Canon S50 owners...need help with manual white balance...

[beir]

Ok, this is a question for all of you Canon S50 owners.

I keep seeing that manual white-balance is the key to getting good pictures. While it’s easy enough to mess with the white-balance out of the underwater housing, it seems impossible when it’s in the housing. The underwater housing has buttons for everything except the scroll up and down controls on the up-down, left-right scroll control on the upper right corner of the camera near the function dial (does that make sense?). When you bring up the function menu, you need to be able to scroll up and down to get to the white-balance setting.

Basically what I am asking is how you set the white-balance while you are underwater. And, if you can’t do it in the underwater, how can I figure out the right setting top-side so it’s right when I get in the water?

What ISO speeds do you recommend? What shooting modes do you recommend?

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

TIA,
Matt

 

[KeyLargoBrent]

Ok, this is a question for all of you Canon S50 owners.

I keep seeing that manual white-balance is the key to getting good pictures. While it’s easy enough to mess with the white-balance out of the underwater housing, it seems impossible when it’s in the housing. The underwater housing has buttons for everything except the scroll up and down controls on the up-down, left-right scroll control on the upper right corner of the camera near the function dial (does that make sense?). When you bring up the function menu, you need to be able to scroll up and down to get to the white-balance setting.

Basically what I am asking is how you set the white-balance while you are underwater. And, if you can’t do it in the underwater, how can I figure out the right setting top-side so it’s right when I get in the water?

What ISO speeds do you recommend? What shooting modes do you recommend?

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

TIA,
Matt

hold down the MF button and press the left/right button. Now you can manually set your white balance while the s50 is inside the waterproof housing! You can't access manual white balance in AUTO mode. I turn off the flash and use P mode along with manual white balance and auto ISO.

This works well; however, the depth of field is limited, due to the fact that the camera's program chooses to shoot pretty much everything underwater with a wide open aperture (f 2.8) and the highest possible shutter speed... a good choice for fast moving subjects like fishes and divers.

I need to play around with aperture priority to see if I can extend my depth of field for still life and macro shots. I hope this helps. Manual white balance greatly improved my results.

 

[beir]

hold down the MF button and press the left/right button. Now you can manually set your white balance while the s50 is inside the waterproof housing! You can't access manual white balance in AUTO mode. I turn off the flash and use P mode along with manual white balance and auto ISO.

This works well; however, the depth of field is limited, due to the fact that the camera's program chooses to shoot pretty much everything underwater with a wide open aperture (f 2.8) and the highest possible shutter speed... a good choice for fast moving subjects like fishes and divers.

I need to play around with aperture priority to see if I can extend my depth of field for still life and macro shots. I hope this helps. Manual white balance greatly improved my results.

Thanks for the reply. After fiddling around with the camera a bit I got what you said to work but only with the M (manual) mode. In P mode I get the exposure setting when I hold down the function button....? This sound right to you?

Thanks

 

[Gilligan]

I don't have your camera but I encourage you to use the "M" mode as I think you will get better results, both with and without the strobe. A little practice with the F stops and shutter speeds and you will find the "sweet spots" on your camera for both strobe and non-strobe shots. You will never go back to "Auto" when you do.

 

[KeyLargoBrent]

Thanks for the reply. After fiddling around with the camera a bit I got what you said to work but only with the M (manual) mode. In P mode I get the exposure setting when I hold down the function button....? This sound right to you?

Thanks

Try this:

(1) With camera on, in P mode, and inside of housing, press WB/FUNC.

(2) Hold down the MF button with your left thumb, and press the RIGHT button once with your right thumb. PRESTO... you're in!

(3) Use the RIGHT/LEFT buttons to select one of the custom white balance icons (you have two).

(4) Fill the frame with something white, and press the SET button, then press the WB/FUNC. button.

Once you get the hang of it, it's fairly quick and easy.

 

[Jason B]

I also say scrap "P" mode and shoot manual. Why let the camera decide what "you" want.
As for setting manual white balance before descending, can't really do that. Take a slate (or as gilligan does, a large piece of plastic from a white detergent bottle) down with you and use this to set your white balance. This will probably need to be re-set through-out the dive as depth and cloud coverage changes.