Do you think my new 1200 is defective?

[lox]

Bought the camera a month ago for a diving trip. While playing around with the camera on land noted that I had a lot of trouble getting a properly exposed picture with or without the housing.
- Under flash conditions some pictures would be blurred(flash did fire and I wasn't in slow mode) or improperly exposed. Looking at EXIF data showed sync speed to be 1/30?
- With housing installed and using strobe a majority of pics are over exposed, approx. 50%
-Exposure as evidenced on LCD does not transition smoothly, but is jerky. Almost as if the light sensor quits momentarly.
-Under nature light exposures are still hit and miss.

Under water have noted that when holding the camera horizontal or slightly upwards results in a majority of Strobe shoots being washed out, regardless of how close I am to the subject.
-Get some good results shooting coral, when pinting the camera downwards.

-Exposure on LCD does not transition smoothing with changing light conditions and
the LCD appears to blink at times while trying to compose a shot.

-Looking at EXIF data from pics taken with the strobe the sync speed is all over the map 1/60,1/70,1/77, etc Yet the sync speed when out of the housing is always 1/30. Should the sync speed not always be 1/60 with flash or strobe when camera is set to auto?

- Camera went into video mode while diving and the results where actually fairly good given the camera wasn't set for this type of shooting, poor visibilty, not knowing the camera was rolling and at 60 ft. depth.

For information sake i used to be a pro photographer and have several cameras that I use regularly, so I'm quite familar with how a land camera should operate.

Thoughts???

Thanks,
Matt

 

[EevelMonkee]

I think I know far less about photography than you but I have been using my new DC1200 without a strobe over the past several days. I have taken some nice underwater and land shots and have only used the "easy setup" on the camera. It shouldn't be that complicated to get a decent shot with that camera so yours may have a problem. You can check out my photos here Diving Addiction if you want to compare to your results.

 

[lox]

Some nice pics EeveelMonkee and no my pics are not nearly as colorful. Some are similar to your shot of the Lobster though.
What kind of visibilty where you shooting in, and how far away was the Lobster?
With the DC1200 you can't even set exposure compensation using the UW housing, a BIG mistake by Sealife IMHO.

 

[nw_diver]

I have found that that using everything on full auto produces great results underwater. I have found that on land, without the housing, the camera is only so so. It sounds like something might be wrong with your camera. I only had overexposed pictures when I set the strobe to 10.

 

[EevelMonkee]

Some nice pics EeveelMonkee and no my pics are not nearly as colorful. Some are similar to your shot of the Lobster though.
What kind of visibilty where you shooting in, and how far away was the Lobster?
With the DC1200 you can't even set exposure compensation using the UW housing, a BIG mistake by Sealife IMHO.

Glad you liked the pics. For the lobster shots, I actually used the "Land" setting with the internal flash. The lobster was less than 3 ft away. I started experimenting with that because using the "Underwater" setting without flash or strobe produces dark pictures below around 50ft. If I used the internal flash with the "Underwater" setting the pictures were very blue. Must have something to do with the digital red filter. So for pics taken above 50ft with good natural light, I use "Underwater" mode. Below that I usually use "Land" mode with the internal flash. You do have to be fairly close to the subject to get a decent picture that way.

 

[SeaLife Joe]

EevelMonkee, Nice shots. Do you have the external flash? The U/W modes are set up to use the exisitng ambient light and do have the red filter so when you are deeper, they aren't necessarily as effective. That is were the strobe really comes in handy.

Lox, If you could PM me and send me some pics to my work email, I can take a look at what is going on as far as the shots. Curious, what setting do you have the camera on when shooting with the strobe?

Joe

 

[EevelMonkee]

EevelMonkee, Nice shots. Do you have the external flash? The U/W modes are set up to use the exisitng ambient light and do have the red filter so when you are deeper, they aren't necessarily as effective. That is were the strobe really comes in handy.

Joe

I'm not using an external strobe now but I may purchase one soon. I have found that for shallow (>50ft) shots in good vis the strobe isn't necessary. I'm very pleased with the shots I've taken in those conditions using the camera's underwater mode. I will try the strobe for more flexibility in shooting conditions but its nice to know that if I want to keep the camera small I don't have to use the strobe.

 

[lox]

SealifeJoe, I will send you a few pics when I get back home. But it seems as though the camera is working fine now? Have some nice colorful shots and didn't change a thing, left in Auto underwater strobe mode?

 

[lox]

Well I managed to get some of those nice colorful shots using the strobe!
The main problem with my first underwater shots is the white sand background, once I got into some dark backgrounds the shots turned out nicely. Too bad one can't use the EV compensation underwater, that would definitely make a difference and still allow easy usage.