New camera: Canon s410 / DC800

[ethanb]

Thanks dfreeman and scubaert for your kind comments.

I like natural light as well - one of the things that drew me to the S410 was its ability to do long exposures (up to 15 s) for night photgraphy. That seems to be pretty unusually in compact point-and-shoots. I've linked to some of my favorites - they're mostly cave photos. I really like silhouettes, though I haven't been very successful with them yet. That's what I was hoping for with those upward looking shots on the Willie.

Unfortunately the camera only goes up to f/2.8, so I'm a couple stops out from being able to get steady hand-held shots at ISO200. Those mast photos were shot at 1/25 s and 1/40 s, and I think I even had it at ISO400 then. When I actually got down on the wreck it was trying to do one second exposures with natural light.

Topside I like shooting at ISO50 or ISO100 - even at 200 I notice some noise. Honestly I think this all just means I should have gotten a "real camera", but then I wouldn't be enjoying it right now.

Regarding the flash, I think the s410 is *especially* bad with backscatter due to its small size - the on-board flash is less than an inch from the center of the lens. I'm still not sure whether I'll buy an external flash. I think it would be fun and really help my photos, but I also like the ease of carrying the bare camera through tight spots. In all honesty though, I I think I'm making excuses for why I don't need one, until a good deal comes along.

What I'd really like is a wide-angle lens, but those also costs nearly as much as the camera. If anyone wants to sell one of the wet lenses that can be adapted to this housing (Epoque 20mm and Sea and Sea 16/20 mm), I might be interested.

Thanks again.

Ethan

"Topside" photos:

Caver looking down at camera in Lost River Cave (F/2.8, 1 s)


Sitting around in a cave near Plattville (F/2.8, 10 s)


Self-portrait, silhouetted against a "painted" wall (F/3.2, 15 s)


Sitting around in a cave in Iowa (F/2.8, 4 s)


Sculpture in a Japanese Garden - taken at night (F/2.8, 4 s)


Sculpture in a Japanese Garden - taken at night (F/2.8, 1 s)