G-15

[Hetland]

Then I noticed the last part of the zoom bar that shows up on the screen has a yellow portion. As soon as I zoom into that portion, I lose my macro flower symbol. That means I have to be careful to not zoom into the yellow zone and that takes a little practice. My photos are getting better as I go along, and I am learning that there are some advantages to being able to shoot at a wider angle than I could with my old camera. I got my best photo of a gag grouper, and that photo is going to end up in a couple of books and apps.

I believe you can shut off digital zoom (as opposed to optical zoom) in the menu. I'm betting that you're zooming beyond optical, and in to digital, which is generally not good for photography, and the first thing I disable whenever I pick up a new model. Many of the camera's features will not work during digital zoom operations.

 

[ScubaMarc]

Some domes want the camera to be in macro mode, I wonder how the g15 work's with these domes.

 

[Mullet Spearer]

Just got my new G15 to replace my G10 which my wife will use for video.
Ikelite housing and wide angle dome arrived today too. On my G10 I had the C1 and C2 settings set up for wide angle and macro. Given that week after next will be in Little Cayman, sure would like some input on some "presets" for both options if they would be different on the G15 than the G10.

 

[coralcruiser]

I've been using the same presents with my g15 that I used with my g10.

 

[Hetland]

The G15 focuses well in normal (non-macro mode) with the new Inon UWL-S100 ZM80 for shooting close-in and wide-angle macro. I was mostly shooting f6-f8. I've not tried it out with any kind of decent visibility yet, so I don't know how it performs at distances greater than a few feet, and I was shooting it without the dome. It didn't seem to like macro mode, but did okay with wider apertures, but I was in super-turbid water, so I was trying to get my backgrounds as dark as possible.

 

[Carol202]

Hi all. I have used my G15 now on 38 dives, mostly doing close-up/macro shots. I have also started using an Inon wet lens UCL-165. I tried stacking two Inons, but haven't achieved good results yet - would need perfectly calm conditions and a stationary subject. Anyway, I have adjusted some of my settings and have learned a couple of other tricks. I have not played with the standard controls enough to offer advice, but here is what I am doing with my C1 settings now for macro shots. I am currently using 1 strobe Ikelite DS 161.

G15 Presets

C1 Macro

ISO 100, F5.6

Func/Set Settings
WB = Auto
BKT = Off
Single Shot = single image
Timer = Off
Flash Power = 0
ND Filter Off (I turn this on manually when I want a dark background on the photo)
Aspect Ration = 4:3
Raw-JPEG = I am shooting both until I get better adapted to RAW. It will take a little longer to save the photos, use up more card space, and use the battery up faster.
L = L
1920 = Set movies to 1920 for full movies (I occasionally shoot macro subjects in video)

Menu Settings (Camera symbol)
AF Frame = Flexizone
Digital Zoom = disabled in Flexizone. This only crops your photos and uses your battery faster
AF-Point Zoom = I have been bouncing back and forth between On and Off. In On, it enlarges the area I am focused on letting me see it in more detail, but it also makes it harder for me to frame the photo I want. It is also a little difficult to use this feature on moving objects. It is great for sedentary objects.
Server AF = Off. Another battery sucker.
Continuous AF = Off
AF Assist Beam = Off
MF Point Zoom = On (I may try changing this one)
Safety MF = On
Flash control – Flash Mode is Auto, Flesh Exp Com is 0, Shutter Sync is 1^st curtain, Red Eye is Off, Safety FE is Off
ISO Settings – Max ISO Speed is 800, Rate of Change is Standard
High ISO NR – not available
Spot AE Point=Center
Safety Shift=Off
Wind Filter=Off
Review=3 seconds (I may try reducing this to 2 to save battery, but 3 seems to be pretty close to strobe recyle time and/or file saving time).
Review Info = Off
Blink Detection = Off
Custom Display= Still playing with this one
IS Mode=Shoot Only
Converter=None
Face ID Settings – Face ID is Off
Set Func=I haven’t played with this one yet
Set Shortcut Button=Another one I haven’t played with yet
Save Settings – is set to C1 for this list of settings

Tools Menu (the Tool symbol after hitting the Menu button)
LCD brightness is all the way up.
Power Saving - I just set mine to turn my LCD off after 1 minute. I had it set to 3 minutes, but sometimes my battery was dying before I completed dive 3. I haven’t gotten a real feel to see if this will save much of the battery power or if I will change it to another setting

If pictures are coming out too light or dark, the exposure control on top of the camera can be used as a quick fix.

For Macro with wet lense I do the following:

In C1, I zoom all the way out so that my macro mode automatically turns off (as soon as the telephoto graph hits the yellow bar on the right, macro mode is automatically turned off on this camera).

I set the f-stop to F8 to increase depth of field.

If I don’t want to shoot zoomed out all the way, I change to C2 and set the f-stop to F8.

 

[coralcruiser]

For Macro with wet lense I do the following:

In C1, I zoom all the way out so that my macro mode automatically turns off (as soon as the telephoto graph hits the yellow bar on the right, macro mode is automatically turned off on this camera).
.

Hmmm.... I never had macro mode turn off uatomatically with my g10 when using my subsee so will be interesting to see if it happens with my g15. However, when shooting with my subsee I only zoom in just enough to get a full view through the lens and then move in and out with the camera to get the subject in focus.

 

[Carol202]

Something else I recently learned about my G15 (and other G-series users may already know this). If I am zoomed out when I save my settings to C1 or C2, the camera goes to that zoom position when I use my preset. I found this is useful in my C1 setting so I don't have to waste time trying to zooming out as far as possible, without crossing the line that turns off the Macro mode.

 

[coralcruiser]

Something else I recently learned about my G15 (and other G-series users may already know this). If I am zoomed out when I save my settings to C1 or C2, the camera goes to that zoom position when I use my preset. I found this is useful in my C1 setting so I don't have to waste time trying to zooming out as far as possible, without crossing the line that turns off the Macro mode.

It's a great feature. However, I have never had macro mode turn off. What are you doing to make this happen...do you have your digital zoom turned on? If so, turn it off and see if that will help.

I typically have my zoom set about halfway in C1 or C2 and then move back and forth to get good focus.

 

[Interceptor121]

None of the canon cameras need macro mode to be used with a diopter

For real macro (for which you need a diopter as non of the G series takes a 36x24 frame unless you hit the subject) you should be at 100mm equivalent with an Inon UCL less zoom and your reproduction ratio is lower than 1:1
Also am not sure about the multipoint focus, that is the best way to get blurred pictures as the camera focusses on the nearest rock it believe to be the subject. For Macro you are looking at center focus and focus are set to SMALL with maximum depth of field (f/8)
With the G series you can also try to achieve blurred background with large aperture
intermediate aperture levels between the widest and the smallest serve no real purpose as they don't help the focus nor blur the background
This is a picture with f/8 as you want both subjects to be in focus

P1000402-.jpg by Interceptor121, on Flickr
And this is at f/2.3 blurred background

P1000499-.jpg by Interceptor121, on Flickr

For ISO you should be looking at the smallest value the camera supports (80) and shutter speeds should be 1/250-1/500. You can try 1/125 on very stable subjects otherwise you get motion blur

Shooting a picture like this (wide end) results in non macro

P1000583-.jpg by Interceptor121, on Flickr