales since day 1. just a way to subsidize the fishermen. I am a lecturer at a university here and from Terrorism even ecoterrorism can be avoided. All I can say is that I am willing to learn. I time to time I bring up the issue in my classes to see Dana Del Raye think this IS what the debate needs to be about. if attitudes have changed. I showed one class of [email protected] What I showed was, as I stated a rough comparison Japanese freshmen the photos from Sea Shepherd's of the sort most people will do. It was never meant site and was shocked to find that they were shocked. Digital article complaint to be a rigorous analysis. I have not seen such an I was pleased to get questions like "Who eats analysis anywhere? If there is one then that would Will Postlethwaite’s article entitled, “The great dolphins?" and "Why are they doing that?" be fascinating. digital debate” (UwP17) gives almost no insight The Sea Shepherd article is correct in that very I am happy for you to publish this letter as I into the true differences between film and digital few people here know about what is happening. I think it adds to the debate and the information underwater photography. It is hard enough to make applaud their efforts to show the world what is people have to hand. a qualified comparison with properly chosen digital going on there. On the other hand, I think fighting Controversy is never really a bad thing? and film rigs; choosing to compare an Olympus C- with the local fishermen is not a productive way to Will 5050 to a Nikon F90X makes an analysis virtually rescue those dolphins and stop the killing [email protected] permanently. It only serves to widen the rift and impossible. cement opinions. Since the killing of dolphins for Compared images were framed differently, Japanese fishermen is primarily financial issue (I exposed differently, and generally compared using Digital article praise think the right wing in Japan may feel that it's also a superficial observations. One of digital imaging’s Just a short note to say how much MORE I am patriotic issue), I feel that the $8,000 the two key workflow differences is that the image is not enjoying UWP in its new format. I set UWP17 to - activists were fined would have been better used to complete after the shutter has been depressed. Most fit to width - and I find I can read a whole page "buy" the dolphins. I've read that fishermen receive good digital photographers shoot to capture as much without shuffling up and down. $500 - $1000 dollars per carcass. They could have raw information as possible, which does not Great Mag and a great innovation.