Canon Ixus 750 - White Balance?

[PrincessH]

Hi everyone

I've recently purchased a Canon Ixus 750 camera which has Automatic white balance and an underwater setting. I used it for the first time in Egypt last week. The photos turned out pretty good when snorkelling but when diving my pictures are pretty blue/green.

I set my camera on the SCN mode (then set to the underwater setting) which is where the Automatic White Balance kicks in.

Does anyone know if this camera also has a Manual White Balance setting? Or if any type of externa flash/filters may help me get better photos?

Any advice would be REALLY appreciated, as I want to be able to take better photos when in Thailand in Feb next year!!

thanks so much

 

[under water]

Hi everyone

I've recently purchased a Canon Ixus 750 camera which has Automatic white balance and an underwater setting. I used it for the first time in Egypt last week. The photos turned out pretty good when snorkelling but when diving my pictures are pretty blue/green.

Any advice would be REALLY appreciated, as I want to be able to take better photos when in Thailand in Feb next year!!

thanks so much

Hi Princess,
I have the SD700IS not the 750 but I think they work the same way for what you are asking.

1. I set my camera on the SCN mode (then set to the underwater setting) which is where the Automatic White Balance kicks in.
Actually if you set it to 'underwater' I think you are turning off auto white balance.

2.if any type of externa flash/filters may help me get better photos?
Yes.. Any type of external flash will get you better pictures. The internal flash will get you better pictures if you use the diffuser that came with the housing.
What kind of U/W housing are you using?
A magic filter should get you better pictures too. Do a search on 'magic filter'

Regarding whether you camera has manual white balance.. check out the Manual mode.
Manual mode Function options:
[SIZE=-1]....[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]White Balance - Auto, day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom one-push WB set [/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]Looks like it has the ability to set WB manually.[/SIZE]


Enjoy you trip, but get some practice in beforehand.

 

[bperrybap]

The IXUS 750 is the SD550. (Crazy Cannon Number scheme).
Yes it has manual white balance. See page 55 of the manual.
Downloaded here: IXUS750/SD550 User Guide

My wife has the SD850 (IXUS950) and we found out that the built in
underwater SCN mode didn't work very well. It left way too much blue.
What worked really well was to use custom white balance.
In the Carribean there is often white sand below you. You set white balance
by pointing the camera at the sand and take your shot. Colors come out great
that way. If no sand you have to use something like a white slate.
The SD850 has the ability to assign the custom white balance function to the
[print<->] button. This makes it super easy. Simply point the camera at the sand
push the print button to set white balance and then take your shot.
You end up needed to set white balance quite often because it will be different
depending on depth and current lighting conditions.


I glanced at the SD550 manual. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you can reassign
the print button. You might check though to see if it can be done and the
manual is just out of date.

If not, you can still do it through the menu functions, it just takes more
button pushes to do it.

Looking forward there might be some hope. The CHDK canon f/w that
adds RAW mode and a bunch of other features to DIGIC II and DIGIC III
cameras has been able to dump the f/w out of the SD550.
This means that at some point in the future there may
be a CHDK release available for that camera that allows you to shoot in RAW
which would eliminate the need for white balancing in the camera.

Here is the link to the CHDK site: CHDK site

--- bill

 

[PrincessH]

Thanks Frank & Bill , I really appreciate all your help I've printed out both your comments and the websites too, so hopefully I'll work on my camera and get some decent photos next time! If all else fails I'll do the PADI photography course which may help.
thanks again & happy diving!

 

[peterbj7]

Although flash will illuminate your picture better it'll also illuminate the detritis in the water between camera and subject, stuff that with the eye you don't even see but which is very visible to the camera. With flash on it it appears like small bright coloured specs, and will runi a picture. If you can get REALLY close and the water is clear then use flash and you should get good pictures. If you can't get really close, because the subject is just too big, then don't use flash. If your picture isn't good as a result then that's an example of the pictures you can't take with a simple camera setup.

Way beyond the scope of this sort of photography is the use of external illumination. If you have bright lights well off the lens line that are set to fire at the right time then you can get good pictures. But you're starting to get into serious money, and in any case you need to understand the basics very well.

People who take really good underwater pictures of large objects like wrecks or whale sharks generally have extremely expensive gear (tens of thousands of $) and know how to use it. Even so they probably waste most shots they take. These people probably started with a simple camera, probably using expensive film - with a digital camera and zero cost per image you have a tremendous head start on these pros!

The moral is - get out there and start shooting, but keep notes of how you take each picture and study them at length afterwards. That way you should learn fast. Always understand what the limitations are with that gear in those conditions and work within them - that way you'll find you can get some very good results with a pretty cheap camera. If you try to do things your camera can't do you'll get lousy results and you'll become dispirited.

I've just spotted that you're thinking of doing a photography course. I'd suggest that if you're methodical and record how each picture is taken, then you can teach yourself far more than the average instructor will manage. Once you're getting pretty good results and more importantly understand what to do to get them, take yourself off on a specialist photography course with a good photographer. If you search on the net you'll find some, often on liveaboards. It won't be cheap, but most people who do this reckon it's very good value for money. But choose your photographer carefully - look at work (s)he's done. You may find there's a really good u/w photographer in your area who's prepared to take you under his/her wing.

Oh and lastly, or rather firstly. You can't be any sort of photographer until you have superb buoyancy control without even thinking about it.