Is my P&S hopeless?

[Atom]

Hi,

I'm currently using a small Canon SD880 in Canon housing as my UW camera. I got the housing since it wasn't too expensive, especially compared to the housings for my D200. It's good for souvenirs but it doesn't take pictures that are that great, and I think it's mostly due to the fact that without strobes ....

• It often use long exposure times, so I get a lot of blurry pictures (they look great on the camera display, not so much when shown full size)
• Everything is blue or green after 15', that's expected but unfortunate

... so I'm wondering if there's any way to get some external strobes for a camera like that? Or am i doomed to upgrade? Are there any good small/powerful wide angle lights that I could put on arms and use to add light in those scenes? (maybe with a homemade diffuser) I guess real strobes wouldn't work since there's no hardware in the camera to sync with external strobes.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

You can white balance your pics during post-processing. Alternatively, you can try using various filters. External strobes will give you more options in terms of lighting up objects in the foreground with an appealing blue/green background.

Many external strobes on the market can be fired optically. All of these would work with your P&S. Inon is a good brand, but there are others.

I believe that Ultralight has a tray and arm set that should work with the Canon UW housing. Perhaps others will chime in on this...

 

[Larry C]

You need to get a strobe or strobes that are optically fired through a fiberoptic cable by your camera's built in flash. Cover the area in front of the flash with black tape or developed film and tape or velcro the fiberoptic cable in front of it. Make sure the strobe you get matches the firing pattern of your camera. If it has a preflash to allow automatic metering, you'll need a strobe that will compensate for the preflash and not fire early. Most strobes designed for digital cameras will do this.

 

[RAWalker]

You hit the nail on the head! Long exposures will make the pictures lighter but don't help the color balance and the longer the exposure the easier it is to blur the shot with motion.

You also already guessed the answer to solving the problem is to get more light on the subject. This is done with slave strobes that are activated by the light of your camera's built in strobe. 1 slave strobe will add color and allow the use of faster shutter speeds to end the blurring. Many use 2 slave strobes which can light a larger area and create less shadows. Also extension arms are used to position the strobes for the best lighting.

 

[diver 85]

I disagree with needing a strobe, but, that's just me...........see below 2 links for no strobe pics......

 

[Atom]

You need to get a strobe or strobes that are optically fired through a fiberoptic cable by your camera's built in flash. Cover the area in front of the flash with black tape or developed film and tape or velcro the fiberoptic cable in front of it. Make sure the strobe you get matches the firing pattern of your camera. If it has a preflash to allow automatic metering, you'll need a strobe that will compensate for the preflash and not fire early. Most strobes designed for digital cameras will do this.

Ha!!!! I see, clever, and really useful. I'll shop around and see what I can find.

Thanks to all of you who put me on the right track to finding what I need.

 

[Atom]

I disagree with needing a strobe, but, that's just me...........see below 2 links for no strobe pics......

Those are great pics, so what did you use to get the colors back? Stayed shallow? Waited for lots of sunlight + great vis? What kind of camera are you using?

(sorry for all the questions, but if my pics looked like that I wouldn't be asking about strobes)

 

[Atom]

I've been doing some reading on the Ikelite site to see what kind of strobes they offer. I was thinking all their strobes were for SLRs because of all that talk about TTL sync, my mistake. So thank you all for putting me on the right track.

I am now torn between going for an entry level strobe like an AF-35 (maybe combined with an Pro-V8 so that I can do video too and use the V8 as a focus light when not shooting video) or go all out for something like the DS-161 that can do both and can still be useful when I finaly buy the housing for my next SLR (I'll probably upgrade the D200 someday to something like a D700). Although getting a DS-161 seems stupidly expensive compared to the camera I'm using currently.

Anybody has an opinion on those strobes? (I'm searching now for reviews put I thought I might ask)

 

[scottfiji]

Atom, you should be able to get good photos with your camera, like this - just the way it is. Getting a strobe won't fix your issues, imho. PM me if you want some help fixing what's wrong with your photos.

 

[annasea]

Atom, you should be able to get good photos with your camera, like this - just the way it is. Getting a strobe won't fix your issues, imho. PM me if you want some help fixing what's wrong with your photos.

Wow! This is the first I've read that a strobe is not necessary. Would you mind elaborating, Scott? I'm thinking it's a good topic for a sticky.

(Current Canon A720 owner with Ikelite housing, and strobe arm and tray. Can't afford the strobe quite yet. )