nex-5 goes underwater

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Recently I bought a cheap underwater housing for my nex-5. I was a bit skeptical but after some pool test I dove in the local lake and overall I'm quite satisfied with the results. I also enjoyed the video shooting, which is not possible with my more professional a100 dslr housing.
The housing is designed for using the 16mm lens, therefore it's quite compact. Changing port and hence lenses is not possible. To avoid backscatter I used optical fibers to direct the flashlight to the left and right side of the housing. Even the small onboard flashlight worked well with some subjects. Few pictures from today:







Cheers

Marcell

[Birma]

Wonderful to see under the lake Marcell . I especially like the shot of the pike - very menacing . Could we have a shot of the Nex in the housing with flash just to see what it is like?

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Wonderful to see under the lake Marcell . I especially like the shot of the pike - very menacing . Could we have a shot of the Nex in the housing with flash just to see what it is like?

Sure, no problem:




More details about the DIY project, you can find on my blog:
http://fiberstrobe.blogspot.de/

[Birma]

Another ingenious set up Marcell. It looks great

[Greg Beetham]

Great work Marcell.
Greg

[aster]

Hi Marcell,

The energy you put in these DIY gear comme with prizes. Well done!


Tanks for sharing your moments of diving.


Yildiz

[sury]

Marcell,
Great shots. I am most amazed by the third one for its clarity and sharpness. Your DIY flash set up makes the whole outfit look it is alien,
no wonder your images are out of this world.

With best regards,
Sury

[mvanrheenen]

Oh wow, how cool! You almost always see tropical fish in underwater images, but never 'ordinary' pike and bass. Really nice Marcell!

Mark

[Dr. Harout]

Very interesting.

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Thanks everybody!
Actually I was surprised that the concept worked actually better than expected. The water was murky and the suspended small particles reflecting the flashlight badly making the pictures look like snow falls (called backscatter). To avoid this you have to place your strobe to sides pointing a bit outwards. This DIY adapter does this (and even split the light). The length of the arms are not that long (I've actually used all the leftovers of my loc-line arms) but still improve the lighting a lot.
Now I'm thinking to use the same concept to create a twin-flash (optical fiber adapter) for my nex.

Cheers

Marcell

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Yesterday I dove again. Now, at the other side of the lake. The visibility and also the lights were better and I managed to take some really nice photos. I even found a group of big pearches. They were very friendly.







The full set of pictures you can find here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikolausz_ ... 2240/show/

Cheers

Marcell

[Birma]

Very nice Marcell - I love the blue colour of the water, and the perch are very colourful.

[Marcell Nikolausz]

Very nice Marcell - I love the blue colour of the water, and the perch are very colourful.

Thanks,

Actually I tweaked a bit the color in PS to be closer to my perception of water. The nex recorded a bit greener tones, which is also nice by the way.

Marcell

[aster]

Very inspiring photos, Marcell. : )

The water is clear enough to let many details of the dive to be revealed as well as the neat fish types.


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz