Underwater
Photography
by
J. Ramón Palacios
tell
a friend about this article
|
The
Nikonos discovery
What
seemed the easiest solution was to use any of my cameras and
just
purchase a housing that would allow for their safe operation
underwater. And several brand names appeared: Ikelite
first, then Subal,
Aquatica
, Sea &
Sea, Seacam,
Nexus
and others.
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My
daughter Tatiana at a very young age in Cozumel,
Mexico.
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The
problems now were:
- The cumbersomeness
of the underwater housings (Where to store them and how to
carry them)
- The price,
which resulted ludicrous (above that of any of my cameras)
- Each camera
required its own special underwater housing, to enable the
use of their individual controls.
- To top it,
each combination camera-lens needed a different clearboy or
dome.
- Surely this
contraptions are justified for serious depths, below 300 feet
or more, but they were ridiculous for snorkeling and difficult
to justify for recreational diving where we were normally
not interested in going below 120 feet.
It just had
to be another solution .........
Ives
Jacques Cousteau, our oceanographer hero who did show
us the sea, -he who with the Mexican oceanographer
Miguel Bravo were able to make Cancun Bay a sanctuary,
patrimony of humanity- had dreamed with creating
the perfect underwater camera. So he asked his company
La Spiro Technique, to investigate the necessary but were
never able to find the adequate optics. Nevertheless,
if with Emile Gagnan he had been able to invent the aqua
lung in 1943, to replace the cumbersome divers' scaphander,
something equivalent had to be possible with the photographic
camera. |
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After
many painful failures, help from Nikon was requested.
Nikon of course jumped to the occasion and accepted the
challenge.
Nikon and
La Spiro technique worked jointly and finally announced
their success to produce a viable underwater camera in
1961.
The camera
was first sold in France under the name Calypsophot, a
Jacques Cousteau registered brand name; in Japan it went
to market two years later as the Nikonos I, in 1963. |
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It
revolutionized the market: light, compact, easy to use
rangefinder camera, without the need for a separate underwater
housing, capable of withstanding the pressure of a depth
of 165 feet (50 meters) and temperatures all the way down
to -4°F (-20°C).
Each
one introducing great improvements, the Nikonos II made
its appearance in 1968, the Nikonos III in 1975 and the
Nikonos IV-A in 1980. |
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So
carefully, dearly stored my Nikonos III and went out to
purchase a brand new Nikonos IV-A. It had the first integrated
exposure meter; there was no need to guess the light underwater
(which was always very complicated and frequently frustrating);
plus, there was no further need to dismount the lens to
reload the camera. The Nikonos IV-A could be reloaded
from behind, like any decent land camera. |
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| Chronicles
of the time relate that the divers from all over the world
sent letters and telegrams to thank Nikon for its efforts
and to make some additional suggestions.
Evidently
Nikon listened because the end result was the formidable
Nikonos
V. As soon as it came to market I made one mine, back
in early 1984. |
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Years
later Nikon brought about the nice Nikonos RS, the first autofocus
underwater camera in the world. Facing insufficient demand it's
production was abruptly discontinued, ended, kaput-zed ......
just when I had saved enough to upgrade ......... |
