Anyone used an Olympus FE-280?

[myrtlebeachbums]

Okay folks, I'm back from Florida and the pictures are ready for your review. They've all been cropped down by Picasa when I uploaded them to Picasaweb.

What gets me most about the ones from West Palm Beach (aka Boynton Beach) is that 40-60 feet down really does steal the reds from the color spectrum. I remember looking at the brilliant red lens ring on the housing and it was a dull red at best when at depth. The pictures sadly reflect this. Naturally this leads me to ask what I can do to help this? A red filter of some sort on the lens? Start doing night dives and using an appropriate flash?

All were taken in "Underwater 2" mode that was referenced before. These were my first ocean dives and I knew damn well I was going to be very puppy-like on these dives. (WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?! WHAT'S THAT?!)

I kept snapping and snapping pictures. The results are what you see here: Picasa Web Albums - Dave - 2007-12-26 Re...

Prior to this I did DiveQuest at Epcot on Sunday, and my wife took many pictures of varying quality with the camera. She knows less about the camera than I do, so I have no idea what mode she was taking these in. Some turned out, some didn't. Overall DiveQuest was an awesome experience though, and I'm damn glad I did it. Swimming with the fish, turtle, rays, and sharks there went quite a way towards calming my nerves that everything down there really couldn't care less about me being there as long as I leave them alone. (ie: I didn't suffer a panic attack at depth in West Palm when I saw the nurse shark. Instead it was a "Hey cool!" feeling instead.) Here's those pics: Picasa Web Albums - Dave - 2007-12-23 Ep...

I have oodles to learn about this camera and underwater picture taking in general. If I can get the colors to come out better I'll be elated with this camera. For now I'm still pleased with it, but wondering how I can apply some sort of filter to correct the colors in The Gimp. (open source Photoshop-like program I use.)

One last note: Using the battery that came with the FE-280 I was able to do two 40 minute dives and take all the pictures and video I wanted. The battery held up great, and a fellow newbie diver had the Reefmaster Mini. She said that the batteries in that camera died long before the second dive was over. I'm damn glad the batteries held up in the FE-280 or I never would've gotten pictures of the moray eel. A very cool last thing to see on my second dive that day!

 

[pennypue]

Dave, the pics are nice! You can do some color correction with your Gimp program. I was going to see if I could get a Magic Filter for on my FE. A strobe would definitely help to bring back the reds.

Two big differences between the shots in your album and the ones in your wife's. First, it was a lot darker in the tank than the ocean, the lighting wasn't as even. Second, and a BIG one, your wife was shooting through a couple of inches of plexi-glass!!!! The light was so low that the 'shutter' speed was quite slow, so it picked up the moment. The plexi-glass also meant that the poor camera's autofocus was having trouble deciding where to focus. But blurry or not, it's nice to have the pics for memories.....the video clips turned out nicely.

 

[pennypue]

Here's an example of color correction (thanks to JustLeesa)!!
This was shot in just a few feet of open water at the end of a cave dive. But it can give you a great comparison.

 

[myrtlebeachbums]

Here's an example of color correction (thanks to JustLeesa)!!
This was shot in just a few feet of open water at the end of a cave dive. But it can give you a great comparison.

Excellent! Were those shot with your FE-280?

I know I can do this in Gimp. I just have to figure out how. Time to go learn. :14:

 

[pennypue]

yep, shot with my fe-240, not certain what the difference is.......lol, but as far as I can tell the 280 is step up!

Color correction and removal of some of the particulate were courtesy of JustLeesa. Check out the photography forum. I think there's probably quite a few people there that can teach you how to color correct the photos. I'm not too good at it, yet. I know that JustLeesa has run classes on it before.

 

[NJMike]

Yeah, nice pics, Dave. Unfortunately for me, I did not get the camera for Christmas as I expected...so I just have to enjoy the pics from you guys!

 

[myrtlebeachbums]

Yeah, nice pics, Dave. Unfortunately for me, I did not get the camera for Christmas as I expected...so I just have to enjoy the pics from you guys!

Thanks Mike!

If I've learned anything in the 12 years I've had digital cameras it's that a few things never change:

- The new models always have better resolution
- The old models always get cheaper over time (I don't remember what I paid for my Kodak DC40 in 1996, but I know it's a LOT more than the $9.99 I see one going for on eBay right now!)

Hang in there Mike!

 

[NJMike]

Well, I didn't get it for Christmas but I did get it! Had to sell some other stuff to get the money but that's okay.

I am still testing the case. Have one more dive with it, where I will depress all the buttons and make sure no water leaks in.

My local dive shop is offerring a digital photography class at the end of June so I might do that.

pennysue...that example of color correction was unbelievable! And you say that was done with a program called GIMP?

Is that freeware? I will have to find some info on it.

 

[myrtlebeachbums]

pennysue...that example of color correction was unbelievable! And you say that was done with a program called GIMP?

Is that freeware? I will have to find some info on it.

She was probably talking about PhotoShop.

I used GIMP both in Windows and in Linux. If you were using Linux, you'd know GIMP so I'm assuming you're a Windows user. Here's the link for the Windows installer.

GIMP - Windows installers

There's a number of guides for newbies out there on the web. Hit Google and you should have no problem locating them.

One disappointing thing I found out about my FE-280 is that it either can't use an external strobe, or I haven't figured how to do it. I'm still happy with it though. Here's some pictures I took at the mining pit about a month ago.

Picasa Web Albums - Dave - 2008-04-26 Di...

 

[pennypue]

Yep, that was all done in Photoshop.

As for the flash, I've not tried to put one on mine. The whole point of that camera for me is to be able to put it into my drysuit pocket. So I've not tried or looked at doing it. But I would think that you could set up a slave strobe that would trigger off the on board flash. But to attach one by cord, nope.