Ideas for small footprint compact camera setup?

[jf3193]

For a bigger sensor 1" versus smaller sensor in the Olympus TG-6 (which does have excellent macro capability) I advise people choose the Sony RX100 VA or Canon G7X II or III. The Fantasea housing is compact and light and controls are very ergonomic. The Fantasea housing is available with their standard DUAL o-rings or a vacuum set up.

I use a Fantasea G7X II for my Canon G7X II and it has held up for close to 900 dives.

Photos below in preparation for a trip next month were shot with a single Inon S2000 strobe. My dive buddy for the trip is using his Canon 7D II camera with fisheye lens and dual Ikelite strobes. A great set up but I'm way too lazy to travel that way these days (I did so for decades.)

I'm a lightweight system fanatic using just a simple aluminum tray and flex arm. Many people will choose heavier trays and ball joint arms and while good too are just too heavy for my taste.

In addition I use the Fantasias BigEye F Series "Air lens" which restores underwater the Canon G7X II camera's 24mm focal length. Many will say it's not wide enough. I've tried many glass lenses that give 10 degrees or more coverage but my obsession with weight wins out Plus this "Air Lens" floats and can be popped on and off easily to shoot "tighter shots" with just the camera lens through the flat housing port.

Last thing.......

The Fantasea housing also has a "cold shoe" on top for mounting an aging light, video light or even mount a small strobe. I shot some of these with the single Inon S2000 strobe mounted right on top of the housing.

While limiting lighting angles it was an eye opener and super compact. I may do some dives with just the housing and strobe next month.

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

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[jf3193]

For a bigger sensor 1" versus smaller sensor in the Olympus TG-6 (which does have excellent macro capability) I advise people choose the Sony RX100 VA or Canon G7X II or III. The Fantasea housing is compact and light and controls are very ergonomic. The Fantasea housing is available with their standard DUAL o-rings or a vacuum set up.

I use a Fantasea G7X II for my Canon G7X II and it has held up for close to 900 dives.

Photos below in preparation for a trip next month were shot with a single Inon S2000 strobe. My dive buddy for the trip is using his Canon 7D II camera with fisheye lens and dual Ikelite strobes. A great set up but I'm way too lazy to travel that way these days (I did so for decades.)

I'm a lightweight system fanatic using just a simple aluminum tray and flex arm. Many people will choose heavier trays and ball joint arms and while good too are just too heavy for my taste.

In addition I use the Fantasias BigEye F Series "Air lens" which restores underwater the Canon G7X II camera's 24mm focal length. Many will say it's not wide enough. I've tried many glass lenses that give 10 degrees or more coverage but my obsession with weight wins out Plus this "Air Lens" floats and can be popped on and off easily to shoot "tighter shots" with just the camera lens through the flat housing port.

Last thing.......

The Fantasea housing also has a "cold shoe" on top for mounting an aging light, video light or even mount a small strobe. I shot some of these with the single Inon S2000 strobe mounted right on top of the housing.

While limiting lighting angles it was an eye opener and super compact. I may do some dives with just the housing and strobe next month.

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

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David,
That’s why I was leaning towards the rx100 and G7x series. The larger sensors plus full manual ability. I’ve seen some used RX100 series online in a nice budget. I noticed the version 3-5(a) use the same lens size. For mainly stills, is there a noticeable difference in model #performance between these? I’m always trying to save costs to invest in higher end lighting, which I’ll be able to migrate later down the road if I ever upscale to another camera.

 

[Barmaglot]

Mostly a caribbean diver, good blue visibility. I mostly shoot reef scenes, fish life and semi-macro , but only because I haven’t had a setup to do wrecks and large marine life justice.

If you're shooting reef scenes and large marine life then I'm afraid there's a dual strobe setup in your future, and I don't think there's a feasible way to keep one compact.

I noticed the version 3-5(a) use the same lens size. For mainly stills, is there a noticeable difference in model #performance between these?

Versions I through IV use contrast-detection autofocus. Version V adds phase-detection autofocus, which is considerably faster, and VA upgrades it to the same internals as VI for another speed boost, but without the long lens and the challenges involved in housing it.

 

[Chris Ross]

Are you doing video? - the Canon G7X will be better at custom white balance than the Sony. If you sticking with 1"sensors a small flash like the INON S2000 will be fine, it's only a stop less powerful than the full size ones and you don't need to stop down as much on 1"sensors compared to larger sensors, f5.6 is equivalent depth of field to f16 on a full frame. You need the more powerful flashes for full frame as you need to stop the lenses down quite a lot in dome ports. A single strobe will limit your wide angle shooting a little, but is usually OK for macro.

Be aware that all of the 1"compacts don't go that wide or do small subjects well without an add on wet lens. At the wide end 24mm field of view through a flat port is a little limiting.

On the performance of the RX-100 series, I believe the Va model has the 24-70 lens and better AF. The later models have 24-200 lens that get really long and complicate the use of wet lenses, requiring a port system to get the best of either macro or wide lenses. The issue you have with lenses changing length is that a port that allows the full focal range the lens is right at the bottom of the port at the wide setting and vignettes with a wet wide lens. The full range port allows you to zoom right in for better macro. Different housing options have different limitations and I think you need to take that into account if you plan to use wet lenses. Do you primarily do wide angle shooting or macro shooting - that may influence which way you want to go.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Are you doing video? - the Canon G7X will be better at custom white balance than the Sony. If you sticking with 1"sensors a small flash like the INON S2000 will be fine, it's only a stop less powerful than the full size ones and you don't need to stop down as much on 1"sensors compared to larger sensors, f5.6 is equivalent depth of field to f16 on a full frame. You need the more powerful flashes for full frame as you need to stop the lenses down quite a lot in dome ports. A single strobe will limit your wide angle shooting a little, but is usually OK for macro.

Be aware that all of the 1"compacts don't go that wide or do small subjects well without an add on wet lens. At the wide end 24mm field of view through a flat port is a little limiting.

On the performance of the RX-100 series, I believe the Va model has the 24-70 lens and better AF. The later models have 24-200 lens that get really long and complicate the use of wet lenses, requiring a port system to get the best of either macro or wide lenses. The issue you have with lenses changing length is that a port that allows the full focal range the lens is right at the bottom of the port at the wide setting and vignettes with a wet wide lens. The full range port allows you to zoom right in for better macro. Different housing options have different limitations and I think you need to take that into account if you plan to use wet lenses. Do you primarily do wide angle shooting or macro shooting - that may influence which way you want to go.

TG6 on this small nudi climbing over a hermit crab no add on lens. Cameras with bigger lenses may do a lot better but the 4K video on the TG6 I find to to pretty good.

 

[OTF]

RX100s make beautiful pictures underwater, nice wide lenses with very good sensors and glass for a compact camera. There are some small affordable housings for them.

 

[uwlunatic]

My very first underwater camera was the Canon G7x MkII.
Used it for 3 years and can highly recommend! Great performance for its compact size.
It goes really well with the Polycarbonate FANTASEA Housing.

 

[dhaas]

To jf3193,

As BLACKCRUSADER, uwlunatic, Chris Ross and OTF state there are several good choices in compacts.

To answer jf3193's question I think all the previous Sony RX100 III, IV and V will make good to GREAT pictures. Yes, the RX100 VA autofocus is a great improvement but as with all things comes at a cost.

I confess to not personally shooting the Sony compacts underwater, just played with them in a Best Buy and having people on my trips use them 90% in Fantasea housings.

One thing I know of Sony RX100 models is some prevent the capability to set the flash to MANUAL and put out a small burst to trip your externally fiber optic cord connected strobe. I'm not sure which Sony models allow this, probably in the specs somewhere.

The Canon G7X II and III allow you to switch between AUTO flash that mates with S-TTL flash plus switch to MANUAL flash and set it to a 1/3 low power burst to trip my external Inon strobe.

I actually set ISO, shutter speed, f-stop and MANUAL 1/3 power no pre-flash settings on my Canon G7X II in a saved "C" custom shooting mode.

This allows me to turn my SHOOTING MODE dial from "M" manual shooting mode to "C" then MANUALLY adjust my Inon strobe MANUAL flash output. This decreases my camera battery consumption and really speeds up the recycle time

Will I shoot MANUALLY all the time? No......The S-TTL with my time tested settings if you fill the frame works very, very well.

I know many SLR or mirrorless ILC (Interchangeable Lens Camera) shooters tout shooting MANUAL flash all the time. Sounds great if you dive enough and can think well enough underwater.

I contend most diving photographers are lucky to get a couple of trips a year and shooting S-TTL will likely deliver more keepers.....With my "C" CUSTOM saved SHOOTING MODE I can easily switch between S-TTL or MANUAL flash settings if I want.

That's enough confusion for now but I'll add another post on my thoughts on WA lenses in minute.

Just one old diver's thoughts so use at your own risk! LOL......

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981

 

[Barmaglot]

One thing I know of Sony RX100 models is some prevent the capability to set the flash to MANUAL and put out a small burst to trip your externally fiber optic cord strobe. I'm not sure which Sony models allow this, probably in the specs somewhere.

AFAIK, all Sony cameras with a built-in flash always operate it in TTL mode. You can apply flash compensation (+/- 3 stops) but you cannot directly control the flash power or disable pre-flash. If you want to shoot your strobes on manual control while triggering from a Sony RX100 or A6xxx camera, you have to use pre-flash cancellation, and it adds a tiny bit of shutter lag. Usually it's unnoticeable, but I did have an instance where I wanted to shoot a moray with its mouth open, and every time I'd pull the trigger, its mouth would be closed by the time the camera fired. I ended up working around it by shooting when its mouth was closed and ended up with this goofy shot:

I contend most diving photographers are lucky to get a couple of trips and shooting S-TTL will likely et more keepers.....But I can easily switch between the two flash settings if I want.

I travel a couple of times per year, and I used to shoot TTL when that was all that my strobes allowed me (SeaFrogs ST-100 Pro) and it worked well enough, but when I upgraded to strobes with proper manual capability, I switched to using manual power and never looked back.

 

[dhaas]

On to some thoughts on WA (wide angle) add on lenses for compact housings.

I advise people to consider three things. FOV (Field of View, or angle of coverage), weight and cost.

Field of view is the most misunderstood.

Your camera lens "sees" through your housing's FLAT port like your diving mask. Light bending as it enters an air filled space makes things look closer and larger. A general figure is a 25% decrease.

An example is a camera's 24mm lens (for the popular Sony RX100 and Canon G7X models) will "see" like a 29mm lens's FOV. This is fine for subjects like head and shoulders shots of a diver, medium fish like groupers, fish schools and sponges, sea fans, etc.

On certain housing's you can add an air filled DOME (commonly called an "Air Lens") that will RESTORE the full 24mm field of view UNDERWATER. These air filled space simply correct for the bending of light mentioned above. ABOVE water they do nothing and you can actually shoot through them in air. I do grabbing a surface shot in the boat or wherever.

Most housing's also have threads on the front commonly 67mm. These allow adding a GLASS wide angle lens widening the view both above and underwater.

These glass lenses expand a lens to the equivalent of a 20mm, 18mm or wider "view". Many exhibit a bit of curvature like a fisheye style lens. Many UW photographers like this effect while others do not.

The GLASS wide angle lenses allow you to get close and fill the frame with large animals, big reef scene, shipwrecks, etc. In UW photography every foot closer will make a difference in the clarity and color in your photos or video.

The next issue is WEIGHT. I've posted many times an Air Lens weighs practically nothing (mine for my housing even floats) compared to any GLASS lens that will add weight to a compact system.

Finally, cost......Air lenses cost less than even the lowest GLASS add on lens. I'd ballpark Air Lenses around $200 while glass lenses from $400 - $800.00 with or without additional polycarbonate or GLASS domes making these lenses even wider and heavier.

For some the widest view is worth the extra cost and weight. Since I'm using a lightweight Fantasea housing (full disclosure I'm a dealer but actual user) the Air Lens wins out. I've found any GLASS lens on my housing is just not my cup of tea to travel or dive with.

I also tend to shoot "tight" meaning I get close shooting at my UNDERWATER 24mm Filed of View. I've shot everything from Whale sharks to Mantas to shipwrecks and never really felt the cost and weight of a heavier more expensive lens were worth it.

I confess to being a do MORE with LESS person shooting with less gear

I hope sharing these insights will help folks make their own choice!

David Haas
Haas Photography Inc.
davidhaas4596@gmail.com
330-329-5981