Canon Canon A720IS Photos from Sipadan Island (Part 1)

[Rickg]

I really like the frogfish pciture but I thought it was a little overexposed and could be cleaned up and cropped a little more. Here is it after 5 mins in photoshop. Hope you don't mind

jaybombs25,

No problem - I don't mind at all and appreciate the critique. I don't have PhotoShop so almost everything I did was with Picasa's basic tool set. I also tried MS Paint but didn't have much luck with it.

 

[realdiver7]

Great job, especially since the camera was new to you. I bought the A720IS about two weeks before my trip to St. Croix, US Virgin Islands in December. Took 700 pictures and 30 minutes of video, used only the internal flash and flash diffuser, but my pictures didn't turn out quite as nice as yours. I switched back and forth between macro and normal, but a storm (subtropical storm Olga) was passing through and the water clarity wasn't the greatest.

I used manual mode with underwater white balance, and didn't bother with adjusting flash intensity or center-weighted vs. spot focus. The video was nice, especially when I combined clips to make one video out of them, but then my Windows Movie Maker became unstable and locked up because I loaded it up too much by trying to put music, still shots and video clips into one long video.

I really like this camera and it takes great pictures. For my next dive vacation, I will make sure to learn how to use more of the functions. I'd like my pictures to be as bright and crisp as yours. I've been taking underwater pictures for almost 14 years, but just got in to digital photography in December.

Anyone have any ideas about free movie maker software that can be downloaded? RickG, did you use a flash diffuser?

Thanks!

 

[Rickg]

One question. All the wider angle shots appear grainy. I have the same problem with my A 640 is it due to shutter speed? How can it be corrected if it is not shutter speed?

jaybombs25,

I see what you are talking about. I think part of the "graininess" in the wider angle shots might be attributable to the fact that when I "exported" these pictures from Picasa to another "upload" file I reduced the file size and then when I uploaded the files to the Picasa web album I reduced the file size again so what started as 5mb files ended up as 50kb files. There doesn't seem to be an issue with "graininess" when I look at my full size files on my monitor but I guess to really tell I would need to print some 8x10 photos of the full size files and see what happens then.

Also, it could be the water. While we had pretty decent horizontal visibility (15-20m) most of the time, there was still a lot a particulate matter in the water. Almost all of these photos were shot at either ASA 100 or ASA 200 and with shutter speed set at either 1/100 or 1/125 for most of the shots.

Maybe somebody on here can give us some tips on why we are seeing this.

 

[Rickg]

Realdiver7,

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Looks like we switched to digital about the same time. My first U/W picture with this camera was on 4 December of last year. Prior to that I was using a fully manual, MotorMarine I camera.

I used the flash diffuser religiously when using the in-camera flash. I found when shooting macro that adjusting the flash level was the only way I could get decent shoots when I was shooting against a light background or when getting really close to the subject. One of these days I'm going to have to get an external strobe that has 10 or 12 power settings which allow me to bracket my shots and hopefully help me get some better shoots.

I found that Spot metering seemed to give me better focus when shooting macro than Center-weighted but used Center-weighted for just about everything else. Some of the wider angle shoots aren't as crisp as I'd like so next time I might try using only the spot focus mode for everything just like I leave the camera in the Macro mode all of the time (except of course when I forget).

I am also very pleased with this camera and look forward to seeing what I can do next time now that I know how to set the MWB function. As for the brightness, I just tried to get as close as I could when using the flash if you look at some of the other pictures in my Picasa Web album you will find plenty of pictures that leave a lot to be desired. The best thing about digital though is shooting lots of pictures doesn't set you back an arm and a leg any longer

I guess my next project will be to see if I can figure out how to put RAW hack on my camera and figure out how to use it. Hope you continue to enjoy your new camera as much as I am.

 

[fatbadak]

Rick,

Cool pics. I just got back from Mabul last weekend meself. Didn't take as many pictures as you tho. The last time I was in Mabul/Sipadan was in '98, and I didn't see as many sharks this time around. I was on Seaventures....and no I didn't see "Elvis". Where were you staying at?

 

[kilo_fox]

As I told you already - nice pix, especially the schooling barracuda!! I hope I'll see that one day...

.......and I'm wishing someone would post something like "oh, I really like the pic of the sea carrots", or so..

 

[Rickg]

kilo-fox,

As close as you are to there it would be a real shame to make it to Sipadan.

By the way, have you seen an "sea apples" recently?

 

[Rickg]

Rick,

Cool pics. I just got back from Mabul last weekend meself. Didn't take as many pictures as you tho. The last time I was in Mabul/Sipadan was in '98, and I didn't see as many sharks this time around. I was on Seaventures....and no I didn't see "Elvis". Where were you staying at?

fatbadak,

Thanks. I just finished looking at your pictures and you have some great pictures. In particular I enjoyed the yellow frog fish, the fish in the barrel sponge and the eye of the scorpion fish.

We were on the MV Celebes Explorer (CE) for 1 week and then Borneo divers for 4d/3n. I just wish SEA wasn't so far awau from San Diego. First time we went to Sipadan was '94. This was our 4th time. We saw lots of sharks on this trip. Enough that it didn't seem to be much different than the other times we there. But maybe that was because we were able to dive Sipadan 4 times a day for 4 straight days while we were on the CE.

 

[fatbadak]

4 dive X 4 days - WOW!! But Sipadan didn't really do anything for me this trip. I found Mabul/Kapalai more interesting. Most of my Macro was taken right under Seaventures!!

I really want to go back soon, but wifey....well, she takes thick when I go away too long.

 

[tjride]

Absolutely awesome pics Rickg. I am very excited that we just purchased this camera set up. Can't wait to get in our hands. I surely appreciate all the tricks you shared for taking pics with this camera.

Thanks,
Tom and Kim