I took my Nikon D70 in the Sea & Sea Housing shooting available light. I'm pleased with my compositions but not happy with the resolutions. I don't know what I did to get the images so pixilated. I guess I just have to keep practicing.
I had some other weird stuff go on that I will have to figure out. This u/w photography certainly is a challenge.

scuba,,
you seemed to be shallow enough, with plenty of light. so i doubt you cranked the ISO to the max.
please post your findings on what caused the 'grain'!!
i'm interested also.

Check this to see what influences the settings on your camera have: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD70/page14.asp (click next at the bottom when done as there are a few more pages of tests.)

Make sure that you have your output set to RAW or JPEG Fine.

S...

I just reloaded the camera into the housing and noticed that it changed the setting from automatic to portrait. The ISO is set at 1600 which is where I usually keep it. It is set for Raw & JPeg.
When I downloaded from the camera it sorted them through Picasa and every other frame was black. When I was shooting I could not see an image on my LDS but thought it was just because of the surface light – now I know it was because I was looking at the black frames which are the JPEG images.
The images that have details are NEF and dimensions are 3008 x 2000 pixels. This was only the second time I have taken this camera in the housing and sure have a lot to learn.
I obviously need help.
I was very active in the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS) in the San Francisco Bay area. I set up a marketing program to solicit sponsors for our contests. I was the Director of the International Underwater Photo contest for several years and had the privilege of being president the last year before I moved here. I probably would have given up u/w photography in total frustration had it not been for the very talented members of NCUPS who so willingly shared their experiences.
I am willing to get a UPS started here. How does ACUPS sound? (Ambergris Caye Underwater Photographic Society.) Who’s interested?

If you check the article you'll see that JPEG images in RAW/JPEG mode only come out in basic mode which will add to the grain factor ( http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD70/page11.asp ) . Shooting at anything over 200 ISO in most digitals starts to introduce a lot of grain. I always try to shoot under 200ISO if possible and then use exposure compensation to bring up the light levels.

I have used the DPreview site in the past, it is a great resource for all kinds of digital cameras.
Check it out!

Simon - OH MY GOD - I had completely forgotten which way to go on the ISO. THANK you for letting me know before I shot the lighted boat parade tonight.
When I was shooting slides I always used 50 for macro and 100 for wide angle. I just changed the setting and see that the lowest ISO I can get is 640. I did a test shot of my window and both NEF & JPG look great!

You should be able to get 200ISO from your camera, just make sure you are shooting in aperture mode or shutter speed mode. I rarely us the Auto mode as you usually end up with a "flat" photo (although in the shots you took that's what you want.) It's going to be tough to shoot pictures of the boats tonight with all the wind (long exposures are going to blur the lights.)

And after I posted I realized I really meant ASA. How soon we forget!
For the lighted boat parade I switched to JPEG-fine as I knew I would have to take a lot of shots. After all the boats went by they put me and a couple of other photographers along with the judges on a boat and we went out and circled each entry. Actually got some pretty nice shots; over one hundred. Editing will be a drag!