First shots RX100 - Bangka Island, Indonesia

[AlMitch]

In July 2013 my wife and I spent 6 days at Blue Bay Divers on Bangka Island. You can see my trip report here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/indonesia/462047-trip-report-blue-bay-divers-bangka-island-july-2013-a.html

It was my first time diving with my new Sony RX100 setup (see pic below). It is in a Nauticam housing and I have a single Inon D2000 strobe and Sola 800 focus light. I also have a +10 diopter macro lens for the small stuff and the Inon UWL-H100 with the dome for the wide stuff. As we all know the camera takes amazing shots BUT it really does take some serious thought and patience to get the shot. It really is not the most user friendly of cameras. I think it will definitely take me a good few dive trips before I become “comfortable” with it. The macro in particular can be frustrating and I need to spend some more time figuring out how to use the manual focus and peaking options. I spent 15min with the Lembeh Sea Dragon and because he was moving around so much I didn’t get a single dead in focus shot. Oh well next time. It was also the first time shooting proper wide angle and this certainly makes you look at the reef in a different way. A very definite mind shift needed to the usual snap happy stuff I’ve been doing in the past.

I had a few discussions on line about how to carry the WA lens (which is big and heavy) underwater and most people said don’t bother, just pic WA or macro and go with it. BUT I’m quite stubborn and made a carry bag for the WA lens that clipped onto my BCD and this actually worked OK. When I was diving Sahung (a beautiful soft coral covered reef) I would start with the WA on the camera (and bag in my BCD pocket) and generally shoot WA BUT the DM spotted a Boxer crab and a Bandfin Frogfish and boy was I happy I had my little bag. I just settled on a sandy patch and it only took me a minute or two to go from WA to macro and I got a good shot of the little critters. Happy days! Both WA and macro in one dive. Yes it was not super streamlined swimming with the WA hooked on but it was worth the bother.
Here are a few of the shots I was fairly happy with.
Comments welcome.
You can check out the rest of my pics at the following link:
Blue Bay Divers - Bangka Island - July 2013 - a set on Flickr

 

[CajunDiva]

Great pics AlMitch! I especially love the landscape shots using the sun's rays...beautiful

 

[mjh]

Very nice, love that pier. Single strobe, wide angle, IMHO is hardest thing to master. Sounds odd but a second strobes makes WA easier.

To carry lenses
Manufacturer :: Nauticam :: Accessories :: Nauticam 67mm lens holder -

AlMitch, if you don't mind...curious to why you consider the RX "is not the most user friendly of cameras"? In a "perfect world" what would you change? Or were there features on another camera you have shot that you wish the Sony had? Again just trying to get another perspective on the camera and what features are important to shooters. Thanks.

 

[Interceptor121]

I think you can be pretty happy for a first time

In general in wide angle the RX100 is not difficult to use or at least I do not find it difficult

The focus with the diopter is painful but on the other hand also pretty simple once you understand peaking at 100mm equivalent there really is only one point there the image is in focus and you work it out moving the camera, to this respect the fact that the rx100 does not have a macro mode is actually better

 

[AlMitch]

Very nice, love that pier. Single strobe, wide angle, IMHO is hardest thing to master. Sounds odd but a second strobes makes WA easier.

To carry lenses
Manufacturer :: Nauticam :: Accessories :: Nauticam 67mm lens holder -

AlMitch, if you don't mind...curious to why you consider the RX "is not the most user friendly of cameras"? In a "perfect world" what would you change? Or were there features on another camera you have shot that you wish the Sony had? Again just trying to get another perspective on the camera and what features are important to shooters. Thanks.

Thanks! Paradise Jetty is a great dive. It even has an underwater natural hot spring!!! I only have a single strobe because I cant get the wife to sign off on me buying a second one! Ha ha!
The lens holder would work fine with the macro lens but the WA lens with dome is just to bulky and heavey to put it on the strobe arm.

As for what I dont like.... 1) Getting the white balance dialled in for video is nearly impossible (at least for me, just too many steps to remember in the moment).
2) Taking pics of things that were not small enough for the macro lens but still smallish and then not being able to get close enough to it because the camera refuses to focus as closely as you'd like. It really felt like at times I was a million miles away from the critter and the camera still wouldn't focus. Wow that is a ramble of words! haha Hope you get what I mean.
3) Still have not quite worked out how to set the custom programs. On my G11 it was super easy to set C1 for macro and C2 for WA and off you went. And now after much time trying to figure out the Sony I'm still lost!
4) Manual focus is not responsive enough, it felt like I had to spin the dial a number of times before anything changed. But I could have had it set up wrong.
5) The fact that the video clips can not be simply dragged into most vieo editors such as iMovie is just a silly problem for Sony to not have solved.
6) It took me at least 2-3 hours to charge the battery. I cant belive sony does not have a seperate battery charger.

If I had a bit longer to think about it I'm sure I could come up with at least 5 more!

Now obviously the more I use it the easier it will be but the learning curve is really steep, and there are many things that are not clear or obvious. You really have take your time and learn how to use it, where as I feel a monkey with a crayon could handle the Canon G or S series cameras because it is just so simple. Yes yes may be I am that monkey!

Dont get me wrong once you get it right the photos are amazing! So I'm willing to put in the time and put up with the annoyances.

---------- Post added August 16th, 2013 at 01:57 PM ----------

I think you can be pretty happy for a first time

In general in wide angle the RX100 is not difficult to use or at least I do not find it difficult

The focus with the diopter is painful but on the other hand also pretty simple once you understand peaking at 100mm equivalent there really is only one point there the image is in focus and you work it out moving the camera, to this respect the fact that the rx100 does not have a macro mode is actually better

Ye 121 I'm pretty happy with a few of those too, Thanks!
The WA was definitely easier to shoot (from a camera usage point of view) but then the challenge with WA is to become more "artistic" in your composition. And I was blown away again how close you had to get to the subject!!
I need to really sit down and figure out how to use the peaking properly. I found that sometime half the screen would just go yellow (my peaking colour) and I'd loose where the critter was which would throw me off. The other issue is that the darn critters keep moving, as do you with the current or just breathing, so you keep moving in and out of that "precise" distance between you and the critter that you need to be.
I was generally shooting at F8 and in hind sight I should have closed it down to its min to try and widen the DOF. Oh well next time.

---------- Post added August 16th, 2013 at 02:03 PM ----------

Great pics AlMitch! I especially love the landscape shots using the sun's rays...beautiful

Thanks so much! That was the first dive I did with the WA lens and I really just got lucky with those. The rest of the trip I had my exposure all wrong and blew out most of my sun beam shots.

 

[h2odave]

Great Job on the pics AlMitch! I basically have the same setup,would you mind sharing your settings on the sun beam shots?

 

[James R]

If you get the Nauicam LCD Magnifier, it'll make manually focusing as well as framing your photos a lot easier. Also, it can come on and off during a dive...can not reccomend it highly enough for Nauticam Rx100 owners (and other Nauticam housings it works on)! Nauticam LCD Magnifier with dioptric adjustment part# nau-25106 | Bluewater Photo & Video

I have not found that I need custom settings. I shoot my DSLR and Rx100 the same: always in manual, all the time. A few rotations of the dials to change what I am shooting takes no time at all. I did re-program my Fn button to this order: Focus Point, Focus Mode, ISO, Exposure Comp, D-Range.

 

[mjh]

AlMitch thanks for the thoughtful response. Good news is there are several battery chargers for the RX100. I use the Model No BC-TRX made by Sony.

Amazon.com: Sony BCTRX Battery Charger for X/G/N/D/T/R and K Series Batteries (Black): Camera & Photo

Like James R I always shoot in full Manual so never thought about presets.
We all have budgets but for "small" subjects a +5 diopter on a Flip Diopter holder works well.
White balance/down loading issues, agree and gets better with time an repetition.
Significant others and this hobby...Just support whatever expensive interest they have. My wife and I have a 2 to 1 hobby deal. Every $2 she spends I get to spend $1. Practice the phrase "that xkxw looks great on you, you should get it."

Not to highjack the tread but in general sun ball/sunray shots are easier with High Shutter speeds, +300.

One S&S D1 strobe. f/8, ISO 400, 1/500

 

[AlMitch]

Thanks for the tips James and Mjh. I'll definitely look into the magnifier, looks interesting.
My camera shop said they did not have any sony chargers.... I'm going to go have strong words with them today.
Fortunately for me my wife is really not a big spender. I'm the one with the expensive hobbies and tastes!! HA HA

I will definitely be practicing more sun ball shots, they are so pretty when done well.

 

[Interceptor121]

I use a universal Li-ion battery charger
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B001FAC9NK
The benefit is that it fits all cameras or devices with a Li-ion battery and is very cost effective
For strobes I use ansmann e+ equivalent of Sanyo Eneloop at 2500mah with an ansmann intelligent charger 4 slots
Generally the rx100 lasts for up to 3 dives in video so am never under pressure as the other battery is ready to go when needed