Finally pulled the trigger on my upgrade to the Canon S100

[Foxfish]

After much thought I finally placed the order for the camera housing with Recsea. The camera will come this week. I have a SS YS-01 strobe and Sola 1200 photo light.

Up to now I've used an Olympus Tough TG-810. In general I liked the camera and was able to get some nice photos while recently in Tulamben, Bali. It was quick to use and set up for a shot. I could quickly change between macro, wide angle and video on the same dive. It was water proof which saved the life of the camera on several occasions when it got flooded. The supermacro mode was great for close ups but getting the lighting right with tricky with no zoom or internal flash when in that mode. The LED lighting in super macro mode was a dud underwater as was the GPS marking system both under and on the water. The lack of manual control over things such as the aperture setting, shutter speed and white balance was limiting, especially now that I have a strobe.

I thought about getting into the mirrorless lens and low end dSLR range, but liked the simplicity and convenience of the system I've used up until now. The G12 was appealing and it was a toss up between this and the S100 in the end. I liked the look of the Olympus XZ-1 also but it got the bullet when I found out the YS-01 DS-TTL wouldn't work with the camera. Seems to me that Olympus shot themselves in the foot with that one. The S100 image quality is better than the G12, at least on paper. I had compared some of my TG-810 photos with the G12 and frankly could not see a lot of difference in image quality though on paper the G12 was better so not sure how much difference this actually makes in these cameras.

The big concern with the Canon S100 will be the battery life or lack of it. It is slightly lower than the TG-810 on paper and I could normally only get just over one dive with the TG0-810. Basically you have to carry spares and change the battery after each dive. The added hassle with the TG-810 is that you have to charge the battery up while it was in the camera.

I based my thread title on one that was listed in the Olympus section. Funnily enough there is a thread about a user changing from a Canon S100 to an Olympus EPL-3. Did I miss something? Gulp.

 

[chile7236]

S100 is a great little camera...I made the switch to the EPL-1 just because I want to get into working with different lenses/ports for an eventual DSLR upgrade...or even an EM5. I was always able to get 2 full dives (60+ minutes each) with the S100. Probably would've been better to go EPL3 but it was MUCH cheaper going with EPL1 and just adding a dome.

 

[Foxfish]

Thanks mate. Must admit that it is a bit nerve racking trying to figure out just what is going to work. The EPL cameras looked a good choice if you wanted to start playing around with attached lenses. They are a bit pricey in some of the Australian outlets. Hope you enjoy the camera.

There is criticism of the S100 in some of the on line ebay reviews. Much seems to centre around the display resolution which is about half that of the TG-810. I did like the TG-810 display so this may be disappointing. There were also some who seemed to have problems with white balance. Interesting that a number of complaints were by people who'd used the S90 or S95.

 

[chile7236]

I had the TG610 and the S100 blows it out of the water...I cannot imagine the 810 being that much better. Enjoy.

 

[RonFrank]

Sensor size plays a big role in image quality. Below is a proportional size chart (not to scale). You can see why shooting with a 4/3s camera is of benefit.

 

[Foxfish]

Got the Recsea casing and S100 camera today. The casing is nicely finished and the buttons and dials work well. The rotating mode dial on top of the housing can slip slightly but this is overcome with a little pressure. The S&S YS-01 works well in shutter speed mode using DS TTL. The shutter release button is very stiff - until you work out that it has to be rocked and then it works easily.

I found the various modes and settings on the Canon relatively easy to nut out and use. The LCD screen is better than I expected after reading some of the negative reports. Images are clear and colours good. There is no problem getting adjustments for focus and lighting etc from the image on the LCD screen.

After using the Olympus TG-810, it is great to be able to have manual adjustment on the shutter speed, aperture and focal length. Looking forward to getting this rig underwater and getting a few photos.

I also bought the Recsea SAL-02 wet macro lenses. With both lenses down, using a focus light and the camera optical zoom, I could zoom in 4x on a subject less than 5 cm from the front casing lens and get a very crisp image. Supermacro, here I come!

 

[LeeParrish]

The options for larger sensor may be changing some; I just saw the new Sony Cybershot RX100 announced today Cyber-shot RX100 Specs, Reviews, & Latest News | Sony | The Verge and Sony Announces Impressive Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Enthusiast Compact Camera that will feature a 13.2mm x 8.8mm 20.2 megapixel sensor. While not quite a 4/3 size, it's still substantially larger than the typical small sensor in the typical P&S. This is a camera that will be in direct competition with the S100 and similar camera and is now providing a sensor about 4x larger than the typical point and shoot. Who knows if it will be a good UW shooter, no idea if or when there may be a housing, but it sure shows that the companies are now experimenting with putting a larger sensor in a smaller camera to increase the quality. Canon did this with the G1X, but they also grew the camera in total size. This is interesting as they've worked out a way to keep the overall camera size still in the pocket camera arena. I'm a little skeptical of a 20 megapixel sensor in a sub APS-C size, but I guess it may be possible using more recent technology. How much noise in low light that this may introduce will be interesting. Other features look good on this camera too, shoots RAW, auto and full manual controls, fast lens starting at f1.8. I'm guessing that if it's a hit we may see some of these features show up in the next of the S series from Canon as well.

 

[chile7236]

Wonder how much a housing will cost, tho

 

[Foxfish]

On Snapsort they rate the image quality of the S100 quite highly, even higher or close to cameras with sensors much larger than their own. The true resolution of the S100 was also given a high rating.

Score - Canon Powershot S100 vs Olympus XZ-1

Score - Canon Powershot S100 vs Canon PowerShot G12

Specifications - Canon Powershot S100 vs Olympus PEN Lite E-PL3

A big sensor could be a good marketing tool but may not translate directly into good image quality.

The zoom control lever on top of the Recsea housing won't zoom one way if you put pressure on the top mode dial button. I like the flash attachment. The locking system is a bit fiddly but will probably get easier with time.

One problem with the camera is audible noise on the video that results from either focussing and zooming. There is a Youtube video that shows this clearly.

Just had a look at Sony Cybershot RX 100 specs. They look very impressive.

 

[Foxfish]

Tried the camera and strobe out today. Wasn't particularly successful though I did get a few decent shots of soft corals. I'm a novice in the use of strobes but thought it may have been a little easier and reliable.

The firing of the flash was unreliable. Sometimes it worked sometimes not. It was worse in DS-TTL mode but the problem also occurred in manual mode. The fibre optic cable is by Intova. It had a plastic plug on the end. I pulled the cable out of the plug. You could see 2 mm of clear fibre optic cable protruding under the black cable sheath. This was inserted into the Recsea housing strobe 'socket'.

The DS-TTL mode lighting was rarely correct. It was either over or under exposed.

Backscatter is a problem with sediment in the water.

The strobe certainly adds another dimension to underwater photography and I got some pleasing results when the right manual connection was made.