Nikon S510

[Willuw]

Hey Everyone,
Just got my first digital underwater setup this Christmas. Nikon S510 with Fantasea Housing. I did a search for this camera and it seems no one is using this setup or if they are - no one has posted about it. Anyone out there using it?

Here is the setup:

Fantasea Line | CoolPix S510 Camera Kit with Fantasea FS-510

Haven't got it wet yet - but been playing with it on land - not too bad of a camera!

Will have to see how it performs UW - already looking at lenses and strobes

 

[JackConnick]

The S51 housing is brand new, so probably not many have it yet.

Come see me when you need some great deals on lighting packages and lenses, I'm glad to help you with your questions about setting up the rest of your system. Unlike the mailorder places, I dive and take pictures!

Jack

 

[Willuw]

Must be the case. It seems like a decent camera. I think my first upgrade will be a wide angle lens for it.

Does anyone have experience with the Fantasea lenses?
Fantasea Line - FWAL-01 Wide Angle Lens

Only saw one review on this board about it, priced at around $220

 

[ing253]

I just bought an S510 with the fantasea housing. And I had the opportunity to try it out on a night dive and a 3-tank dive this weekend in Oahu, Hawaii.

First off, I'm really happy with the s510 as a regular land camera; Only downside is that it easily gets scratched and you can only charge it with the battery charger accessory (can't just plug in a cord to the camera). I reall like the Fantasea case...clean, simple, easy to use & maintain...no problems yet.

For underwater use, I used it once for a night dive and on a 3-tanker day dive. Admittedly, this was my first time using an underwater camera EVER, so i'm still working out the kinks, but overall the autofocus and optical zoom give some very nice quality starter pics. I had the white balance, ISO, etc all on auto-mode (with the flash always on), which is where I went wrong. The pictures lacked vivid color and always had a deep blue hue to them.

Admittedly, this is somewhat to be expected due to being in deep water (and a lot of it is correctable with a batch of actions in photoshop), but I have to think that if I changed some settings manually (i.e. exposure, white balance, etc.) it'll give even better pre and post-editing results. Besides getting really close to your subject, does anyone know of any good manual settings you can use to get good pics, or is it so circumstance-specific that you have different settings for different depths/brightnesses?

Thanks for the advice!

-Bryan

 

[JackConnick]

An external strobe would help a lot. You can try manual white balance, but a red filter would help eliminate some of the cyan cast.

I have some other tips on my blog.

 

[Species_snob]

I have this setup and I'm pleased with it so far. I've used it diving in Maria la Gorda and the Bay of Pigs in Cuba as well as Cancun in Mexico and also snorkelling in BC Canada.
Here are some examples:

You can check out more photos here
Collection: Underwater