Initial Impressions of the Canon G9

[richtpe]

Here are a few more pics with the camera from this weekend.

 

[matva]

Hi Matva;

Yes, I will do so when I reveive my housing.

You have nice pictures on your S70 gallery. You could consider and external flash.

Regards

Karel

Thanks! I actually sold that camera rig about a year ago. I'm considering the g9 as a replacement. This time i may go with an external flash like you say.

richtpe, were those shot in RAW mode? Also, did you use any post processing (e.g. whitebalance adjustment). The turtle shot is very nice.

 

[friscuba]

All the features are available with the Canon housing. To access the wheel features, press (& hold) the (Shortcut) button and you can adjust all settings.

Hope that makes sense.

Thank you very much for that piece of info.... I hate actually reading directions... haha. I figured it had to be a combination of buttons, just couldn't figure out underwater what the "s" button was for. I just tried it at my desk and it works like a charm.

Looks like ALL button and wheel features are available afterall... Yahoo!!

 

[pmecucci]

hey everyone, thanks for all the great info. I'm a new diver, and can't wait to get into shooting underwater. I shoot a 30d topside, and have been looking for the right point and shoot to buy for my dive camera. From this thread it looks like the G9 is the camera, would anyone recommend any other canon point and shoot that is smaller? The only reason why I'm considering something different, is I had a pocket camera in mind for my underwater rig so It could give me some advantage topside vs. taking my 30d around, but from the looks of the G9, I might as well just take the 30d when it comes to shooting topside. hope that made sense. Also, I found this link to a video shot underwater with a g9.

A Kona Hawaii Scuba Diver blabbers on: Canon G9 video underwater, in Kona Hawaii

thanks,
Paul

 

[George A]

I bought the Canon G9, Ikelite U/W housing with the TTL interface, and the Ikelite DS125 strobe.

I used it extensively on my recent trip to Saba, N.A.

The best results were with the Canon G9 set to aperture priority, with an aperture of F8. I got some phenominal shots with this camera through depths of 110ft. I was able to get shots of the Black Coral Cave on Man-O-War Shoals from the entrance. The flash appears to have penetrated at least 20 ft into the cave (I did not enter the cave.) illuminating a distance that far exceeded my older u/w setup! In the past the best distance I could get was about 5 ft.

Note that the u/w Canon/Ikelite system is negatively bouyant, so it is not unreasonable to have a light tether to attach to your BC to make you feel a bit more comfortable.

I did have one issue that I feel that I can easily resolve. The housing has a flash-shoe adapter that attaches to the Canon G9. On a couple of occasions, I bumped this adapter as I was putting the camera into the housing causing the camera to be disconnected from the flash. I will be putting a small piece of sponge material on the inside of the housing to prevent this from happening in the future.

George, Apalachin NY

 

[okiediver1]

George, are you using the strobe cables or manual controller? Are you using one strobe or 2? How about some pics?

 

[George A]

The Ikelite housing for the G9 has a TTL connection that connects to the G9. There is a waterproof connection on the outside that connects to the Flash thru a TTL cable. I am using a single strobe.

You can see some photos at sabas november 2007.

George
Apalachin, NY

 

[okiediver1]

Loved mthe sting ray eye photo! Great shots!

 

[jd950]

Let me see if I can sort this out: Assuming that I want to use a G9 and keep it compact, and want to use and Inon z240, including the optical TTL ability, and am willing to do without a wide angle wet lens, then the Canon housing doesn't really limit the ability to control settings like aperture and shutter speed, right?

Am I missing anything here (other than the fact that I actually WOULD like to add the wide angle lens and am hoping a solution turns up later)? Keep in mind that it appears to me that the Ike housing is almost double the size and much heavier, which I do not want, and an important issue for me is that I will not be using an Ike strobe and would like to be able to use the TTL function and optical cable with the Inon.

Sorry if I am being dense.

 

[Celeus]

Just got back yesterday from the Turks and Caicos Explorer II liveaboard with my G9, Ikelite housing, ULCS arm, Ikelite W20 wideangle adapter and Inon Z240 strobe.

Delta lost my luggage, so I didn't get the housing until the night of the 2nd day. It was my first time diving this system, or any housing this big, so I didn't really start getting any decent shots until the last day or so of the trip.

Overall, I like the setup a great deal- I can't put it into as many tight spots as a small housing, but I'm learning to appreciate what I can do with the strobe.

I didn't have great luck with the wide-angle adapter, but I think that is as much operator issue as the gear. One thing, you have to zoom the cameras lens slightly when using it, or you will see black bands around the side of the frame. It seemed to me that when I did this I saw more visual distortion from the wide-angle adapter.

I haven't had time to adjust white balance, exposure, etc, just to do some basic cropping on a few photos. They are up at Faucet.net Gallery :: TC2007-12

I'll try to resize a few to throw up here later.

Highlight would be the two juvenile spotted drums (about 1.5 inch and <.5 inch) at Faucet.net Gallery :: TC2007-12 :: 2_Spotted_Drum_Cropped_1 It's just to bad that was one of my first dives with the camera and I had the wide angle lens on. Oh well- it was nice to see!