Nikon D300 underwater photography

Nikon D300 underwater photography tests with sailfish

Sea & Sea released us an early version of their MDX-D300 underwater housing for the Nikon D300 just in time for my sailfish expedition on December 31, 2007. Personally, I was really hoping for their MDX-D3 housing for the NikonD3, but I was thrilled to have the opportunity to put the Nikon D300 and Sea & Sea MDX-D300 through a real world test.

Sailfish were a perfect test subject for the Nikon D300. These fish torpedoes require smooth camera pans and a shutter speeds of 1/250th to capture sharp frames. At such high shutter speeds, I was required to shoot at ISO 400 or greater to maintain apertures of f4 to F5.6. The new low noise CMOS sensor in the Nikon D300 was a perfect match. I brought my higher megapixel Nikon D2x as backup, but it never got wet. Our expedition was unlucky with weather, but the Nikon D300 and Sea & Sea MDX-D300 housing performed flawlessly.

ISO 400 settings very smooth
Blue light is the most challenging tone for all digital capture devices. Deep blue tones typically exhibit the most noise of any color channel. As with topside photographers that shoot at twilight, we underwater photographers are unfortunately pushing the limits of available digital technology. Based on my tests, D300 files shot at ISO 400 are as good or better than ISO 100 shots from the Nikon D200 and D2x. I was thrilled with the smooth gradients at ISO 400, but found noise creeping in at ISO 800. That being said, ISO 800 shots were on par with ISO 400 from previous Nikon cameras. My topside tests with the Nikon D3 have me confident that it will deliver even better high ISO performance. I can’t wait to get the D3 wet, but the D300 is clearly a significant leap forward for underwater photography in a low cost, compact Nikon SLR. I’m quite certain I’d never get film scans this clean at ISO 400.

Accuracy required with exposure settings
As with all digital cameras, you must shoot accurate exposures with the D300 to avoid the noise enhancing effects of brightening a dark image in post processing. Poor exposure at higher ISO settings is a significant penality. Use the RGB histogram to push your exposure setting as bright as possible without clipping highlight detail.

Avoid sharpening during Raw Conversions
Some people choose to apply a small amount (25%) of sharpening during raw conversion. I found that any amount of sharpening was detrimental to the smoothness of blue gradients during raw conversions and would highly recommend only selective (masked) sharpening on the final output file.

Australia Destinations Diving

Australia offers a wealth of travel experiences, from the drama of the outback and the diving spectacle of the Great Barrier Reef to the cosmopolitan city of Sydney and arguably the best beaches in the world.
Australia is an enormous country, and visitors expecting to see an opera in Sydney one night and meet Crocodile Dundee the next, followed by whale shark excursions in Western Australia the next, will have to radically re-think their grasp of geography and perspective of distance.

For example, Sydney to Cairns is approximately 2700 km (1700 miles), the same distance as Boston to Miami, or London to Athens. East to West is even further with Sydney to Perth being a 4 hour flight, similar to Los Angeles to New York, or London to Cairo.

Australia is big and it is empty. Only 19 million people live in an area the same size as the United States or half as big again as Europe. Most of these people live in a handful of coastal cities.

It is this sheer vastness, and the friction between the ancient land steeped in Aboriginal lore and the New World culture being heaped upon it, which gives Australia much of its character.

• Queensland
• Western Australia

MDX-D300 housing viewfinder options

MDX-D300 housing assembly, feel and finish
The Sea & Sea MDX-D300 has a very solid feel in the hand and its in water weight seems lighter than the Sea & Sea DX-D200 housing. Unlike the previous cast model, the MDX-D300 is milled from a solid block of aluminum and thus has a more rugged finish. It survived 2 weeks of very poor maintenance (fresh water rinses out of a gas can) and cleaned up easily with no signs of corrosion or fatigue. The quick lock camera tray makes camera installation easy, but when using a zoom lens, it's best to wiggle the zoom knob prior to locking down the tray to ensure a precise install.

MDX-D300 housing viewfinder options
Personally I find all stock viewfinders on underwater housings to be difficult if not impossible to use for accurate composition and focus verification. The stock viewfinder on the Sea & Sea MDX-D300 is no exception. I received the housing hours before departure and was unable to install the new Inon Straight (180) viewfinder and chose to use the Inon 45 viewfinder instead. The Inon 45 offers a bright crisp image with the largest angle of acceptance, but I found the 45 degree angle (head down) view to be difficult for the fast action of sailfish and dolphin. I brought the stock viewfinder along, but determined I'd rather have the large view of the Inon 45. I was able to adapt my technique over the period of a few days and would now like to travel with both the 45 and 180 viewfinders and swap based on my subjects.


MDX-D300 housing control ergonomics
The Sea & Sea DX-D300 housing features oversized knobs and buttons that are easily controlled with even gloved hands. Essential controls (shutter release, aperture, shutterspeed, and focus lock) are easily reached with a large hand, but small handed users will likely find essential controls more difficult with only one hand supporting the housing. The round and non-indexed knobs for MSC and AF-area Mode require practice to accurately adjust on the fly, but unlike myself, most users don't regularly access these controls. The unique barrel style control for the Sub Command Dial (aperture) is very convenient, but is half occluded by the Fisheye Dome Port when not using an extension ring. While I’m quite fond of the smoother controls and ergonomics of the Subal line of underwater housings, I was able to operate all controls on the MDX-D300 quickly within 15 minutes of the first dive. The last Sea & Sea housing I personally shot was their Nikon F5 underwater housing and it was a personal favorite. This new line of MDX housings is a great step back to their previous attention to detail. Hat’s off to the new design team at Sea & Sea!