Question for those who really know about under water cameras ??

[Bajan Freediver]

Hey guys,

Super impressed with the Scuba Board forum. You have a great thing going on here.

For a living I offer snorkeling trips daily....swimming with turtles and shipwrecks. I taught myself the little that I know as far as photographing people with turtles which I give them at no additional cost.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=EA951A0EBE556BC0!35403&authkey=!AEtdFX06txFEj2k

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Right now I use an Olympus 6020 camera on the underwater mode with auto white balance, flash, and +- 0.0 whatever that is.

I would like to learn more about under water photography and buy a better camera.

I can not use strobes for what I am doing as being able to maneuver quickly would be difficult. A lot of maneuvering involved. Don't think I need strobes for surface photos as my camera is just inches under the water. Weather is mostly sunny. We do have cloudy days. Are internal flashes adequate for cloudy days for surface photos?

Looking at a few cameras :

I normally take about 150-300 photos per trip so battery life on the Canon s95 and s100 is a disadvantage because it would require me to open the casing on the boat to swith batteries.

Canon s 95 with Canon housing as recsea at this moment would be too expensive.
Canon S100 with Canon housing (lense error ...lense not retracting)
Canon G12 with Canon housing ...one handed operation?

Any other choice for my application?

Most of my photos are taken 18" to 36" away from the people with the turtles. I could have a family of 4 facing me with the turtle so lets say the entire subject may be 6 feet wide.

I know I need a wide angle lense . Which lense would you recommend for your choice of camera for me.

Do I need a fisheye lense?

If I do would it be too heavy or cumbersome or create too much drag?


Looking forward to some great advise ,
BF

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

There are lots of fine cameras out there. Part of your choice is going to be budget, how much are you willing to spend. I started with Nikonos V years ago, then an Oly C5050/Ikelite housing, then a G10/Oly housing no strobe, got into video with a Sony/Ocean Images housing, then a Nikon D90/Aquatica housing, down to an Oly SP-350/Oly housing and now I'm shooting with a Nikon P7100/Fantasea housing. Quite honestly I got tired of lugging a suitcase full of camera gear along with dive gear on every trip. For the price, the P7100/Fantasea is a deal as a package, $899. The G10-G12 are also great cameras especially with the underwater scene mode. If I had a lot of money I might have opted for the Sony NEX series/Aquatica housing. I do macro so don't have a fisheye. My macro lens is a "wet lens" so I can take it off underwater. I believe you can also get a similar wide angle wet lens for the P7100. For me, the fisheye doesn't do much good without lots of strobe.

For info, Mozaik Cameras, Reef Photo, or Backscatter. I bought mine from Mozaik

Hope that helps a bit....

 

[charlesml3]

I could have a family of 4 facing me with the turtle so lets say the entire subject may be 6 feet wide.

The limiting factor here is going to be the strobe, not the lens. You'll be shocked at how water eats power off your strobe. 6 feet may easily be within range for the little built-in flash on a P&S but put that in a housing and go underwater and you might get a foot or two. Lighting is everything. You're going to need a good strobe, maybe even two of them.

-Charles

 

[derway]

The canon are notoriously bad and slow auto focus. The g12 being the worst. Auto focus is very important underwater..

The best compact camera for underwater, is the panasonic lx5 or now the lx7. Best auto focus speed in any compact camera. 400 shots per battery charge. They also have raw mode, and Manual exposure mode, which you may want as you grow. Ikelite makes housings for them.

Most sonys also have very good auto focus, but not raw mode, or M mode until you pay a lot more.

If your budget allows it, one of the olympus micro 4/3 cameras, - like a epl2 with kit lens, and oly housing would be awesome. Great image quality, great auto focus, (compared to compact cameras). Just a bit bigger than a compact. Really, you could get a barely used epl2 and new oly housing, maybe for less than the panasonic and ikelite housing.

The oly e-pm1 is an even tinier micro 4/3 camera - but being newer, it might be a bit more expensive.

With any of these cameras, shooting near the surface will not need a flash.

Good luck! If you can find somewhere to compare the sizes of the housings in real life, that would be a big help!

 

[Scubanomad]

You have some great photos already, a bit more wide angle lens is what you may need. But that may cost you more than you like. A Pen Camera with a 9-18mm lens (18-36mm in 35mm terms) For your photos I don't think you really need a external strobe. But FASTER Autofocus like you get from a PEN micro four third camera use it in a Oly housing with a Zen Dome. Total setup will be around US$2000. Or buy a used PEN E-PL2 and housing.
The Panasonic LX7 with 24mm lens might just do for wide angle but the housing most likely would be 3rd party and run you around $1000 I guess. One important thing, start shooting in M mode using F8 to F11 with 1/160th or higher setting and perhaps shoot RAW and then use Lightroom or some other SW to develop your photos over night and give them to your customer next day. You be surprised how much you can get out of a photo by actually developing a RAW file vs shooting jpg "underwater scene mode".

 

[CajunDiva]

You should look at the SeaLife cameras. I have had great success with them and love the fact that I can shoot photo and video easily with the same camera. My favorite was the DC1200, but I have just moved up to the DC1400. I also have a GoPro mounted to the top of my SeaLife housing, so I've got LOTS of underwater options.

 

[thibert]

You don't need strobes, get a camera that has fast auto focus in low light, capture in raw is a great benifit if you have time to process the pictures after. Most important is to learn how to shoot in manual setting so you can adjust for the diving conditions at that time. If it is a fixed lens camera there are some great wet lenses that screew to the out side of a housing so you can go to a wide angle shoot if you like. In my opinon the package deals from sealife and others are over priced for what you get.

 

[pezgrande]

I am selling my Recsea GF2 Housing & wide angle 8mm port, along with the camera and the lens. This could be a great option: micro four thirds 12MP camera, excellent wide angle lens and all in a nice small manageable, maneuverable size. let me know if you are interested.

 

[billgraham]

I think the photos look fine right now. If you wanted to add a strobe, look for a Nikonos SB 105. I've got a couple of them, they run on 4 AA batteries, and you can find them on ebay, sometimes new in the box, for $150-250 US.

I see you're from Barbados, do you know my little bro, Fuji?

 

[highdesert]

Okay, cue the members who want to flame me for bringing this up ...

The photos of snorkelers with turtles are cute and fun and all that, but most divers (not all) learn that touching and handling marine life is very stressful to them. This is especially important with species that are endangered, and if there is any marine turtle specie that is not officially endangered, it's very close to it. Does your livelihood help, or is it telling tourists that it's OK to handle the marine life?