First trip with DX-2G...

[sharky60]

We just returned from our annual adventure to Cozumel and my first underwater excusion with the Sea & Sea DX-2G.

For various reasons I opted to just shoot in the "Sea & Sea" auto mode for the entire trip. I LOVE THIS CAMERA!

The camera performed extreamly well, the photographer...not so much. Sea sickness and sinus issuse made shooting difficut so I didn't come home with nearly as many files as usual.

I did have some strobe issues. I'm not sure if the YS-25 strobe was not always syncing with the camera or if it was some operator error issues, i.e. rushing the strobe, (not letting it charge before shooting again) or if I didn't get the sync chord all the way in at both ends or the chord just getting old. But on occation I didn't seem to get a flash on the subject when I'm almost sure it went off...may be time to upgrade the lighting system...yikes!

On shots when everything did come together, the system performed wonderfully, great color and image quality all around. Very little editing as far as color enhancement will be required, just getting rid of any backscatter, which again is not an issue on most shots.

It is obvious with this camera, as it has been with all the cameras in this line (dx-3000-8000's) MACRO IS YOUR FRIEND! Great close-up capabilites even without the add-on available macro lens.

However, wide angel shots look very good as well. I just think the macro is the strongest mode for this camera series.

It will take some time to go through the lot, as I'm writting the trip report and back to work at the same time, but I will post some as soon as possible for everyone's viewing pleasure.

 

[sharky60]

what a dork!

I just figured out why the flash wasn't working properly, just as I figured, operator error!!

I realized on the way to work this morning that I had the sync cord plugged into the front of the camera and the "flash guard" in the housing that directs the on board flash to the sync cord was also in the forward facing potition...thus essentually stopping the on board flash from firing the strobe on occaiton...won't make that mistake again!

 

[hammerhead man]

I hope you post some pictures soon. I will be going to Fiji in July and am going to use my YS-110a strobes this trip. I am also considering getting the FIX fisheye lens for really wide angle shots.

Regards,

Bill

 

[sharky60]

bill,

so far, not much to post, I'm about 2/3 way thru converting the RAW files into TIFFs so I do what I can to salvage what I can...looks like I'll be calling this group of pics, my "blue" period

 

[hammerhead man]

Been there many times .

Regards,

Bill

 

[gustele]

Sharky60, your blue period should be over now you are shooting RAW. I have the DX-1G and do shoot a lot of time on purpose without a strobe. Most of the time you will be able to get a rather good color correction in your RAW-pictures after the dive. I am using Photoshop for post-dive processing. When opening the DNG-files in Photoshop the RAW-module activates. One of the options in that module is a small dropper that you can click on a part of the picture that is supposed to be gray. Immediately you get a far better white balance than in the original picture. From there you can further process the picture in Photoshop (in CS4 Auto Tone under the menu-option Image does a good job). Other programs will probably have similar options or you have to play yourself with color balance. After processing I save the result as a JPG-file. With Photoshop there is no need to first convert the pictures to TIFF.

 

[sharky60]

Sharky60, your blue period should be over now you are shooting RAW. I have the DX-1G and do shoot a lot of time on purpose without a strobe. Most of the time you will be able to get a rather good color correction in your RAW-pictures after the dive. I am using Photoshop for post-dive processing. When opening the DNG-files in Photoshop the RAW-module activates. One of the options in that module is a small dropper that you can click on a part of the picture that is supposed to be gray. Immediately you get a far better white balance than in the original picture. From there you can further process the picture in Photoshop (in CS4 Auto Tone under the menu-option Image does a good job). Other programs will probably have similar options or you have to play yourself with color balance. After processing I save the result as a JPG-file. With Photoshop there is no need to first convert the pictures to TIFF.

I'm still using Photoshop 7, but should be moving up to the latest version soon. For the moment, I have to do the conversion through the DX-2G software.

I'm pretty good with Photoshop, so if anything is salvageable, I should be able to pull it off.