Digital is the future of underwater photography. There is little doubt. It is clearly no longer a question of if. The question is when.
In 2002, Nikon released the D100 digital SLR and it has been greeted by a furore of activity from housing manufacturers. In contrast, housings for Nikon's higher specified D1 series were conspicuous by their (almost total) absence. But the cheaper, lighter, smaller D100 has already been promised homes from the likes of Aquatica, Hugyphot, Ikelite, Light and Motion, Sea and Sea, and the subject of this review, Subal. Has the future arrived?.
My aim in this article is to assess the D100 from the point of view of someone who is already shooting a 35mm Nikon SLR underwater and is thinking about digital, because I see them as the most likely client for the D100 (for one thing they will already have the lenses).
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The Camera
The D100 will look and feel familiar to any modern Nikon SLR user. Although this camera shares its number with the F100, it is more closely related to the F80. It is a curious mix of old and new, for example, it has a traditional F lens mount on the front and modern LCD monitor screen and boat load of buttons on the back. Familiar are Nikon's four exposure modes: P - Program, S - Shutter Priority Auto, A - Aperture Priority Auto and M - Manual...
Inside the D100 it's all new. Film has gone; in its place is a CCD with 6.1 million effective pixels (Megapixels or Mp), which produces images of just over 3000 by 2000 pixels. To put this in terms that might make more sense - this is equivalent to scanning your slides at 2200 dpi, or a high quality (300 dpi) print size of 25.5 cm by 17 cm. All digital SLRs all have an astonishing wallet emptying ability at purchase.... But for triggerhappy photographers the lack of film costs produces a considerable reimbursement. I have had my D100 for a little over 3 months and have already downloaded 3000 pictures from it (an amount that surprised me). Certainly many of these shots were taken for evaluation, but 3000 pictures is the equivalent of 84 films, which at say £6 to buy and develop is over £500 saved!
The digital images from the camera can be saved onto eithera Compact flash card or an IBM Microdrive in one of 5 image...
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The Housing
Like the camera, the Subal D10 will have a reassuring layout to owners of the latest generation of Subal housings. Compared to my F100 housing it is lighter and more compact, but accepts all my existing Subal ports. The camera is mounted in the housing on a removable base tray, meaning it can be whipped in and out in seconds if need be. However, both the lens and image storage card can be removed with the camera still in place. The LCD monitor is very well shaded in the cast aluminium housing, and can be seen easily underwater, which is often a major failing of clear plastic housings.
The D10 has two flash synch sockets, two handles, two strobe arm mounts and a leak detector. The housing provides dials and buttons to all the camera's major controls. There are 25 in all, which must be something of record? The few functions not controlled are far from crucial for underwater shooting!
Typical of a Subal, all the housing control dials work immediately, without any modification to the camera. The housing is only slightly negatively buoyant in the water with a good posture.
Unlike digital compacts there is no delay in the shutter mechanism, you press the kill button and you have a picture - it's exactly like a film SLR. The 5 area autofocus is good, but in low contrast situations and when shooting macro I notice that the D100 is inferior to my F100. This is simply because the D100's autofocus is driven by a Multi-CAM 900 module (shared with the F65 and F80), rather than Nikon's better Multi-CAM 1300 (on the F5, F100 and D1 series).
My minor gripes are first that there...
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