This gallery is included to give you an idea of the type and quality of pictures the setups described in this article are capable of producing. All pictures were taken on South East, Florida reefs and wrecks in 50 to 90 feet of water with visibility ranging from 30 to 80 feet.

Click on Group #s below for sample pictures.

--- C-3040 PICS ---

Group 1 - Pictures taken with a C-3040 with a wide angle lens and one external DS 125 strobe.

--- C-5050 PICS ---

Group 2 - Pictures taken with a C-5050 with no wide angle lens and the internal strobe only.

Note: The wide angle lens should not be used with the internal strobe since it partially blocks the light from the strobe causing uneven lighting of the subject.

Group 3 -Pictures taken with a C-5050 with a wide angle lens with a dome port and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

These pictures illustrate the tremendous versatility of the wide angle lens with a dome port in terms of taking both distant and close up shots.

Group 4 - Pictures taken with a C-5050 with a wide angle lens with a dome port and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power using manual focus set to 31".

The beauty of these settings is that there is virtually no shutter lag AND no focusing light is needed for night dives or dark engine room shots.

Group 5 -Pictures taken with a C-5050 with a wide angle lens with a dome port and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

These pictures illustrate the awesome power of the Ikelite DS 125 Strobes which were able to light this sequence at the rate of 1 picture per second!

--- D70 PICS ---

Wide Angle Lens Pictures - The Group 6, 7, 8, and 9 pictures below were taken with my Nikkor 12-24mm, Nikkor 10.5mm Fish Eye, and Sigma 15mm Fish Eye lenses.

12-24 Pics - When I added these pictures to this site I was surprised to see how many shots I was taking with the Nikkor 12-24 lens zoomed to 24mm. When I got the lens I thought I would be shooting mostly with the lens at it's widest setting i.e. 12mm. The reason I think I am zooming more than I did with my C-5050 rig is that with the optical view finder on the D70 and no shutter lag, I can get spot on compositions.

Group 6 -12mm - Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 12-24 lens at the wide angle setting i.e. 12mm and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

Group 7 - 24mm - Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 12-24 lens at the zoom setting i.e. 24 mm and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.
Fish Eye Pics - I was also surprised to see the number of good pictures I got shooting my Nikkor 10.5. Turns out the 10.5 is a very versatile lens which is capable of shooting both close focus wide angle (as close as 1.5 inches to the port) and extreme wide angle shots.

Group 8 -Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 10.5mm Fish Eye lens and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.
Group 9 -Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Sigma 15mm Fish Eye lens and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

Comparing the wide angle pictures I have taken with my D70 with those taken with my C-5050, my conclusion is that there is not a lot of difference in the quality of the pictures. What is different is that I am getting much better compositions with the D70. I attribute this to the ease of use of the optical view finder, the lack of shutter lag, and the ability to shoot RAW as fast as I can work the shutter lever.

Close-up Lens Pictures - The Group 10 pictures below were taken with my Nikkor 60mm macro lens.

Group 10 - Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 60 lens behind a #5503.50 dome port and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

Note: With a flat port the magnification would be approximately 30% greater.

At first I was surprised at how familiar these "fish portraits" were to the pictures I had taken in the past with my Olympus C-5050. Then I realized that my 60mm (90mm 35mm equivalent) lens was in the same 35mm to 105mm range covered by my C-5050. However, when I look at similar pictures taken with my C-5050, the D70 pictures are much sharper i.e. the detail is much better.

Kit Lens Pictures - The Group 11 pictures below were taken with my Nikkor 18-70mm lens.

Group 11 - Taken with a Nikon D-70 and a Nikkor 18-70mm lens and two external DS 125 strobes set to 1/2 power.

This is the kit lens. Topside it's a versatile walk-around lens and it turns out it's a versatile swim-around lens too.