Thanks very much for the kind words of encouragement! It means a lot to me as a novice...of course, for every decent shot, 3-4 bad ones were taken! I am especially pissed about a 10 second moment when I got steamrolled by a school of huge humpheads that swam straight at me and passed me on both sides...It would have made for fantastic photos....but it was dawn and I was fumbling with my flash/ISO/manual settings! I got a couple of bad pics here to show for it....tried to put a semi artistic twist to a crappy pic by fiddling with Lightroom RAW converter! lol...
Hammerhead man, Thanks for your kind words too. To answer your question, I tried using manual focus but ended up using auto for many shots. In fact, I had practiced doing so on land for Macro shots to get DOF right like this cigarette photo...
It would have worked well if not for the dim lighting I believe. Underwater, it seemed hard to tell if the subject was in focus. I would definitely use it if conditions are good. ie, No current, plenty of time, good light, the ability to rest comfortable and get support ...like lying on the sand to sneak up on the eel or goby. The only way to use manual focus is to set it at the magnification you want and move closer or further away. It is definitely harder to use! Good mainly for non spookable subjects like Nudibranches.
I used Manual settings for all the shots and shot in RAW. WB was set to Auto and ISO was 100 in almost all cases. Backscatter was a huge problem for me due to bad vis and much adjustments and luck was needed to get the shots. I have so many unusable pics which would have been awesome due to backscatter or poor strobe lighting/settings..... I still got lots to learn. Was lucky enough to get some tips from Ed D Man whom I met at the airport....."set your manual settings for the shot you want, and fiddle with the manual strobe settings and placements" ....I will keep it in mind for my next trip! I use a single YS-110 strobe from Sea & Sea. I do love this camera, especially it's compact size. The G9 is a more advanced camera and allows for even more customization and options....but underwater, it's all about composition and lighting I believe. (Novice perspective of course!). I much rather have a smaller camera that I can stuff down my pocket. I won't be trading in my DX-1G for a DSLR system....instead, as I get better, it will serve as a decent backup for a D300 when I decide I can shoot well (or often) enough to get one.
Here are a few more pics...
