Is it worth it to use the ZS3 as a UW camera?

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Hi,

I have a ZS3 that I used for topside snapshots and since it does much better video than my current Oly C5050, I was thinking of repurposing it for UW use along with my Sea&Sea YS-01. The issue is that it has no manual mode, I have to use portrait, landscape, action, etc for all my shots. Is that a disadvantage that is so great that it negates its use?

 

[primus]

Hi,

I have a ZS3 that I used for topside snapshots and since it does much better video than my current Oly C5050, I was thinking of repurposing it for UW use along with my Sea&Sea YS-01. The issue is that it has no manual mode, I have to use portrait, landscape, action, etc for all my shots. Is that a disadvantage that is so great that it negates its use?

Check this videos (Panasonic TZ7 = Panasonic ZS3!) kitachan3's Channel - YouTube

[video=youtube;FcRTc8IWHpM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcRTc8IWHpM&hd=1[/video]

 

[kevmiami]

Great Camera - We will see at depth

This line of cameras has been one of my all time favorites and the ZS3/TZ7 is the last in the line before they ruined it with the new sensor - Quality does not sell, just name brand and over inflated specs ("I bought a Nikon at Costco for $xxx...yes you did and the 3.5-5.6 kit lens will give you worse quality pics than my TZ7). Off my soap box now. These are three photos without flash (they school of fish was pretty highly manipulated for contrast and color, but I believe the other two are nearly or just slightly touched) re-sized to e-mail resolution.

The camera is outstanding, just bought a mint used one as backup for $109 on e-bay with battery, charger and class 6 16gb card and also just ordered ys-110 strobe. Have re-entered the world of diving and am looking forward to seeing how things work out. My guess is I can get 80% of the shots @ 95% of the quality of a vastly more expensive rig - but just a boast at this point.

Has been about 15 years since I was diving; only have 5 dives under my belt in the last two weeks, so still working on logistics and buoyancy control. I will start diving with empty housing soon to get my gear squared away.

My wonderful partner has over 250 dives under her belt, so she is helping fast track learning curve. Going to Bonaire next month for three days of diving and she has offered to make every other dive a photo dive - sweet!!!! Cheers, Kevin

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

i presume the video would be pretty decent (at least under the proper lighting condition). But when shooting with strobe, the flexibility seems to be limited. I would just have to set it to one of the scene modes and let the camera handle the settings. Also, there does not seem to be any underwater mode, nor any custom white balance memory, thus all the color will be blue-ish. Maybe there is a manual white balance, but to jump back and forth between auto and manual white balance when shooting with and w/o strobe would be alot of effort.

Maybe I can mount the ZS3 below on the same tray as my existing camera? I have strobe & wet lens for my current camera and I don't know if I want to get a new wet lens for the ZS3.

 

[kevmiami]

Lack of full manual is definitely a downside of this line of cameras, but you really can overcome many of these obsticals by selecting other settings. There is an underwater mode for color correction, but I doubt it is sufficient at greater depths (will have to test). Still have a lot of research to do and will create a procedures for appropriate settings once I test in real life. This camera does allow you to adjust white balance and create a custom white balance (will use my white fin):

TZ7/SZ3 How to set with balance manually?: Panasonic Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

I purchased the YS-110a which should be full ttl, so hope I can set to fire on every photo and then only have to adjust white balance at two or three particular depths; making minor adjustments in software. My understanding is adjust white balance at depth results in much better photos, because bringing up the red channel makes pictures brighter at capture. Cheers.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I know I can approximate some settings by setting sport, mountain, portrait mode to simulate high shutter, small depth field, etc. But what is to prevent the sport mode to set shutter above 1/500 sec, which I think is the max I should have it on, or else I would be cutting off light from the external strobe.

Maybe I will just get a UW housing for it and use it in mostly in video mode and wear it strapped to my wrist while holding my main gear in my hand. 24mm underwater is still kind of acceptable UW.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Looks like the ZS3 housing goes for less than $100 nowdays. It is probably worth it to house the camera and carry it along just for shooting HD video, and maybe for macro shots that I usually would have to take the wet lens off on my other camera.

What does the underwater scene mode do? It doesn't seem to do anything to the white balance.

Now if there is a way to mount both cameras to my Sea & Sea Type VII tray.

 

[rab1412000]

i use it more as a videocam than as a camera. works extremely well

[video=vimeo;35605861]http://vimeo.com/35605861[/video]

PS those were mostly shot at a depth of 70 -80 feet. As you can see the zs3 can compensate very well in underwater video mode

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

That is what I am planning on doing, using it for video. And maybe for some macro shots since this way, I don't have to take the wet lens off my main camera.

I see the camera often focuses on the sediments in the water instead of the actual subject. Is that an issue with these cameras in general? It doesn't have fish face detection in UW mode?


BTW, I've mistaken on the underwater mode. I have to point it at a blue image for the UW auto white balance to work, as when I took pictures of imagages that were bluish UW scenes. I don't think it works as well as my manual WB attempts. But I think I would go nuts doing WB for every video shot.

 

[rab1412000]

panasonic is a video company first and foremost and it definitely shows in their cameras.
ive been using the zs3 since it came out in 2009 and it definitely takes better videos then photos in low light situations such as underwater.
it will sometimes focus of foreground objects such as the sediment in some parts of my video above, but this happens rarely. here is an example of the camera focusing better, and on macro subjects.

[video=vimeo;26504162]http://vimeo.com/26504162[/video]