S100 settings without strobe

[garycrano]

Hi
I have an s100 in an Ikelite housing and no strobe.
I was wondering what settings other people are using when using no flash and using the the internal flash.
Thanks

 

[00wabbit]

I would put it in manual.

You want a shutter speed equal to or better than the zoom magnification to reduce blur. For example if you are zoomed out at 28mm then 1/30th of a second would be the minimum. If you zoom in to 105mm the 1/120th would be the slowest shutter speed.

Then you may also want a faster shutter speed to freeze the action of fish etc.

Next step would be to choose the aperture - This camera goesas low as f2 when zoomed all the way out. F2 will allow you to capture more light in darker areas but the depth of fiedl will be very shallow and you may not get everything in focus that you want. Choosing a higher aperture value will get more things in focus but restrict the light to the sensor. Somewhere between f3.5-f8 would be good. Higher is better but it depends on the light.

The next step is iso. Choose the lowest iso you can to get the settings above. This will reduce the noise in the image. On a bright sunny day in clear water you may be able to go for iso100. On a cloudy day in murky water you may need to get to iso800 to get the shot. Anything over 800 on a small camera like that will not be too good.

In addition to all of this you should be shooting in raw mode or raw+jpeg. This will give you the ability to tweak the image afterward. RAW mode captures all the date that comes to the sensor. This is actually more data than the screen can present to you. If you shoot j-peg only then the camera will prepare the image and then discard the rest of the info. You will need a program like lightroom to work with raw images but it is very worth it. Here is a little video I made about shooting RAW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSpPoLmlgZs

The other option is to put the camera in underwater mode and just shoot away and hope you get something good.

 

[jimw]

I have an S 95 with Canon housing and use the internal strobe. I found a series of settings here when I bought the cam in 2010.

I use TL mode almost all the time. I set an ISO of 100 most of
the time, sometimes going with auto ISO in unusual conditions. I use 1/60th or 1/100th shutter speeds virtually all the time. I shoot both RAW and jpeg--it's an option in the menu. I set the flash to always ON. I use Exposure Compensation almost all the time of 1/3 to 1 full stop under. There are a number of settings in the menus that may make your cam easier for you to use--read the book and play around.

In shallow water Auto and the UW Macro scene may well get you what you want.

 

[Oldbear]

[-][/-]What about the White Balance setting?

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2014 at 03:35 AM ----------

... Here is a little video I made about shooting RAW. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSpPoLmlgZs ...

Very interesting video...gave me some ideas to experiment with.

 

[jimw]

What about the White Balance setting?

---------- Post added September 22nd, 2014 at 03:35 AM ----------


Very interesting video...gave me some ideas to experiment with.

I typically leave white balance in auto, but sometimes not in our not too unusual "15 and green" conditions at Blue Heron Bridge near West Palm Beach, FL! More often, I just add a little red later when editing. I also shoot RAW along with jpeg's (stills) so WB is mostly a non-issue. Shooting video--different story--one must set WB.

 

[Oldbear]

Thanks...for what ever reason ever since I arrived in these waters off Kwajalein I have been having problems with my WB. I will switch to RAW, get a good edting software package and play with the different settings suggested.

 

[00wabbit]

Yep- you don't need to set wb if shooting raw. It makes it easier if you do set it but you can always adjust it later in raw.


When hen shooting video though you need to set wb because there isn't an easy way to correct it later.

 

[Oldbear]

Awesome info...thanks guys.

 

[garycrano]

Thanks for the help.I am going to Fiji in 2 weeks and hope I get some good shots.

 

[Tippytoes12]

I am relatively new to UW photography and went on an Indonesia trip with a brand new S110. The cruise director strongly recommended manually adjusting WB every few mts. I am thrilled with the results. Just a quick enhance on our IPad , a bit of cropping and the results have been fab. Sound very amateurish compared with you guys , but just thought I would share !