Greetings from a snorkeler

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I only vacation where I can snorkel from shore after a morning scuba dive. I like to spend an entire afternoon in the water snorkeling. Scuba is great but once a day is enough for me, as long as I get to snorkel on my own for a few hours. I don't do photography. Too much like work.

Any good destination suggestions?

 

[agilis]

Any good destination suggestions?

I now go only to Dominica, in part because of the topside bewitching rainforest. Th snorkeling in certain areas is excellent, but I also always rent a car which is how I get to the best snorkeling spots. I used to go to Negril often, and there are still some nice snorkeling spots there and just outside of town. Bonaire and Curacao are excellent for diving/snorkeling. Anyplace there is structure, like a large pier, a breakwater, or a cliff face will likely have good snorkeling.

 

[Trilobite]

I shoot similarly--better to click now and delete later. Yes, there was one day that I did get a bit of fogging despite loading it in the air conditioned camera room at Alami Alor where it had been all night. From that day onward, I crammed as many silica packets as I could fit in the housing and never had another problem. Luckily, I had brought a 50-pack of Wisesorb packets that I got for $5 on Amazon.

I put one desiccant pack in the bottom of my housing, and as soon as I got in the water it shifted and jammed my zoom gear. How are you preventing that from happening?

 

[iancampbell]

I put one desiccant pack in the bottom of my housing, and as soon as I got in the water it shifted and jammed my zoom gear. How are you preventing that from happening?

I think for the most part, I just jammed so many in that they couldn't move around. Jamming the zoom gear sounds like a very unfortunate consequence that I hadn't considered.

 

[Trilobite]

With my E-PL10, the subject tracking autofocus was more or less useless as a snorkeler (I suspect I was moving too much for it to keep up) whereas I use it every day now with the OM-1. It's wonderful.

(Sorry, got distracted; hope you don't mind my revisiting your comments.) What you say about tracking is surprising. The advice I have always seen on regular camera forums (not underwater) is to turn off tracking for wildlife photography and leave it for things like auto racing where the movements are more predictable. How exactly are you using tracking? Do you turn it on in specific situations? If so, what situations?

As I said, I don't use the AI creature detection as it didn't seem to help with fish and occasionally seemed to hurt, but the customization modes for autofocus points on the OM-1 were also a huge improvement over the other underwater cameras I've used. I could really dial it in to where I position the camera when I identify my quarry, then use back button autofocus to activate tracking while I compose the shot.

I've never been a fan of back button autofocus; splitting a single smooth movement for two functions (focus and shutter release) into two movements in two different areas of the camera body takes more time, which might be critical if a fish moves by fast, and creates more risk of camera movement it seems to me. But I have an open mind.

What autofocus point customization modes are you using exactly? I could see having a pinpoint mode and a larger area mode, e.g. for fast-moving subjects (that's what I do for birds). Anything else?

For my night snorkels, I've always just used my underwater flashlight. It's substantially inferior to a strobe in terms of light distribution (hot spots everywhere that would take weeks to clean up in Lightroom) but works ok as long as you can hold the camera steady with one hand. ....

I tried that with two different flashlights – and got horizontal banding on my photos both times. Maybe it's because I use electronic shutter? Do you recall what flashlight you used and got good results with?

 

[Trilobite]

I'm probably an odd member out in that I don't dive at all but am an avid snorkeler with a weight belt. Perhaps someday I'll try SCUBA, but for now I'm happy duck diving with my camera.

I'm still experimenting with weights. In saltwater I seem to need at least 3 kg – possibly more – to get down. But I worry if there is current that it's going to make it harder for me to swim against itand, when necessary. What has your experience been? Also, do you use or have you considered using a snorkeling vest?

 

[Trilobite]

View attachment 845540

I think for the most part, I just jammed so many in that they couldn't move around. Jamming the zoom gear sounds like a very unfortunate consequence that I hadn't considered.

Perhaps there is less room in the OM-1 housing for things to slide around.

 

[Trilobite]

Palau was phenomenal, and I would go back in a heartbeat. The underwater world was extremely healthy, and my experience with Snorkel Venture there (the liveaboard portion was run by the Aggressor II) was outstanding.

The Palau trip I'm looking at isn't with snorkel venture and is shorter (6 days snorkeling and 1 day land-based cultural) and cheaper. It is resort only--all at the Cove Resort which I expect you stayed at also. Does that sound good/bad or meh compared to what you did? Also, did you see much in the way of critters you did not see in Indonesia?

 

[iancampbell]

(Sorry, got distracted; hope you don't mind my revisiting your comments.) What you say about tracking is surprising. The advice I have always seen on regular camera forums (not underwater) is to turn off tracking for wildlife photography and leave it for things like auto racing where the movements are more predictable. How exactly are you using tracking? Do you turn it on in specific situations? If so, what situations?

All good, hope you were distracted by something in the water . I think most of the focus modes are just "try it and find out what works best for you." Single autofocus was what I used with my TG-5 and E-PL10 most of the time. Continuous autofocus is good if something is moving toward you. However, if it's moving side-to-side and also toward or away from you (e.g. a fish swimming) then tracking might help. This is especially true if you use the autofocus set to the center to start tracking on a selected critter, then use backbutton autofocus to hold focus while you move the camera around and try to set up a shot. If the critter continues to move while you are working on getting a decent background, then tracking could benefit you.

Other times, maybe not so much and it's not worth the hassle. I've been pleased with in on the OM-1, at least.

I've never been a fan of back button autofocus; splitting a single smooth movement for two functions (focus and shutter release) into two movements in two different areas of the camera body takes more time, which might be critical if a fish moves by fast, and creates more risk of camera movement it seems to me. But I have an open mind.

Back button autofocus is great if you're using tracking. After I discovered that the tracking was less than stellar on the E-PL10 and switched over to single autofocus, I just used the shutter release half-press to make it work. I agree that there's no reason to use back button autofocus in this situation. It's really challenging on an underwater housing to get enough tactile feedback to tell when you've half-pressed the shutter if you're trying to pause there, but if you just want to click and focus before the fish is gone, back-button is more hassle than it's worth.

What autofocus point customization modes are you using exactly? I could see having a pinpoint mode and a larger area mode, e.g. for fast-moving subjects (that's what I do for birds). Anything else?

Yes, I use exactly those, plus I like starting with the cross mode and adjusting the size a bit. It's helpful when things are sweeping across my field of view in one direction or another.

I tried that with two different flashlights – and got horizontal banding on my photos both times. Maybe it's because I use electronic shutter? Do you recall what flashlight you used and got good results with?

I have the Odepro WD12 that I got from Amazon for $50. It's great for night snorkels when you're just looking around but suffers from pretty substantial hot spots if you're trying to do anything even remotely wide angle using that as your only light source.

I took this with the WD12 using the TG-5 in Palau in 2022. I'm pretty sure the compact camera only has electronic shutter, not a physical shutter, right? I've never seen any banding so I don't think it's using PWM to drive the LED.

 

[iancampbell]

I'm still experimenting with weights. In saltwater I seem to need at least 3 kg – possibly more – to get down. But I worry if there is current that it's going to make it harder for me to swim against itand, when necessary. What has your experience been? Also, do you use or have you considered using a snorkeling vest?

As a result of my BMI, I need quite a bit of weight. I use a weight belt with pouches. If you're shore snorkeling, you can just fill the pouches with sand and not have to scrounge up weights, and if you're with a dive shop then you can put their weights into the pouches. I need twice as much weight as you to be able to dive down and stay neutral, but I don't find it a problem to stay buoyant the rest of the time. It's definitely more of a workout for the whole snorkeling session, but it's a positive trade-off in my personal opinion because I really like diving down and staying down.