More digi camera stuff.

There seems to be an awful lot of digital camera questions going around the
group ATM, and I apologise for adding another.

I'm thinking of getting one and a housing, and spotted a deal on cameras
underwater for the Fuji F700 and housing (the deal ain't there any more) and
I kind of liked the look of it. It also has all the bits that people on
here have said you need (manual white balance etc.).

The questions then are:-

1. Has anyone got one? What's it like, is it a good buy (7 day shop £190,
housing £110ish cameras underwater)?
2. What are the underwater piccies like?
3. What is the current status of buying electricals in Gibraltar these days?
Worth a visit while I'm in the neighbourhood?

Cheers

CAS

"CAS" <calumscottREMOVETHISBIT@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2rv9blF1einj7U1@uni-berlin.de...
> There seems to be an awful lot of digital camera questions going around
the
> group ATM, and I apologise for adding another.
>
> I'm thinking of getting one and a housing, and spotted a deal on cameras
> underwater for the Fuji F700 and housing (the deal ain't there any more)
and
> I kind of liked the look of it. It also has all the bits that people on
> here have said you need (manual white balance etc.).
>
> The questions then are:-
>
> 1. Has anyone got one? What's it like, is it a good buy (7 day shop £190,
> housing £110ish cameras underwater)?
> 2. What are the underwater piccies like?
> 3. What is the current status of buying electricals in Gibraltar these
days?
> Worth a visit while I'm in the neighbourhood?
>
> Cheers
>
> CAS
>
>

Hi CAS,

I bought an F700 just before my last trip to Sharm el Sheikh in July. It's
my first underwater camera, and I bought it just for the criteria you
listed - good price and feature balance. I'm by no means an experienced
photographer, so I feel that there's still plenty about the camera to
explore. There's some pics and vids I shot out there available on:

http://www.caffeinejunkie.co.uk/Sharm0704/Sharm0704.htm

They were all shot using the internal flash; I want some more practice
before I buy a strobe.

As for buying goods in Gibralter, can't help you there!

Cheers, Bryn

> I bought an F700 just before my last trip to Sharm el Sheikh in July. It's
> my first underwater camera, and I bought it just for the criteria you
> listed - good price and feature balance. I'm by no means an experienced
> photographer, so I feel that there's still plenty about the camera to
> explore. There's some pics and vids I shot out there available on:
>
> http://www.caffeinejunkie.co.uk/Sharm0704/Sharm0704.htm
>
> They were all shot using the internal flash; I want some more practice
> before I buy a strobe.
>
> As for buying goods in Gibralter, can't help you there!
>
> Cheers, Bryn

Bryn,

Thanks for that, some nice pics there! Quality looks superb...

I take it those are the F700s "best quality jpeg but not RAW" outputs?

Cheers

CAS

>
> Bryn,
>
> Thanks for that, some nice pics there! Quality looks superb...
>
> I take it those are the F700s "best quality jpeg but not RAW" outputs?
>
> Cheers
>
> CAS
>

Nope, in fact they were all shot on the 3MP setting, and have been scaled
for the web in Photoshop. I apologise if the site is running slowly, its on
the end of my DSL connection. Soon to change I hope!

I do recommend you take a laptop if you've got one, I was nearly filling my
128MB xD card each day (2 dives and some snorkelling).

Cheers, Bryn

Bryn Sadler wrote:

> I do recommend you take a laptop if you've got one, I was nearly filling my
> 128MB xD card each day (2 dives and some snorkelling).

There are little devices you can carry allong that take CF (and
other) cards from digital cameras, and copy them onto internal harddisk
(20 or 40GB or something). That way you don't have to drag your laptop
along.

/Marcin

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 11:32:21 GMT, Marcin Dobrucki
<Marcin.Dobrucki@TAKETHISAWAY.nokia.com> wrote:

>Bryn Sadler wrote:
>
>> I do recommend you take a laptop if you've got one, I was nearly filling my
>> 128MB xD card each day (2 dives and some snorkelling).
>
> There are little devices you can carry allong that take CF (and
>other) cards from digital cameras, and copy them onto internal harddisk
>(20 or 40GB or something). That way you don't have to drag your laptop
>along.
>
Ahem,

When I go away I download the 1Gb card every dive to a laptop with an
80Gb internal backed up with a 160Gb external drive.....

80 pictures on a card in Fuji RAW format, these come out to 100Mb
TIFF's when converted.

Just in case you think this is a tad excessive, work out how much hard
drive you want in order to save 1Gb per dive, diving twice a day for a
month....

For the hard of sums that's about 56-60Gb, assuming that I keep all
the pictures.

Pete S.

> There are little devices you can carry allong that take CF (and
> other) cards from digital cameras, and copy them onto internal harddisk
> (20 or 40GB or something). That way you don't have to drag your laptop
> along.
>
> /Marcin

Yeah, but I've already got the laptop, and its quite a tiny little Compaq,
so it doesn't really add much weight. If I'm going to shell out for any
20/40GB storage devices it'll be an iPod!!

Just go back from Sharm having bought the F700 & Housing specifically for the
trip.

The results are superb and I'm over the moon. In built flash has a diffuser,
which works well close up but does produce back scatter in relatively poor viz
(<15m).

Best results are achieved without flash especially in the shallows.

I was given advice to take a white card down and adjust white balance but to be
honest this produced day-glow colours in some cases. My advice, leave in Auto
and adjust up red balance with Photoshop.

Get a decent size Xd memory card, you'll get over 300 pictures on a 512mb card
with camera set on highest setting under RAW (6M).

The best advice I got from the group was the fact that there is a Kodak shop in
Na'ama Bay, near McDonalds, that will transfer data to CD for £3 at time. This
allowed me to format card mid-week and keep on snapping. Bought 2 copies to be
safe but both fine, done in about 20mins.

By the way, camera housing is rated to 40m but took mine to 54m at Canyon,
Dahab and dry as a bone.

When I bought my housing from Cameras Underwater they only had one left, but
any high street retailer can order in at same price.

Tip of the decade, use Jessops. They will price match any web offer. I did a
kelkoo search for the camera and 512Xd cards and they matched the prices. Just
to give you an idea, the Jessops price for a 512 card was £139.99; they matched
a web price of £79.99 !! Then any problems you can walk into a high street shop
and sort it out.

By the way, whatever you read / hear about the Red Sea...... it's even better
!!!

HTH
Garry

"Bryn Sadler" <syslundy@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:cjgtpb$ij3$1@taliesin2.netcom.net.uk...
> Yeah, but I've already got the laptop, and its quite a tiny little Compaq,
> so it doesn't really add much weight. If I'm going to shell out for any
> 20/40GB storage devices it'll be an iPod!!
>
>

the latest version of the xs'drive have an mp3 player built in. bought the
40gb (non mp3) one a few months ago and it does the job admirably.

Garry Harding <celsiusheat@aol.comANTISPAM> wrote:

>
> Get a decent size Xd memory card, you'll get over 300 pictures on a 512mb card
> with camera set on highest setting under RAW (6M).

That would be 85 not 300 [512/6=85]

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