HI,
I took mine out for the first time this weekend. I was thrilled with the results of the "keepers" but I am still perfecting my technique. The dive was a 60' reef off of Palm Beach FL. Vis was about 60', some sun and some clouds, moderate current, blue water.
My rig: E-PL2, 14-42II Kit lens, Oly Housing, 2 Sea and Sea YS=01s connected with fiber optic cords to the housing.
My camera settings FOR FLASH PHOTOS were:
On the camera, Manual Exposure. I set the shutter speed at 1/180 (maximim sync speed) and adjusted the aperture for two stops under-exposure (for my dive this ended up as about 5.6). ISO was set to 200 for maximum quality. The on-camera flash was set to "fill" so that it fired every time. White balance was set to "underwater." In case anyone cares about the jpeg settings (I shoot RAW + jpeg), saturation was +1, contrast normal, sharpness +1,and "gradation" (that adjusts hightlights/shadows for more tonal range) was normal, and noise reduction was set to "low." Autofocus was set to Single shot AF, but only because this was my first dive and I will experiment with AF settings as I go along. Image stabilization was on in standard mode. There was no on-camera flash compensation.
The flashes were set to DS-TTL. I dialed down the left flash on the output dial (not the mode dial, that always stayed TTL) to give some shots ratio lighting for texture.
As for exposure, I was absolutely thrilled. The manual underexposure gave me very dark, deep blue backgrounds that still held some detail. The TTL flash exposures were absolutely right-own with not a single shot over exposed. I had very pleasing shadows with the different flash outputs. A few shots were under-exposed only when I was too far away from the subject--not the flash's fault! End result, vibrant, coloful subjects that "poped out" from the deep blue background. I was very happy on the exposure side, and the quality of the jpegs was just amazing.
As for focus, I need some more practice. I lost some shots due to the focus not locking. However, it could be that I was moving (there was some current) and that I moved off of the subject after I locked the focus but before I fired the shutter. I think I will experiment with continuous AF or maybe the cool focus tracking feature to see if this improves things. I also will try to make sure I do not change position until the shot is complete.
I also had some shots that seemed to show motion blur. That has baffled me because I thought the strobe would "freeze" the subject. I will try to learn more about that, or maybe someone on this forum here with more experience (Jack or Ryan??) can comment on that.
AF performance was WAY above compact camera level, but somewhat slower than my land camera (5DII). Overall, I did not notice that focus speed was a hindrance in getting the shots I wanted.
Still, the % of keepers was equal to the % of losers, which is pretty good for a new UW photographer, with a new rig, on a dive with current.
I shot a short video with no lighting. With the underwater white balance the colors were pretty vibrant at 60' and it looked very nice. I was impressed. I have a video light coming which should improve things even more.
My next dive will be with the panasonic/Leica 45mm macro lens for an "all macro" fiesta at the Blue Heron Bridge. That will give me much more insight into the AF capabilities. Will also be doing a night dive for the ultimate test of the flashes.
Also, I am having trouble focusing on the screen with my 50 year old eyes. I never liked composing on a LCD screen anyway because it is very small and difficult to use compared a viewfinder. I am going to adapt my Zacuto Z-finder to the housing, which will give me a 3x magnified, field-of-vision filling, gloriously sharp "EVF." That should improve my keeper rate immeasurably, just as it has improved my above-water shooting. I hope to have that done in the next day or two.
I have to learn how to post photos here. I will try do do that tonight so you can see what I have been talking about.
Guy
