Basic digital camera settings?

[the sharkman]

Buying the Olympus C-4000 tomorrow (Costco, due to excellent return policy). Just bought the PT-010 housing from Underwater Digital (thanx again Allan for all your help!). I'll be in Coz this weekend to try it out...
Question is, are there any basic settings to use to avoid too much tasking? I realize I will have to basically "dive" into it and try different settings, but I wonder if there are some settings I should start with. I won't have a strobe (yet)...

sharkman
:guitar:

 

[Dee]

Congratulations!

Here's a couple links to get you started....

The DD Library is full of good stuff. Look for the article by Jeff on the Basic settings using no strobe. Even if you will use a strobe later, I still use these basic settings.
DD Library

This was Jeff's first posting and the original of that Library article. I still keep it printed out and in my camera case!
Original Basic Settings

 

[Agape]

Thanks for the links I was going to ask this same question. The first link however didn't work for me. I just ordered a PT-010 housing yesterday from Underwater Digital too and it'll probly be a little while before I get a strobe. I think I've spent enough money in the last month or two. Might be taking a trip back to Cabo again in the next couple months so need to save up for that too.

 

[pdoege]

That was very informative.

I have been shooting with a Canon S40.

I light with a HID light that I hold off axis from the camera. I turn the internal flash off. In my experience, the internal flash lights all the crap in the water between the lens and the target.

I also use the sport setting. I have a hard time getting stable enough to smoothly track moving targets. I got a lot of blurry photos of sharks and turtles before I used this setting.

The only other advice I can give is to get as close as possible. It really requires good bouyancy and manuvering to properly frame the shot. I had really high air consumption the first couple of dives. Yikes!

I think that's it.

Peter Doege

 

[Agape]

Also there's a yahoo group dedicated to those that have a C-4000/C4040/C5050 camera. It looks like it's a pretty active group though it's not dedicated to u/w users there are some there http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Olympus4040_5050/

 

[Dee]

Sorry about that link...it's fixed now. The original settings in the second link are almost the same thing, just not quite so complete.

Peter, you are right about the backscatter. The reason the internal flash produces the most backscatter is it send light straight out and it is then reflected straight back to the lens. Every little particle in the water between you and your subject will be highlighted and VOILA!....backscatter!

Your HID light is serving the same purpose of an external strobe. Held away from the lens and at an angle to the film plane, or I should say CCD plane, the light goes out and comes back at an angle, NOT reflected into the lens.