Aaaarrrrgggghhh!

[justleesa]

I know it's not exactly a solution to your problem going to DSLR, but with the 5050 I did end up missing a lot of shots because of the camera not co-operating when I wanted it to..

Exactly! When I am taking a picture of a nudi, a turtle or something that doesn't move too much I have all the time in the world - but people, not easy to direct underwater and would replay for me.

Don't get me wrong, I got some great shots with the 5050,

Me too...

but the delays I was experiencing at times with the 5050 literally drove me to go DSLR. I did notice that I would have to depress the shutter button half way and wait until the camera was properly focused (which at times took a while) when the lcd screen got brighter, and then I knew the shot would go. This happening more underwater may be perhaps due to increased difficulty in achieving proper focus

*sigh*.... It's such a pain - today will never come again.

Now with your DSLR, what housing do you have and are you happy with it? Are you ok with the fact that you either have to choose WAL or macro and are stuck with it for the whole dive? ( that is right, right?)

 

[justleesa]

It shouldn't happen in M or any other mode. You press the shutter it should go if it focussing etc.

If it is only happening underwater you might need to recheck (I'm sure you've done it at least once already!) the way things are sitting in the housing. Does it always work in the housing on land? If so, I am lost...

I'll recheck and try again....I didn't try it above. Thanks for the thought

 

[justleesa]

I don't have a 5050 so ignore me if I'm off base here... but I'm having the lag problem with my Optio at times and I'm going to use a focusing light tomorrow to see if the helps. I know if I am in a higher ambient light situation that things happen much faster... but when it is darker it takes forever.

hmmmm.....I was so mad that it was happening I didn't pay attention to the situation...for 2 scenes I know I was shooting from the light into the dark and the other was vice versa....I'll try to pay closer attention to that next time and see if we can figure it out.

Thanks UP!

 

[ssra30]

It sounded as if the camera just could not focus so when you press a button, nothing happen. It is a bit unusual with wide angle shot or diver type shot. I had this kind of problem more often with macro shot when I moved in too close for the camera to focus properly. May be the diver was just moving a bit too much but it is hard to imagine with 100ft viz, there should be plenty of ambient light for the camera autofocus to work. How far away was the diver from you?
with dSLR, if I have macro lens on, I only looked at the rock/sand etc looking at small critters, completely ignoringt the mantas and whalesharks that swim by, if I have on WAL, I pretty much just kept looking at the blue water waiting for bigger things to come

 

[justleesa]

OK, this is one of the pictures that I had repeatedly tried to take. From the dark into the light. Not much to focus on and I had the manual white balance set.

 

[justleesa]

It sounded as if the camera just could not focus so when you press a button, nothing happen. It is a bit unusual with wide angle shot or diver type shot. I had this kind of problem more often with macro shot when I moved in too close for the camera to focus properly. May be the diver was just moving a bit too much but it is hard to imagine with 100ft viz, there should be plenty of ambient light for the camera autofocus to work. How far away was the diver from you?

On the deep dive, when I started to try to take the picture, the diver was maybe 3-4m + away from me. Coming right up and then past me. In the picture in the previous post I think he was about same distance, just this time he posed and wasn't moving around. This shot was the most frustraiting to get. Out of many 20 attempts I got 4 pictures and of the 4 only one is "good".

with dSLR, if I have macro lens on, I only looked at the rock/sand etc looking at small critters, completely ignoringt the mantas and whalesharks that swim by, if I have on WAL, I pretty much just kept looking at the blue water waiting for bigger things to come

That's what I thought...make up my mind before...now that's gonna be hard.

 

[Warren_L]

Now with your DSLR, what housing do you have and are you happy with it? Are you ok with the fact that you either have to choose WAL or macro and are stuck with it for the whole dive? ( that is right, right?)

I don't have my housing yet. I just went DSLR just a few weeks ago and am awaiting the completion of the Ikelite TTL housing for the D70. According to Ike, it should be shipping hopefully in June. I did give some thought to the lenses though, and as you mention, one of the major differences is that you cannot wet swap lenses. I decided to go with the 12-24mm zoom in addition to the 18-70mm that came with the camera. But I did find that when I was shooting with my 5050, I really didn't wet swap lenses much to begin with, so I may not find not being able to switch from WAL to macro a big issue. But once I get everything set up, I'll let you know my impressions of it.

So far, on land, I've been very impressed with the lack of shutter delay. I believe there is a built in buffer that allows multiple consecutive shots with the D70, but there is a bit of a delay at times after several shots when it needs to catch up writing to the card. And a times there is a delay I've noticed with the camera if there is a problem focusing (especially on a subject that has very little detail differences, such as a blank wall), so this may not completely solve the delay issue. But with dual Ike DS-125 strobes, I suspect therer won't be much in terms of focusing issues.

 

[ssra30]

So far, on land, I've been very impressed with the lack of shutter delay. I believe there is a built in buffer that allows multiple consecutive shots with the D70, but there is a bit of a delay at times after several shots when it needs to catch up writing to the card. And a times there is a delay I've noticed with the camera if there is a problem focusing (especially on a subject that has very little detail differences, such as a blank wall), so this may not completely solve the delay issue. But with dual Ike DS-125 strobes, I suspect therer won't be much in terms of focusing issues.

Hmmm, with my D70, I never really had any time out from the camera to write to card. Shooting NEF, if I keep the shutter pressed, I can get 3fps until the buffer is full then the camera will shoot and write at about 1 fps. I never noticed any delay other wise. If I shoot then recompose then shoot, I can pretty much do this all day long until the card is full. This was with my Transcend 45X 1 GB card. I guess it might take a bit longer if you use slower CF card but it certainly is significantly faster than C5050.

 

[ssra30]

On the deep dive, when I started to try to take the picture, the diver was maybe 3-4m + away from me. Coming right up and then past me. In the picture in the previous post I think he was about same distance, just this time he posed and wasn't moving around. This shot was the most frustraiting to get. Out of many 20 attempts I got 4 pictures and of the 4 only one is "good".


That's what I thought...make up my mind before...now that's gonna be hard.

My guess would be that if you keep the focus center right in the middle of the diver, there is not a lot of contrast for the autofocus system to use to focus, especially with such a bright background of the water. If you move the focus point to the edge of the diver and water, half press the shutter to acheive focus then recompose, you might have better luck.

Now with dSLR, I like the ability to repeat the same divesites a few times rather than doing a trip that visit 15 divesites in 15 dives so I can go back in with different lenses for different things if neccessary and hope that those whalesharks hang around for me to get in with a different lens

 

[Warren_L]

Hmmm, with my D70, I never really had any time out from the camera to write to card. Shooting NEF, if I keep the shutter pressed, I can get 3fps until the buffer is full then the camera will shoot and write at about 1 fps. I never noticed any delay other wise. If I shoot then recompose then shoot, I can pretty much do this all day long until the card is full. This was with my Transcend 45X 1 GB card. I guess it might take a bit longer if you use slower CF card but it certainly is significantly faster than C5050.

I haven't really had the camera long enough to really be sure of the exact issues. But I did notice this as I was shooting NEF and my card is a 1G Lexar 40x CF. I did notice some delay presumably as the camera was writing to the card (the CF activity LED was flashing for a while longer). I will have to experiment some more to make sure that these delays were not due to focusing issues.