FIBR - Dec. 28-09 to Jan. 4-10 Trip Report + Photos

[texas-buzzard]

Very nice picts. What camera did you use?

 

[Doc]

Got these two near the Bight! In 2006!

Give 'em a little privacy will'ya?

Again, in the shallow Sunlit areas- just as the visible Corals in this image indicates. Many folks just never poke around these shallow havens for juvenile fish and beautiful... slugs... that's what they are, after all.

A camera is a camera. Any machine that can do macro, even those simple ones with built-in-flash can do the trick. The effects you see from the photography here is not caused by the camera selected- it's created by the ability of the photographer.

You can buy the hottest machine and blow the picture. If you know how to use a simple point-and-shoot, you can do a lot of macro, very cheaply.

The "magic filter" used by SFT109 (sometimes called a FantaSea Red Eye Filter) for those above great images... It can be purchased for $100, or you can just buy a CC30R (or CC15R) camera filter out of the "used bin" from KEH Camera Brokers for $5 and get the same results. They are the same thing. They will also work well for macro with flash... like "blue blocker sunglasses", all they do is remove the bluish tones.

The same "cheap way" exists for auxiliary close-up lenses. You can but the official whiz-bang close-up underwater filter style lens for $95, or you can pick up a set of four close up lenses from Porter's Camera mail order for $29.

These 1/8" critters were shot in Roatan on the Prince Albert Wreck at 25' with a $80 camera from eBay and a $1 magnifier glass:

See more microscopic images at NOT Macro its MICRO pictures by Doc_Adelman - Photobucket

The minute you associate a camera accessory with U/W, the price goes nuts.

This, also, was an image made with a point-and-shoot... off of CoCoView... and no one has ever seen one before. This specific individual was seen for a number of months, only to disappear.
....................

A lot of strange stuff out there- and most of it is pretty shallow.

 

[DandyDon]

A camera is a camera. Any machine that can do macro, even those simple ones with built-in-flash can do the trick. The effects you see from the photography here is not caused by the camera selected- it's created by the ability of the photographer.

You can buy the hottest machine and blow the picture. If you know how to use a simple point-and-shoot, you can do a lot of macro, very cheaply.

The "magic filter" used by SFT109 (sometimes called a FantaSea Red Eye Filter) for those above great images... It can be purchased for $100, or you can just buy a CC30R (or CC15R) camera filter out of the "used bin" from KEH Camera Brokers for $5 and get the same results. They are the same thing. They will also work well for macro with flash... like "blue blocker sunglasses", all they do is remove the bluish tones.

The same "cheap way" exists for auxiliary close-up lenses. You can but the official whiz-bang close-up underwater filter style lens for $95, or you can pick up a set of four close up lenses from Porter's Camera mail order for $29.

Great suggestions. I have never looked at such so I am lost when I do to their sites. Reckon they'd have lenses to fit a Sealife DC500 (Vivicam 5340s) - and how would I find those please...?

 

[Doc]

Great suggestions. I have never looked at such so I am lost when I do to their sites. Reckon they'd have lenses to fit a Sealife DC500 (Vivicam 5340s) - and how would I find those please...?

It's easy, but the trick is in "mounting" your accessory in front of your camera.

I looked at the SeaLife at Accessories | 3X Close-up Lens & Underwater Filter and couldn't figure out exactly how the accessory lenses/filters mount to the front of the lens.

Some simply screw right into the front with standard sized "filter threads" or "accessory size"... just like I]most[/I] terrestrial Cameras. If your housing has a threaded ring out front- you're in business. Just determine the mm thread width and order anything you desire off of this page Hoya Close-Up Lens Set, 52mm I always buy a much larger (in mm) size, adapting it with a "step-up-ring" Step-Up Ring, 49mm to 58mm (The pages I picked here were random in terms of thread size)

Buying a wider add-on lens eliminates "vignetting" of your image- but if it's too big, you can actually cause a shadow using your flash! Use a ruler and your best estimate to avoid this.

Other cameras have a proprietary "bayonet" mount system, the rough equivalent to an automotive light bulb... a push and gentle twist turn to lock.

I think that's what you might use. Accessories | 3X Close-up Lens & Underwater Filter Look on Amazon and I find them for about $10. They already come with some type of filter lens built on, but you can remove that and use it as a base for your other ideas. Yes, I know. Buying a perfectly operational item and prying it apart. But oh... the new avenues it will open to you.

You can buy threaded rings, called step-up rings (see above) and mount them to this cannibalized platform using GOOP Brand adhesive with great results. That gives you a platform with threads for whatever you want.

Now... you can go nuts- adding a serious "macro" close up lenses for cheap or a color correcting lens... such as the Nikon brand CC30R on eBay for $15. You can get them cheaper. Look also at the CC30M, basically the same critter.

Some cameras already offer just such an intermediate part that adapts the existing front "element" of the housing to a standard filter size, and this would really help by giving your "add-on" lenses an easy platform to start with. Here's one version Underwater Lens Adapter EyeDaptor G10-F67 Again, some camera manufacturers make them, some aftermarket... maybe you have a camera model that offers one.

I recently upgraded and bought at G10 and the Canon housing. Their housings are a bargain. I bought the aftermarket milled aluminum device that mounts to the front of the housing, snug with an o-ring only to provide mounting traction. It then gave me a 58mm threaded hole.

I could have bought the $150 accessory close up lenses from them, but the exact same thing is being sold for $25 at Porters for use by terrestrial camera bugs. I went nuts and spent $31 on http://www.porters.com/4-lens-close-up-set-58mm.htm just to get the 4 lens set with the +8 Macro model. Don't get any whacky ideas- these "single element" (piece of glass) are the only terrestrial models that will work underwater. The multi-lensed devices will flood- that's why the u/w version models cost $1500+ for that kind of extreme product. Most people go uw SLR by that point, so I don't know who they sell those to! Keep it simple.

Any such device, even the official uw models, should be well rinsed off, patted dry and occasionally a bit of o-ring grease on the threads would be pretty smart.

This is a lot of technological maneuvering just to keep an additional filter lens in front of an underwater camera, but it sure makes it easier. Remember- when you hit the water, you have to "swoosh" out all the trapped air bubbles with your hand (on any system) before you can mount it up to your uw housing. Thus, the more flexible that mounting system platform, the better.

You can get pretty nutty by adding these macro filter lenses on, you can even stack them up:

But at some point, it can result in an exercise in futility. You are getting awfully close, you don't have to burn up your 5 meg resolution in enlargement, but your 'depth of field" gets rather shallow. That is- from the front to the back of your image... is it all in focus? Sometimes it's just better to get kind-of close and enlarge it by giving up some Meg Resolution back home on your confuser.

Now, for the Mother Earth Method....

You can do something as simple as hold the filter/lens in front of your housing and clamp it down with hand pressure. That's how I shot the majority of my micro images... pretty low tech and quite laughable to many aboard who had $1000 rigs in tow.

That cost me a Dollar. and gave me these: NOT Macro its MICRO pictures by Doc_Adelman - Photobucket In no way as pretty as PB or SFT109's work, but kinda' interesting, don't you think?

 

[sft109]

Thanks again everyone for the further comments, excellent shots and information. Ass mentioned I just used the Panasonic Lumix TZ5 with the Panasonic housing for it and coupled it with the Magic Filter (http://www.magic-filters.com). I really wish Panasonic made an underwater housing for their LX3 which with its 24mm, f/2 lens and good high ISO performance (for a compact) would be the ideal underwater p&s. Although 10 Bar does make a housing for it but expect to pay 3x or so the price of the camera for it.

Also thanks for ID'ing the nudi!

Cheers!

 

[CODMAN]

Hey Doc, isn't that a black Flamingo tongue? Or am I mistaken? I saw 1 in 2006 while I was there...

Just curious!

Give 'em a little privacy will'ya?

Again, in the shallow Sunlit areas- just as the visible Corals in this image indicates. Many folks just never poke around these shallow havens for juvenile fish and beautiful... slugs... that's what they are, after all.

A camera is a camera. Any machine that can do macro, even those simple ones with built-in-flash can do the trick. The effects you see from the photography here is not caused by the camera selected- it's created by the ability of the photographer.

You can buy the hottest machine and blow the picture. If you know how to use a simple point-and-shoot, you can do a lot of macro, very cheaply.

The "magic filter" used by SFT109 (sometimes called a FantaSea Red Eye Filter) for those above great images... It can be purchased for $100, or you can just buy a CC30R (or CC15R) camera filter out of the "used bin" from KEH Camera Brokers for $5 and get the same results. They are the same thing. They will also work well for macro with flash... like "blue blocker sunglasses", all they do is remove the bluish tones.

The same "cheap way" exists for auxiliary close-up lenses. You can but the official whiz-bang close-up underwater filter style lens for $95, or you can pick up a set of four close up lenses from Porter's Camera mail order for $29.

These 1/8" critters were shot in Roatan on the Prince Albert Wreck at 25' with a $80 camera from eBay and a $1 magnifier glass:

See more microscopic images at NOT Macro its MICRO pictures by Doc_Adelman - Photobucket

The minute you associate a camera accessory with U/W, the price goes nuts.

This, also, was an image made with a point-and-shoot... off of CoCoView... and no one has ever seen one before. This specific individual was seen for a number of months, only to disappear.
....................

A lot of strange stuff out there- and most of it is pretty shallow.

 

[Doc]

Hey Doc, isn't that a black Flamingo tongue? Or am I mistaken? I saw 1 in 2006 while I was there...

Just curious!

That was the one. Lucky you for seeing it. By the time I got back down it was gone.

 

[CODMAN]

Well It wasn't even near Cocoview. It was one of the sites further south-west... Our DM had briefed us we might find one and they were rare..He Found one... Either he was good... Or he knew where one was and wanted to look "buff" either way, we got a special glance at one (I've got pics... bad pics... of it). I didn't realise at the time just how special they were... I was busy searching for a Frogfish at the time....:cool2: But yeah, it was cool. They are beautifull creatures...

That was the one. Lucky you for seeing it. By the time I got back down it was gone.