help a poor guy out. (setup question).

[SailNaked]

Ok so i bought a G11 and the Ikelite housing. Now what?

I am on my way to Bonaire June 5th. I do not have the $ for an external flash. what are my initial settings going to be?

I have about 500 pictures with a sealife set in UW +25ft mode and some with flash some without. actually the without were better. ISO 80 or 3200? +1 on the EV? I really need to come back with enough awesome pictures that can go on the wall for my wife to stop complaining about the $ spent on the camera and housing.

I had no idea you could buy a flash for 150. I'll assume most would say go for it?

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Sailnaked,
congrats for you G11 and the Ikelite housing a very good combination and a excellent camera.
The G11 has a very good strobe inside and i saw very nice pics made underwater using only the internal strobe.
In Bonaire you should have clear waters so backscatter should not be a big issue and the strobe will work well for near and makro shots.

Set the ISO between 100 and 400 and it should work fine especially if you don't dive deep. Remember to do a manual white balance when light or depth changes if you shoot in JPG. A better solution will be to shoot in RAW but you have to "process" the images afterwards in Photoshop or better Lightroom and this requires some practice with image processing.

A cheap solution for a external strobe is to seek for a used Intova or Bonica strobe on ebay, craigslist, wetpixel or here. They are cheap but do the trick quite good, look here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-corner/334588-g11-first-pics.html

Explain your wife that a external strobe enables you to make much better photos of her, woman often like this argument.... :cool2:

Chris

 

[herman]

Your best bet is to concentrate on shots that have a close by, solid background. Fish against a coral head for example and avoid distant backgrounds. They are impossible to light and you will have a shot full of backscatter. Stick to close in shots, 4 ft or less other wise you will have difficulty lighting the shot with your internal strobe and will have a lot of backscatter. Macro shots will work well as long as you do not get too close, if you do, odds are you will have an unlit spot in the photos from a shadow caused by the lens barrel. If your camera will go full manual, use that instead of any of the program modes, with a little experience you can get much better shots. I shot my 5050 for a good many dives before getting a strobe and had a fair amount of luck. An alternative IF your camera will do full manual is to use one of the old Ike strobes, I just picked one up for $20 and I see them go for less than $50 fairly often but do not bother if your camera will not handle full manual mode.

 

[Shayne]

Hi i got an intova iss 2000 strobe with flexi arm and base for $129.99 us and it works really well, ultramax do the same strobe but costs a little more. This strobe has four power settings so great for different lighting, also i got the fibre optic cable with it as well.