Newbie heading to the Yukon!

[So Cal Divin]

Hi next Sat. I'm diving the Yukon and it will be the first time with my Oly 5050/pt-015. Just recieved my housing from LP yesterday. Nice piece.
My question is can anyone give me some tips on what settings to use. Or should I just leave it in auto ?
I have a Kingston 512 mb CF card , Pro Master 128 mb CF card and a 32 mb XD card. Currently everything is in auto and set for RAW format.

TIA Jeff

 

[Dee]

Peter Schulz has a good website that can answer your questions quicker than I can. Click------>HERE.

Can I ask why you are using RAW compression? You files will be huge. And unless you have PhotoshopCS or an earlier version and the RAW plugin, you won't be able to do any manipulation. If you know all about RAW, please forget I mentioned it. But if you think that will guarantee better photos, it won't. Shooting in SHQ will get you 138 pics on that 512mg card and you can get very good large prints from it.

 

[So Cal Divin]

Thanks Dee can always count on you for a quick reply.
I know nothing just the basics. I also own a Oly C2500L, my first digi cam. Need to get it on ebay. The 2500 has half the buttons the 5050 has, WOW.
I went to a website http://dpfwiw.com/exposure.htm#ec that seemed to have a lot of good info. Took they're suggestions on RAW vs JPEG due to noise differences. I will switch to SHQ/JPEG if that's your opinion.
I'm leaving it to the experts of Scubaboard. Should I just leave everything else in AUTO ? ISO, FLASH,P, etc? Should I take the flash diffuser off since I don't have an external flash.

Thanks Jeff

 

[Dee]

Fewer buttons aren't always a good thing! :11: The more buttons you have may mean you have more control of the exposures. Make sure you have access to all the camera functions through the housing.

For now, forget about RAW. I promise you'll be satisfied with SHQ/jpg. You really need to at least understand the basics of how aperture and shutter speed work together. I'm no good at explaining technical stuff. Aperture and shutter speed is sort of like driving a standard shift. If you press the pedal for more gas (faster shutter) you need to let up on the brake (larger aperature). A good starting place is 1/125 shutter and 5.6 aperture and go from there but it really all depends on the water conditions, ambient light and subject matter.

Start in Aperture mode, the camera will set the shutter for you. AUTO gives very slow shutter speeds. I don't like shooting in anything under 1/60 but I do occasionally. ISO 100 is good. If you aren't using an external strobe, learn where the flash button is so you can turn it on and off as you need it. On this trip I followed Gilligans lead and used the manual white balance alot. It's amazing what you can get without a strobe! Like this....

Leave the diffuser on the housing whether you use a strobe or not. It disperses the flash evenly and in a wider pattern than without.

Sorry for the delay, I've spent all day on photos! I've got a few in my album and will be adding more.

 

[So Cal Divin]

You rule Dee!

I do understand aperture. I just never remember if the larger the num (f-lock) the larger the opening the more light exposure. Right?
Or if the larger the number the smaller the opening and the least amount of light exposure.
And it all depends on how long the shutter stays open which I understand.
Just need practice, practice, practice.

Sticking with SHQ JPEG. Thank you very much!

I combined your aperture 5.6 and 100 ISO with Splashdown Divers MY Mode 4 Internal Flash Only Settings in A Mode and My Custom 1.
Hope this works out here on the left coast.
One more question. When viewing dark subjects through the LCD it's black. I have to guess at what I'm shooting at. How do I lighten up the LCD? I can see the subject but the camera's LCD doesn't.

Thanks Jeff

 

[WileEDiver]

I do understand aperture. I just never remember if the larger the num (f-lock) the larger the opening the more light exposure. Right?

Just the opposite. The higher the f/stop, the smaller the apperature. An f/stop of 5.6 means a smaller opening (aperature) and less light than that of f/4 (half as much light, in fact). For a good detailed explanation, check out http://www.uscoles.com/fstop.htm.

 

[Divemonkey]

Just the opposite. The higher the f/stop, the smaller the apperature. An f/stop of 5.6 means a smaller opening (aperature) and less light than that of f/4 (half as much light, in fact). For a good detailed explanation, check out http://www.uscoles.com/fstop.htm.

One of the axiums I was taught was simply F8 at 125th and let the strobe do the adjusting, but that is only if you have a strobe with variable power. Remember as you open you apeture you will reduce your depth of field, or the depth of area that stays in focus. This is great if your trying to bring a subject out of a complicated background, but if your trying to shoot things on a ship with more than a few feet of critical focus, you may want to close your F-stop down as much as you can get away with. Remember that your strobe may not sync at some speeds, and anything less than 1/60th for a newbie will be hard to keep from getting camera shake or movement. Good luck on the dive. Will be in San Diego in June for a Hunter Education Instructors seminar, hope to find time to do a few dives there.

Matt