Underwater Camera

[dshnarw]

I've been looking into camera options for underwater photos, and found this one in my price range:

 

SeaLife DC600

 

Good/bad for the money (camera, wide angle lens, Digital Flash for $700ish)?

 

TY

[NickNat]

I use a Sony Cybershot 7.2 meg DSC -W70 with an uw hosing.

It takes decent pictures above 60ft. Light is the biggest problem with underwater shot ( and above toor)

but its more pronounced bacause different wavelengths of light get filtered out the lower you go so its best to bring your own light.

 

The Sealife got soem ggo reviews but I have no seen n use. But it looks interesting.

 

So if you plan to do some serious deep piics you might need ad external light source and thats wherr it get expensive. I get my shots with ny l setup in relatively shallow dives at like I said abot 60 ft.

What kind of depts are you considering to be working at? and where about do you plan to dive?

[dshnarw]

I use a Sony Cybershot 7.2 meg DSC -W70 with an uw hosing.

It takes decent pictures above 60ft. Light is the biggest problem with underwater shot ( and above toor)

but its more pronounced bacause different wavelengths of light get filtered out the lower you go so its best to bring your own light.

 

The Sealife got soem ggo reviews but I have no seen n use. But it looks interesting.

 

So if you plan to do some serious deep piics you might need ad external light source and thats wherr it get expensive. I get my shots with ny l setup in relatively shallow dives at like I said abot 60 ft.

What kind of depts are you considering to be working at? and where about do you plan to dive?

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I liked that the SeaLife had the extra modes for underwater, and it got good reviews on the local forums. If I had the option, I'd have a Canon Rebel and housing, but this setup is cheaper than just the housing for the Rebel and gives my fiancee a camera upgrade at the same time. And then I can still get the Rebel for land shots

 

Anyway - it'll be used on shallow stuff. We're mainly snorkelers and just now getting into diving, so 60ft is the limit for the forseeable future, but more realistically, most of its use will be in the top 25ft or so that I can reach snorkeling. We're going to Oahu and Kauai for our honeymoon in June, so whatever we get will see it's first underwater use there

[snowlancer2720]

It seems like you already want something more substantial, but i bought this for my trip to bermuda last year where we went snorkling for a few hours.

 

http://www.amazon.com/DiCAPac-WP-400-digit...4150&sr=1-3

 

its pretty much a heavy vinyl/plastic bag that has some ziplock on the end. It worked great for my sony cybershot w50, and it was cheap too.

[mmelnick]

ziplock baggie

[NickNat]

I don't know if you care much for Sony's stuff but I have had good luck with it so far, 3 years.

I got it bacase for the Cybershot DSC w series Sony has a uw case rated to 12ft for less than $99.

 

That would be ideal for just snorkeling and stuff less than 20ft.

 

You can now pick up a DSC-w7 for less than $150 and the case uw < $99 too, I would go for a w80 or w90.in the series. higher pixel count. I think that rig would be good and more versitile for what you plan.

 

Sony also have a more expensive uw case for like $150 and it goes about 150ft. $1 /ft

Any of those combo's will be less the the Sealife and from what I read so far of the Sealife D600 camera, its not that hot.

 

The baggy is good in a pinch too. Espicially if it's one time thing.

[NickNat]

One more thing I forgot to say is on battery life.

 

Next to picture quality or almost as good in battery life.

The sony is downright phenominal. It 's my third digital camera and it's almost out of mind as far as

worrying about battery running out. It uses a Lithium Ion rechargable battery and you can get a second one for $39. With two of em charged it will most likely last the whole vacation and hundreds of shots per battery.

 

That's a major consideration with digital camera's expecially when you are out there on the water.

 

 

Good luck with your decision and have a nice honeymoon. Bring back lots of sunny pictures for us NE winter locked poor souls. Another snow storm this week end. I hear/ Last one knocked out our power and almost my whole tank too. ah well, so it goes.

[arwndsh]

One more thing I forgot to say is on battery life.

 

Next to picture quality or almost as good in battery life.

The sony is downright phenominal. It 's my third digital camera and it's almost out of mind as far as

worrying about battery running out. It uses a Lithium Ion rechargable battery and you can get a second one for $39. With two of em charged it will most likely last the whole vacation and hundreds of shots per battery.

 

That's a major consideration with digital camera's expecially when you are out there on the water.

 

 

Good luck with your decision and have a nice honeymoon. Bring back lots of sunny pictures for us NE winter locked poor souls. Another snow storm this week end. I hear/ Last one knocked out our power and almost my whole tank too. ah well, so it goes.

 

Unfortunately we have to endure the cold weather to because the honeymoon isnt until June.

[nanoty]

I have this camera in this housing. Not sure about the underwater pics as I use it for kayak fishing but it is good down to 40 meters and the camera takes great dry photos.

 

 

With the housing on:

 

 

 

[strangelove]

The camera your looking at is nice and compact for an underwater camera, but for $700 you could get a Canon G9 and underwater housing. Just look at the specs and capabilities of each camera and you can see the differences in each camera. The SeaLife would be a slight upgrade, the Canon would be a huge upgrade.

[dshnarw]

The camera your looking at is nice and compact for an underwater camera, but for $700 you could get a Canon G9 and underwater housing. Just look at the specs and capabilities of each camera and you can see the differences in each camera. The SeaLife would be a slight upgrade, the Canon would be a huge upgrade.

 

Thanks Strangelove. Looks like a much better camera for the price. Definitely the best option thus far, and a very nice upgrade for me or Amber (we're gonna fight it out to see who gets the camera...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

bonus feature: aquarium mode!

[tkdwoody]

I teach SCUBA and have taken UW photography for years. A SLR camera with interchangeable lenses like a 14mm would be great to take wide angle shots. If size is an issue try an olympus 790 it's waterproof as is to 10ft. The problem with UW photography is two fold

The color red is lost in the first 5 feet of the water column and needs to be brought back with an orange filter. If you are using digital camera with a manual white balance try setting it to cloudy for depths to 10ft and shade to depths of 10-15ft. Anything below that should be manually set or taken in RAW format for later editing. The 790 has a program built in to take underwater shots and adjust the red automatically. There's also a housing available to take it deeper.

[strangelove]

Thanks Strangelove. Looks like a much better camera for the price. Definitely the best option thus far, and a very nice upgrade for me or Amber (we're gonna fight it out to see who gets the camera...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

bonus feature: aquarium mode!

 

Yeah the G9 has a whole bunch of useful modes. The scene mode has an aquarium mode and underwater mode, both adjust the white balance and camera settings, if you have 20k lighting that the underwater mode works great. This is great for when you just want to relax and let the camera do all the work. Lots of useful auto modes, face recognition for exposure and focus tracking. It's really funny to watch the camera lock on to peoples faces, especially when your doing a group shot, the camera will put little squares over a bunch of people to let you know it sees the closest and furthest person, sees their faces and is adjusting the exposure for those people, very cool. The camera itself is pretty amazing, I prefer to think of it as an advanced camera since you have several features that most point and shoot cameras do not. You have a custom white balance mode. You can connect an external flash on the hotshoe to bounce flash, you have an extended ISO to 3200. You have both shutter priority and aperture priority and you have quick control over both. The auto modes are just as impressive since in full auto the camera takes excellent photos. The zoom lens is nice too with built in image stabilization built in.

 

The underwater enclosure works good, it has it's quirks though. I dove down below 30 feet and no leaks. The case utilizes the dials on the G9 great. Controlling things underwater is really easy, like switching between modes, adjusting ISO, etc. The only bummer is you can't control the rear control dial, this makes some settings impossible to get to, like switching from macro to regular focus, or switching from flash to no flash. The work around that I found was to set the cameras two custom modes, where I could set the camera for closeup, macro focus, with flash and the other custom mode for open water no flash photos. Toggling between the two settings gave me enough control over the camera. When your snorkeling, you really just want to photograph what's around you, so fiddling with your camera is going to be the last thing on your mind. Another gripe is if you get too close to something and use flash the housing around the lens casts a shadow, so the thing to do is to back up and zoom in for a tight macro shot.

 

So to recap, the camera is excellent and at 12 MP it will be a useful camera for many years. The underwater housing is OK, has it's flaws, but gets the job done.

 

Oh one final note. Since I've had my camera it's taken two falls, once when my wife dropped it the first day we used it and the second time it dropped off the mantel about four feet. This is one tough little camera, besides a few dings it continues to work flawlessly.

[dshnarw]

I teach SCUBA and have taken UW photography for years. A SLR camera with interchangeable lenses like a 14mm would be great to take wide angle shots. If size is an issue try an olympus 790 it's waterproof as is to 10ft. The problem with UW photography is two fold

The color red is lost in the first 5 feet of the water column and needs to be brought back with an orange filter. If you are using digital camera with a manual white balance try setting it to cloudy for depths to 10ft and shade to depths of 10-15ft. Anything below that should be manually set or taken in RAW format for later editing. The 790 has a program built in to take underwater shots and adjust the red automatically. There's also a housing available to take it deeper.

 

Thanks for the tips. Size definitely is an issue...but not "smaller is better" for me. Thats actually one of my biggest complaints with Cybershots and similar point and shoots - they always feel too small in my hands.

 

Yeah the G9 has a whole bunch of useful modes. The scene mode has an aquarium mode and underwater mode, both adjust the white balance and camera settings, if you have 20k lighting that the underwater mode works great. This is great for when you just want to relax and let the camera do all the work. Lots of useful auto modes, face recognition for exposure and focus tracking. It's really funny to watch the camera lock on to peoples faces, especially when your doing a group shot, the camera will put little squares over a bunch of people to let you know it sees the closest and furthest person, sees their faces and is adjusting the exposure for those people, very cool. The camera itself is pretty amazing, I prefer to think of it as an advanced camera since you have several features that most point and shoot cameras do not. You have a custom white balance mode. You can connect an external flash on the hotshoe to bounce flash, you have an extended ISO to 3200. You have both shutter priority and aperture priority and you have quick control over both. The auto modes are just as impressive since in full auto the camera takes excellent photos. The zoom lens is nice too with built in image stabilization built in.

 

The underwater enclosure works good, it has it's quirks though. I dove down below 30 feet and no leaks. The case utilizes the dials on the G9 great. Controlling things underwater is really easy, like switching between modes, adjusting ISO, etc. The only bummer is you can't control the rear control dial, this makes some settings impossible to get to, like switching from macro to regular focus, or switching from flash to no flash. The work around that I found was to set the cameras two custom modes, where I could set the camera for closeup, macro focus, with flash and the other custom mode for open water no flash photos. Toggling between the two settings gave me enough control over the camera. When your snorkeling, you really just want to photograph what's around you, so fiddling with your camera is going to be the last thing on your mind. Another gripe is if you get too close to something and use flash the housing around the lens casts a shadow, so the thing to do is to back up and zoom in for a tight macro shot.

 

So to recap, the camera is excellent and at 12 MP it will be a useful camera for many years. The underwater housing is OK, has it's flaws, but gets the job done.

 

Oh one final note. Since I've had my camera it's taken two falls, once when my wife dropped it the first day we used it and the second time it dropped off the mantel about four feet. This is one tough little camera, besides a few dings it continues to work flawlessly.

 

Thanks for the review as well - I think I'm pretty much decided on getting this one after yours and other online reviews. Good to know the downsides to the underwater housing, and how to get around them. That'll save a lot of frustrating moments in the future, and good to have the confidence in the housing that I can swim down in the water column while snorkeling or do some shallow diving with it (I mean...I can go beyond the depth ratings of most of the cheapo housings just snorkeling - doesn't give me much confidence in them).

 

Also gives me confidence that it can take some abuse. I can take my old Photosmart 945 (*sigh*...I remember back when this thing was a decent camera...) rock collecting most days, but if it's raining, the new camera/uw housing will have to go along.

[dshnarw]

I got the G9 this afternoon. Still learning, but it's already producing good results. Hopefully this continues when it makes it underwater.

 

 

A few of my better shots from this afternoon, messing with the settings (ignore the first pic...old camera):

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=1520352

[strangelove]

I got the G9 this afternoon. Still learning, but it's already producing good results. Hopefully this continues when it makes it underwater.

 

 

A few of my better shots from this afternoon, messing with the settings (ignore the first pic...old camera):

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=1520352

 

Congrats, What a difference from your first to second photo, color already looks good. Some basics for aquarium photography. Clean the glass, let the filters clear the water, turn the pumps off and use a tripod. set your camera to vivid, ISO to auto. Try doing a custom whitebalance, point your camera to focus on the sand white sand to measure the color temperature, press the Display button to set the white balance. See how that adjusts your color and if you like it better than any of the preset white balance settings.

 

What's your first impressions with the camera?

[arwndsh]

Congrats, What a difference from your first to second photo, color already looks good. Some basics for aquarium photography. Clean the glass, let the filters clear the water, turn the pumps off and use a tripod. set your camera to vivid, ISO to auto. Try doing a custom whitebalance, point your camera to focus on the sand white sand to measure the color temperature, press the Display button to set the white balance. See how that adjusts your color and if you like it better than any of the preset white balance settings.

 

What's your first impressions with the camera?

 

 

He has black sand. From what he was so joyfully saying last night I think he really likes it because it takes a lot less work for him to get a nice macro from this camera then his old camera. Crap man now I really am going to have to fight him for it. JK I told him we could just get me a little p&s later. Thanks for the recommendation.

[dshnarw]

Congrats, What a difference from your first to second photo, color already looks good. Some basics for aquarium photography. Clean the glass, let the filters clear the water, turn the pumps off and use a tripod. set your camera to vivid, ISO to auto. Try doing a custom whitebalance, point your camera to focus on the sand white sand to measure the color temperature, press the Display button to set the white balance. See how that adjusts your color and if you like it better than any of the preset white balance settings.

 

What's your first impressions with the camera?

 

 

First impressions...camera is wonderful. Even with everything running on auto, good pics are easy. It's easy to use right out of the box, but has plenty of options (which I'm still exploring). So far, it has handled 3 of my 5 major camera uses - the aquarium, rocks, and microscope (shooting down the eyepiece), with landscapes (too darned cold) and UW photos still to attempt. Shutter lag/response times are fast, and the big display is helpful. My two complaints are the button sizes are smaller than I'd like (clumsy fingers) but I think I'll get used to it, and I accidentally turn the dial around the function/set button sometimes.

 

 

So, since this is the photography forum, I should put some photos up...

 

Took the camera to work today to see how it'd do on the microscope and on rock samples. These are some of the shots I got of the rock samples in my office (camera set completely on auto since, if I were in the field collecting for research, I wouldn't be messing with camera settings much):

 

copper ore:

 

herkimer "diamond" (quartz):

 

rutile needles in quartz:

 

quartz:

 

fluorite:

 

fluorite:

 

tourmaline in quartz:

 

smokey quartz, pyrite, and orange garnet (appx. the size of my thumbnail):

 

quartz, pyrite, and calcite (thumbnail size):

 

this is my 3mm rough diamond. This is the cropped, full-size, untouched pic:

 

rubies in green tanzanite (how tanzanite looks before heat treatment):

[strangelove]

Excellent, if you want higher depth of field, more of the rock in focus, instead of a shallow, put your camera on a tripod, set mode dial to AV, turn back control dial until the display reads f 16. You will probably have a longer exposure, so to keep things steady, tripod. I like these folding pocket style mini tripods, very portable, telescopic legs, and adjustable ball mount.

 

 

Yeah shutter lag on these cameras are almost non existent, takes the photo when you want it to. Start up time is really fast to, I've started to use my G9 as a backup camera when I'm using a long lens. It's so much easier than lugging around another DSLR and gives images comparable to a 5D.

 

I'll have to post some photos of the Merced Caverns that I went to last. Lots of calcite and stuff.

[dshnarw]

Excellent, if you want higher depth of field, more of the rock in focus, instead of a shallow, put your camera on a tripod, set mode dial to AV, turn back control dial until the display reads f 16. You will probably have a longer exposure, so to keep things steady, tripod. I like these folding pocket style mini tripods, very portable, telescopic legs, and adjustable ball mount.

 

 

Yeah shutter lag on these cameras are almost non existent, takes the photo when you want it to. Start up time is really fast to, I've started to use my G9 as a backup camera when I'm using a long lens. It's so much easier than lugging around another DSLR and gives images comparable to a 5D.

 

I'll have to post some photos of the Merced Caverns that I went to last. Lots of calcite and stuff.

 

Thanks for more tips. I'll have to try that out next time.

 

I do have a tripod...it's just a pain to use, especially taking it to the office - it's a mile walk from my car to my building. I'll have to look into those mini-sized ones. It'll be set up for the nex set of tank shots though...I uncovered it from my stack of recyclables today

 

Would like to see those pics!

[strangelove]

Thanks for more tips. I'll have to try that out next time.

 

I do have a tripod...it's just a pain to use, especially taking it to the office - it's a mile walk from my car to my building. I'll have to look into those mini-sized ones. It'll be set up for the nex set of tank shots though...I uncovered it from my stack of recyclables today

 

Would like to see those pics!

 

You and your fiances screen name really messes with my brain for some reason, sometimes I can't read the difference between the two of you

 

Anyways here are a few photos from the Mercer Cavern taken with a G9.

 

Hand Held, camera braced on a hand rail, light is coming from incandescent light sources, ISO 800. What suprised me is how clean the black is, very little if any noise. Not blowing out to badly in the highlights, 12MP really helps in situations like this.

 

Bounce flash, with shutter lag for longer exposure to get some of the color, some interesting calcite formations half way into the cavern.

 

Close up, 2 foot distance, bounce flash, from the tour guide this was some sort of special crystal formation.

 

Another close up, 1 foot, bounce flash. This stuff was really fine crystal powder sugar looking stuff.

[summers.enemy]

How are you bouncing the flash on the G9?

[strangelove]

How are you bouncing the flash on the G9?

 

There is a hotshoe on the camera and I just connect a 580 EX Speedlite to it. ETTL, works great for portraits too. It looks kind of funky on such a little camera and is top heavy, but works just the same. I'm thinking of getting a 430 EX just for this camera, slightly smaller and lighter.

[dshnarw]

Nice pics, especially for a cave (ick).

 

Looks like the crystals are aragonite, just judging by growth forms. aragonite is a fast growth form, so it tends to make needles and Christmas tree shapes. Calcite is slower growth, so blockier prisms. It's quite interesting, not very common (hard to grow crystals in all directions from a ceiling, especially when it needs to be quick).

 

 

As for the names, stick to the av's...it's easier AFAIK, I'm the only boxing duck av on the site still active

[dshnarw]