G9 in Action in the Bahamas, Sept. 08

[Kydonia]

Hey Everyone...
Just wanted to share some great photos I took with my beloved G9 in San Salvador, Bahamas last month. Once again, this little wonder kicked butt. I had some lighting issues, and often couldn't trigger my external strobe with the jerry-rigged fiber optic cable, and ended up color-correcting in photoshop, but got some nice images nonetheless. Had some firsts too on this trip including several Lionfish and reef sharks (under 20 yards away)

More shots in my album.

 

[Desert_Diver]

Nice pics.

Thanks,

Art

 

[Kydonia]

Thanks
I love my G9 so much!!
Much better than that P.O.S. Sea & Sea I had.

 

[BOHICA]

eric,
great pictures.

which sea & sea did you have and why do you like the G9 better? TIA,
ken

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Very nice, I like the "over/under" shot in your album.

 

[Kydonia]

eric,
great pictures.

which sea & sea did you have and why do you like the G9 better? TIA,
ken

Thanks everyone. I had the Sea & Sea DX-8000G. I ended up buying the "Islander package" when I got certified so I guess that was 2 1/2 years ago. It served me well I guess being a new diver, but

1. I found it to be VERY noisy at anything over 100 iso. 100 iso is fine if you're using a full coverage powerful external strobe, and you're exposure is dead on. But its nice to have an option to shoot at 200, 400, 800, etc.

2. I found that it ran the batteries down quickly, and didn't come with re-chargables.

3. At depths of over 40 feet, it often froze up, just wouldn't work.

4. It flooded in Bonaire, After I had it for 5 months and it saw only maybe 18 dives. ok, so it was probably my fault, but I was hoping for some kind of consideration from Sea & Sea.... Maybe a discount on a new camera, since I bought the entire "kit". Then I find out they discontinued that model, and tried to sell me the 1G at full retail minus like $25. Here's the clincher.... the 1G would NOT fit in the 8000G housing. So then they tried to sell me a whole new 1G package, and I'd be stuck with a useless 8000G housing and a dead corroded body (and the strobe, arm, wide angle lens, case, etc.... $2,000)

I was dismayed at the company, and didn't know what to do. About 6 weeks later, I was visiting a photographer buddy of mine in Manhattan, and he showed me his new Canon G9. I was impressed. But never considered it as a diver camera (yet).

I already had a point and shoot, and 2 expensive DLSRs which I primarily use for work. So what happened, was I was skiing last December, and lost my Canon Elph on the slopes. So after Christmas, I decided to get the G9, and read that Canon made a housing for it. I figured I could most likely get my Sea & Sea YS-27 strobe to fire with it, and got it, and so far its been great. I wish I had TTL, but otherwise it was a great switch, and a blessing I suppose.

Although will never see that money back from the Sea & Sea DX-8000G loss. I was able to sell the case and wide angle lens on Ebay for around $50 and $100 respectively. I still have the housing if anyone wants one. It was sent to California and pressure tested, and they said it was fine.

The G9 is a better land camera as well, and I use it all the time. Plus all things being equal, it looks cool as ****

 

[rjsimp]

Is that fan really blue like that with the flamingo toungs? I have never seen a blue one so I am either feeling really left out or maybe the color is off.

 

[Kydonia]

Is that fan really blue like that with the flamingo toungs? I have never seen a blue one so I am either feeling really left out or maybe the color is off.

I'll be honest, I didn't think about it until now. I thought it was the true color. I did have some lighting issues on this trip, and sometimes the on-camera flash would fire without the external strobe, giving me a left half of the frame one color and the right half another color, and depending what color balance setting I had on the camera, Lord knows how the color would turn out I still need to work much harder on my set-up and my UW shooting. But yeah, I think it was that bluish color.

 

[coralcruiser]

Thanks everyone. I had the Sea & Sea DX-8000G. I ended up buying the "Islander package" when I got certified so I guess that was 2 1/2 years ago. It served me well I guess being a new diver, but

1. I found it to be VERY noisy at anything over 100 iso. 100 iso is fine if you're using a full coverage powerful external strobe, and you're exposure is dead on. But its nice to have an option to shoot at 200, 400, 800, etc.

2. I found that it ran the batteries down quickly, and didn't come with re-chargables.

3. At depths of over 40 feet, it often froze up, just wouldn't work.

4. It flooded in Bonaire, After I had it for 5 months and it saw only maybe 18 dives. ok, so it was probably my fault, but I was hoping for some kind of consideration from Sea & Sea.... Maybe a discount on a new camera, since I bought the entire "kit". Then I find out they discontinued that model, and tried to sell me the 1G at full retail minus like $25. Here's the clincher.... the 1G would NOT fit in the 8000G housing. So then they tried to sell me a whole new 1G package, and I'd be stuck with a useless 8000G housing and a dead corroded body (and the strobe, arm, wide angle lens, case, etc.... $2,000)

I was dismayed at the company, and didn't know what to do. About 6 weeks later, I was visiting a photographer buddy of mine in Manhattan, and he showed me his new Canon G9. I was impressed. But never considered it as a diver camera (yet).

I already had a point and shoot, and 2 expensive DLSRs which I primarily use for work. So what happened, was I was skiing last December, and lost my Canon Elph on the slopes. So after Christmas, I decided to get the G9, and read that Canon made a housing for it. I figured I could most likely get my Sea & Sea YS-27 strobe to fire with it, and got it, and so far its been great. I wish I had TTL, but otherwise it was a great switch, and a blessing I suppose.

Although will never see that money back from the Sea & Sea DX-8000G loss. I was able to sell the case and wide angle lens on Ebay for around $50 and $100 respectively. I still have the housing if anyone wants one. It was sent to California and pressure tested, and they said it was fine.

The G9 is a better land camera as well, and I use it all the time. Plus all things being equal, it looks cool as ****

Sorry to hear about your 8000G issues. I bought that camera shortly after seeing it when it was first introduced at DEMA and have had great shots using it. I bought the rechargeable battery and use it for 2 dives before changing it out for a fresh one. I shoot without an external strobe since I tend to shoot close up and macro. I looked at the S&S 2g that will be coming out and may upgrade to it eventually. The main reason I have gone over to a DSLR is that I do love being able to go from wide to macro from one shot to the next.

If you follow my link below you'll go to my divebuddy site where I've posted some of my shots taken with it.

 

[rjsimp]

Sorry to hear about your 8000G issues. I bought that camera shortly after seeing it when it was first introduced at DEMA and have had great shots using it. I bought the rechargeable battery and use it for 2 dives before changing it out for a fresh one. I shoot without an external strobe since I tend to shoot close up and macro. I looked at the S&S 2g that will be coming out and may upgrade to it eventually. The main reason I have gone over to a DSLR is that I do love being able to go from wide to macro from one shot to the next.

If you follow my link below you'll go to my divebuddy site where I've posted some of my shots taken with it.

I am glad you are happy with your 8000G, even with the noisy sensor. Just so you know though using a strobe vs the internal flash really isn't a distance issue so much as it is in-direct light, better balanced, more power to light larger areas, faster recycle, etc.

I would hate someone new to photography read your comment and think that strobes have no use in macro when in fact they have a very good use and I have two that I use in both macro and wide angle for optimal lighting.