Best film for Cozumel Diving?

[Aquaman40]

Hello, Hopefully this is not a repetitive question. I have done a quick search and have not found the answer I'm looking for. I will be in Cozumel in less than 2 weeks and will be bringing my S & S MM II Ex with YS 50 Strobe, no TTL. I consider myself mostly a beginner as I have only shot about thirty rolls through the camera.
When I was in Hawaii last August, I used Fuji Sensia 100 slide film and got some pretty good pictures. Is there a better film to use for Cozumel picture taking. What in fact is the Best film for underwater pictures, if there is one. I also used Kodak ektachrome 100 for print type pictures and again had some nice photos.
Any recommendations on film would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Aquaman 40

 

[fdog]

Aquaman, here's a recent thread authored by a member with a similar question.

Briefly, my preferences are 100 for most recreational depth dives in clear water, and 400 for overcast or low vis.

Most find that chromes will help them learn faster, and negatives are more forgiving.

My emulsion choice (Provia vs Ektachrome vs Sensia, etc) generally hinges on what I'm trying to emphasize, or quench, in the image.

All the best, James

 

[PapaBob]

fdog:

Thanks for reviving my thread. I just got back from Belize and I just got my slides back. Your "f-4 on a sunny day at 60" was a great baseline and worked like a charm. I shot Provia at 100 and 400 Iso. 400 for the deeper dives and 100 for the shallow and close up stuff. I did better with the 400 which I attribute to the fact that 400VC Portra is my favorite negative film so I shoot a lot in this ISO. When I screwed up with the 100 it was mainly because I did not follow your advice. I love the colors on this stuff. Frankly, the 400 looks as good to my unexperienced eye as the 100. It is more expensive but I do like the extra stops. I got some good wall shots at f-8 with the stobe powered down so I did not wash out the foreground. I need to sort and scan some of this stuff (pain in the ...) but will try to upload some shots in the next few days.

Aquaman, fdog gets my certification as a good advisor.

---Bob

 

[fdog]

Bob, thanks for the good words. However, the best reward for me is that you came home with some great images!

Hope to meet you on a dive some day....

Truly, all the best, James

 

[Aquaman40]

Fdog,
With the above info I gave you, could you narrow it down as to what exact film I should buy for my Cozumel trip, I plan on making 10-12 dives including a few night dives. Since I want both slide and print film, I was thinking about buying both Fuji sensia 100 slide, and Kodak ektachrome 400 print. Do you think this is a good choice. Is there a better choice?
Thanks a bunch
Mike

 

[DesertEagle]

Anything with the word chrome in it is slide film. If you are doing wide angle and macro and want to use only one film, consider Kodak Elitechrome 100 Extra Color (EBX) or Fuji Velvia 100F. Both have the level of saturation desired for macro and will also look for wide angle. They can be a bit tricky though when it comes to dark areas. If you are doing wide angle or just the regular lens, use Provia 100F or Elitechrome 100 (EB). These films will allow a little more detail in very shaded areas.

For print film I use Fuji Superia 200 and 400 print film. Excellent grain structure and 4th color layer. It's slighly on the contrasty side which is good underwater. Print films have improved so much over the last 10 years that I'm less inclined to shoot slides. Ease of processing, printing and exposure lattitude make for good photos.

 

[louisianadiver]

Hello, Hopefully this is not a repetitive question. I have done a quick search and have not found the answer I'm looking for. I will be in Cozumel in less than 2 weeks and will be bringing my S & S MM II Ex with YS 50 Strobe, no TTL. I consider myself mostly a beginner as I have only shot about thirty rolls through the camera.
When I was in Hawaii last August, I used Fuji Sensia 100 slide film and got some pretty good pictures. Is there a better film to use for Cozumel picture taking. What in fact is the Best film for underwater pictures, if there is one. I also used Kodak ektachrome 100 for print type pictures and again had some nice photos.
Any recommendations on film would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Aquaman 40

Tough question due to the subjectivity of the subject. I use Proviaf 100 for all of my shooting, but I shot a roll of Velvia 100 last week and appreciate the saturated colors. -Clay

 

[fdog]

Aquaman, I did a lot of head scratching. Most of it revolved around your camera & strobe, and I'm assuming it is stock with no wide angle lenses. In the end, I probabally thought about it a little too much!

Anyway, I'd stick with Provia or Ektachrome 100. That's the quick answer.

The long answer kind of revolves around your strobe. The YS50 is "hotter" than the 50 might suggest. This is because the light pattern is rather narrow, not wide angle like most strobes. I'll come back to this.

I generally try to keep strobe-lit subjects close; the furthest I try to have something is 5.5' away (the distance of my outstretched fin tip). This is because the total light path is about 12' (strobe to subject to lens), and any further and the subject begins to shade to blue. With a 20mm lens, my "working distance" for a subject is 3 to 5.5 feet, and the colors are true. Any further, and I just use strobes to fill up the shadows a bit or compensate for strong backlight.

Whoops, I digress. Anyway, all my strobes can be set for full, half, or quarter power. So, I can match strobe power to the ambient light pretty easily. You can't; so you're stuck with a full-power shot every time. Remember that narrow illumination pattern? I believe this would give you f5.6 at 5 feet using 100 speed film.

It's been my experience that 100 will yield (at 1/60th second) about f 4.0, depth 60-80', tropical waters on a sunny day.

So, at this depth (pretty average for Coz) you will be forced to underexpose the background to get decent exposure for the close, strobe-lit subject. This isn't bad; I like to saturate the blue water background, so I deliberately underexpose the background by a stop and use Ektachrome G, which gives a delicious blue even in marginal water. My experience with Velvia is that it's gone a bit green (when shot underexposed) unless the water is pristine. ProviaF seems to be between the two. So I shoot Ektachrome...this is a matter of taste, and everyone's feelings on what they want differ.

The nice thing about this combination is that as you come shallower, you can switch to 1/125th second and maintain the balance; then even shallower, and stop down to f8.0 (at which point the light from the surface has quite a bit of color, and the strobe becomes shadow fill).

This isn't the only way to make this work. A single thickness of white garbage bag rubber banded over the strobe will knock it down by a stop, so you could shoot at f4 and have matching fill. This becomes problematic as you go shallower, though.

Take a few rolls of ProviaF 400, just in case you have a heavily overcast day. Then, it behaves just like the 100, kind of neat.

Whew! A long explanation, I hope it helps reveal some of the things you have to think about. There is no substitute for getting in the water and burning film (or memory cards), though.

All the best, James

 

[firefly000]

James, I am new to this board & I'm having trouble navigating to to where I need to be, but you seem to know the U/W photo world so I thought I would ask you... What camera would you recommend? I am about to pull my hair out trying to figure this stuff out. I would like to be able to take pictures of my dive partners along with close-ups throughout the dive. I realize that is strobe is a must for good pictures. I know that you must stay close to your subject. I thought I'd like a dig. camera but not sure of the quality of pictures they produce. I don't want to buy some cheap camera that I will be sorry I spent the money on after my next dive to Cozumel. I'm just getting started & would like something nice. It has been suggested by a pro photographer in Cozumel (she was not trying to SELL me a camera) to go with the Sea & Sea dx3000g. (I'm not sure I need to spend that kind of money to get great pictures) I have also looked at the MM III, MX5 II, MX-10, & the Sealife Reefmaster cameras SL515 , SL200, Sl560, DC310. I would REALLY like to get a camera before I leave on the 27th. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Rhonda

 

[fdog]

Rhonda, I should preface this by saying that most of my formal photographic training took the the form of verbal abuse from photo editors...I'm certainly not an expert by any means; there are shooters far more talented than I on the board.

Still. To address your question directly, there are soooo many variables that I would do you a disservice to reccomend any single piece of equipment.

However, there's some excellent information to be had in this thread.

I am not sure of your overall level of photographic skill, and this will influence your choices....alot. Those already well versed in surface photography usually expect more, and so get the more advanced equipment that will allow those results. Those getting started use less complicated equipment, which provide good results even in the face of a learning error. Of course, these cameras have limits.

If I were sitting with you, I'd be asking you questions to narrow down your needs and goals. This would take days through a forum. It sounds as if you have done this allready, with the recomendation of the dx3000g. On the strength of the interview-based opinion of a someone who makes a living at it, I would consider this a good starting point...a housed consumer digicam.

As I said, there are others on the board with very, very extensive knowledge of just these cameras...and their more advanced cousins.

Just a thought: if you are not comfortable with picking up a light meter in one hand, and a manual camera in the other, and turning out accecptable photos, then I would stay afield from film cameras or advanced digital SLRs. The frustration factor may turn you from continuing. Modern consumer digital cameras can yield some startlingly good results, are inexpensive (read as "cheap lesson" in the case of a flood) and will give the good initial results to encourage continuing.

BTW...just saw this.

All the best, James