[Q] Newbie: How to test a used housing & change lenses

Hi,

Newbie getting into underwater photography...

Picked up a used Olympus housing for E-PL7. Changed the o-ring and did basic test for leak by putting in bathtub. Before diving with my camera in it, what would be a proper way to test the housing? Just take it in empty and press all the buttons?

Also, before investing in tray, strobe, and whatnot, I'd like to familiarize myself with uw photography. Would a normal dive torch (1000 lumen) be ok to use in practice shoots?

Lastly, what is a proper way to change lens during dives to avoid capturing moisture inside the housing?

FYI, I'll be diving in Cozumel.

Thank you

-rp

rp200 wrote:

Hi,

Newbie getting into underwater photography...

Picked up a used Olympus housing for E-PL7. Changed the o-ring and did basic test for leak by putting in bathtub. Before diving with my camera in it, what would be a proper way to test the housing? Just take it in empty and press all the buttons?

The first test you should do would always be without a camera in the housing.  Put it underwater (deeper is better for testing) and press all the buttons, rotate all the dials, push all the levers, etc.   Check for leaks.

Next (or before), test the camera fit in the housing above water, pressing all the buttons, turning dials and moving levers.   Make sure the fit is good enough that the buttons work.  If not, now is the time to find out.

Eventually test it underwater with camera in it, but I can see no particular reason for this beyond getting used to operating the controls underwater, in a pool for instance.  The purpose for testing this way isn't too see if there is a leak that will kill the camera, it is to check buoyancy.

Also, before investing in tray, strobe, and whatnot, I'd like to familiarize myself with uw photography. Would a normal dive torch (1000 lumen) be ok to use in practice shoots?

Anything will be fine to use in a practice shoot.  But you'll quickly find that 1000 lumens doesn't get you anywhere underwater.   I went from a 2400 lumen focus light to a 3500 lumen one last year.  Neither are bright enough for video (maybe macro) or stills (for base ISO).   If you want stills lighting, a decent strobe is the way to go, two are better.  If you want video, bring a bigger wallet.  If you have enough conventional light for video, you have to have huge batteries, or at least change them a lot.  If you have LED lighting, not sure - they are new to me, but the problems have been cost versus brightness in the past.

Lastly, what is a proper way to change lens during dives to avoid capturing moisture inside the housing?

You don't change lenses during dives, period.   However, you might use a wet lens on a flip holder so that you can swing it into place or away during the dive.

I bought a  flip holder for my RX100 rig so I could go dome port for wide angle or macro.  I also bought a holder for either lens that attaches to a strobe arm.  The idea was to have wide dome sitting on a strobe arm, and the wet macro lens on the flip holder.

It turned out that putting the "big" dome port on a strobe arm just seemed to overweight that arm, and I didn't use it.  The flip holder worked OK, but you had to be soooo close to the subject (an inch?) that I ended up not using it either.   Here is a picture of me on one of my first dives with the RX100 rig.  You can see the flip holder opened up.

FYI, I'll be diving in Cozumel.

Drift diving.   Makes it harder to get a good shot as you might only have one opportunity to get a shot as the current sweeps you by.

Here's a tidbit I've only recently figured out.  Macro lenses are for small subjects, of course, but wide angle isn't really so much for big subjects.   Wide angle is move about describing the dive itself, and I think is generally harder.   But think of it this way.  If you had an interesting dive, are you going to be able to show it with a series of macro shots?

The thing about Cozumel - you can get in some really strong drift currents, and that can make it really tough to get a shot. You can't fight the current; it will likely be too strong.

However, if you get close to the bottom and duck in behind coral heads or reef sections, you can often find a bit of no-current relief from which you can get a couple of shots before moving on.

There are a fair amount of turtles to photograph in Cozumel, and being a marine park you can sometimes see huge crabs just walking across the bottom in plain view.

Not sure about your diving skills and experience, but if you relax and let the current move you, you can really extend your air supply. I like to float along like I'm sitting cross-legged and use my arms to occasionally turn in the right direction.

One last thing - Cozumel is, I think, the only place in the world to find the Splendid Toadfish. They are really cool-looking, with striped faces that continue through the eyes. I haven't been to Cozumel since 2010 I think, but I did get this shot with a Canon SD870is and on-camera flash:

My wife and I went to Cozumel with a local dive group back in 2010. Pics here:http://www.cjcphoto.net/cozumeldiving/index.html

kelpdiver wrote:

Lastly, what is a proper way to change lens during dives to avoid capturing moisture inside the housing?

I used to worry about that a lot - would only open and close the camera in an air conditioned room. After a number of liveaboards where everyone swapped between WA and macro on the camera deck,

I never worried about it too much.  10 years of diving with point-n-shoots that required a battery change between every dive led me to think that shore dives are a more likely place to cause a leak from opening a housing on-site.  Boats at least tend not to have blowing sand.

I've had to come up at the beginning of the dive, open the (D810) housing, remove the camera, change autofocus settings, put camera back, pump down a vacuum again, and restart the dive.   That makes me nervous for a bunch of reasons, including somewhat wet salty hands handling my camera, and not having more than a few seconds of confidence from the leak detection device before going back in.  I've had to change batteries and/or lenses while kneeling in the bottom of a panga.   So far, never an issue opening on a boat.   I'm actually more worried about putting a housing half down on a towel in a hotel room and getting a fiber over the o-ring from that.