cburdick1
Contributor
Good morning,
For the past year or so I have dabbled in UW photography while diving. I bought a Canon housing for my SD850 and have used it on a dives on Maui and in Cancun with mediocre results. I've had some problems, mainly with white balance and ISO/exposure time.
I think that I have the white balance problem licked by installing the CHKD hack which will let me shoot in RAW format and edit white balance on my PC (haven't used it yet, though I will in January while in Maui). The ISO issue is a problem that I haven't figured out yet. I've tried shooting at ISO 80 / 100 to keep noise down, but I find that I cannot hold still enough to prevent fuzzy pictures with the long exposure times. ISO 200 is better, but I still wind up with a 1/5 second exposure time which means that my photos of fish are a hit or miss activity. Shooting at anything over 200 gets noisy quickly.
Now, I've also been considering replacing my 850 with a higher end camera (g9 or g10)that will allow me more manual control over my pictures (night shots, action, etc). I could pick up a housing for it and use that as my UW camera (I'll learn how to use it on land before diving with it, of course).
Here's my quesiton... or questions I suppose. The way I see it, I have two options: Use SD850 as UW camera and the G9 as my nice dry camera (if I can use some technique advice to get better shots underwater with the 850). Or, if I'm going to upgrade to a better camera anyway, get the appropriate housing and use it underwater as well.
Advice or opinions are welcome. Thanks!
For the past year or so I have dabbled in UW photography while diving. I bought a Canon housing for my SD850 and have used it on a dives on Maui and in Cancun with mediocre results. I've had some problems, mainly with white balance and ISO/exposure time.
I think that I have the white balance problem licked by installing the CHKD hack which will let me shoot in RAW format and edit white balance on my PC (haven't used it yet, though I will in January while in Maui). The ISO issue is a problem that I haven't figured out yet. I've tried shooting at ISO 80 / 100 to keep noise down, but I find that I cannot hold still enough to prevent fuzzy pictures with the long exposure times. ISO 200 is better, but I still wind up with a 1/5 second exposure time which means that my photos of fish are a hit or miss activity. Shooting at anything over 200 gets noisy quickly.
Now, I've also been considering replacing my 850 with a higher end camera (g9 or g10)that will allow me more manual control over my pictures (night shots, action, etc). I could pick up a housing for it and use that as my UW camera (I'll learn how to use it on land before diving with it, of course).
Here's my quesiton... or questions I suppose. The way I see it, I have two options: Use SD850 as UW camera and the G9 as my nice dry camera (if I can use some technique advice to get better shots underwater with the 850). Or, if I'm going to upgrade to a better camera anyway, get the appropriate housing and use it underwater as well.
Advice or opinions are welcome. Thanks!