Need some photo advice for manatees

[jas77]

Hi all,
I just got a new canon a40 and the wp-dc200s housing for xmas and I am going to try it out for the first time this weekend diving with the manatees. Now, this is my first time attempting underwater pictures and I know I have a lot to learn about all the settings, etc. I am going diving/snorkeling at crystal river, FL
I assume most of the pictures will be taken in about 10' or less of water. I'm not sure what the vis will be like. Ive heard it can be crystal clear or rather cloudy. Being a newbie to UW photography, Im not sure of the settings I should probably use on the camera (iso, white balance, speed,flash settings, etc) I'm going to use this trip as a learning experience to take pics, but hopefully someone can get me started in the right direction to take some decent pics!

Also, One more question. With my uw housing I am supposed to take off the o-ring and apply silicone gel to it. Do I do this before every dive to ensure it won't leak, or is it supposed to be done less frequently. The manual that came with the housing didnt really get into that to much.

Thanks for any help you can all give me!!

John

 

[Dee]

I can't help yo with your camera settings as I'm not that familiar with Canons.

But I can help with the o-ring. First, make sure you don't use too much silicone. You want just enough to make the o-ring shiny. And don't use Q-tips, terry-cloth towels, etc. anything that has lint on it. Just one little piece of lint can cause the seal to leak!

If you open the housing in a clean, non-windy place, just inspect the o-ring and make sure there's no dirt, hair, etc. on it, then clean it and replace the silicone the next time you open it. But if you have to open it on a dive boat or in the wind, etc. then I would taking it out and clean it good.

Alot of people clean and re-grease the o-ring every time the housing is opened. Just be careful not to over stretch the o-ring.

And remember...it's not IF your housing ever leaks, it's WHEN will it leak! I'd strongly recommend getting some flood insurance. Alot of us use D.E.P.P.

 

[jas77]

Thanks for the advice Dee, I appreciate it! I'm definitly going to look into D.E.P.P, it looks like a good deal.

 

[pdoege]

Done that.

Manatees tend to kick up a lot of silt when their tails hit the bottom. So the vis is going to depend on the manatee's activity, the water flow rate, and what the other divers are doing.

In my experience, the vis tends to run around 15 feet. Sometime a lot more. Right after a big bull goes by it drops to about 6. Lots of people in the water can drop the vis to around 3 feet.

If the water is really silty, the internal flash will light up the silt between the camera and the target. That is a pain. If you have a buddy with a powerful light, have him light from the side and turn off the flash.

I would set the speed setting to the "sport" mode unless you have really good trim and bouancy control. On normal mode I get about 30% blurred pictures.

I think that is about it. The other settings, white balance, etc. can be adjusted via software later. No need to worry about it until after the dive.

Have a great time. Manatees are a lot of fun to dive with.

Regards,
Peter Doege

 

[jas77]

Just got back from snorkeling with the manatees, and I must say I enjoyed it very much. We got to the site at crystal river early, so there wasnt too much buildup of silt, etc, but after a while more and more people started to show up, and the vis went down to about 3 feet. It was about 10-15 when we first got there. We ended up going to another spot further up the river to an area where the springs are. The vis was much much better and not as many ppl there. I got most of my better pics at this spot. Also used the video feature of the camera to get several 10-15 sec videos. I did notice that the flash did light up a lot of silt on a lot of my pictures. I did get some pics that I thought came out pretty decent. How do I post them on this board? I'm going to try to attach a file, not sure if that will work or not....

All in all a great time. I had a lot of fun trying out different features on my camera. I can see how you all are so addicted to taking pics underwater now!!! Manatees are so much fun to dive with. A little intimidating at first, since they are rather large! Most of them would roll over and let you scratch there bellies. They are very curious creatures!

 

[jas77]

It said the file I was trying to attach was to large...erghhh. Guess I'll try to find another way..

 

[jas77]

Ok, Im having some trouble attaching a file of some pics I took. How would I do this using photoshop? Im going under save for web and going under image size. It is saying the original is 1600x1200 pixels. I change the width to 430 and it automatically changes the height to 323 for me. I hit apply and the image changes size for me.I then save it and it says the image already exists, so I replace it. Now when I try to attach it, it still says to big... Am I doing something wrong? Also, I am using windows xp if that matters.
Thanks!

 

[pdoege]

Hey Jas -

I always post 640x480 images. Pretty tiny. No idea how to do this in photoshop.

I always use paint shop pro for my manipulation work.

Maybe you could PM Dee to get some advice?

Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed the dive! I like manatee too.

Peter

 

[jas77]

Thanks, Im going to keep fooling around with photoshop for a while and see if I can figure it out!

 

[jas77]

Finally figured it out!! It didnt seem to be overwriting the image after I resized it, so I just named the file a little differently. Ill post one more pic I took. Thanks for the help, I used 640*480 and it worked fine.

John