SKIN DIVER MAGAZINE1992

CNew ProductSeries

SEA & SEA's

E ANGLE ACCESSORIESFORTHE

NIKONOS VTEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY

JACK AND SUE DRAFAHL

It was late Thursday and we still had tofinish packing our dive gear for a ten

day dive trip. Our destination was theBrooks Institute of Photography re-search vessel Just Love, near Las Paz,Mexico. Just when we thought we hadour camera gear all packed, SKIN DIVERcalled, asking us to test some Sea & Seaequipment. We looked at our gear andsaid, "Sure, what's another bag, we'llprobably have to take an extra planeanyway." "Good," the editor said, "thegear will be there today." Sure enough, inanother hour the delivery man showedup on our doorstep with a huge box.Fortunately for us, the size compactedonce we unpacked all the boxes andrepacked them with our own personal

26 SKIN DIVER SEPTEMBER 1992

gear. When we looked closer at whatwas sent, we were glad we had accept-ed the assignment because the box in-cluded a 15mm lens, a 20mm lens, awide angle viewfinder, flash arms, YS-50flash and YS-200 flash. In this reportwe'll tell you just how well this equipmentperformed on our Sea of Cortez tour butfirst, here's more about the Sea & Seaequipment itself.

F/3.520MMLENSThis extremely compact seven ele-

ment wide angle lens is not much largerthan the standard 35mm Nikonos lensbut it has a 79 degree angle of coverage.The lens is designed to withstand depthsto 200 feet and works with all the TTL

Top: Sea & Sea 15 mm lens, 20 mm lensand YS 50 on a Nikonos V and YS 200 flash(from left). Above: Nikonos with 15mmlens and YS 200 with flexible sea arm.

MM WIDE ANGLE LENS

Focal length. 20mmAperture f/3.5Coverage 79.5 degreesConstruction 7 elements 7 groupsFocusing range 1.3 feet to infinityAperture range f/3.5-f/22Body material aluminumPressure tested 200 feetFilter diameter 58mmSize 62X61 X98mmWeight 270 gramsList price $525

functions of the Nikonos V. The f/stopcontrol is on the right side of the lens asyou look down and it has a range off/3.5 to f/22. Click stops allow the diverto easily locate each f/stop. The control,on the left side, displays focus from in-finity to 1.3 feet. A depth of field chartattached to the top of the lens displaysinformation about the most commonsettings. For example: depth of field forthis lens at f/16, focused at three feet, is1.3 feet to infinity, the entire focus rangeof the lens. The front of the lens has a58mm filter mount. If you decide to usea color correction filter you will need onethat has vent holes so water can fill thespace between the filter and lens.

F/3.515MM LENSThe 10 element 15mm lens is a must

for those who want to concentrate theirefforts on super wide angle pictures.This lens is smaller than both the oldand new Nikonos 15mm lenses andconsiderably less expensive. The Sea &Sea 15mm lens is also designed to workto depths of 200 feet with full TTL oper-ation. The f/stop control is in full stopsfrom f/3.5 to f/22 and operates the

15MM WIDE ANGLE LENS WL15

Focal length 15mmAperture f/3.5Coverage 96 degreesConstruction 10 elements 8 groupsFocusing range 1 foot to infinityAperture range f/3.5-f/22Body material aluminumPressure tested 200 feetFilter diameter 77mmSize. ..80X64X98mmWeight.. 365 gramsList price $1,165I

same way the 20mm lens does. Thecontrol on the left side of the lens dis-plays focus from infinity to one foot. Adepth of field chart, on the top of thelens, shows information similar to the20mm lens except the range is greater.For example: f/16 focused at two feetresults in a picture with sharp focus frominfinity to .98 feet. The front of the lens isthreaded for 77mm color correction fil-ters. Again, be sure to use filters that

have vent holes to allow water betweenthe filter and lens.

MULTI-VIEWFINDER MVFThe Sea & Sea three element viewfind-

er is designed to cover the 35 to 15mmlenses with parallax correction. Thissmall, high quality glass viewfinder at-taches to the hot shoe of the Nikonoscamera and locks in place with a knob

OPTICAL VIEWFINDER

Angle of coverage 96 degreesLens construction 3 groups

of 3 elementsBody material aluminumDepth rating 200 feetMeasurement 64 X 57 X78mmWeight 295 gramsList price $270

es

just under the finder. It is designed foruse in depths to 200 feet and works withboth Nikonos and Sea & Sea lenses.

YS-50 TTL FLASHAND FLASH ARM

If macro and general photography isyour game, the YS-50 TTL flash is anideal companion for your Nikonos. Thislightweight flash is slightly smaller thanthe Nikonos SB 103 and has operatingspecifications very similar to it. The unitis powered by four AA batteries and hasan average recycle time of four seconds

YS-50 TTL FLASH

Angle of coverage 90 degreesBatteries 4AARecycle time, full power 6 secondsFlashes on full power 180 with

alkalinesDepth rating 200 feetExposure control manual/TTLU/W guide IS0100 26List price $450

with nickle-cadmium batteries. The bat-teries are loaded through a small O-ringsealed door in the back of the flash. Asingle control on the back switches theflash from the off to on for use with themanual mode or TTL with the NikonosV. A ready light in the middle tells thediver when the flash is ready for thenext exposure.

The YS-50 TTL has a 90 degree an-gle of coverage with its built-in diffuserand has a color balance of 5,400 de-grees Kelvin. This slightly warmer coloris designed to counteract the blue castfound in underwater scenes. The YS-50 TTL flash attaches to the Nikonoscamera with a two part tray and flasharm system. The Sea & Sea baseplateVII attaches to the Nikonos camera andthe end of the plate is slotted to hold

the Sea Arm IV. The base of this armslides into the slot, turns and locks inplace. The arm has a sliding extensionthat doubles the distance of the flash tocamera. This is especially useful forwide angle pictures and situations withheavy backscatter. The flash is at-tached to the top of the arm and canbe turned to the desired angle beforelocking it into position with a largeknurled knob.

YS-200 FLASHAND FLASH ARMS

If you want a powerful professionalflash that covers extreme wide anglelenses, the YS-200 may be just what youare looking for. This heavy duty flash hasa 110 degree angle of coverage, canwithstand depths to 300 feet and is pow-ered by a removable nickle-cadmiumbattery pack. A single control on the sideof the flash allows you to select one-half,

YS-200 FLASH

Angle of coverage 110degrBatteries nickle-cadmiumRecycle time, full power 5 secondsFlashes on full power 200Depth ratingExposure controlU/W guide IS0100List price

full and slave at full power. Recycle timesat half power average three seconds andfull power flashes take five seconds to re-cycle. A ready light is a short distancefrom this control and is easily visible un-derwater. Fully charged batteries canprovide between 200 to 400 flashes, de-pending on your power selection. A diffu-sion disk can be inserted in the front ofthe flash if you want to extend the angleof coverage more than the 110 degrees.When not needed, this disk can bestored on the back of the flash with aunique attachment device.

Battery replacement/charging is ac-complished by releasing the two catchand strike clamps that hold the strobetogether. The batteries can be chargedinside or outside the flash. If you planon taking a lot of photos, you can buy aspare battery pack and have it charg-ing while you are using the strobe anda second pack.

The YS-200 is attached to the Nikonoscamera with the very unique, flexible SeaArm. It attaches to a post at the end ofthe baseplate holding the Nikonos cam-era. The flash is attached to the top ofthis arm with a large knurled knob. TheSea Arm is locked in place by pushingdown on the arm, turning it 90 degreesand releasing. The arm can be perma-nently secured with an attached thumb

(Continued on Page 60)

SKIN DIVER SEPTEMBER 1992 27

Ask your dive shop for

Don't get lost at sea; be found with Dive-Alert,

the surface signaling device that emits a loud

blast heard up to a mile away. Quick discon-

nect finings allow easy integration with most

power inflators and low pressure hoses.

Models now available for SeaQuest AirSource

and Scubapro A.I.R. 2.

Tour device really works and will be a regular

part of my diving equipment from now on."

Stan Waterman, Underwater Cinematetjrapher

NAUTICAMCH-6• 3.5 CFM• 4000 PS I• Double Filtered

international MC Visa Amex Discover accepted

6135 NW 167th Street E-17 Miami, Florida 33015 305-556-5554 FAX 557-0268circle #102 on Reader Service Card

Power SnorkelThe Diving Alternative

• Fun for the whole family.• Easy to learn• Easy to do!• No tanks to wear.• Always connected to the

surface and your buddy.• Choose from eight models• Approved for air breathing.

Call Brownie's todayfor a free brochure.

(305)462-5570(Fax) 462-6115

940 N.W. 1st Street* Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33311

(Continued from Page 27)

screw. This flexible arm can bend 180 de-grees and easily holds the flash in place.

FIELD TESTSWhen we tested the two wide angle

lenses, we found the f/stop and focuscontrols very easy to read and turn U/W.We were very impressed with the lenses'compact size and light weight, both fordiving and traveling. The finder workedwell with both lenses, although the view-ing area is slightly smaller than that ofsome of the larger Nikonos viewfinders.The trade-off is that one Sea & Sea finderworks for all lenses, while Nikon has sep-arate finders for each lens.

We found the YS-50 TTL flash mostsuitable for macro and close-up photog-raphy. It was small enough to allow us tosneak into those cracks and crevices tocapture critters on film. The YS-50 TTLcould be used with the 20mm lens, aslong as the subject was close to thephotographer. We changed batteriesevery three to four rolls and found no de-crease in recycle time.

The YS-200 flash worked very well withboth the 20 and 15mm lenses. Because itis a manual flash, we found it necessaryto bracket exposures until a "normal" ex-posure was determined. Once this wasestablished, we lost very few pictures ow-ing to the manual operation of the flash.We lost virtually none owing to exposurewith the YS-50 TTL flash.

Of all the items tested, we were mostimpressed with the flexible Sea Arm.No more ball joints, connectors andtrying to figure how to get the flash in aspecific position—just bend the arm tothe desired position and it stays there.The Sea Arm has so much strength itholds the flash in position even in mid-air. We also liked the quick disconnect.This allowed us to extend the flash asfar as our arms could reach for specialsituations.

CONCLUSIONFor further information on any Sea &

Sea products contact GMI Photographic,Inc., P.O. Drawer U, 1776 New Highway,Farmingdale, NY 11735; (516) 752-0066.GMI can put you in contact with the Sea &Sea dealer in your area. *«*

REEF FISHIDENTIFICATION(Continued from Page 32)

in alphabetical order.The first few pages provide helpful hints

on how to identify fish, their color phases,distinctive features, general silhouettesand so on. True color photos portray fishin their natural habitats, where divers are

60 SKIN DIVER SEPTEMBER 1992