Canon 300D/Ikelite Housing

text and photos by Jay Treat

Why did you upgrade to DSLR system?
There are a number of reasons why I upgraded, any one of which alone would not likely have been enough. I really wanted the advantage of changeable lenses. The digicam world would have you believe that 67x optical and 235x digital zoom will take any shot. But as with any other tool, using the right lens for the shot is the way to take quality photos. Another reason is the instant shutter response found in DSLRs. For the most part, shutter lag is the only reason I have left to blame a missed shot on the camera...I might as well make them all my fault.

Why did you choose the 300D/Rebel?
Like many other buyers, primarily its price. I had seen excellent results from the 10D with a quality lens and in the hands of a pro. The 300D has the same sensor and mechanisms of the 10D but with a somewhat scaled-down feature set. There is no reason the two won't take the exact same quality of shot, given the same lens and settings.

Are there any features you don't like about the 300D that might be solved by selecting another camera?
Yes. I would like to be able to select spot or matrix metering when I want. The 300D selects it based on the exposure mode you're in. I would also like faster strobe sync speeds. The 300D syncs up to 1/200s which is sometimes not fast enough to shoot towards the surface on a sunny day. However, I still would not pay the additional $600 for the 10D just to have these features.

Are you glad you upgraded and do you think it's that much better than your Olympus C4040 system?
It might surprise you when I say that this camera does not necessarily take better photos than a digicam. Yes, it has some specs that say it's less noisy or has more dynamic range, blah, blah, but I can say without hesitation that if these things are regularly your limiting factor, you're way ahead of me and have no business reading my review. What a DSLR does, in my opinion, is gives flexibility if and when you want it and know how to use it. However, this flexibility brings complexity, which is certainly not for everyone. My feeling is that many people are thinking of the 300D as "an even better point-and-shoot", when in reality that is not what its primary mission is.

There is no question that both systems have their advantages. The digicam solution is far more compact which is a benefit both while you are diving and when you are packing. The DSLR solution offers the flexibility of interchangeable lenses and very quick shutter response. DSLRs also offer more manual control compared to some digicams, though not much if any when compared to many of the high end ones. I have a feeling that most of the upgrades to DSLR will be because of the desire for a new toy, not because the limits of the old camera have been surpassed. Frankly, I can't think of many better reasons.

What equipment do you have?
Canon 300D
512MB Compact Flash card
Ikelite 6870 housing

Canon 18-55mm (kit) lens
Ikelite 5503 dome port for above lens with zoom gear adaptor.

Sigma DX 14mm f2.8 lens
Ikelite 5503.5 dome port for above lens.

Canon 50mm f2.5 compact macro lens.
Ikelite 5505 flat port for above lens.

Two Ikelite DS-125 strobes with 1" ball arms.
Two Ikelite 4100.6 manual EV controllers.
One Ikelite 4103.2 dual sync cord
One Ikelite 4103 sync cord

How did you choose these particular lenses?
Lens choice is a big one for any photographer, underwater or not. The trade-offs between optical quality, cost, convenience, etc., can drive a person mad with indecision. When shooting underwater with the Olympus C4040, I found myself in most cases using either the widest setting I could get, or shooting macro. When I bought this system, naturally I set out to find a good wide angle lens and a good macro lens.

Wide Angle
The 1.6x crop of the 300D made the choice of a wide angle lens interesting. To get below a 20mm film equivalent, I had to have a 12mm or wider lens. The only choice in this category right now is the Sigma 12-24mm zoom lens. A little research on optical quality in this price range led me also to the Sigma DX 14mm, which would give a 22.4mm equivalent on the 300D. Not surprisingly, a side-by-side comparison of the two proved the 14mm prime lens noticeably sharper than the 12-24 at 14mm, and it has a much wider maximum aperture. This made the decision for me. Other candidates that I considered were the Canon 14mm (eliminated because of the price, US$1400), the Sigma 15mm fisheye (I wanted rectilinear for top-side use), waiting for Canon to release something in the 12mm range.
Click here for a gallery of examples from the 14mm lens


Macro
I concluded very quickly that any lens much longer than about 100mm would be very difficult if not impossible to hold steady underwater. Again, the 1.6 crop factor came into play since this left the actual focal length somewhere under about 70mm. This very quickly narrowed it down to the Sigma 50mm Macro and the Canon 50mm Macro. These two sell for about the same price, but there is a trade-off. The Canon offers only 1:2 magnification and is known for slightly better optics (through anecdotal and unofficial testing), while the Sigma offers 1:1 and focus limiting. My analysis, for what it's worth, went like this: the 1.6 crop factor would bring the Canon to about 1:1.25 which is decent underwater macro, 1:1 with a 50mm would be about 2" from the port which isn't all that useful, and the focus limiting would make the lens useless for anything beyond about 10", something I likely would never choose. Thus, the Canon won.

Click here for a gallery of examples from the 50mm lens

Other Shots
The 14mm and the 50mm, both being prime (fixed length) lenses, leave a big gap in focal lengths and therefore potential subjects. The most common "other" shot is the fish portrait which because of the different size subjects, is very well suited to a zoom lens. The 50mm will focus from about 5 inches to infinity so it most certainly works for many such shots but it's certainly not ideal for all of them. The 14mm will also focus down to about 5 inches from the port, so it can take some interesting close focus wide angle shots, but this is also less than ideal for many shots.

The Kit Lens
This lens was the real surprise for me. I had expected this to be a useful but not great lens. The versatility of having zoom (roughly 29mm to 88mm) available was more in line with what you would get from a digicam such as my old Olympus system. The optics were very sharp at the long end and suffered only a little at the wide end. This lens will focus quite close, about 7 inches, so it isn't too far from the macro capability of the Olympus C4040. Overall, this is a very useful and useable lens for someone that needs to conserve a little money in this category.
Click here for a gallery of examples from the kit lens



How did you connect the strobes?
There are several options with this combination of gear. I ended up using the dual sync cord from the camera to both of the manual controllers, then the controllers connected to the strobes. In this configuration, the strobes are left in TTL mode and the strobe power output is selected on the manual controller. I also did some dives with the camera directly connected to the two strobes. In this configuration, the strobe power is selected on the strobe itself. The first configuration offers more power settings (10 vs 4), and puts the control of both strobes on top of your housing handles. The second offers a bit more simplicity and less cost. One other option that I did not try includes a sync cord to one strobe and slaving the other strobe (optically) to it using the controller. This would allow more flexibility in positioning the slaved strobe, something I wish I had experimented with inside the wrecks.

How did you assemble the system/grease the o-rings/clean the ports/etc.?
As much as I like to indicate otherwise, I do not know more than the manufacturer. I simply did what the Ikelite instructions say to do in every sense.

How much memory did you use/how often did you download/how long did the batteries last/etc?
I had a 512MB compact flash card and it would have easily lasted for a day of diving under normal circumstances. Because of it being a new system I was taking more photos than is normal for me. I also wanted to see results before the day was over. So in general I would download to my laptop after two dives and usually charge the camera battery at that point. As you probably know, the life of the camera's battery is highly dependant on how much you use the LCD during the dive or to show off your photos after the dive. I would always fully charge my strobes before a night dive since the modeling lights are definitely needed to assist auto focus. I would then recharge the strobes before I started another day's diving. All of this was more than needed, but I never ran out of memory or battery power on the entire trip...and that was my goal.

How many dives did you do and how many photos did you take?
Over the course of the trip, I did 28 dives with the system. From these dives, and after a superficial attempt to delete the "excessively creative" ones, I came home with just under 600 shots. That is an average of about 21 shots that I kept per dive.

Photos courtesy of Ikelite.com






Why did I choose an Ikelite housing vs other brands?
There are three main reasons. First and foremost is Ikelite's service. It is unsurpassed. Second, I like the ability to see sealed o-rings before I dive, as far as I know this is only available in their clear acrylic housings. Third, it was available when I needed it.

Description of the Housing.
The Ikelite housing for the Canon 300D/Digital Rebel is a somewhat new design for them. They have started with an acrylic mold that more closely matches the shape and size of an SLR body compared to their older SLR housings. This makes a much more compact and ergonomic housing. I haven't had the chance to compare it to other 300D housings but I would guess that it is still less compact than some. It is, however a major improvement over their older film SLR housings. The camera attaches to the back of the housing using the tripod mount and comes out of the housing when the back is removed (like their Olympus C4040 housing). This makes for fairly easy and error-free assembly. The only thing that I ever had to correct was the position of the exposure lock control. The housing can be assembled with this in an unworkable position, and correcting it requires removing the back. In most cases however, the control will either fall into the correct position or be in a position that keeps the back from being fully installed. This is a good reminder to move it to the correct position. Because the camera is mounted on a plate, it must be removed to access the battery compartment. It would be nice to be able to swap or recharge the battery without unscrewing the base plate. This is a minor inconvenience given that the battery will easily work through several dives.

Controls/operation
As expected, it has controls for everything on the camera that would typically be used underwater. The only controls that are not accessed through the housing are the drive mode select button (single shot, multi shot, timer), the auto/manual focus control (on the lens), and the flash button. The first two could present a nuisance if you entered the water with the camera in the "wrong" mode. Obviously, drive mode and manual/auto setting will simply become part of the pre-dive check. The controls are a mix of plunger-type buttons and levers. They take some getting use to of course but all are reasonably convenient and useable. The one control that surprised me was the lens release. Obviously you can't change lenses underwater so I couldn't help but wonder what this was included for. It wasn't long before I wanted to go from macro to wide angle without removing the camera from the housing. This can be done by removing just the port and then changing the lens from the front and requires the use of..you guessed it...the lens release lever.

TTL vs Manual (see update)
The Canon DSLRs all use a new version of strobe control that isn't supported by traditional TTL strobes. This means that TTL isn't available using this housing/strobe combination. I am very familiar with using strobes so in manual mode so it wasn't a big factor for me. I still feel it's a bit of a let down to pay this sort of money for a camera and housing and even more for two top-end TTL strobes, then be forced to use it in manual mode. In fact, there were cases where several cases where TTL would have made a shot more convenient if not better. In short, this is definitely a step backward in technology which is a true rarity in digital cameras.

Update 4/16/05: Since I wrote this Ikelite has added TTL control to their Canon DSLR housings. As far as I know, all new Ikelite housings come with this feature.

Ergonomics
Bulkhead connector
There has been some concern about the placement of the bulkhead connector (where the strobe connects to the housing). It is in the lower left of the back of the housing such that the sync cord extends directly towards the user's face. I found that the cord and its connector can indeed get in the way to some degree if the cables are not routed properly. I eventually routed the sync cord down and left so the cable rested on the camera base, just under the left latch. This proved to be very workable and I had little or no trouble with it after that.

Weight/balance
This is without a doubt a heavy system to carry, that can't be helped. The housing base has a lead weight that can be removed and I most definitely recommend removing it. The housing/base combination without the lead or strobes attached is slightly negative. With the strobe arms and two DS-125s, it's even more negative. I found that my right arm was a little tired after a few dives (don't panic, you're not bent) but I don't see an easy solution. The housing as is but with neutral strobes would be nearly perfect in my opinion but for the DS-125 to be neutral, it would need to be larger or have less battery, neither a good compromise.

Viewfinder
The viewfinder on this camera is somewhat small. It's hard to see the whole frame, even using my very low-volume mask. The Ikelite housing does have an optical piece that helps but in some cases I found myself wanting the LCD preview back so I could compose the frame while simply looking at the back of the camera. Unfortunately this is a feature that simply isn't available on DSLRs so the only answer is to practice composing through the viewfinder and getting your eye in a position that offers the maximum coverage.

Port System
The particular ports I used for each lens are listed above. Ikelite's ports are a snap (literally) to install. All you do is make sure the (lightly greased) o-ring is in place, push the port straight into the housing opening, and slide two latches until they lock. You can look through the back of the housing to verify the o-ring placement. Expect the port to have some "play" or movement. Rest assure that the o-ring is still compressed and will do its job. It's slightly more complicated if you plan to use manual focus or zoom. The 18-55 kit lens, or any other zoom lens, will require the zoom mechanism so if you plan to use this lens, be sure to assemble it at least once before you leave for a dive trip.

Click here for a chart of commonly used lenses and the required Ikelite ports or click here for a more general page on Ikelite SLR ports. If you're completely new to this, contact a good vendor that will help you get the right stuff. I used Underwater Camera Pros and can recommend them.

Summary
Without a doubt, I'm happy with this system and I can't wait to get back in the water with it. The 300D gives me the flexibility both underwater and above that I've missed while using digicams and the Ikelite solution for getting underwater is a success. As I mentioned above, I do miss auto strobe control in some cases, I feel that the weight and balance could use some improvement, and I wish the viewfinder was a bit more user friendly. To put it into perspective however, I'd buy the same housing and strobes again if I could start over.




You can e-mail me by clicking here (jtreat@jaytreat.com)