Reefmaster Mini impressions

[suzette]

Hello- I saw there were a few people asking about the Reefmaster Mini and what kind of results to expect, so I wanted to post here and give my first impressions for anyone who finds it useful.

I've been diving for a few years and have been shooting with an Olympus 1030SW in that time. I got entirely sick of having to go in manually in a photo editing program and remove the blues/greens (thereby removing a lot of color as well) from my shots and really wanted a camera that had a red filter already in it. I was eyeballing the DC1200, which I will likely still get down the road, but also wanted something I could stick in my BC pocket for when I didn't want to drag a big camera in.

Today was my first day shooting with the Reefmaster Mini and I love it. I thought it ate the batteries pretty fast (although I was using the ones that came with it, which could have been old/bad quality; I'm using it again tomorrow and will do a comparison) but I was really pleased with the results. The only touching I did in these photos was in Picasa, where I used the "I feel lucky" button to adjust the contrast a bit and lighten them up. Since I wasn't using a strobe, I used available light today. The vis was very good so I got some nice shots. Here are my keepers. I'm looking forward to taking it on a wreck tomorrow to see if I get anything good there.

I didn't have any luck with up close shots today but I was drifting on my first dive and keeping an eye on a new diver on my second, so not much time to fool with it.


queenangel by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr


spottedtrunkfish by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr


hogcoral3 by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr


hogandcoral2 by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr


bigpillar by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr


dorkfish by suzettetruesdell, on Flickr

 

[streetjudge79]

Great shots Suzette! I love the billy bob hog fish

 

[guggie]

Nice pics. I've noticed many pics taken with the Sealife cameras (all of them) in non-strobe mode have a purplish cast to the distant water background. I assume this is due to the filtering and increase in red. Kind of annoying...

 

[scubajo007]

Suzette,
Very nice pictures, it seems you can recommend this camera.
Do you have the Reefmaster Mini II SL330 or is it the elder Reefmaster Mini SL320. I'm planning to buy the Reefmaster Mini II SL330 very soon; the reason is that I want a simple camera which produce good quality pictures and is easy to use and easy to have in my BCD.

 

[suzette]

I have the brand new model. I agree about the purple cast although it's easier for me to deal with that than the deep blues and greens of the olympus I was shooting. You'll have some sort of compromise on color at this price point and minus the strobe, which I accept and can work with.