Underwater Cave Photography is hard! (1st Trip)
After endless problems with my Ikelite housing, I finally conceded and bought a new one. This seems to be OK and so far hasn't leaked. After a couple of dives in open water i headed off to Taj Mahal to catch the early morning light in the cenote. I have taken some interesting photos with my old Canon powershot and the Canon housing but never with a DLSR. I can say its tricky. Really really tricky.
Autofocus is a pain
First problem is that you can't auto focus easily. There is no light remember! So I play a game reminiscent of Xwing Tie fighter, trying to move the beam of my cave light onto the focus subject, half pressing the shutter lever moving the cave light while maintaining the half press and finally snapping the shot. Ridiculously difficult. (Solution in part 2!)
Anyway using ISO 1600 and taking a ton of shots I got the pics on this page and have endless admiration for real underwater cave photographers such as Wes Skiles.
What about a tripod
One thing that became obvious for this was that I need an underwater tripod. ISO 1600 is just not cutting it. Unfortunately the Ikelite housing does not have a tripod mount ( solution coming later!)
read the next part of this article "Underwater Cave Photography is hard! (2nd Trip)!