moved from Sealife images thread...discussion on merits/solutions

[RockyHeap]

Note the washed out colors though? not much contrast? Good framing on your photos people, but the Sea Life is a cheap vivatar camera in a nice rubberized housing.

I still say a $200 housing and a name brand (sony, oly, nikon, cannon) $200 point and shoot camera blows away a $500 Sea Life camera any day.

 

[TheRedHead]

RockyHeap, why do you want to rain on everyone's parade? I started with a Nikon - and I bought the digital strobe for it - and the results were pretty poor. My buddy has a Canon/Ikelite system that takes better photos ($3,000), but I'm not really serious about underwater photography. Photography is not the main purpose of my dive.

 

[Jcsgt]

Nice shots, everyone!

I have the DC500 and I am frustrated because a lot of my shots are out of focus. I will take 5 or 6 pics of something and when I look at them later I see that none of them are sharp and in focus.
Is there a trick that I am overlooking? I am not using an external strobe most of the time - that probably keeps the shutter open longer and may be a contributing factor.
Thanks, trig

Is everything in the frame out of focus or just your subject? If it's just the subject, you may be too close for the lens to focus. I believe for the normal lens on the DC500 its optimum distance is about 2-6', if I remember right. Any closer than that and you need a closeup lens.

 

[Jcsgt]

I still say a $200 housing and a name brand (sony, oly, nikon, cannon) $200 point and shoot camera blows away a $500 Sea Life camera any day.

Gosh, I only wish I could get a housing for my D2H for $200, or even $2,000 for that matter.

 

[RichKirby]

Great shots folks! I have the DC500 and I am frustrated because a lot of my shots are out of focus. I will take 5 or 6 pics of something and when I look at them later I see that none of them are sharp and in focus.
Is there a trick that I am overlooking? I am not using an external strobe most of the time - that probably keeps the shutter open longer and may be a contributing factor.
Thanks, trig

Are you pressing the shutter button halfway down to allow the camera to focus and then depressing it all the way to snap the photo? My wife is famous for just pressing the shutter all the way down to take a photo without allowing the camera to focus, which results in many out of focus pics. Seems all the photos of me on vacation are blurry while all the shots of her are great! Go figure.

 

[alcina]

Here's the link to the image only thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=153920

 

[Bbarnes]

Nice shots, everyone!

Is everything in the frame out of focus or just your subject? If it's just the subject, you may be too close for the lens to focus. I believe for the normal lens on the DC500 its optimum distance is about 2-6', if I remember right. Any closer than that and you need a closeup lens.

That was true about the DC310 but the DC500 focuses down to a couple of centimeters. The firmware upgrade was supposed to help with getting easier focus too.