Canon G12 settings (whale sharks, snorkeling)

[Interceptor121]

What I means is that underwater without a wide angle lens your angle of coverage will be 60
In order to get a 3 meter whale shark in the picture that is actually not even a full adult you will need to be 3 meters away
If you wanted to get a silhouette from below you need to skin dive 4 meters deep then shoot this sounds challenging
You can instead shoot video and occasionally take a still of the head if you manage to be there without getting in the way
If you find a cooperative shark that feeds at the surface standing still you can easily take shots and they won't be blurred
I did a trip to Djubouti and at the time I had an IXUS65 with a wide angle UWL105AD
The camera only shot in program and happily selected speeds of 1/640 or 1/1250 I am sure the G12 will do the same
Just set the ISO to 100 and let the camera do the rest. If it is bright at the surface the aperture and shutter speed will come by default

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

P, Av, or Tv will work fine with a little negative exposure compensation. You may need to bump ISO up to ISO 200 or 400 if the conditions are dark. Av, F5.6 should work fine for a compact camera. A more important question is which fins to use!



- Scott

 

[Cumbo]

Thanks for all the great tips! I'm sure I will be able to get a good picture or two.

I am still thinking about getting Fantasea BigEye from New York before heading to Mexico. Not sure though, if it's worth it. There's been a lot of talk about the glass reflecting on the video (e.g. see here, here, here, here & here).

I have a question for Gilligan: why would you want to set brightness for the video before shooting? Does it "lock" the exposure to certain level (and thus prevent the back-and-forth exposure compensating on the surface which is probably due to occur on a bright day) or what's the point?

As respects using the video be sure you know how to adjust the brightness BEFORE you start shooting.

 

[Interceptor121]

When you shoot video it is important to lock exposure so that the camera doesn't continuously adjust to the conditions in the same clip. Typically you point the camera in a position that achieves the exposure you want for example in the brightest angle and then lock so when you go on a darker corner (am talking about changing position around the shark) the clip looks darker. If you don't the camera keeps compensating or trying to and ends up with more problems as it can't follow our mad finning around
For what concerns the fantasea going up again to 75 fov is a goo thing however the value for money of those ports is somewhat poor
Most domes tend to flare and at the surface it will definitely do it so for this trip maybe not a good idea

 

[Gilligan]

Cumbo,
In addition to Interceptor 121's response my experience with the video in sunny skies and clear water is the movie was too bright using the auto setting. Hence the need to adjust the video's brightness before shooting the video.

 

[Interceptor121]

Yep gilligan is on target and his instructions are very useful
Alternatively a mentioned you let the camera work out the brightness and then lock it
Cameras always shoot in multiples of true frame rate and will generally at the surface also go for low iso so you end up with small aperture by default

 

[SFLDiver3445]

If you have the ability to shoot manual, do it. I usually start with ISO 100, shutter speed 1/120-150 and f-9 (aperture irrelevent because the G12 has a different set of aperture values than I usually use) and work from there depending on what I'm shooting under the given conditions.

I second that recommendation, as manual will give you the most flexibility and help avoid the low shutter speed issue that can occur when shooting Aperature Priority.

And if you're shooting with no strobes, whenever possible, definitely try to get the sun at your back, so your subject will be illuminated by the sun and not come out dark. If you can, take a peak at the histogram between shots, as that will give you the best indication of how your setting changes are affecting the shot. If you're not all that familiar with the histogram, just go to youtube and do a search for it, and you'll find plenty of video tutorials showing you what it's all about.

I'm actually headed to Socorro in November and looking forward to hopefully snapping a few shots of whale sharks and giant mantas myself.

Good luck to you and let us know how it works out for you!

 

[Interceptor121]

I took this picture with my IXUS65 in full auto mode (as it did not have any other option) with the kids and pets program I had an Inon UWL105AD. This picture has been featured few times on shark trust. If an IXUS65 in auto can do this I am sure your G12 will be as good. Remember you are shooting at the surface many of the UW settings do not apply and the camera is capable of working out what to do.
One thing is that you will not have a wide angle lens that will be a limiting factor hence my suggestion of shooting video

 

[LeeParrish]

I've done whale sharks twice now with my G11 and I just used either Program mode with flash turned off, all the shots ended up at around f3.2 and with a shutter of either 1/250 or 1/320 at ISO 100. The limiting factor was the lack of a wide enough lens to get the entire animal and water visibility that was less than crystal clear as the sharks were feeding which typically means water with at least some. The shots came out alright, but I did shoot a lot more video and was much happier with it as then I could pan down the shark and show it's entire size which helps make up for the lack of a really wide angle lens. And with a G12 you can at least shoot 720p video which should turn out nice, I could only do 640x480 with my G11 and yet it wasn't that bad. Something about the size of whale sharks makes it impressive no matter how you capture them.

 

[Gilligan]

I almost never shoot video but when I did I found a need to significantly reduce the file size for e mailing, YouTube, smart phones, and tablets. I'm no expert at that but I did find a freeware program called HandBrake that converted the video to an MP4 and reduced the file size by about 80% or more. There is a users manual on their website and I use the "Classic" setting which seems to be the lowest file size setting. I'm sure there are much more knowledgeable people here on the subject of reducing the file size of the Canon videos.