About

Our Photo Equipment

Records of the exact equipment setup used to take each of the images in our database are include in the database itself. Thus, we can readily identify exactly what equipment was used to take any specific image.  NOTE: We have now switched partially to video.

Underwater Cameras

Most of the images in our database were taken with the housed camera setup that we used for several years:

HOUSED CAMERAS
Minolta Maxxum 7000i cameras
Ikelite SLR housings
Twin Ikelite Substrobe 200’s
Ultralite strobe arm systems
Ikelite Digital Light Meter 4200
and one of the following lenses:
Minolta Maxxum 50mm Macro
Minolta Maxxum 100mm Macro
Minolta Maxxum 24-85mm zoom
Minolta Maxxum 28-105mm zoom
B&H Schneider close-up lenses (diopters)

For a number of years we switched to the following housed systems:

Nikon N90s cameras
Ikelite SLR housings
Twin Ikelite Substrobe 200’s
Ultralite strobe arm systems
Ikelite Digital Light Meter 4200
and one of the following lenses:
Nikon 60mm Macro
Nikon 105mm Macro
Nikon 28-105mm zoom
Kenko 1.4X teleconverter
B&H Schneider close-up lenses (diopters)

The zoom lenses are used behind an Ikelite dome port with either a +4 or a +5 diopter lens. Usually, on any specific dive, one of use will carry a housed setup with a Macro lens, while the other will carry a zoom lens setup. At night, we add twin PCa spotting lights (one covered with a red gel filter) mounted over the lens port. We often also used a Nikonos with framer close-up system for specific subjects such as pygmy seahorses.

NIKONOS MACRO SETUP

Nikonos V cameras
Nikonos 28mm UW lens OR Nikonos 35mm lens
1:2, 1:1, or 2:1 framer
Ikelite 50 strobe plus Ikelite 50S slave strobe
Ultralite strobe arm system
Ikelite PCa spotting light

We are now using

Nikon D80 cameras
Ikelite SLR housings
Twin Ikelite Substrobe DS125’s
Ultralite strobe arm systems
and one of the following lenses:
Nikon 60mm Macro
Nikon 105mm Macro
Nikon 28-105mm zoom

Images not taken using one of the above configurations were taken with earlier versions of these systems that used the following equipment in place of one or more of the items above:

        Ikelite 150 Substrobes
        Ikelite Ai and Ain Substrobes
        Nikonos 103 and 102 strobes
        Nikonos 15mm lens
        Minolta Maxxum 7000 cameras
        Minolta Maxxum 28-85mm zoom lens
        Sekonic L164C Light Meter

FILM SELECTION AND PROCESSING

For all our underwater photography we now use almost exclusively Fuji Velvia Professional film. For duplicating slides we use Fuji CDU slide duplicating film.

We process all of our own film using a JOBO film processor and Kodak E6 chemical kits. Film is cut and mounted in heat seal paperboard slide mounts using a Pic-Mount C-5 Manual film cutter (w/tacker) and Pic-Mount M-5 Manual slide mounter.

IMAGE SCANNING

All the film images on this web site are scanned with a Nikon LS4000 scanner currently attached to a Dell Dimension XPs computer. Images are scanned originally as Raw TIFF files using VueScan software and stored on DVD media. We use ImageAXS Pro in conjunction with Microsoft Access 2000 to store and organize our images and the underlying database. Images are prepared for the web site using a combination of VueScan and Adobe Photoshop. After the raw files have been processed offline by VueScan, the images are cropped, levels are adjusted in Photoshop, then the images are re-sized, and written as medium quality JPG files and sharpened. No other image manipulation has been done on the images on the web site, except for a few (less than 10) images in which some backscatter has been eliminated.

For publication purposes we submit digital files, original or duplicate slides, high resolution scans with our Nikon LS4000.