Mat,
Most dive locations have cameras you can rent on location. I would go that rout. Years ago when I did my checkout dives on the same boat was a scuba photo class. First hint. Stay away from the bottom (don't kick up sand). Second, turn the flash on before going into the water. Reds get filtered out (by the water) very quickly.

Back to the subject.
D300 and a collection of lenses, mostly a 17-55 Nikkor
Just got a remote release to complement the tripod.
John

 

Nikon D7000 and 18-200 VR Zoom

 

For Still Shots:
Nikon D40
-Tamron10-24mm
-Nikon 18-55mm
-Nikon 55-200mm
-Sigma 70-300mm
Pentax K1000 - I don't know the lens manufacturers for these...I may update when I get home and can actually see the camera.
-28mm
-50mm
-130mm
Canon AE-1
-Canon 20mm
-Canon 80-200mm
Minolta Maxxum 7000AF
-Minolta 50mm
-Minolta 70-210mm
For Video:
Sony DCR-HC26
GoPro HD Hero

 

The Canon 5D Mark II is my weapon of choice. It's 21 megapixels of pure joy.


Canon 5D Mark II by MWButterfly, on Flickr

 

Well, After a long wait, I just ordered a New Canon T1i for $430. Awesome.

 

Nikon D300s With a bunch of glass to choose. Cant wait for that good weather to take the coop out of the garage!

Tripod is a good idea for those sunset shots!

 

Still rocking the original/"MK I" Canon 5D with 15mm fisheye, 16-35, and 24-70mm (all f/2.8L's), as well as 70-200mm and 300mm (both f/4L's). Gitzo CF tripod with RRS ballheads and plates. "Lenses are investments, camera bodies are expenses."

...and I still haven't used any of it to shoot my car. Need to wait for the rain to stop and get some detailing done!

 

Just got a Nikon D50 with a Nikon DX 18-55mm and a Quantaray 70-300mm lense

Dont know much about it lookin to learn

 

Just got a Nikon D3100 with
18-55 VR 3.5-5.6
55-200 VR 4-5.6
85 VR 3.5 Macro
35 1.8 (hard to find right now)
SB-600 flash (closeout sale)
SB-700 flash
and an off flash cable (sc-29)
plus filters, battery, memory cards, etc.

That's my first foray into digital photography (except my wife's point and shoot)
and my first autofocus camera after years of Canon FD stuff and
a Fuji medium format rangefinder.

I'm having fun with it.

 

That's the same setup I use!! It's an older camera as Nikon's go but it does everything I know how to do! The only thing I can't figure out with it is how to do a "bulb" exposure, one where the shutter stays open as long as I hold the button down. I've looked in the manual a few times and followed those steps but no joy. I'm not sure if it requires an optional remote control to make that mode work or not but I'm not too worried about it, it gives me a reason to upgrade one of these years.

 

Not that I really know how to use it yet but I have a Nikon D90 with a NIKOR 18-200 VRII

 

My father just gave me myn so im just learning, big upgrade from my phone/digital camera, im trying to learn more about night shots w/o flash but the iso at 1600 i still cant keep it still enough, i thinking im ganna order a tripod and remote so its perfectly still
hope i can get the hang of this thing

 

Practice, practice, practice! It's not that tough to use but of course I don't really use many of the advanced features of the camera. I've had mine about 3 years and taken roughly 5000 pics with it. The beauty of digital photography is you can always delete what you don't like! I'm thinking of getting an adapter for the camera and moving into the world of Astrophotography but I still have to figure out how to get the shutter to stay open until I tell it to close.

 

Until you get your tripod set the camera on a bean bag, rock or log. ISO 1600 might be a bit high for the D50. To keep the noise out of the shot I almost never went above ISO 800 with my D70. If you have good support below the camera you can just hold the shutter down for a few seconds using the other hand (with a bit of pressure) keep everything from moving. Crude. Not as good as all the gear, but requires no extra stuff and with practice effective.
By the way. I think the D50 is a great camera. You should have a good time.

 

So.... I've upgraded..

Picked up a 7D, a 28 f2.8 and my previous lenses. Gonna upgrade from the 50f1.8 plastic fantastic to the 50 f1.4, Also desperatly want a canon 70-200.

Any comments on which one to go with? I'm stuck between the 2.8L non-IS and the f4L IS. both have their merits.. I do mostly day/handheld of the airplanes and what not.. but with that much coin in glass I'd like to make a super well informed decision.

 

Congrats on the new 7D. In general if you can afford the better/faster glass go for it. It will weigh more, but as long as your not on a backpacking trip the weight difference should not be that big a deal. The faster glass allows you to do things you can not do with slower glass. As you said both are good lenses. If you read back I am a Nikon shooter. I have used both the lenses you mention on friends cameras.

I tend to like low light and shallow deph of field shots. In general (don't know if this is true for the Cannon lens) teleconverters work better with faster glass.
Just some things to think about.
John

 

Bodies:
Nikon D300
Nikon D200

Leica R4

Lenses:
Rokinon 8mm fisheye
Sigma 30mm f/1.4
Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8
Carl Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro Planar

Leica Summicron-R 50/2
Leica Elmarit-R 135/2.8

Lighting:
SB-800
SB-600
Vivitar 285HV X 2

Cybersyncs;

CST
CSRB+ X 4

Impact light stands & umbrellas
18" Beauty dish
Tripod & Ballhead
Benro A-298n6 tripod
Bogen Manfrotto 486 RC2 ballhead
Pelican 1650
Cokin P filter holder, GND4, GND8, ND2, ND4, ND8

 

I recently got a Sony Cybershot waterproof camera. It's good to only ten feet, which makes it great to take some fun photos in a pool or in th ocean or lake close to shore. You could take it diving, but not deeper than ten feet. It is full functional underwater too. I can zoom, change to different shooting settings, including HD movie mode, turn flash on etc. I was suitably impressed.

In dry conditions I use my Canon SX20iS, but I might be trading this one up again for something a bit more sophisticated.

Buck

 

Canon 5D

24-105mmL Canon
15mm Sigma Fisheye

 

Just thought I would give the thread a bump and ammend my list of cameras I use to include the one in my Droid X. I've had other cell phones with cameras in the past but I never did much with them but on my last vacation I found that I was using the Droid for both video and stills just because I happened to have it in my pocket and the D50 or the DV was back in the room. I think it took some fair pictures but even though it's supposed to be rated at 8MP, it doesn't do as good of a job as the 4 MP D50. Of course I'm sure the Nikon optics has something to do with that! Anyone else find they are using the camera phones more often? Anyone use thier camera phone exclusively?

 

Nikon D40x with various lenses and filters, editing software is Adobe CS4 Master Suite with other filters.

 

 

Lucky(rich) Bastard!!!

 

Or possibly a way to earn income?!?

 

LIKE I SAID!! ahah I assist a photographer and say the same thing to him!