New camera: Canon s410 / DC800

[ethanb]

I've been using a Canon s410 (4MP Digital Elph) since last spring. I bought it as a topside camera, with no intention of using it underwater, but the prices on those cheap Canon housings just got too tempting and I gave in last week and ordered one. It's only been out to Devil's Lake, Mendota, and Pearl Lake so far - the best viz it's seen is about 10 feet - but I'm going to the Willie on Friday.

I'd be interested in hearing any tips and tricks from people who have experience with this setup or earlier versions. I've been drooling over some of Inon's wide-angle lense and strobe setups, but I doubt I'll be able to afford one anytime soon. So far I've just been shooting shallow close-up with no flash - I'm guessing it'll suck when I try to use the built-in flash in Lake Michigan.

Here's a picture of a bluegill from Pearl Lake last weekend - it's the first shot I've liked so far. For some reason the fish were trying to eat the housing. They kept nibbling at the top right corner - I'm not sure if it's the blue zoom lever or the yellow shutter release button or their reflection in the clear glass, but it was making them crazy. If I ever wanted to catch bluegills, I'd put hooks all over the housing and put it on a fishing rod.

Ethan

[dfreeman]

I is not just your camera, I have had bluegills nibble at my mask, camera housing, and me depending on the situation. They just believe that they are tough.

Nice picture, keep working at it.

Doug

[ethanb]

I finally got a chance to take my camera somewhere worthwhile - the Prins Willem (now if only I could combine two threads). Last Friday evening we went out on Points North's charter boat, . Viz was probably 50 feet and the surface temp was 62F, but it dropped to ~40F below about 15 feet.

Even with the good viz, I was initially a bit disappointed. Without the flash, the camera needed a fairly long exposure time - so long that many of the photos turned out blurred. Towards the end of the dive I experimented with forcing the camera to use a high ISO, which produced grainy images, and bracing the camera while taking photos, which had much better results. I am thinking about getting a cheap tripod, weighting it, and taking it along, so I can do longer exposures without blurring.

With the flash, many of the shots were pretty badly speckled. I expected this from the on-board flash, but not to this degree, especially considering how clear the water appeared. I did get good results when I brought the camera very close to the subject. I think I'll end up getting an external flash at some point.

I'm including some of my favorite shots from this dive. They're not all great (or even good), but I still thought I'd offer them up here from comments and suggestions. I couldn't find any protocol for posting images here - I tried not to make them too big, since I'm sure many people are using dialup. I've included 12 images and the total size of this page should be about 1 MB - at 57.6kbits/s that should take 2-3 minutes to download.

Workbench with tools


Engine Cylinder Head (with two zip ties)


Box (in one of the levels below the bridge, I believe)


Blower vent on deck near the bow:


Diver (Isaac Gomez, DM)


Mast (converted to B&W)


Mast (in color)


I think this is some kind of heat exchanger


Name on stern ("Will")


Name on stern ("Willem")


Name on stern ("ins Willem")
Everybody be sure to scrape off zebra mussels when you're back here!


Natural light entering windows (looking forward from level below bridge)

[dfreeman]

Good start on the photographs. Backscatter from the onboard flash will give you backscatter in water that seems to be clear. External flash or an HID light do wonders for this problem. I like using HID lights for filling in the color and avoiding backscatter.

Diverite has quite a write up on their website concerning this subject.

Keep on diving.


Doug

[scubert]

(When my camera was working > ) I preferred to shoot in natural light. Ethan, can you shoot at a simulated ISO 200 with a F1.8 - 2.2? That should give you pretty decent natural light shots at 1/60 - 1/100 of a second. That's roughly what I used in bad vis in lake superior.

Nice start, It's great to really see some colors on the Willie, I knew they were there somewhere.

[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)

[Omicron]

For just using a digital camera with onboard flash, those photos are pretty good.

So do you do a lot of dry-caving?? I've kind of had a bug to try it out since I did my cave diving cert....