Canon A710IS, My results are in...

[lanshark]

I was previously asked about what I thought of the Canon A710IS and housing, I purchased it the day before I left for a two week trip to Cozumel in February. Some of the best pictures I took are now on my Facebook page. I took about 1200 pictures and 2 Hours of video over 16 dives. I used rechargeable NIMH batteries and was able to do about 150-200 pictures or so over 2 or 3 dives each day. The night dive pictures used the internal flash and the diffuser that came with the housing.

These pictures have been scaled back from 3072x2304 to 800x600. I think the results are pretty decent. There are about 44 pictures in this album. Let me know what you think.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2680&l=f6c23&id=630397024

Lanshark

 

[diver 85]

Good pics..Any strobe used or thinking of getting one if none??.......

 

[CheddarChick]

overall, do you like the camera? did you do any photoshop work on your pics??

 

[lanshark]

overall, do you like the camera? did you do any photoshop work on your pics??

Yes, I am very happy with the camera. The Canon housing was really easy to maintain for the O-Ring. it has 6x Zoom which is 2x more that typical non-SLR cameras. Due to it using 2 AA batteries in the battery compartment, it's much easier to hold using it on land.

No Strobe was used, only the internal flash and diffuser card that is attached to the housing. I didn't retouch any of the photos, I only resized them.

 

[proyce]

Did you play around with the white balance or did you just use the underwater setting?

 

[Ruminari]

I just thought I would add another note. I purchased this camera late last fall and went diving with it for the first time about 2 weeks ago now. The camera itself takes great pictures IMO. The case however leaves something to be desired.

1st the buttons are a tad too close together on the right side. When using a 3mm glove I found I was constantly hitting the button next to the one that I was trying to hit to either turn on or off the flash or on or off the Macro mode. If you don't use gloves this wouldn't be an issue. However with a 7mm glove I couldn't image in difficulty of trying to hit a specific button.

2. The flash diffuser plate doesn't do the best job of diffusing the flash on Macro shots. It tends to make the shots bright/brighter in the top left of the pic and dark on the bottom right. Additionally the diffuser plate can be a little tricky to get on and off as it clips onto the lens port and doesn't just slide into a premade slot.

Final note - I upgraded to this camera from my old Canon A70 with underwater case and found the A70 underwater case to be a much better case. I never had flash diffusion problems with the diffusion plate with macro shots. Additionally, the diffusion plate just slide into a premade slot which was very quick and easy to do. Finally the A70 case buttons were spaced out ever so slightly. This made a huge difference in accidentally hitting the wrong button, I never really thought much about it until I used the A710IS underwater case. With the A70 underwater case I rarely hit the wrong button while using 3mm gloves.

 

[av8er23]

Lanshark,

Did you use the underwater mode? Did you play with the white balance adjustments any? I just ordered this camera and housing tonight for my upcoming trip to Belize and Cozumel. I am currently shooting with a Canon sd550 and got the 710 for my girlfriend. You should try using photoshop and doing some adjustments to the levels... or autolevels. This will really take some of the blue saturation out of the pics.

 

[lanshark]

No, I only used the Underwater Setting while taking pictures and video.

Additionally, since I am a warm water diver only, I don't need gloves so button placement isn't really a concern to me. all the functions of the camera are available on the underwater housing. I'm sure eventually I may wind up playing with the settings more.

Lanshark,

Did you use the underwater mode? Did you play with the white balance adjustments any? I just ordered this camera and housing tonight for my upcoming trip to Belize and Cozumel. I am currently shooting with a Canon sd550 and got the 710 for my girlfriend. You should try using photoshop and doing some adjustments to the levels... or autolevels. This will really take some of the blue saturation out of the pics.

 

[Oceandvr]

Nice pictures! Glad to hear that the Canon housing is decent and easy to maintain. I have this camera too and am looking forward to getting the housing for it.

 

[sarita75]

Lanshark - I have the same set up as you and was using Photoshop Elements (really basic version) to make the colors a bit less blue.
As for the photos themselves - they look GREAT and make me all the more anxious to give my camera another go in the big blue.