duncdiver
Registered
Returned from photography seminar in Anilao, Philippines and my first usage. Other than one GoPro user, I was seriously "out gunned" by all other dozen attendees. But I was quite happy with my results as compared to these well experienced, well equipped, semi-pro photographers. My "cost per photo" was quite less!
I live in Colorado, not near any diving, and only do a few vacation-style trips per year. I purchased a DC2000 "Dual Pro" system, and additional 2300 flood light, and two Flex arms. I will be purchasing two more flex arms to provide additional length and strobe position options based on what I learned from the excellent underwater photography class offered at Crystal Blue Resort [www.divecbr.com]. I may add another strobe, although my single strobe results were quite acceptable once I learned their techniques.
The DC2000 was an excellent compromise between quality and ease of use, portability, etc. I was able to rearrange and modify the foam protectors to place the camera, strobe, and two 2300 floodlights into just one of the SeaLife cases. I used the other small case to hold all other items.
In general the DC2000 uses a pre-flash for final focus and lighting adjustment when in any non-(U)nderwater mode. This causes the external strobe to trigger and they can not recover quickly enough for the final flash where the image is captured. The manual does not describe how the "Ext Flash" mode is only found in the "Underwater mode" menu. One configured, it works well. You can use the 2300 (max lumen) auto-dimming floodlight for focus. I found the lowest power setting was fine for focus, and the battery life was much better, i.e. can complete two consecutive dives with continuous flood lighting on all the time. An ideal still photo setup would use a single flood on the cold shoe for focus, and dual strobes. An ideal video/combo setup would use dual floods, and a strobe on the cold shoe for those occasional still photos. I was able to manually place the second flood light to side or back light some subjects, and also used it as a dive light.
This seminar concentrated on macro photography and the Anilao diving site provided many colorful nudibranch opportunities along with various species of frog fish, pygmy sea horses, etc. Although SeaLife does not currently offer a macro lens, the stock lens worked pretty well. For macro images, I had great success using a fixed aperture (f/5.6), shutter speed (1/250), and ISO setting (125), and adjusted the strobe angle to the subject with about 1/2 strobe power. I also experimented with both aperture and shutter speed priority, but you need to resync the strobe with these settings per the instructions in the manual. These were not as successful - exposurewise, as I achieved with full manual control. And I could quickly switch from (M)anual control to (U)nderwater mode for shooting those unexpected larger subjects, like sea turtles and obligatory selfies. The Underwater mode videos need a little post-process color correction for true white balance when the subject is not within a couple feet or so, but otherwise very good.
In conclusion, this is an excellent camera for the "vacation" diver. Very light, portable, versatile, works well above water, and to 60 ft without an enclosure! The only drawback was that the high dollar camera/enclosure systems allow trigger-quick changing of f-stop, etc. to rapidly adjust exposure or depth of field, whereas the DC2000 requires diving into a cumbersome menu that was not conducive to gloved hands when under manual control. "Full Auto" would not always produce good macro photos, but performed pretty well for larger subjects. The "auto" strobe setting was often disappointing as well, but can be quickly adjusted manually.
The following photos are un-retouched JPG's.
I live in Colorado, not near any diving, and only do a few vacation-style trips per year. I purchased a DC2000 "Dual Pro" system, and additional 2300 flood light, and two Flex arms. I will be purchasing two more flex arms to provide additional length and strobe position options based on what I learned from the excellent underwater photography class offered at Crystal Blue Resort [www.divecbr.com]. I may add another strobe, although my single strobe results were quite acceptable once I learned their techniques.
The DC2000 was an excellent compromise between quality and ease of use, portability, etc. I was able to rearrange and modify the foam protectors to place the camera, strobe, and two 2300 floodlights into just one of the SeaLife cases. I used the other small case to hold all other items.
In general the DC2000 uses a pre-flash for final focus and lighting adjustment when in any non-(U)nderwater mode. This causes the external strobe to trigger and they can not recover quickly enough for the final flash where the image is captured. The manual does not describe how the "Ext Flash" mode is only found in the "Underwater mode" menu. One configured, it works well. You can use the 2300 (max lumen) auto-dimming floodlight for focus. I found the lowest power setting was fine for focus, and the battery life was much better, i.e. can complete two consecutive dives with continuous flood lighting on all the time. An ideal still photo setup would use a single flood on the cold shoe for focus, and dual strobes. An ideal video/combo setup would use dual floods, and a strobe on the cold shoe for those occasional still photos. I was able to manually place the second flood light to side or back light some subjects, and also used it as a dive light.
This seminar concentrated on macro photography and the Anilao diving site provided many colorful nudibranch opportunities along with various species of frog fish, pygmy sea horses, etc. Although SeaLife does not currently offer a macro lens, the stock lens worked pretty well. For macro images, I had great success using a fixed aperture (f/5.6), shutter speed (1/250), and ISO setting (125), and adjusted the strobe angle to the subject with about 1/2 strobe power. I also experimented with both aperture and shutter speed priority, but you need to resync the strobe with these settings per the instructions in the manual. These were not as successful - exposurewise, as I achieved with full manual control. And I could quickly switch from (M)anual control to (U)nderwater mode for shooting those unexpected larger subjects, like sea turtles and obligatory selfies. The Underwater mode videos need a little post-process color correction for true white balance when the subject is not within a couple feet or so, but otherwise very good.
In conclusion, this is an excellent camera for the "vacation" diver. Very light, portable, versatile, works well above water, and to 60 ft without an enclosure! The only drawback was that the high dollar camera/enclosure systems allow trigger-quick changing of f-stop, etc. to rapidly adjust exposure or depth of field, whereas the DC2000 requires diving into a cumbersome menu that was not conducive to gloved hands when under manual control. "Full Auto" would not always produce good macro photos, but performed pretty well for larger subjects. The "auto" strobe setting was often disappointing as well, but can be quickly adjusted manually.
The following photos are un-retouched JPG's.
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