Finally some pictures and a review of my E-PL1 underwater

[Michael Folise]

Frank, you should be very proud of the results you got especially the movie. Really good considering that was the first time with that set up. Dang, I don't know what it is about lobsters but I have never gotten a good shot of one!

Question, is white balance settings (manual) carried over from PSAM to Movie mode or does WB have to be reset, or do you just leave it on auto for the movies?

Thanks in advance for your reply

 

[under water]

... Question, is white balance settings (manual) carried over from PSAM to Movie mode or does WB have to be reset, or do you just leave it on auto for the movies?
Thanks in advance for your reply

Thanks for the nice words. For this trip, I just used auto for white balance.
With the photos, I shot using RAW and if needed could adjust in post-processing. With Video, auto WB worked well when I had my Sola600 video light working. After that died, I wish I had an external orange filter as it is a bit tougher to get a decent WB with video after the fact. I used Pinnacle Studio 14 for the videos, a consumer version of Avid.
The best thing to do for U/W video is to set WB manually somewhat regularly, whenever you change depth. Again, seeing as it was my first time with this setup, I really didn't do that.

 

[under water]

Well,
I finally did get a chance to take the camera underwater again and I think it makes sense for me to update my initial assessment of the camera.

Last month we went to Grand Cayman and stayed at Sunset House and enjoyed a really relaxing dive holiday. I was able to take some of the feedback from this thread and many others here and try some new things.

On the GC trip I used the manual mode on the camera exclusively and I believe that allowed for much better control and better final images than using the S & A modes as I did in Borneo. I was also able to switch out the ports between the standard port and the Zen Dome to allow for the use of an add-on UCL-165 close up lens.

By moving to manual mode, I was able to keep the aperture higher than 7 most of the time and this made a big improvement in edge sharpness when using the Zen dome. See, I did learn from this thread.

In Borneo the 9-18mm lens and the Zen dome were the right tools for the large schools of fish, In Grand Cayman, they were the right tools for the recently sunk Kittiwake wreck.

My replacement Sola600 worked through all of my dives this time, so I'm happy with that. And the S2000 strobes performed flawlessly.

All in all I am more convinced that I have actually ended up with a near perfect setup and at a really nice price point. That still doesn't keep me from itchin' to get a housing for my T2i.

As it was with Borneo, travel with this setup (E-PL1, 14-42 and 9-18 lenses, Oly housing, Zen dome, UCLS tray & Arms, two S-2000 strobes and a Sola 600 video/focus light) all fit into single sling-style camera bag that also had room for my backup (G9 in canon housing) and a laptop that I was able to take onboard as my "personal item" in addition to my carry-on that I use for my regs, etc. I did put the standard port on the carry-on, not the camera bag.

There are a lot more things that I wished I had tried while there, but one has to just dive sometimes too. There never really seems to be enough time when you are a warm water vacation diver. Those of you who can drive (or walk) to warm clear water, or enjoy diving in green cold water in February consider yourselves lucky!

Well here are a few pictures from this trip that show some of the flexibility.
If interested, more can be found at Grand Cayman 2011

 

[cardog]

The octo shot is a prize winner!
How was the UCL165 with the 14-42 lens?

 

[deeper thoughts]

Fantastic!!

 

[under water]

Didn't really spend much time on video this trip, but had some fun with the little bits I did take.

[youtubehq]-KvZe2VnWUM[/youtubehq]

 

[under water]

The octo shot is a prize winner!
How was the UCL165 with the 14-42 lens?

Thanks!
I thought the UCL165 worked really well with the kit lens. It does vignette at 14mm, but zooming in a bit fixes that. I thought best results were at the 42mm end of the lens. The Peterson Shrimp in the post above is taken at 42mm with the UCL165 and it shows the hairs (or whatever those are) quite well.
It can be a bit difficult to get sharp focus if there is any surge or current.
This is an example of some undeveloped sargeant major eggs at 42mm, f11, 1/160 sec, ISO 200 and UCL165

 

[Byte Me]

Fantastic stuff Frank! I'll be getting my e-pl1 underwater next week on the Belize Aggressor III. Can't wait - have almost the same setup with the exception of I've got 7-14 and a single D2000. Those are awesome shots!

 

[chadbeck]

That octopus is brilliant. Very well done.

 

[mantmich]

Hi, what was the setting for the video and what lighting did you use?