Photographic Gear

Above-Water Photography


DSLR body

Canon 7D DSLR

For my above-water photography I use a Canon 7D as my main DSLR body, which I've found to be excellent and superbly hard-wearing. I upgraded to this body from a 40D largely because I wanted something with a faster framerate and autofocus than I was getting. Although it did take a little bit of fiddling around in the custom menus to get it set up exactly the way I wanted it, it has been a phenomenal camera so far and has finally managed to get me the photos of diving gannets that I was after for so long!  

Lenses

Canon 300mm F4 L IS

If I'm out to shoot wildlife, the lens on my camera 99% of the time is the Canon 300mm F4 L IS prime lens with a 1.4x Canon converter attached. Because so much of my photography is done at sea where the use of a tripod is impossible and monopods are tricky, this lens is about as large as I can comfortably hand-hold for long periods of time. As with the majority of my kit, this lens gets a hard time from me and is regularly exposed to salt spray, mud and fish slime but has never given a hint of a complaint in the 4 years I've owned it which says a lot for Canon's weather sealing system!

Canon 70-200mm F4 L IS

Of all my lenses, this one is my favourite. It gives consistently excellent images, is quick to focus and is light enough to use all day with no problems. This is the lens I will generally use for photographing people or large & close animals or birds subjects, but is sadly too short for most wildlife.

Canon 17-40mm F4 L

I bought this lens as a replacement for a couple of Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 lenses I managed to ruin with sea spray in the hope that Canon's weather sealing would do as good a job with this lens as it has with my longer lenses. I'm still testing it out at the moment, but it's looking pretty nice so far!

Tamron 17-50mm F2.8

For the price you pay, this is a great wee lens and has taken some excellent scenic shots. I tend not to shoot many landscapes or wide-angle images, but this has been a really nice all-round lens and one I've used a lot at sea if I'm on a small boat or want nice environmental shots. Unfortunately, the lack of weather sealing is a problem for me, and I've just ruined my second one in as many years with dust and salt spray and have decided to upgrade to a Canon 17-40mm F4 L instead. I'll miss the extra stop that the Tamron gives, but at least I'll hopefully have a lens that can withstand a rough time!

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Underwater Photography


DSLR Body & Housing

Ikelite housing with 8 inch dome port

Ikelite housing with macro port

As much as I would love to be able to take my 7D diving with me, the housings are too expensive to upgrade regularly, so I'm still using my old Canon 400D. It's not particularly fast by any stretch and the high ISO performance leaves something to be desired, but the images it produces with decent strobes or a bit of care are excellent and far better than I was getting with my old compact camera.

Ikelite DS51 strobe

The housing I use for it is made by Ikelite, with either an 8 inch dome port for taking wide angle shots or a short port for macro shooting. I've also got two Ikelite DS51 strobes which I leave attached to the housing.

Lenses

Canon 60mm F2.8 Macro

This lens gets most use underwater and is a nice standard-length macro for shooting with, though the AF can be awkward to use in the murky waters around Scotland and a focusing light of some sort is pretty essential (I use my dive torch and compensate for the colour balance in post processing).

Tokina 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 Fisheye

Wide angle shots were the big driver for me when I was upgrading to an underwater DSLR system from a compact camera and I really enjoy taking them. I must admit I do struggle to balance the strobes correctly underwater because I don't get a lot of time to practice, but with wide-angle shots it's must easier to make use of natural light and off-camera lighting (like a diver's torch) and I love the images that I can get with this set up. I've got a long way to go certainly, but this is probably the area I have most fun playing around with!