Sea & Sea DX-1G in Sipadan, Mabul & Kapalai (Malaysia)

[pulpoloco]

Ekasi, I think you had a lot of great shots. I'm especially impressed with the pygmy seahorse down in the coral. The focus on that is incredible. Also, did you use a wide angle lens on the barracuda shots?

I have a DX8000g with a YS-25 strobe, and although I have some good shots, I'm afraid my strobe might be a bit underpowered. I also have a very difficult time manually focusing uw with the tiny lcd display. My experience has been that auto-focusing on shots like that seahorse take lots of trial and error. Anyone have any suggestions.

Finally, Ekasi, you mentioned some poor vis during your trip. I'm trying to decide when to go to Sipadan. I would like to go in December, March or April, but am concerned about water temp. and sea conditions. How were they on your trip? Any experience by others on conditions during those months would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Eskasi]

Ekasi, I think you had a lot of great shots. I'm especially impressed with the pygmy seahorse down in the coral. The focus on that is incredible. Also, did you use a wide angle lens on the barracuda shots?

I have a DX8000g with a YS-25 strobe, and although I have some good shots, I'm afraid my strobe might be a bit underpowered. I also have a very difficult time manually focusing uw with the tiny lcd display. My experience has been that auto-focusing on shots like that seahorse take lots of trial and error. Anyone have any suggestions.

Finally, Ekasi, you mentioned some poor vis during your trip. I'm trying to decide when to go to Sipadan. I would like to go in December, March or April, but am concerned about water temp. and sea conditions. How were they on your trip? Any experience by others on conditions during those months would be appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks for the compliment. Indeed, manual focus is really really difficult unless water conditions are right I believe. It would be almost impossible to do if there is a current. The DX-IG does have a decent enough 2.5 inch screen and the ability to zoom into an area during macro shots to ensure decent focus. This doesn't mean I managed either shot with one take each. To get those two shots, I took a total of 9 photos. The closeup was also cropped too by 40%.

I did use a WA lens for the barra shots. Strobe I use is a YS110....however, when shooting macro, it is at almost it's lowest setting.....I should think your strobe should be plenty ehough for any kind of macro shooting but perhaps a little underpowered for reef scenes or WA shots....

I will post a few more pics in a bit.....

 

[hammerhead man]

Eskasi, I also have problems focusing when shooting macro. I was wondering what focuing mode you use (spot, multi, etc). When you say zoom into an area during macro shots are your refering to just using the zoom button that is on the camera and then taking the shot or once you zoom the lens on the object that fills the lcd screen is there another option that allows further zoom to achieve focusing? Not sure if I am making myself clear but for example if I'm reviewing a picture on the lcd screen of the camera that has been taken you can zoom in on the picture to see something up close? This may be a dumb question but oh well, I'll ask it anyway.

Regards,

Bill

 

[Eskasi]

Hey Bill....not a dumb question at all....I meant using the "Magnify" Option. It doesn't zoom the lens but justs shows a portion of the picture as a closeup.... I find that this comes in very useful when taking really close up pics.... I have not yet tried this using manual focus but I would like to use this option on Nudibranches shooting macro on manual focus.... with a small F-stop, I would like to get a real shallow DOF and have the rest of the slug's body behind slightly out of focus. Focusing will have to be VERY precise though.... G9 users have the luxury of a bigger screen and more focus points I believe. However, I love my DX-1G for the WA! Can't get that with ANY other PnS!

I use spot focusing mostly for most work. By pressing in the ADJ lever, in macro mode using manual, you can also change which part of your subject you want in focus....very useful I think.

 

[Eskasi]

Oh Pulpoloco...I forgot. Although Sipadan is divable all year round, I would go in April over any of the other months. It's at the end of the monsoon. Less rain, more sunshine.... When I was there, there were two storms at night. One was so bad that the dawn dive had to be canceled (but was made up for later in the morning).

Vis for Mabul & Kapalai is generally not good. This is where you will be staying as you can't stay on Sipadan Island itself. However, the muck diving is fantastic in spite of the poor vis! ALL my macro shots were taken in this area and under these conditions. The two different eels with just their heads showing were near each other and shot only 5 mins into the dive from the house reef! I have never seen so much macro life from any dive site.....not to mention house reefs!

Did I mention that I was lucky also enough to briefly sight a small school of Hemmerheads on this trip? We also heard that another group saw Whale sharks!

 

[sharky60]

Man! sounds like a great trip! thanks for sharing the pics.

I have the DX5000G and used the 3000 several times before buying the 5, these camera's strong suite seem to be in the macro feature. The shots I get the most comments on have been shot in macro.

If you don't have the wide angle lens yet, save up and get it. Opening up the frame with the wide angle can really make a difference in the shot. I shoot at least 90% of the time with it. You can always crop down, but if you miss a subject because your frame is too narrow there's not much you can do about it.

 

[Ed_Dman]

Hi Eskasi!

Good stuff for a 3rd attempts on UWP. It definitely took me longer than that. Keep up the good work, learn, practice, practice and practice more. You'll only get better!

I like the Blue Ring & Jacks close-up!

Ed.

 

[bthomas28]

i am looking at this camera and your pictures are great, have you tryed the wide angle lens? or were any of these shot with one?

 

[Eskasi]

i am looking at this camera and your pictures are great, have you tryed the wide angle lens? or were any of these shot with one?

Hi bthomas,

The ship and all pics of schools of fish were taken with the additional WA add on lens. I have this lens attached on a heavy Sea n Sea base so it is always on all my dives...even macro ones. In Kalapai (Borneo), the dive was for macro subjects. However, having my WA lens allowed for a better shot of the wreck which was at the location. Mind you, the DX-1G is already unbeatable for WA shots without this lens. The additional lens allows for more creativity. My only issue is not being able to add macro lenses for extreme macro like G9 users can do with Ikelite/modded Canon housings...together with Inon lenses.....I spoke to Sea & Sea in Singapore yesterday...they will see what they can do to mod an adapter. I am hopeful ...

 

[Adriaan557]

Great pics mate!