My New DC500

[desiredbard]

Finally took my new sealife dc500 out to dive last weekend. Did not have time to photograph much since I was diving with a newbie diver who decided to unbuckle her weightbelt at -10m (32ft).

Then I started nuking my objects, Using an external flash asks some practice. fried a couple of great tompot blenny shot, x-rayed some prawns and shrimps.

But lets back to the camera itself. It was affordable easy to manage and adjust, however it is important you read the manual, especialy for the above ground shots.
I had no problem what soever with my moistermunchers discolouring.

Great pics above as well as underwater.

The only thing is the battery life so I've got a spare charger etc on order

What I am looking for is however tips to adjust my flashing behaviour. A shot of a prawn does not have to turn out as a rontgen shot ;)

I've been experimenting already with turning the flash away from the shot but this can result in a darker right side of the picture.

Is it reecommended to zoom ? so that your distance to the object is larger.... I dont have backscatter anymore so would that resolve daturation issue?

[Bbarnes]

For really closeup shots it is easy to burn your subject with any external strobe. One easy remedy is to back up a little and use your OPTICAL zoom. (Always turn your digital zoom off---All that does is pre-crop your picture and lower your pixel count.) You can also move your strobe further away. If you have the digital strobe, the easiest thing to do is to simply turn the intensity down. If you have the regular, yellow strobe I would suggest using a diffuser.

[desiredbard]

I know I hate digital zooming there is almost never need for it. You migt just as well photoshop the object (stretch) to a full size.

I'll experiment next sunday again, water is going to be a bit murkier, but that will be a nice excersize with the external.

I hope to get some pics up by then. So far I only have a good one of a spidercrab at 15meters... oh what the heck, i'll put one or two up tonight

But let me reitterate
- Camera is cheap: 5m camera housing and strobe for less than $600
- Camera is lioghtweight and slightly positively boyant (easy storage under arm while swimming.
- Menu's are easy to comprehend althoough RTFM it is important to get whitebalance and exposuretimes right. You get away with more above ground than underwater
- No more lubricating your ring ..... ;)

On the negative site, yes the battery life is very short but whats stopping you from an extra battery

The complaints about the moisture munchers in the previous topic appears to be nonsense to me. I bought two extra sets:
One in Holland since no-one in Ireland deals with sealife, the other one was sold to my brother in law in the shop.
Now the camera comes with a couple of them already. And however I would have considdered them blue....they were pinkish compared to the extra ones...
Seems to me that the camera's and so sometimes the moistermunchers are not stired dry enough. After three dives the new moisturemuncher is now the colour of the ones that came with the cam. I opened the housing in between dives just to have a look at my x-ray attempts oh and the housing was stored in my wet-suit on my full day travel back home.

Now again there might be far better camera's out there at a far higher price.
I know a lad woth a cannon who uses the build in flash + difuser
But price qualitywise, at the beginning part of the underwaterphotography, or even the biigger enthousiasts who doe not suffer from "(cold water?) shrivel compensation by 200mm zoomlens- syndrome"

[Darnold9999]

Found that a diffusser made all the difference in close up shots.

[desiredbard]

Found that a diffusser made all the difference in close up shots.
Yeah found out that thats missing.

There is a difference in what is included in the PRO set between the sealife and leisurepro sites: Difuser missing , memmory card missing.

Now the memory card does not matter since its to small anyway. The dif. would have made a dif alright. E-maild the manufacturer already since leisurepro dous not advertise this item on its own.

Furthermore, there are two diff batteries listed on the leisurepro site.... does anyone know if there is a durability difference

[desiredbard]

Sorry this took so long but I did not have the time to this earlier. The pictures of my second dive with the DSC are now up.
http://www.de-ridder.info/album/main.php?g2_itemId=3568
The album is organised latest picture first and the firts picture is IMG_0075. A crab taken wihout the external Flash

Now most of the shots are of an affectionate tompot blennie.... I nearly felt harrassed by it But colourwise it was a nice test for the camera. Picture IMG_0096 is also done in scubamode.

Now I failed 6 pictures due to the flash not firing....
Vis at the time of the dive was 1.5 - 2 meters maximum and dislocating the flashlead might have had something to do with that. I also failed 3 scubamode flashes due to myself switching flashsettings (I did not know they were there and started to experiment.... RTFM ;)

Now after the 3 dives with my newly qualified wife last week I changed the moisture muncher...... It was blue...its still as blue as it was after 53 minutes at 19 meter.
(I did not take much pics then to having her taking up all my attention)

Now I'm not a pro photographer, and I am well pleased....
I'm more then open to tips and advise...
But on criticism without advice I'm change the famous bart simpson quote a little:
"Eat my Shorty"

http://www.de-ridder.info/album/g2data/albums/diving/carlingford/IMG_0089.JPG