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Anonymous File :-(, x)
I usually take my Canon s410 point and shoot caving because it's cheap and I don't care if I break it. The zoom/focus mechanism is full of grit from mud and it hardly works anymore.
I've taken my D200 a couple of times, but usually not into really wet caves because of the mud. I've tried using a dry bag housing, and it works OK but makes the camera more difficult to handle. Overall the D200 is fine as long as I'm taking my time and am more focused on photography than caving. It's too much of a hassle to keep it out of mud holes or waterfalls when I'm leading.
The most important thing for quality cave photography is lighting. Multiple slave flashes are a very good thing to have. Don't plan on long exposures or tripods unless the trip is just for photography and you have people to help carry gear and set up. You can expect to have to focus by scale and hyperfocal method, headlights generally don't provide enough light for AF or to focus manually through the viewfinder.
Depending on what kind of pictures you want to take and your budget, here's what I would recommend: For general photo on caving trips, any point and shoot digital with a good flash. For advanced photography on a budget, a rugged film SLR, several cheap non-dedicated flashes with slaves, a 24mm or wider lens, and a lot of practice. For advanced photography with a sizeable budget, a rugged DSLR (Nikon D200, D300, D2, D3, etc), several slave flashes, and the widest lens you can get your hands on. Lens speed isn't too important, since you'll probably want to stop down to f/5.6 or so for depth of field anyway. No matter which way you go, expect it to be very hard on your camera. If you do a lot of cave photography, you can expect to destroy equipment rapidly. Even weather sealed cameras and lenses don't like being soaked in mud, smacked into rocks, or dragged on the ground- and that is not avoidable.
Camera-Specific Properties:Equipment MakeNIKON CORPORATIONCamera ModelNIKON D200Camera SoftwareVer.1.00Maximum Lens Aperturef/4.0Sensing MethodOne-Chip Color AreaColor Filter Array Pattern684Focal Length (35mm Equiv)15 mmImage-Specific Properties:Horizontal Resolution240 dpiVertical Resolution240 dpiImage Created2007:12:30 19:10:59Exposure Time1/400 secF-Numberf/8.0Exposure ProgramAperture PriorityISO Speed Rating100Lens Aperturef/8.0Exposure Bias-1 EVMetering ModePatternLight SourceUnknownFlashNo FlashFocal Length10.00 mmRenderingNormalExposure ModeAutoWhite BalanceAutoScene Capture TypeStandardGain ControlNoneContrastNormalSaturationHighSharpnessHardSubject Distance RangeUnknown
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