Canon G11 shark photos

[JaneMitchell]

Recently I dived with the great whites in South Australia with my new G11 in an ikelite housing and D160 strobe...I got an awful lot of photos of half sharks

Does anyone have any tips as to help with shutter speed or framing or is it just a matter of patience (which is not my strong suit)?

 

[miketsp]

Recently I dived with the great whites in South Australia with my new G11 in an ikelite housing and D160 strobe...I got an awful lot of photos of half sharks

Does anyone have any tips as to help with shutter speed or framing or is it just a matter of patience (which is not my strong suit)?

I recently bought a G12 after reading a lot of reviews on the G11/12 series.
However, one of the weak points of this camera commented in the reviews is its inability to take photos of fast moving objects. It takes a long time to prepare the shot.
So it's not recommended for sports events & childrens' activities although on land (out of the housing) you do have the option of quick-shot-mode (need to use the viewfinder).

 

[jbb]

Recently I dived with the great whites in South Australia with my new G11 in an ikelite housing and D160 strobe...I got an awful lot of photos of half sharks

Does anyone have any tips as to help with shutter speed or framing or is it just a matter of patience (which is not my strong suit)?

What kind of light level do you have? I have a g11 and no strobe use with these deep water sharks. Keep the lense at wider angle as it has the larger aperture and you are more likely to get the shark in the shot. Minimum shutter speed for fast moving objects depending on zoom too would be 1/200-1/250 of a sec shutter speed. I sometimes give up and use video mode. Also pan with the subject which helps keep the subject in the frame and stops the action.

I go to a site that has thresher sharks at dawn (5:30am) - they are moving but not fast or too eratic. I went with a setting of ISO 400 (800 is too grainy and 200 is too dark) and 1/200sec shutter speed. I did zoom in conservatively and the shots turned out o.k. but not as good as my eye adjusted to those lighting conditions. My memory still has more vivid images than my camera ended up with. I also highly recommend taking your eyes away from the camera display and really experiencing for a moment what is taking place in front of you. The camera has the effect of pushing your subject away from you in retrospect.

 

[JaneMitchell]

I have to admit that I didn't play with the camera enough before I went...but you're so right about memory having much better images than the ones you come away with on your camera sometimes. I did get some OK ones but nothing that National Geographic would rave about
I did one dive where my camera battery went flat and it was one of the best dives I did.Actually really looked at the sharks rather than merely cursing the camera as they swam out of frame! In retrospect it probably is a good idea to help get an idea of how they move to better prepare for the sloooow shutter speed.

Better start saving for the next shark trip ... or do you start saving for an SLR with faster shutter speed...the choice is tricky!!

 

[jbb]

I guess it wasn't clear in my post but I get the camera on Shutter speed priority with a fixed ISO of 400. This way the camera will control the apperture but it will probably make it as wide as it can. I tried setting the ISO at 800 but the images were too grainy. If you try to zoom at all this has the effect of limiting how wide the camera can open the apperture as the maximum apperture is larger at the wider lense settings.

 

[Nemrod]

Does anyone have any tips as to help with shutter speed or framing or is it just a matter of patience (which is not my strong suit)?

1. Wide angle lens, the wider the better

2. Pan with the subject as you press the shutter.

3. Pre-focus/manual focus

4. Very wide angle lens

5. Very, very wide angle lens.

N