First time diver with g10

[AB1914]

I will be going on vacation in Cancun in May, and during that time I will be doing some snorkeling and maybe some deepsea diving too. I'm pretty good with the G10 on land and know how to use all the modes. I have a few questions if anyone can help me out.

1. What's the best underwater housing for a g10?
2. Besides underwater housing do I need anyother equipment?
3. Is an external fash really necessary?
4. Anyone can give tips on how to take pics underwater is greatly appreciated.

AB

 

[Jersey Chris]

I personally think Ikelite makes the best housings.. Start with ambient photography for a while before thinking about flash photography. Best tip I can give you is practice, practice, practice and make sure you have mastered your buoyancy first.. Good luck..

 

[jd950]

1. Based on your questions, I would suggest the Canon housing. It is the least expensive option at around $175.00 and if you later decide you need a more expensive housing you should be able to sell the factory housing for maybe 60% of what you paid for it. You may never want a more expensive housing. The next cheapest option is an Ike housing at $600.00. That is a lot for someone who has never tried underwater photography, to my way of thinking. Plus, housing choices impact what strobes you will be able to use, how they connect to your camera, what add-on lenses you can later use, etc. You should evaluate all of that before sinking big bucks into a housing. Plus, putting your money in an external strobe will make a bigger difference in the results. In my opinion, having a $400 camera in a $600.00 housing but no strobe is not the way to go. Check some of the well-known underwater photo businesses like Reef Photo, Backscatter, etc., and look at what they have. They offer packages and advice.

2. You will probably want some sort of tray for the housing, arms for the strobe, as well as the strobe itself and some sort of cable connecting the strobe to the housing. You may later want to add "wet" lenses, depending on the camera and housing you are using.

3. An external strobe is not "necessary" but very useful. Enough so that if money were an object I would suggest a less expensive camera and housing and a strobe over putting so much into camera or housing that you forgo the strobe. YMMV

4. Search through the photography forum here, looking for tips and techniques at least as much as equipment discussions. Check out websites like Wetpixel and Digital Diver. Buy a good book. Martin Edge wrote one that is good and I know there are many others. Look into a basic underwater photo course. A lot of dive shops offer them or you can take them at many dive destinations.

5. You didn't have five questions, but here is my answer to number five anyway; It looks like you have little to no dive experience and perhaps limited photography experience. Get your diving in good shape and maybe take a buoyancy class before adding photography in the mix. It is safer for you and more conducive to doing well with the photography. If you are an experienced or particularly competent diver, or an experienced photographer already, then this may be less of an issue.

Enjoy whatever you end up with.

Edited to add: I just noticed that although your post referred to "first time diver" you also said you were looking for something for snorkeling and perhaps while deep sea fishing. If you are looking for a snorkeling camera and one to use around a boat, then I really think you should stay with the Canon housing, and skip the external strobe, at least for now.

I can't really tell for sure what your goals are though.

 

[adjuster-jd]

Whatever you decide to get it might be good to try to hook up with your local dive shop to see what they recommend and get some advice and training with someone who can give you some tips. I wouldnt purchase a G10 and not a strobe - I just can't see paying $400 for a camera and minimum of $175 for a housing and not using a strobe. The G10 is a high-end camera so you might as well use it to it's fullest potential.
As the previous poster indicated, you'll want to be sure you have good buoyancy and not have to think about the diving stuff if you are going to focus on the camera stuff. Takings pics underwater can consume all of your attention so you should be able to hover comfortably without giving that much thought.

 

[franktai]

Agreed with jd950, go with the oem housing if you just want to start. If you are convinced you are going to be doing this ALOT then an ike housing may fit your need, but you really have to be committed and plan to dive a lot. Some things to think about below...

I have a G9 + Canon housing and am happy with the setup. One of the biggest things for me is size, and the ike housing is just ginormous... note that's just the housing, not talking about any optional lenses (wide angle, macro) that you may also want to get in the future.

Thinking about progression through equipment, generally I think of:

- small camera + uw housing
- bigger camera + uw housing
- blue/green water lenses
- focus light
- strobe + arm
- specialised lenses

Going down the list you will get more and more advanced with your skills without overwhelming yourself. I recently got a strobe and the first dive with it made me think of when i first started diving and nothing was comfortable! Each step down introduces more learning curve - you are at step 2 where there are a LOT of controls on the camera and really you want to learn to use/appreciate them before going nuts on anything else in my opinion...

 

[Matt S.]

You will quickly find that enclosures, add-on lenses, and strobes are far more than the camera you might have in mind.

Here is what I would do, based on my experience. (And I may be getting a G10 soon too.)

Get the G10 or some other nice but not crazy-nice camera that you can get an inexpensive factory housing for.

Have fun shooting and tolerate the internal flash. You can still get some decent macro shots with little apparent backscatter, but not having an external strobe IS a huge compromise.

Once you have some experience, see what you feel like you need next.

Need better light? Get a strobe and use it with your current enclosure.

Missing wide-angle shooting? Maybe you need a better enclosure after all, like the Ike or the Fisheye.

Note that a wide-angle lens by itself is about the price of your camera... and a new housing can be much more. If the Canon housing gets wide enough for your taste, congrats, you saved a ton of money and you can get a nice strobe or two.

I found this article helpful.

Underwater Camera Articles: Review: Best Underwater Point & Shoot Cameras for 2009

If you look at my scuba picture gallery, you will see what an old Canon S70 and no external strobe can do. Sometimes you get a good pic... Sometimes not.

My current plan is to get a G10 and Canon housing, because I am happy enough with the wide angle that I will get without an expensive adapter. The G10 will let me shoot better available light photos (less grain) and when I want to spend more money, I will get a strobe.

Good luck!

 

[FrankPro1]

I will be going on vacation in Cancun in May, and during that time I will be doing some snorkeling and maybe some deepsea diving too. I'm pretty good with the G10 on land and know how to use all the modes. I have a few questions if anyone can help me out.

1. What's the best underwater housing for a g10?
2. Besides underwater housing do I need anyother equipment?
3. Is an external fash really necessary?
4. Anyone can give tips on how to take pics underwater is greatly appreciated.

AB

For taking pictures while snorkeling I would go with the Canon housing or if you want to dish out a thousand bucks the Patima or Fisheye. They are much more compact then the Ikelite.

Personally I went with the Ikelite housing because:
1. I've seen Canon's OEM housings before and they are quite low on the totem when its comes to quality housings.
2. Ikelite has the option for "semi" wide angle lens
3. Ikelite has the TTL hoteshoe linkage built into to the housing for external strobes.
4. Ikelite is renown for making highly durable, professional quality housings and have a great customer service history.
5. I didn't want to spend a thousand dollars on a housing for a 400 dollar camera.

An external strobe is not absolutely required to take photos, but it certainly will help you to get quality shots that are well lit. Here's a photo I took with my G10 just using ambient light:

The best way to find out how to take underwater images is practice. Practice, Practice, Practice. I've been shooting with my old 3mp Olympus underwater for about a year now and only finally started to consistently get my shots right. Now that I switched over to the G10, it feels like I'm back to square one.

 

[Gilligan]

I will be going on vacation in Cancun in May, and during that time I will be doing some snorkeling and maybe some deepsea diving too. I'm pretty good with the G10 on land and know how to use all the modes. I have a few questions if anyone can help me out.

1. What's the best underwater housing for a g10?
2. Besides underwater housing do I need anyother equipment?
3. Is an external fash really necessary?
4. Anyone can give tips on how to take pics underwater is greatly appreciated.

AB

1. Best is argumentative. Least expensive and most compact is the Canon WP-DC28 housing.
2. An arm and tray if you get a strobe. White slate or piece of white plastic to calibrate your white balance while underwater.
3. Yes, an external strobe is necessary for very close-up macro shots. The long lens tunnel on the housing blocks part of the camera's strobe leaving a shadow on part of the photo.
4. Get the Canon housing, no external strobe and take shots with the on-board strobe making sure you back away from the subject and zoom in if possible to avoid the shadow. Use calibrated white balance for your non-strobe shots. It yields better results than the "Underwater" setting. See how that works for you then get a strobe if your still happy with the camera/housing. If not, sell the housing and you are not out that much money.

 

[Matt S.]

An external strobe is not absolutely required to take photos, but it certainly will help you to get quality shots that are well lit. Here's a photo I took with my G10 just using ambient light:

Wow, that really makes me want to upgrade. ISO 200 (that picture) looks pretty clean... It's a horror show on my S70.

Do you happen to have a raw file for that picture? I would like to play with the white balance.

 

[FrankPro1]

Wow, that really makes me want to upgrade. ISO 200 (that picture) looks pretty clean... It's a horror show on my S70.

Do you happen to have a raw file for that picture? I would like to play with the white balance.

Unfortunately that was one of the later shots during my dive and I switched over to using only Jpeg to conserve space. If you want the jpeg shot uncompressed, shoot me a pm with your email.