Are consumer digital cameras useless for diving?

"Michael C" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:462617c1$0$16555$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.a u...
> I've noticed a couple of questions regarding dive cameras so thought I'd
> continue the trend. A friend spent $700 on a 6mp cannon camera with a dive
> case. I've noticed most of the pictures suffered from a severe lack of
> light and the camera automatically went to a long exposure causing many of
> them to be blured. Those that weren't blurred were quite dull. Only
> closeup shots were acceptable really. After having a look at the pics I'm
> kinda of the opinion that only a high quality camera with a full size
> lense (to let more light in) and a good external flash would be required
> to get acceptable photos. Is this true? I'm not a camera zealot if anyone
> is wondering as I quite happily take shots out of the water with a compact
> and reckon it is pretty good. I usually dive around the 18 metre mark.
>
> Here's some examples:
> http://mikesdriveway.com/misc/dive2.jpg
> http://mikesdriveway.com/misc/elizaramsden124.jpg
>
>

Get an external flash, I have a canon A70 3.2 MP camera with a Sunpak G
Flash. It is triggered by the on camera flash. I found by putting some
opaq tape over the front of the on-camera flash it cuts down on the
backscatter yet still triggers the external flash ok from the side. You can
see some pics I took in Rhode Island here
http://www.divewithjay.com/cgi-bin/d...rp=ftwetherill
Some bahamas pics with the A70 are on the bottom of this page
http://www.divewithjay.com/gallery/bahamas_2005.htm

Others have already given you a list of great advice. In addition to that
I've found that you can often adjust the white balance after the fact using
photo software but it's best to adjust it before shooting.

Jay

On 2007-04-18 06:06:27 -0700, "Michael C" <nospam@nospam.com> said:

> I've noticed a couple of questions regarding dive cameras so thought I'd
> continue the trend. A friend spent $700 on a 6mp cannon camera with a dive
> case. I've noticed most of the pictures suffered from a severe lack of light
> and the camera automatically went to a long exposure causing many of them to
> be blured. Those that weren't blurred were quite dull. Only closeup shots
> were acceptable really. After having a look at the pics I'm kinda of the
> opinion that only a high quality camera with a full size lense (to let more
> light in) and a good external flash would be required to get acceptable
> photos. Is this true? I'm not a camera zealot if anyone is wondering as I
> quite happily take shots out of the water with a compact and reckon it is
> pretty good. I usually dive around the 18 metre mark.
>
> Here's some examples:
> http://mikesdriveway.com/misc/dive2.jpg
> http://mikesdriveway.com/misc/elizaramsden124.jpg

The weak built-in flash units on cameras are typically unusable below
three meters, no matter how fast the lens is. Good for snorkeling, but
not much beyond that. You need a better light if you are going deeper
than that.

Lens size has little to do with how fast the lens is. Some small point
and shoot consumer cameras have faster lenses than what you typically
see on DSLRs. An f/2.8 zoom lens on an SLR is usually more expensive
than a consumer camera with an f/2.8 zoom lens.



--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On 2007-04-20 04:21:25 +1200, soxmax <soxmax_2000@yahoo.com> said:

> I bought the FujiFilm Finepix F30 and associated underwater case. The
> F30 has an "underwater" setting. I think I paid a total of $480 for
> the package but that was the weekend following Thanksgiving last year.
> The quality is certainly not professional but it was worth $480 to me.
> One nice thing about digital is that you can take a thousand poor
> quality pictures (which I did) and it doesn't cost you a dime.
>
> http://soxmax.myphotoalbum.com/
>
> The photos are of diving in Tortola with a few of the Rhone wreck up
> to 80 feet depth. I think there is also a surface picture.
>
> Best Regards,
> Derek

I'll second the F30 - I have one as a lightweight travel camera - it's
actually quite a decent fish camera as the focus is fast although it's
not too great with macro. If Fuji added RAW support to the F30 it could
be a truly spectacular camera.

I've used it as a survey camera on reef work and it produces very
useable images with minimal effort. I would still prefer to use my
C5050z (ikelite housing) or Nik 5 if I wanted the best quality images
but for a lightweight low(is) priced camera it's great. It also gives
me a land camera I can lend to my girlfriend so I can keep my others
safe...

If you want a camera that's also good for freediving then this is also
another good reason for this choice.

Dan.