Banon
Contributor
I just got back from Lembeh, first time diving with my new Canon G9 with Canon housing and Inon UCL-165M67 macro lense, and thought I'd post this thread to show a few pics and ramble on some of the things I learned. I'm going to bounce a little from topic to topic/thought to thought, so please bear with me.
Before I get started on the camera and housing, I need to mention that my wife and I stayed at Lembeh Resort, Lembeh Strait Resort in North Sulawesi - Scuba Diving with Nitrox at Critter Paradise. I can't say enough good things about the resort, the people, or the diving... but that's going to have to wait for another post. We're going to try to put together a trip report over the next week or so and include all of the good stuff about the resort, the people, and logistics on travel from Dallas, TX... but again, that's going to have to be another post.
So first, the camera. I used the Canon G9 in the Canon housing with the modification to attach an Inon UCL-165M67 macro lense as shown by a gentleman named Brian here DIGIDIVER :: View topic - Canon G7, G9 housing (WP-DC11, 21) - DIY 67mm Lens Adapter. For the strobe, I used an older Sea and Sea YS-25 Auto with an optic cable that I attached to the front of the Canon housing using the included connector and velcro strips. The entire setup is very compact. In fact, one thing I learned is that I would like a longer arm for the strobe. There were times I wanted the flash to be further up, out, sideways, etc... and couldn't get it there with the relatively short strobe arm that I have.
Lesson learned - although compact is nice, I'd like a strobe arm long enough to light macro subjects from different angles as well as light non-macro subjects with less backscatter. Here's an example of a shot from about 2 feet away and I still got backscatter from the flash. With a longer arm I think I could have lighted this coconut octopus a little better without getting the backscatter.
(Please note, all of the pics in this post are unmodified/uncropped. The only thing I did was convert from the original RAW files into jpegs. Yes, I'm still learning how to light. All of the pics benefit from some color correction.)
On the macro topic, if I were doing things over again I think I would buy one of the available lense attachments rather than screwing a step up ring to the front of the Canon housing. This would allow me to remove to entire thing underwater, which I can't do with the attached step up ring (as described in the reference link above). The problem is that if I don't zoom about 15%, the ring is visible in pictures as shown below. While an interesting effect, I don't want it all the time. This effectively limits all shots at the widest zoom.
Also on the macro topic, I'd like to ramble about what I perceive to be a material difference between shots taken with the G9 versus a DSLR. Depth of field. With the G9, the Inon macro lense, and a little zoom, I can get some pretty nice macro shots. Here are a few examples:
But if you will notice, the depth of field is pretty shallow. The G9 allows aperture down to F8, while most DSLRs allow apertures MUCH MUCH smaller than that. This and the focusing abilities (which I'll discuss a little later) are the two biggest reasons I am tempted to move up to a DSLR. Take this pic for example. The front claw of the anemone crab is in crisp focus, but his eyes and the tips of the anemone tentacles less than 1 centimeter in front of the claw are both a little out of focus. A DSLR shooting in F40 or above (as I saw from another diver's photos) will capture all of this in nice crisp focus.
With this little orangutan crab that posed for me, even though he is tiny (about 2 CMs wide) there are parts of him that are crisply in focus and parts that are not. I still like the shot, but I'd definitely like it more if all of him were sharp.
Here are two more examples on depth of field. The red pygmy seahorse is in focus and reasonable size, but notice how quickly his surroundings go out of focus. For the yellow pygmy seahorse, I missed him in focus by less than a centimeter. This makes shooting in any kind of current or surge (or even another diver's gentle finning) very difficult.
On the other hand, if what you are shooting is contained within a small depth of field, the shots can get fairly crisp. The hairs on this mantis shrimp show up nicely.
And sometimes the dept of field has a rather nice effect, such as on this coral that was feeding. The "catch nets" are crisp in some areas, but blur out of focus in others. (Yes, this is another pic that benefits from color correction since I missed the lighting...)
Now on to focus. I found that I got the best results with the macro lense if I used manual focus, set the zoom/magnification where I wanted it, then moved the camera back and for until the image was as crisp as my aging eyes could make it. Auto-focus on the G9 is unreliable with the macro lense attached, especially with any zoom. Since I have to zoom at least 15% to avoid seeing the ring, this makes auto-focus extra problematic. Manual focus gives a center square with magnified view that assists with fine tuning the focus. When the shutter button is half pressed, the magnified square disappears to allow a normal view.
The above approach with manual focus works pretty well with subjects that don't move much and/or with plenty of diver stability and time... but take away any of that and manual focus becomes pretty challenging. The pygmy seahorse pics above are a prime example. I was free floating on a wall, one hand lightly holding to a piece of dead coral, trying to take a pic of something I could barely see with my naked eyes. Finding the pygmy on the camera view screen, mostly out of focus, then moving the camera back and forth to refine focus with a usable depth of field of about 1 CM was a ... well, you get the idea.
Back to the Canon housing and the modification to attach the macro lense. While I generally like the Canon housing, I did notice that one of the buttons started to stick a little bit towards the end of our 10 days of diving. I'm inclined to think that it was my fault for operating the buttons on the boat after a couple of the dives (before I rinsed the housing in fresh water). I'm going to try to pull out and grease the offending o-ring before I consider it a real problem.
For the macro lense attachment, as others have posted a bayonet style would be much easier to use underwater. Screwing and unscrewing the macro lense sometimes took me a minute or two, especially aligning the threads to screw on the lense. It often took me several tries before I got them aligned correctly.
To wrap things up, I guess I'll say that I think the Canon G9 is a great camera. It's still much better than I am, allowing me room to grow. While I'm tempted by the DSLRs and recognize their advantages, I still struggle with whether they are worth the cost for me. Yes, that orangutan crab would be an AWESOME pic (IMHO), but it still makes me smile even as it is... and the cost of a new DSLR rig would be about the same as it cost my wife and I for the trip to Lembeh in the first place. Hmmm... Lembeh trip and G9 versus a nice new DSLR rig and a splash in the backyard pool... Choices...
And here are a few more Lembeh pics just because I thought they were fun.
Before I get started on the camera and housing, I need to mention that my wife and I stayed at Lembeh Resort, Lembeh Strait Resort in North Sulawesi - Scuba Diving with Nitrox at Critter Paradise. I can't say enough good things about the resort, the people, or the diving... but that's going to have to wait for another post. We're going to try to put together a trip report over the next week or so and include all of the good stuff about the resort, the people, and logistics on travel from Dallas, TX... but again, that's going to have to be another post.
So first, the camera. I used the Canon G9 in the Canon housing with the modification to attach an Inon UCL-165M67 macro lense as shown by a gentleman named Brian here DIGIDIVER :: View topic - Canon G7, G9 housing (WP-DC11, 21) - DIY 67mm Lens Adapter. For the strobe, I used an older Sea and Sea YS-25 Auto with an optic cable that I attached to the front of the Canon housing using the included connector and velcro strips. The entire setup is very compact. In fact, one thing I learned is that I would like a longer arm for the strobe. There were times I wanted the flash to be further up, out, sideways, etc... and couldn't get it there with the relatively short strobe arm that I have.
Lesson learned - although compact is nice, I'd like a strobe arm long enough to light macro subjects from different angles as well as light non-macro subjects with less backscatter. Here's an example of a shot from about 2 feet away and I still got backscatter from the flash. With a longer arm I think I could have lighted this coconut octopus a little better without getting the backscatter.
(Please note, all of the pics in this post are unmodified/uncropped. The only thing I did was convert from the original RAW files into jpegs. Yes, I'm still learning how to light. All of the pics benefit from some color correction.)
On the macro topic, if I were doing things over again I think I would buy one of the available lense attachments rather than screwing a step up ring to the front of the Canon housing. This would allow me to remove to entire thing underwater, which I can't do with the attached step up ring (as described in the reference link above). The problem is that if I don't zoom about 15%, the ring is visible in pictures as shown below. While an interesting effect, I don't want it all the time. This effectively limits all shots at the widest zoom.
Also on the macro topic, I'd like to ramble about what I perceive to be a material difference between shots taken with the G9 versus a DSLR. Depth of field. With the G9, the Inon macro lense, and a little zoom, I can get some pretty nice macro shots. Here are a few examples:
But if you will notice, the depth of field is pretty shallow. The G9 allows aperture down to F8, while most DSLRs allow apertures MUCH MUCH smaller than that. This and the focusing abilities (which I'll discuss a little later) are the two biggest reasons I am tempted to move up to a DSLR. Take this pic for example. The front claw of the anemone crab is in crisp focus, but his eyes and the tips of the anemone tentacles less than 1 centimeter in front of the claw are both a little out of focus. A DSLR shooting in F40 or above (as I saw from another diver's photos) will capture all of this in nice crisp focus.
With this little orangutan crab that posed for me, even though he is tiny (about 2 CMs wide) there are parts of him that are crisply in focus and parts that are not. I still like the shot, but I'd definitely like it more if all of him were sharp.
Here are two more examples on depth of field. The red pygmy seahorse is in focus and reasonable size, but notice how quickly his surroundings go out of focus. For the yellow pygmy seahorse, I missed him in focus by less than a centimeter. This makes shooting in any kind of current or surge (or even another diver's gentle finning) very difficult.
On the other hand, if what you are shooting is contained within a small depth of field, the shots can get fairly crisp. The hairs on this mantis shrimp show up nicely.
And sometimes the dept of field has a rather nice effect, such as on this coral that was feeding. The "catch nets" are crisp in some areas, but blur out of focus in others. (Yes, this is another pic that benefits from color correction since I missed the lighting...)
Now on to focus. I found that I got the best results with the macro lense if I used manual focus, set the zoom/magnification where I wanted it, then moved the camera back and for until the image was as crisp as my aging eyes could make it. Auto-focus on the G9 is unreliable with the macro lense attached, especially with any zoom. Since I have to zoom at least 15% to avoid seeing the ring, this makes auto-focus extra problematic. Manual focus gives a center square with magnified view that assists with fine tuning the focus. When the shutter button is half pressed, the magnified square disappears to allow a normal view.
The above approach with manual focus works pretty well with subjects that don't move much and/or with plenty of diver stability and time... but take away any of that and manual focus becomes pretty challenging. The pygmy seahorse pics above are a prime example. I was free floating on a wall, one hand lightly holding to a piece of dead coral, trying to take a pic of something I could barely see with my naked eyes. Finding the pygmy on the camera view screen, mostly out of focus, then moving the camera back and forth to refine focus with a usable depth of field of about 1 CM was a ... well, you get the idea.
Back to the Canon housing and the modification to attach the macro lense. While I generally like the Canon housing, I did notice that one of the buttons started to stick a little bit towards the end of our 10 days of diving. I'm inclined to think that it was my fault for operating the buttons on the boat after a couple of the dives (before I rinsed the housing in fresh water). I'm going to try to pull out and grease the offending o-ring before I consider it a real problem.
For the macro lense attachment, as others have posted a bayonet style would be much easier to use underwater. Screwing and unscrewing the macro lense sometimes took me a minute or two, especially aligning the threads to screw on the lense. It often took me several tries before I got them aligned correctly.
To wrap things up, I guess I'll say that I think the Canon G9 is a great camera. It's still much better than I am, allowing me room to grow. While I'm tempted by the DSLRs and recognize their advantages, I still struggle with whether they are worth the cost for me. Yes, that orangutan crab would be an AWESOME pic (IMHO), but it still makes me smile even as it is... and the cost of a new DSLR rig would be about the same as it cost my wife and I for the trip to Lembeh in the first place. Hmmm... Lembeh trip and G9 versus a nice new DSLR rig and a splash in the backyard pool... Choices...
And here are a few more Lembeh pics just because I thought they were fun.
