Best settings for Canon A620

[dman]

I need some help. I just got the A620 and am wondering about the settings for underwater use. The manual says in the Auto mode the camera selects the best mode, including the underwater mode. I think I have seen some posts about the best settings to use in the past when I was camera shopping. All suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[clgsamson]

Here's a link to Alcina's thread...very helpful.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=156914

 

[dman]

Thanks. I guess I should have posted in the Canon Corner first too.

 

[String]

Ive had about 8 months of diving to play with mine. Best settings depend entirely on your dive environment, specifically light availability and water clarity so no easy answer.

For clear blue water diving i use the SCENE underwater function. This corrects the colours fairly well. Anything >1m away i manually disable flash, closer i let the flash run.

Keep an eye on shutter speed it says its using, if its too slow it'll blur and then you need to go to Av mde.

For green murky water diving the under water mode again is OK for up close stuff but poor for anything further away - there i use shutter speed priority mode and dial in my own, again flash disabled. If you want you can calibrate white balance using a slate or something.

Its worth playing and photographing same object several times using different settings so you can compare post dive to get a feel for what works where.

Anyway in short, blue waters use SCN underwater (flash for closer than 1m, otherwise no) and shutter speed priority for murky/non blue waters.

Do NOT use plain auto mode at all - its very poor for underwater use and not designed for that.

Examples:

SCN underwater mode, flash manual off. depth 30m. A bit dark but not too bad

SCN underwater with flash. Depth 40. Scorpion fish sits on engine of a WW2 bomber wreck

SCN underwater, manual flash off, depth 20m.

No green water photos on this pc to compare. Play with all the settings is the best option.

 

[dman]

Great pictures! Thanks for the advice. I'm cruising to Cozumel and the Grand Caymans in December out of New Orleans and this will be the first use of a digital. Is it easy to chamge setting while under? I got the Canon housing so it will be easier to navigate

 

[String]

Its easy to change provided you arent wearing 5mm or dry gloves so shouldnt be an issue there.

The only minor issue is if not familiar with the main dial mode order it takes a few seconds to work out whats selected (by reading the screen as the canon housing hides the icon with a bit of plastic on the dial itself). Its not a big problem though.

You can change everything fairly easily with thin/no gloves.

 

[dman]

String - Do you use the flash diffuser that is supplied with the Canon DC90 housing?

 

[Jamdiver]

I need some help. I just got the A620 and am wondering about the settings for underwater use. The manual says in the Auto mode the camera selects the best mode, including the underwater mode. I think I have seen some posts about the best settings to use in the past when I was camera shopping. All suggestions will be appreciated.

Hey DMan,

I've shot extensively with the Canon A610 (which is the 5MP version of the A620) underwater and topside...

As to the best settings, your best results will be realised by utilizing manual white balance.

Alcina's pink link is a great getting started guide.
Since you're just getting started, i'd recommend starting off with the 'TV' mode which is shutter priority.

Basically using the shutter priority can give you a feel to the relationship that shutter speed has on exposure and freezing action.

I'd only use the flash if shooting a subject within arms lens, keep the flash diffuser on at all times, unless you want a horrible shadow in the lower right portion of the pics.

Think this is a very capable and affordable camera, so get out there with it and have fun .

 

[jonix]

it will take a bit of practice and patience getting the settings right, alcina's guide is very good reference. you'll get the hang of it soon enough. have fun!

 

[Gilligan]

I need some help. I just got the A620 and am wondering about the settings for underwater use. The manual says in the Auto mode the camera selects the best mode, including the underwater mode. I think I have seen some posts about the best settings to use in the past when I was camera shopping. All suggestions will be appreciated.

The best results will be using manual settings of the F stops and shutter speeds. For non-strobe shots manually calibrated white balance will yield the best results. The Canon "underwater" setting is an arbitrary one and cannot compensate for the various underwater conditions.

If you are one of those people that does not want to play with all the cameras settings then consider using an Auto-Magic Filter which will not allow you to use the cameras built in strobe as the filter is inside the housing.