In the spirit of LarryC , my first use of a SP-350
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In the spirit of LarryC , my first use of a SP-350
Recently returned from Bonaire. This was my first trip with the SP-350. I still needed a couple of days to sort out the camera, but the Oly Outlet advice really helped. Thankyou thankyou!!
Here are a few photos on Flickr. Working on a set for Scubaboard too.
Great pics, Gert. Especially, the Eel, the Puffer and the Parrots. I've got to try Bonaire some day. Everybody comes back with such terrific pictures from there. Thanks for the plug.
Banded coral shrimp? It might be, I only have a fish id book. Are the arrow crabs usually blue then? I don't associate signicant pincers with shrimp.
A couple of odd things about Bonaire. I never saw a shark or ray. Also missed the octopii and seahorses, though others did see some of them. Didn't find any nudis either.
There are a couple of dive boats which are going to the windward side of the island now. Those trips can be a bit rough, but thats where the sharks are supposed to be.
Nice pics. From the page it looks like you were using a strobe and wide angle adapter, is that correct? Where did you get the WA adapter lens and did you use one of the presets while shooting or did you use just regular auto?
I was using the strobe and the wide angle lens for the most part independently. I have a lens caddy on my strobe arm so switching the lens out is no particular bother.
Should I want to use the strobe with my W/A lens, I can swing the strobe arm out pretty far away from the camera. This way I can get the lens close to the subject, but get the strobe far enough away for coverage. This strobe (YS 25 DX) is a little bit weak. Eventually it will be a good fill flash in a two strobe setup.
I had the W/A lens (20mm) from before, with my Sony setup. It is for a Motor Marine bayonet mount. The base of the mount fits within the diameter of the Oly PT-030 lens ring. It fits just as closely as the 46mm screw in mount for the Inon W/A lens. I machined a nylon sleeve mount with lugs to accept the lens. The mount is attached to the Oly lens ring with small screws run through holes I drilled in the lens ring. There is very slight vignetting at the extreme corners of the image frame if I shoot with the camera at its widest angle. A short zoom elimintes this.
I started out with the U/W Macro preset, but adjusted it to SHQ rather than HQ JPEG image capture format. The White Balance is biased towards red in this mode.
I gave up on using RAW for shooting. The 5-7 sec. wait between shots makes it impossible to capture a moving target like the turtle or a Squirrrel fish popping in and out of a crevice. For a static subject like a wreck and a posed diver or a sea fan it will still work.
I also used aperture priority; manually reddenned the white balance; and made several exposures while adjusting the flash output. Keeping adjustments to only one set of variables is the best practice.
I pretty much had the camera in macro mode for everything. I would use the zoom in macro mode to pick out subjects which would shy away if approached too closely. I also started keeping my camerea up and pointing with it as I trolled around looking for things to photograph. Fish seemed more accepting if you stayed in the configuration they first saw you in. If I swam toward something, then lifted and pointed the camera at it, after it saw me, subjects tended to move away.
On night dives, I prepositioned my strobe and modeling light to about two feet (70-100cm) in front of my lens. I moved in until I centered the modeling light in my LCD screen, then shot the picture. Exposure was adjusted with the strobe settings for the most part. Used zoom to get a bigger image of the subject.
On some of my close macro subjects I would move the strobe arm out ahead; mount the diffuser and shoot with a softer side lighting.
Battery life with the SP-350 and rechargeable CR3V batteries is really good. My poor old Sony would usually run out of steam long before I could fill the memory.
Thanks for all the great Info, I am currently using the CR3V rechargeable, but change them after every couple of dives just in case. The first time I used the camera they ran out in the middle of a dive.
IT also sounds like there is some tinkering needed to put the INON onto my PT030, unless one can be bought specifically for that mount since I don't already have one. I need more practice with my U/W skills.
Thanks for the help, I am going to print this out and keep it for reference.
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