Can I improve my setup?

[Dana Wyse]

Finally, just used my DC2000 kit with the Sea Dragon 2500 light. So far not happy with the quality of the shots underwater. On land get great results. Years ago had the Nikonos V with flash. Later housings with small canon cameras. Seems that amount of light always affects the quality of the image. I mainly shot photos on the underwater setting with the red tint and always on light setting. Some shots were sharp, but most were not. When I tried video it was obvious there was not enough light. I know that lack of sharpness may be due in large part to not holding still and not getting a good focus lock.

What settings do most of you use and what is your setup (lighting) that turn out the best results? Or am I expecting too much from this camera for underwater photography? Although I have a Sony A7riv for my normal photography, I don't dive enough to justify the thousands that some spend to setup slr cameras and generate high quality photos.

Thanks for any response,
Dana

 

[Saniflush]

I am not nearly as learned as most of the folks around here when it comes to cameras and settings so take this with lots of grains of salt. The best results that I have had thus far have been with a sea dragon light and a strobe together. Mainly shooting on auto right now until I build so experience with settings. To me, outside of great buoyancy, a strobe makes the single biggest difference in getting great shots. These were all shot with those settings...

 

[Dana Wyse]

I assume you set the camera to the fish icon and than set it to flash? You keep the other light always on? Great color in your photos. Where was this dive?

 

[Saniflush]

I assume you set the camera to the fish icon and than set it to flash? You keep the other light always on? Great color in your photos. Where was this dive?

Yes on all. The video light is on medium power. The strobe is new and I have found that I need to turn it's power down to 5 also. These were in St Lucia a month ago.