Camera Settings- Leaving It In Auto?

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

All my goodies arrived this past week, and tomorrow I'm ready to take my Canon A70 and WP-DC700 housing under for the first time.

I've only had the Canon a short while, but have always left it in AUTO and have pleased with the results. But what about under water? Do most folks leave the camera in AUTO, or do you use one of the other preprogrammed modes, or even go manual?

Thanks

Marc

PS - anyone who's looking for Canon housings Walmart.com has the WP-DC400/600/700 for $169. That's the best price I've seen anywhere.

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

In "A"utomatic mode you are at the mercy of the camera and sometimes the camera is wrong, other times the camera will give inaccurate recomendations for the task at hand.

I just wrote and article for scubaboard.com dealing with this subject. It's labeled as tips/techniques in the photography section. Look for my upcomming article on dome port optics.

Ed

 

[SimonJ]

I have a Canon S400 and housing and took it out for the first time recently....evidence at www.merith.com.

I started by taking most pics on automatic, but also played with the manual settings. The big advantage is that it the camera is digital....so you can see the results instantly. IMHO it makes sense to shoot a good number on each dive. The screen on the camera is small and you really need to get them back to see what they really look like.

Also, I am a big fan of Adobe Photoshop. It makes it very easy to lighten, re colour and contrast pics. Not touching them up, but just playing with the levels. Makes a huge difference, particularly if you have no external flash. Some of mine were very blue before, but managed to get the reds into them and sharpen them up very easily.

Hope this helps.

Simon

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

I would suggest you play with shutter priority and aperture priority.


Aperature priority will let you determine the depth of field and 'light levels' while the camera will determine how 'fluid' the image will be, while shutter priority is the direct opposite. 'fluid' means a long shutter speed would tend to blur moving objects while a short shutter speed will freeze moving objects. 'light levels' means how much light reaches the film plane. i.e. will the background be visible or solid black.

Ed

 

[clive francis]

does this not mean that you would then have to go out and buy a dive light meter?

surely if you are going to go and buy a light meter and then mess around taking photo's in manual (that is if the subject stays there long enough for you to get multiple shots at different settings) then you might as wel ditch the digital and go to film?

blacknet you have a real bee in your bonet about digital cameras and using auto mode, why is that?

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

My gripe with 'automagic' mode is in a domed port system, or flat port for that matter, the camera will choose everything for you. At times the camera will yield a lengthy shutter setting which will give motion blur. Other situations the camera will give an incorect aperture setting and the depth of field will be off. There is more room for error on automagic mode than one of the other 2 modes (aperture priority or shutter priority).

The light meter on the camera should suffice for most things, just remember the camera assumes the subject is zone V.

Ed

 

[ssra30]

I tend to shoot with aparture priority mode and let the camera determine the speed for me. I don't know about the Canon but with the Olympus auto mode, the aparture is set at 2.8 so the depth of field sometimes is too narrow.
Then when aparture priority fell, at least it will give me some idea of where to start with manual mode.
This is one major advantage of digital camera when you have a subject that stay still, you can just keep playing with your setting until you get it right. For moving object, again, I just take a quick look at the speed with my aparture setting, if it is not too slow then I shoot without further adjustment. At this time, I think on average, my camera is still better than me

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

Please see my latest post in tips/techniques dealing with camera modes. I go into detail on each mode and termonology.

Ed

 

[TheAvatar]

FULL AUTO/GREEN SQUARE mode is also known as "idiot mode" by real photographers, digital or film, who have any understanding of exposure because you do not have to think at all and you are trusting the machine to make all your creative decisions for you except where you point your camera. Full auto mode trusts so much to the camera as far as exposure goes especially as far as depth of field or freezing/blurring motion. Your composition may mean nothing if the camera chooses the wrong aperture and the subject you were trying to isolate is not so isolated when everything is in focus because the camera chose an aperture that was too small, or half off your subject is out of focus because the camera choose a wide aperture. Professional model SLRs, for example the Canon EOS 3, do not have a Full Auto mode... the closest it has is program shift autoexposure. Virtually all photographers who understand exposure control will use aperture priority or shutter priority when they don't want full manual and only use program shift when they are handing their camera to an amature to have them take their picture somewhere.

 

[Dee]

With my digital I started out with Aperture Mode. Once you understand the correlation between the f/stops and the area in focus (depth of field) you'll be able to chose the Aperture to get the results you want. But as someone has mentioned, it frequently chooses slow shutter speeds.

This year I have been using Manual Mode with alot more success. Only thing is, I can'y blame the camera for a bad exposure anymore!!!

One of the best things you can do is learn the basics with f/stops, shutter speeds (even if it IS digital), depth of field and how they work together. These are some excellent sites online to study these things...



Dave Read Instruction - I love the way he explains things.

Jay Treat Instruction - A different perspective

Also look in the Tips and Techniques thread at the top of the page under Camera Modes. Blacknet has a good description of these basics too.