G'day

[ATJ]

G'day,

My name is Andrew and I live in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, Australia. I got my diving ticket in 1978 and bought my first underwater camera (Nikonos III) in 1980. With the inherit difficulties of using a fully manual film camera, I lost interest in underwater photography to some extent until I bought a P&S and housing (CoolPix 4500 in Ikelite housing) in 2003. I upgraded to a D70 in Ikelite housing in 2006 and have recently upgrade to a D300 in an Ikelite housing. I have done 10 dives with the D300 and am enjoying the rig.

Most of my diving is truly temperate around Sydney, but I do an annual trip to the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

I have an online dive log here: My Dives

[Helen]

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to digigreen. Just had a look at your online log. Looks like you've got some good diving round your way. Nice pics, especially like all the nudibrach ones.

Helen

[triplefin]

Hi Andrew
Welcome to DG
Some super pics in your blog

[TimIngmire]

Hi Andrew and welcome to Digigreen.

Thats a very useful site you have there but as I'm at work I can't really browse through it.

One question, what's been the big difference for you between the D70 and D300?

Tim

[ATJ]

Thanks for the welcome, people.

Tim,

The D300 gives me a number of options over the D70. The viewfinder is larger and brighter. More focus points (51 versus 5) makes for better control and composition and I regularly switch focus points underwater. I'm finding I get better colour rendition and my pictures look sharper with the D300 (I don't use in camera sharpening or picture boosting). The LCD on the back of the camera is much bigger. I'm far sighted (wear glasses for reading only) and don't wear a prescription mask. The larger viewfinder helps (a bit) for assessing shots underwater). Finally, and I hate to admit this, the extra pixels is a big bonus.

I get more value out of the larger viewfinder above water. Ikelite, in their wisdom, appear to have used the same viewfinder port on the D300 housing as the D70 housing. This means I still can't see the full frame through the viewfinder in one go. I got used to this with the D70 so it isn't too bad.

I have more here (for when you're not at work ): D300

[TimIngmire]

...and so the desire to housing my D200 grows again! I was using the D70 again over the weekend and I'd really really like to get the 200 into the water.

Nice d300 photos.

[ATJ]

Tim,

How much longer do you think you will keep the D200? Don't forget that when you replace it you'll want a housing for the replacement, too. I guess you should be able to pick up a secondhand housing for the D200 from someone that has replaced theirs with a D300.