Need an uw camera "expert"...?

[kixy1]

Wow, I ask for a little help over in the UW photography section and hear crickets chirp, ask here and get some real input! Thanks everyone! Seriously. With your help, I’ve got my 10 point plan and I’m off to start searching for a rig


1) Buy simple POS camera

2) Come up with a good lie to tell spouse when he sees the credit card bill

3) Read manual. HAHAHA. No really. Read the manual.

4) Practice taking photos topside. This involves incessant, annoying photo taking at inappropriate times, hopefully resulting in blackmail material to pay for said camera, thus resolving #2.

5) Become proficient at putting housing together and taking it apart. Once I get it, do it after a beer or two, just to be sure.

6) Now I try #3 and #4 with my gloves on

7) Try not to throw the camera against the wall, maybe another beer?

8) Once I can operate it with my gloves on, I go in a dark closet to mimic underwater conditions in the Great Northwest

9) Go drink more beer and look at pretty photos online to remind myself why I’m doing this and finally….

10) Book a boat dive with Brules and go use my brand new camera!

 

[Tigerman]

Hahaha, something like that.. Yeah

 

[cicopo]

I think rule # 10 just might be a winner. Rule # 1 a looser because a GOOD P & S can serve as a GOOD everyday & every event camera unless you shoot very fast paced action. There are so many times in life when having a good camera & knowing how to use it PROPERLY can make your day that it's really a justifyable purchase. One of my mentors told me "a photo freezes time", and no matter how hard you try you can't go back in time to re take that shot. It really doesn't matter wheteher that moment was while diving or in the park, on vacation, etc. With the advances in digital high end P & S cameras cost less than most of the best film bodies pro's used years ago, but produce amazing photos in unskilled hands thanks to the software inside them.

 

[Sideways]

10) Book a boat dive with Brules and go use my brand new camera!

I was thinking the same thing.....:mooner:

 

[cvchief]

You know I bought a sealife strobe for my canon in a box. I learned to white balance for depth. Worked well. Figured I would get smart and buy the sealife camera. So far, I can't apparently white balance manually. Also the battery doesn't last always through two tanks. The wife also will not give back the Canon and seems to take better photos with the built in flash.

 

[Sideways]

You know I bought a sealife strobe for my canon in a box. I learned to white balance for depth. Worked well. Figured I would get smart and buy the sealife camera. So far, I can't apparently white balance manually. Also the battery doesn't last always through two tanks. The wife also will not give back the Canon and seems to take better photos with the built in flash.

Not sure what you mean by WB for depth??? Just WB in PS or lightroom, way too easy (I'm a serious techtard...and I can do it) Depth...is more controlled by your apeture setting, and or shutter speed.

 

[Tigerman]

Manual white balance CAN be a handy tool as it gives you a more correct starting point, especially if you work with jpegs. However it can also be a major PITA as you pretty much have to set the white balance very frequently..

 

[cvchief]

Not sure what you mean by WB for depth??? Just WB in PS or lightroom, way too easy (I'm a serious techtard...and I can do it) Depth...is more controlled by your apeture setting, and or shutter speed.

Sorry. SEE: I read a manual and now you think I am crazy. I bought a nice white slate and programmed the little printer button on the Canon to be the WB button. Every 10 or so feet in depth, I point at the slate and WB. Then the pics lose the blue mostly. The new fancy camera doesn't do that. It just flashed "under water mode" and says "That was easy" Oh wait, do you mean depth of field or something. Again, not a good camera guy above water. I don't think mine has a aperture, else water would get in. And shutter speed isn't a problem. I think it has that shakey hand setting built in, but most of the time I don't shutter....

Oh yea you and your oh photoshop is easy.... I bought the full monty. I played with and decided I liked the turtle a little blue rather than purple...... :crying2:

 

[driftin' by]

Now that we have all established that Brules is full of it, here is my 2 pesos...

Before becoming a diver, we were pretty avid snorkelers and I took gawd awful pictures with disposable "splash" 35mm cameras. But at the time, I thought they were awesome and it kept me interested. So I grew tired of spending $27 a pop on the disposable ones, I stepped it up and got a Sea and Sea MX-5 with was basically the same as the disposable cameras but all I replaced were the batteries and film. That lasted until we returned from our first dive trip where I proceeded to flood it at home giving it a good fresh-water rinse without the o-ring! Good lesson to learn on a $135 setup. So needless to say, I was into UW photography before I started diving and I knew that if I was at depth, I would have a camera with me. Luckily, for me, I was able to hone my diving and UW photography skills in the relatively safe confines of a local, shallow quarry. Only problem it was absent of any subjects but I didn't subject myself to swift currents and holding others up.

After the MX-5, and just getting started diving with all the expenditures the ensue, my budget was nil but led me to house my top-side, 5mp, Canon A95 with a Canon housing. For several blue water trips, I further honed my skills without a strobe and in the absence of RAW capability which included manual white balance and composition. Both very important skills that will result in great UW photos which I was able to do routinely. I then hit a proverbial brick wall in that I felt the camera was holding me back which was a first for me.

Knowing that the A95 was limited in terms of adding strobes (ttl) and lenses, I then purchased a G9 and Ikelite housing that I'm still using today and have no plans of replacing (for now). But I started with just the G9 for a couple trips getting used of the camera and eventually ending up with good results and hitting another brick wall. I then added an Ikelite strobe and same thing happened after a few trips. Then got a wide-angle lens and so on and so fourth. The great thing about this G9 setup is that it has allowed me this progression of growth but I don't think the A-95 or the MX-5 were both total losses. With both, the absence of some features, IMO made me a better photographer allowing me to focus on a couple of fundamentals at a time that each setup would allow. Further the relative costs of these setups were very manageable. Heck I think I paid as much for a sync cord as I did that MX-5!

I guess my point is that I'd recommend that you go the least expensive route picking up consumer P&S from Canon, Olympus or Nikon with a housing offered by the manufacturer. The bonus is that nowadays, most of compact P&S a capable of capturing HD video at 30fps so if stills turn out not to be your thing, you could try your hand at video. Most P&S that would offer RAW are considered Prosumer cameras or a professional photographer's P&S and my be cost prohibitive given the OP's budget when combined with a housing. Further, while having the RAW file in addition to the JPEG is great to have, IMO I think it's a crutch to learning how to set white balance at depth.

Finally, like many have already said, the correlation between being able to take great topside photos and great UW photos is complete Ka-ka! My interest in UW photography has peaked my interest in topside to the point of buying a dSLR but besides my family, I find the subjects less than appealing and still those results are not very compelling. YMMV.

 

[WetBoy101]

I have only three words to say: Intova, Intova, Intova...