Coupla questions for G10 w/ Canon case users

[Warmwater Wank]

Doing my part to stimulate the economy, I will buy a G10 soon. And while I know there are a lot of nice housings for it I can only afford to stimulate things to the extent of a UW-WP28 Canon case. Even sadder, no external flash for the foreseeable future. I shoot w/ a Fuji F30 now and though the flash extender/diffuser that it has is ok, it's no Inon. In close (macro range up to maybe 2-3') it gets me by. So:

1. Since the G10 has a better rated flash than the Fuji F30, what sort of reliable uw working distances do you get using that diffuser/salad shield gizmo Canon has for their case?

2. Does the UW-DC28 case (or flash diffuser) cause serious vignetting at the wide angle end of the lens?

3. Though the camera focuses to 1cm in macro at "28mm" (35mm equivalent focal length), what sort of close distance ranges can you achieve if you zoom out? I figure you may not get the same repro ratio as at "28mm" but is it reasonable to use, say, a 140mm focal length to stay further from your subject or are you forced to such a further distance for focusing it's not worth messing with?

I know this is over quota for questions but I'll settle for partial answers--and thanx!! // ww

 

[Packhorse]

Cant answer all your questions but.....

I have a G10 and WP-28 and im very disappointed with the flash on macro shots. You need to be about 500mm away from the subject to not get any shadowing of the flash from the lens tube. This reduces the potentially great macro capability's of the G10 some what.

I do have a DIY fix in mind. Im looking at building a LED "flash" ring to go around the lens tube for macro shots.

Anyway I did manage to get a couple of nice macro shots last weekend using the built in flash.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Thanks Packhorse, those pics are better answers than answers would have been. 500mm (maybe 20"?) seems reasonable if you can get results like that with just the onboard flash. Unless of course that's a meter long nudi or you had to crop a lot. And if it was cropped, so much the better for being able to still get that sort of detail. DIY ring flash, eh? Yipes, you Kiwi's have initiative!

Nice shots, I appreciated seeing them. Now I gotta go talk to the boss about helping to revive the world economy, one camera (and housing) at a time... // ww

 

[Packhorse]

The top pic has been cropped just a little as there was a 3rd nudi just showing (did you spot the Clown Nudi in the back ground?). The nudi was perhaps 60mm long.

The second pic has been cropped quite a bit more. That nudi was only 25mm or so.

 

[Jorgy]

Great pictures.......2 questions, if I may.......

What focus setting did you use or was it manual?

When you cropped the 2nd picture, what was the final size of the cropped picture?

When I crop my G9 shots a lot many end up close to one meg they look great as a 4 by 6 but not so good on my 10 digital frame©å

M

 

[Packhorse]

Focus was on auto.
Didnt take note of the file size after cropping but before compressing sorry.
But here are the original pics before cropping.
You can see the flash shadow quite clearly on the second pic.

You can work around it by focusing on the subject then moving the camera down to the right so the subject sits in the top left of the frame and then cropping it later.

F3.5
1/60sec
ISO200

F8
1/60
ISO-80
-2 exposure bias