Ideas for small footprint compact camera setup?

[dhaas]

It's great to have Chris Ross, Barmaglot, BLACKCRUSADER, FezSolo, off, uwlunatic and all the others adding in thoughts on here !

I participated a lot on Wetpixel from the very beginning even doing gear reviews. That site is almost 99% ILC (Interchangeable Lens Camera) systems these days. I don't see much discussion or sharing information on compacts which I seriously believe to prevalent many times over in the scuba diving world.

I hope all find these solutions valuable in capturing memories on your next dive excursion wherever it may be!

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

 

[Barmaglot]

Your camera lens "sees" through your housing's FLAT port like your diving mask. Light bending as it enters an air filled space makes things look closer and larger. A general figure is a 25% decrease.

It's not just the angle of view; flat ports add significant distortion. This is a 16mm lens on APS-C (24mm-equivalent) shooting through a flat port; note how the lines curve out:

And this is the same lens shooting through a dome:

The effect is even more pronounced at wider focal lengths; this is 10mm (15-mm equivalent):

At narrow focal lengths, however (this is 50mm, or 75mm-equivalent), it's almost imperceptible:

 

[dhaas]

As Barmaglot posted shots taken with a moderate wide angle lens (24mm) the difference in a flat port versus a dome can affect edge / corner sharpness.

My observation after shooting tons of WA lenses on SLR cameras for decades is unless you're willing to spend major $$$$ getting a dome at the exact distance for a specific lens corners may or may not have some softness.

I crop a little almost every photo I justify keeping. I think you should press the DELETE key on your computer on the FIRST pass through your pictures! Keep only those in focus, decent color, etc. Then edit to your personal taste.

Hence corners aren't as important to me as they are to some UW photographers.

If you look at photos taken by National Geographic photographers many wide angle shots have slightly blurred corners. The viewer is drawn to the parts in focus. They shoot mostly rectilinear (flat field of view wide angle lenses as they're mostly shooting natural history / wildlife) so no matter what f-stop or HUGE 230mm / 9" dome port corners won't be tack sharp. But in their astounding photos it isn't a critical deal breaker.

Many hobbyist / serious ILC camera big system shooters use a FISHEYE wide angle lens that being CURVED will sharpen up corners but also introduce curvature. Some love the effect, others don't.

In the UW photo world corner sharpness obsession is I think over rated. While I believe if you shoot a nice sharp wide lens behind a flat port isn't ideal it isn't as huge a deal breaker as touted.

Then again, I'm an old guy and lazy so cropping works for me! LOL.....

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

 

[Blackcrusader]

Then again, I'm an old guy and lazy so cropping works for me! LOL.....

I believe in fit in that category the OP is in. I'm a competent diver who likes to take video and photos on my vacations. I wanted gear that would get me decent pictures. I used a Hero4 Black for several years. Go Pros are great in that they take good video, don't need any user skill other than point and shoot. However my friends had cameras and many were using the Olympus TG series.

So when the TG6 came out and my birthday was coming up before a dive vacation I got my wife to buy me a complete package as my present lol. US$500 for the lot in the picture below. PT059 housing, spare charger and battery, 64GB Sandisk card, cleaning gear, two tripods, hard case and software, TG6.

I wanted to get some decent photo's especially those small macro my Go Pro could not do. I had already bought the Big Blue video lights in preparation. My first week of photos were not good. Finally got some settings that worked and learned about the lighting I needed. Over time my shots got better. Good thing you can delete the ugly shots lol. Again I am just shooting things of opportunity.

I am happy with the shots I am getting and can even improve on those. I just need more diving which I am not getting right now.
I will also share those video or photos with my dive buddies on the dives. Some are instabuddies who who not have a camera with them. So it's nice to get them in frame for some shots with turtles or whale sharks or other marine life where possible.
There is still quite a bit of learning once one buys a camera and lighting. It takes time to learn. I tended to actually have too much power in my lighting when close up and learning that me eyes needed replacing my camera could focus in on things I could barely see.

So in camera threads I post some of my favourite photos or videos do people can see what you can really do with a small compact and I am not even the best out there. I am lazy and often did not post edit. Just post the jpeg photo. Now I have started using light room classic to touch up some photos' as I have time due to lack of diving lol.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Getting good shots sometimes requires luck on what you can get to shoot, and having buddies that don't mind you stopping for a few minutes to get photo or video.

 

[jf3193]

Are you doing video? - the Canon G7X will be better at custom white balance than the Sony. If you sticking with 1"sensors a small flash like the INON S2000 will be fine, it's only a stop less powerful than the full size ones and you don't need to stop down as much on 1"sensors compared to larger sensors, f5.6 is equivalent depth of field to f16 on a full frame. You need the more powerful flashes for full frame as you need to stop the lenses down quite a lot in dome ports. A single strobe will limit your wide angle shooting a little, but is usually OK for macro.

Be aware that all of the 1"compacts don't go that wide or do small subjects well without an add on wet lens. At the wide end 24mm field of view through a flat port is a little limiting.

On the performance of the RX-100 series, I believe the Va model has the 24-70 lens and better AF. The later models have 24-200 lens that get really long and complicate the use of wet lenses, requiring a port system to get the best of either macro or wide lenses. The issue you have with lenses changing length is that a port that allows the full focal range the lens is right at the bottom of the port at the wide setting and vignettes with a wet wide lens. The full range port allows you to zoom right in for better macro. Different housing options have different limitations and I think you need to take that into account if you plan to use wet lenses. Do you primarily do wide angle shooting or macro shooting - that may influence which way you want to go.

Thanks Chris for the info on the strobes. I hardly ever take video, mainly focused on stills.
I’ve noticed the rx100 1-2 had a 24-100 lens, which looks similar to the canon g7x size lens. would that create an issue like with the 200 lenses?
im also wondering if the 24-70 lens on versions 3-5 will be powerful enough for decent macro ( with wet lens of course)

 

[jf3193]

TG6 on this small nudi climbing over a hermit crab no add on lens. Cameras with bigger lenses may do a lot better but the 4K video on the TG6 I find to to pretty good.

The TG series does pretty amazing macro right out of the box so I've seen. My only concern is the lack of full manual controls. I think it’d be a blast for a macro shooter

 

[jf3193]

It's great to have Chris Ross, Barmaglot, BLACKCRUSADER, FezSolo, off, uwlunatic and all the others adding in thoughts on here !

I participated a lot on Wetpixel from the very beginning even doing gear reviews. That site is almost 99% ILC (Interchangeable Lens Camera) systems these days. I don't see much discussion or sharing information on compacts which I seriously believe to prevalent many times over in the scuba diving world.

I hope all find these solutions valuable in capturing memories on your next dive excursion wherever it may be!

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

I’m learning a lot so far from all you guys!

 

[jf3193]

I believe in fit in that category the OP is in. I'm a competent diver who likes to take video and photos on my vacations. I wanted gear that would get me decent pictures. I used a Hero4 Black for several years. Go Pros are great in that they take good video, don't need any user skill other than point and shoot. However my friends had cameras and many were using the Olympus TG series.

So when the TG6 came out and my birthday was coming up before a dive vacation I got my wife to buy me a complete package as my present lol. US$500 for the lot in the picture below. PT059 housing, spare charger and battery, 64GB Sandisk card, cleaning gear, two tripods, hard case and software, TG6.

I wanted to get some decent photo's especially those small macro my Go Pro could not do. I had already bought the Big Blue video lights in preparation. My first week of photos were not good. Finally got some settings that worked and learned about the lighting I needed. Over time my shots got better. Good thing you can delete the ugly shots lol. Again I am just shooting things of opportunity.

I am happy with the shots I am getting and can even improve on those. I just need more diving which I am not getting right now.
I will also share those video or photos with my dive buddies on the dives. Some are instabuddies who who not have a camera with them. So it's nice to get them in frame for some shots with turtles or whale sharks or other marine life where possible.
There is still quite a bit of learning once one buys a camera and lighting. It takes time to learn. I tended to actually have too much power in my lighting when close up and learning that me eyes needed replacing my camera could focus in on things I could barely see.

So in camera threads I post some of my favourite photos or videos do people can see what you can really do with a small compact and I am not even the best out there. I am lazy and often did not post edit. Just post the jpeg photo. Now I have started using light room classic to touch up some photos' as I have time due to lack of diving lol.

View attachment 649467 View attachment 649468 View attachment 649469

Great shots!

 

[scubadada]

I'm still using a Canon G7X in a Nauticam housing. I almost always shoot ambient light. The one button white balance is a huge advantage for stills and video. I'm not serious about my photography, mostly for me, family, and friends. I do not shoot in RAW and do not do processing. I get some perfectly good photos, considering my restrictions. I don't believe any of the later versions of the G7X include the one button white balance.