Tippytoes12
Contributor
I have only ever used the integral flash and find it great. I use the Dive plus app and a bit of colour enhancement and light via the iPad.
Made the Jump from GoPro to TG-5: Welcoming Any Advice
- Thread starter krukster86
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
OP
krukster86
Contributor
I got back from a 6 day dive trip at Turks and Caicos with the TG-5 and I must say...THIS THING IS AWESOME!
The microscope mode is unreal and the autofocus is incredibly fast! I have about 2,000 photos to edit and cull, but I am extremely pleased with the performance of this camera. I was able to shift from shooting macro of a juvenile smooth trunkfish to wide for a passing reef shark very quickly once I set C1 to macro and C2 to wide underwater mode. I have a lot of LightRoom work ahead of me, but I plan to post the best of the best photos here soon after!
Although the video capabilities seemed awesome, I was a bit less than impressed. Whenever the subject would move or I would pan the camera to track a subject, the camera seemed to "focus hunt", which gets distracting.
The microscope mode is unreal and the autofocus is incredibly fast! I have about 2,000 photos to edit and cull, but I am extremely pleased with the performance of this camera. I was able to shift from shooting macro of a juvenile smooth trunkfish to wide for a passing reef shark very quickly once I set C1 to macro and C2 to wide underwater mode. I have a lot of LightRoom work ahead of me, but I plan to post the best of the best photos here soon after!
Although the video capabilities seemed awesome, I was a bit less than impressed. Whenever the subject would move or I would pan the camera to track a subject, the camera seemed to "focus hunt", which gets distracting.
Every camera I've used has done that if you are zoomed in. My workaround has been to zoom out some (or a lot) if you need to change the scene/pan and want faster auto-focus.
OP
krukster86
Contributor
To kick things off, here is a youtube video I made of the small number of wide video that I shot with the TG-5. I predominantly shot photos to the point where I forgot that the camera can shoot video haha! As you can see from the description, I used natural lighting with color correction in Adobe Lightroom, since the light was basically useless more than a couple feet away. I did not shoot any macro video, although I probably should have for demonstration purposes. Sorry!
OP
krukster86
Contributor
Here is an imgur link to an album of some of my best photos that I took on my 6 day trip. After editing, I can understand the splurge for a good underwater flash. Since I only go on a dive vacation 1-2 times a year, it is tough for me to justify it...and for my wife to approve!
Olympus TG-5
Olympus TG-5
OP
krukster86
Contributor
OP
krukster86
Contributor
Another thing is that it looks like when I post to imgur, the photo quality is reduced and seems to add a bit of noise. When I look at the versions on Google Photos or my hard drive, they look much better.
Thanks. Yes Olympus should have added shutter speed priority. In clear water at shallow depths I think ISO 100 would provide adequate shutter speed in most cases but I can see why you didn't want to chance it, especially if you were at greater depths.
The yellow sponges are they shot with just the internal flash?
The yellow sponges are they shot with just the internal flash?
OP
krukster86
Contributor
Good to know for the future. For this initial trip I wanted to keep it simple and not play with settings too much, which would be too distracting on my dive. That being said, I think I will lower my ISO at least for microscope mode next time.
The shot with the yellow sponges were actually done in the TG-5 pre-programmed "Underwater - Wide" mode, where the white balance was set to underwater (fish symbol). When I was shopping for a housing, only the Ikelite housing was in stock (the official Olympus one was sold out everywhere), which does not allow for use of the internal flash. I made do with a SOLA 2000 Video light on a loc-line arm tray for the camera. This was used exclusively for the "microscope mode" shots and for some of the wide shots like this one, where I was within 2 feet of the subject. Any further away and it was useless.
Similar threads
