Canon ps elph 300hs and ikelite system...good combo??

[kmartin05]

I am a new diver wanting decent, not professional grade underwater pics. I currently own a sealife mini II and am debating on purchasing a strobe for it or changing camera systems all together. Is it possible to get pics that have colors, other than blue, with a canon/ikelite system using only the internal camera flash, not an external strobe. Being a new diver, I don't want a complicated set up, at least not yet. I'm afraid an external strobe might be difficult to handle, but someone told me I won't get any good pics using only the internal falsh. Help please. Any advice on systems or setups and ease of use would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[flareside]

Shots from internal strobe will be limited in range. They may also have a blind spot at the lower right corner of the image. But that is not to suggest that you shouldn't go this route. Your decision to hold off on an external flash is a wise one. A P&S camera can easily be clipped off to your vest or tucked into a pocket. When you add a strobe, you add a tray and arms and the resulting bulk of the system means you will be dedicating one arm to your system the entire time you are down. So until you feel you are sufficiently competent in your diving to do it with only one arm available, keep things light. And while many will suggest you consider an S95 or S100 (at nearly twice the cost), right now it would be a good idea just to keep things simple and trade up later.

Dive safe.

 

[chile7236]

those little elph set ups can take very good shots...not a bad 1st camera. or the panasonic TS3 (i think the TS4 is coming out soon) is another good option. rated to 40ft w/out a housing but not recommended to use it w/out a housing while diving.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

I just started using an ELPH 100HS and getting pics I happen to think are good. YMMV : )

 

[kmartin05]

Those are great pics! Were they with just the camera itself, no external strobes? What depth were those taken at? Do you have canon or ikelite housing? Much better than what I've gotten with the sealife mini II and no external devices. Thanks!

 

[1c11]

I am looking for a housing for a 300HS and after asking in this forum, I read that the canon housing (also the one for 100HS) is not the best for underwater photography.

NO INON LENSES FOR CANON WP-DC39, WP-DC41 AND WP-DC42 | Deepshots

The camera can be put to 4 modes inside the housing: Underwater, Auto, Snow and Beach. On the underwater mode the white balance function is luckily enabled. You can also reach other controls like exposure compensation and the typical picture quality settings. You only have three buttons for the use of the in-housing menu, which is annoyingly different than using the camera without a case, but you will get hang of it after some time. The custom white balance control works fine and interestingly you are also given an option for some extra colour balance fine tuning.

Because of the limited menu, when in the housing, there are some key functions that are short of control. Lack of ISO is the most worrying one. While inside the housing the ISO can only be set to AUTO and nothing else. This means that you will be taking photos, in typical underwater lighting conditions, when your strobe is disabled, pretty much always on ISO 800, which seems to be the maximum the camera goes on the underwater mode.

So I suggest you choose the Ikelite housing. And it has a 46mm thread for lenses, Canon doesn't.
And if you find a good deal for the 300HS housing, please, tell me!

 

[PeterNBiddle]

Those are great pics! Were they with just the camera itself, no external strobes? What depth were those taken at? Do you have canon or ikelite housing? Much better than what I've gotten with the sealife mini II and no external devices. Thanks!

Thanks! These were all with the camera itself, no strobes and no lights. They were between ~ 40-60 feet with the Canon housing (some shots were as deep as the 80s).

The trick I've found is to manually set the WB (I usually just set it off sand) every time you make a significant depth change. The downside to this is that any artificial light will add too much red back into the shot but I've found that's easy to work around.

---------- Post added May 20th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ----------

I am looking for a housing for a 300HS and after asking in this forum, I read that the canon housing (also the one for 100HS) is not the best for underwater photography.

NO INON LENSES FOR CANON WP-DC39, WP-DC41 AND WP-DC42 | Deepshots

So I suggest you choose the Ikelite housing. And it has a 46mm thread for lenses, Canon doesn't.
And if you find a good deal for the 300HS housing, please, tell me!

It's true that the controls are limited on the Canon housing but so far I'm happy with the results.