Initial Impressions of the Canon G9

[cardog]

The SeaLife 960 will work with the G9 on setting #1. You will probably only need the minimum power setting also.

 

[pmecucci]

Paul,

Great shots!! I'm headed back down to Coz in four weeks and will be doing the happy dance if I come away with a couple of the shots you captrued.

FYI - your turtle shot is of a hawksbill, not a green sea turtle. The jagged serrations at the back end of the carapace is a sure way to ID a hawksbill.

- Rob

Thanks Rob, and thanks for the tip on the Turtle, as you can see, I didn't know what the heck I was looking at, I'll adjust my site! thanks....

Paul

 

[pmecucci]

Paul: I agree with driftin, great shots for the G9 in a Canon housing without external strobe. Santa got me the WP-DC21 (Canon) housing but I have not had a chance to get it wet. I am amazed at the light spread you got from the internal flash and the external diffusion plate. Can you let me know your settings and any tips you might want to share?

---Bob

Sure Bob, I shot primarily on AV and pretty much left the camera on f2.8 to allow as much light in as possible. I used flash and the macro setting when I was doing close ups of a subject. Then I went off of macro, and turned flash off for far shots or sea scape shots where I didn't need to light up the foreground and of course wanted to avoid backscatter. Kept the ISO at about 200. Never went above that. Center point focus as I always do so I can force the camera to focus on what I want it to focus on, then I recompose the shot. I shot in RAW mode so I can edit the white balance later, because of this I never shot on the underwater mode. Also, I would change the position of the camera to make sure that the flash was always on the side of the camera where I wanted the subject lit. So if there was coral on my right and open blue to the left, I would turn the camera so the flash was on the right side that way the coral would be hit with the flash. Also, you really can't get too close to your subject or the flash will cause shadow. So, get as close as you can, then take advantage of the 12mp and crop away later. Hope that helps,

Paul

 

[Kydonia]

I got my G9, but haven't taken it underwater yet... yet....

Full frame:

Detail of same shot at 100%:

 

[mariuszm]

In regards to WA lenses from INON on Ikelite housing (all G9 related of course)....
There are two lenses UWL-100 Achromat Wide Conversion Lens Type 1 and Type 2. INON suggests (but only via feedback from users) that Type 2 is suitable. Does anybody have any experience with that and did anybody tried Type 1 ?
Also there are a few micro lenses - any suggestions which one to get (the pics I want to take will be nothing special just some closeups of crabs or nudies and occasionally pygmy sea horse). Ikelite told me that I can stock up micro lenses – any experience with that.
(sorry for the deluge of questions but seems to me people in this forum know what they talk about)

 

[beast11]

the G9 is a great camera above water. under water it is not bad until you shoot macro. the lens does not close down far enough to ger good depth of field.

 

[Kydonia]

To those who have taken their G-9s under water:

Have you tried the pre-set underwater color balance yet? (fish icon)
I played around with it in daylight and it seems to be a subtle correction, in other words, it doesn't seem to add enough orange to compensate for the deep blues and greens found below 15 feet of water.

I just bought a plastic grey card, and will most likely set up 2 UW color balances, one for 20 feet and one for 50 feet.

I'll be breaking this bad boy in next week, so I'll post photos when I get home. I can't wait!

also please note, on the photos I posted above, those were jpgs at 400 iso, so the quality could be improved just be changing the iso to 200, 100 or even 80. I like to shoot jpg to get more shots on a card.

Edit:
Playing around more this morning with color balances... Don't think the pre-set UW color balance would work at all under 10 feet- probably for shooting through glass at aquariums and such.
I forced a deep UW setting on a grey card with a roscoe gel, and saved the setting, and got a nice deep salmon color, which is what I was looking for. I'm headed for Bora Bora soon, and can't wait to try this pup out. Of course I will post lots of shots when I get back. I'm hoping to shoot; Clown Fish, Whale Sharks, dolphin and Rays. Let's see...

 

[waynel]

All G9 photos on this thread just did me in. I bought a G9 during lunch for $469. Yeah, could have save about $20 on the net, but what the hey. Next up is a housing. But before I do that, I have to decide on TTL, fiber optic cable etc. because from my research TTL will mean an Ikelite and that housing actually costs more than the camera. I also need more research on a strobe. Nearly choked when I saw the DS-125 was $800. And my wife thought after all our scuba gear was paid off that would be it...silly girl. I thought so too, but as Al said in GF3..."just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in." The "they" are all you photog addicts I'm reading.

 

[Chuckitall]

the strap banging against things as you walk. UW I'm not the least bit concerned about the LCD, but above without protection like my A620. Has anybody put clear tape like we put on out dive computers. I've got the camera, but UW cases seem to be out of stock everywhere.

 

[pmecucci]

Kydonia, I would shoot in RAW, then adjust your white balance later.. less to worry about underwater. I did shoot on the fish icon, and I found all it did was increase the temperature to add a little more warmth/color on the shots. Stuff I found myself doing later in Adobe RAW anyway. Have fun on your trip to bora bora.