The Nikonos RS system was one of the best underwater camera solutions back in the 90’s. The product line was discontinued in 1996. The high quality RS lenses could only be used with Nikonos cameras because they had a proprietary electronic protocol not compatible with other Nikon F mount cameras. Andrej Belic was able to convert Nikonos RS lenses to work on a current Nikon DSLR body with fully functional AF, shutter speed, aperture, exposure mode, metering, Liveview AF and exposure compensation – watch the video below for more information:
This article on wetpixel covers different lenses/camera/housings combinations and includes several sample images.
Nikonos cameras and lenses can be found on eBay and Adorama’s used department.