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MVPix Articles
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Carry-on Luggage for Two dSLRs Housing Setups
Authored by MVPix Photographer Jean-Sebastien Morisset|
 Every underwater photographer I know struggles to carry-on as much equipment as he / she can. As we prepare for another trip to Bonaire (in October 2005), I took a few snapshots of our carry-ons to describe our setup. Hopefully you can use this information to improve your own setup, and if you have some suggestions / comments for us, please feel free to post a comment bellow.
Melanie and I both use complete dSLR setups with dual strobes and a variety of ports / lenses, which makes travelling a little equipment intensive. When packing, I try and carry-on as many essentials as I can, figuring our checked luggage might arrive late, or not at all. We use two Storm Case iM2500 hardsided carry-ons with dividers, a Crumpler Schrinkle backpack, and a large Stahlsac regulator bag. The iM2500s are just at the carry-on size limit. They fit in the overheads of all but the smallest planes -- where they "valet check" all wheeled carry-ons anyway. The backpack and regulator bag fit under the seat in front of us. We just have to make sure not to get the front row. :-)
The dive related stickers on the carry-ons are there for a purpose. When I slide the carry-ons in the X-ray machine, I usually get a comment from the agent similar to "diving equipment, ey?", which is just what I want. This way, they're ready for the picture they'll see on their screen. It's helped get us through a little faster on several occasions.
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 One of the Storm Case iM2500s holds two Ikelite housings, minus the trays and handles, and two ports -- a 5" dome port that fits a variety of lenses, and a flat port for a 100mm macro lens. The ports are sealed in large ziplock pags to keep dust and fibers out of them. The housings contain a camera each -- no point in wasting space. :-) Along the side of each housing I've squeezed in a collection of o-rings for ports, substrobes, flashlights, etc.
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 The second Storm Case iM2500 contains the housing trays, handles, several different lengths of ULCS substrobe arms and clamps, two substrobes, focus / zoom gears, camera battery charger, nitrox analyzer, diopter filters, microfiber cloth and a gitzo rocket blower.
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 The Crumpler Schrinkle backpack contains four lenses, a lens extension ring, two substrobes, a substrobe charge, two TTL "Y" cables (under the substrobes), fiber-free sport towels (excellent to clean o-rings), a spare dSLR body, and a variety of personal items not shown here (they fit over the mesh divider).
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 The Stahlsac regulator bag fits two sets of DIR single tank hoses (seven foot primary regulator hose, short backup regulator hose, and analog SPG). The second stage regulators have to be disconnected to fit both sets in this space. In the small nooks and crannys left, I've included four wrist computers, two compasses, and a download cable for the computers. On the other side of this bag I slide in my laptop with a card reader, power adapter, and a few DVDs for the airports.
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This system has worked great on several trips now. The only thing I would have liked to include is an 8" dome port instead of the 5", but that just isn't possible with the amount of space we have to work with. All the other ports, buoyant ULCS substrobe arms, flashlights, etc. have to be packed in the checked luggage.
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Great site! I appreciate the tips you give. I was led here by your article in the web magazne Underwater Photography.
I would be very interested in learning the settings for some of the pictures you've taken (the other info is also very helpful and suggests a system I ought to employ myself -- perhaps a topic for an article?)
I'm also interested in what you think of the Canon 20D as I have one on the way (hope to be up to speed for a trip to Roatan in 3 weeks.)
Thank you very much for your information. I have read your articles with great interest. As I may have mentioned, I purchased a canon 20Da primarily for astrophoto work but I also dive. I picked up an Ikelite housing on eBay (more on that below) and have the following setup:
lenses (all canon): 10-22, 100 macro, 28- 105 with appropriate ports.
ds 125 strobe (new) plus one prior version ds 125 strobe that has not been upgraded (will probably work in the slave mode ok)
I will be field testing this setup in a couple of days (Roatan) and would very much appreciate hints/starting points for the camera settings. The camera is new to me so you can be very basic in your descriptions. That is, manual versus auto settings of focus, exposure, strobe etc. I note that there are several program settings -- are any of these useful?
Thanks Again,
John A. Bisson, M.D.
John,
The 10-22 is an excellent lens. You should definately buy the 8" port for it (with port shade, if you can). You'll also need fairly long strobe arms. There's no secret to the camera settings - start in Manual mode with 1/60-1/100 or so and f5.6-8 depending on your depth and the background blue you want. Some general tips for WA photos are: have somekind of object in the foreground, off center, and light it with your strobes. Include water in the background, and shoot up towards the surface, if you can. The surface usually adds some texture to the background. Don't be scared to include stretches of sand in the background or foreground. Melanie loves this lens and is fond of taking pictures of coral mounds. They generally look better with lots of fish on or around them, so take your time sneaking up on them to avoid spooking the fish.
The 100 macro is also excellent. Start with the 0.48m minimum focus distance setting. 2x 5" arms on each side work well. With the crop factor, you're into the 160mm range, so you'll be able to get some really good macros. Always see how close you can get before the lens can't focus. If you feel you need to get closer, switch to the 0.31m setting. Although in this mode, the AF is a little more difficult to work with. I'd probably start with 1/125th and f11-16. The closer the subject, the more you can stop-down and get a better DOF. Center-weighted AF is probably best since most macro subjects end up in the middle. The center AF point is also more sensitive.
Without the upgrade, I think the DS-125 will beep on every shot. You might want to ask Ikelite support to avoid any surprises on your vacation. I had mine upgraded and they worked fine. Make sure you have the right TTL cord - I think it takes the one with a blue band.
You can try the Tv (Shutter Priority) mode with a -1 to -1 2/3 EV compensation. The flash will make up the rest for an appropriate exposure. I used this for a few days, but generally prefer Manual Mode. When shooting WA, you can point the camera 'into the blue' to meter and set your shutter speed and aperture. The strobes will light your foreground subject, and the background water will be a nice shade of blue.
That's about it, I guess. Perhaps others will have additional suggestions.
Have a good trip!
js.
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