Newbie observations & SD880

[HenrikBP]

In May I went to Little Cayman for a week stay + diving at Little Cayman Beach Resort (highly recommended). Before the trip I had been debating about bringing a camera and if so which one.

I finally decided to use our above water pocket camera, a Canon SD880, and bought a Canon housing for it. I know it doesn't have RAW, or anything in the way of manual settings. But then I also didn't buy a strobe either. And despite all that, the mostly so-so pictures I got were not the camera's fault

Most of my shots were either "fish butts" or "where's Waldo" style pictures . I.e. fish swimming away or a shot of something that required quite a bit of searching/zooming to find the "subject". But I got a bunch of decent "underwater tourist" pictures and a few that were a bit better. No way near the good stuff I often see posted here, but not too bad either.

There were 2 main causes for these less than stellar shots:

1) my buoyancy and trim control: I'm pretty good when comparing myself to other divers I've seen. But much more is needed for close-up photography. I saw a couple of UW photographers with less regard for the UW environment using sticks or rattlers to support themselves on the reef (saw worse than that actually). But I refused to risk touching anything just to get the shot.

2) white balance: I should have trusted my manual white balance more. But the screen on the SD880 shows the review picture *much* more red than it comes out when viewed on the computer. So for the most part I used the Canon UW setting, which works well to about 20-25' on a sunny day. But with clouds or diving deeper, it gets the blues.

All in all I had fun with the camera. I was mostly diving with a camera rather than diving for the purpose of taking pictures. And for that the little Canon worked out well. The Canon housing was easy to use after a bit of above water practice. And when not taking pictures I clipped the camera to the D-ring on my crotch strap where it was out of the way.

As for other observations - well ...

- it seems that some divers with cameras think that them taking pictures take priority over what I consider proper etiquette UW. For instance, it is apparently ok to risk or actually damage surrounding coral if the subject is sufficiently interesting. It is apparently also ok to touch/lift marine life to get a better angle for the shot.

- it seems that just carrying a camera underwater causes some divers/photographers to think they have first dips on anything interesting. I was pushed and kicked and had my mask kicked off by stampeding "photogs".

- when done monopolizing the subject it is apparently also ok to happily swim away with brisk flutter kicks silting up or plain "flushing" away said subject (tiny pipe horse in a tuft of seaweed).

Now off the soapbox to say. It was fun, but when the members of the board recommend holding off on bringing a camera until you have better control underwater, they're indeed correct.

Here are links to a few of the "better" pictures:

Very cooperative turtle:
http://handm.smugmug.com/photos/565566190_Pw9Ft-L-1.jpg

Needle nose puffer - I think ...
http://handm.smugmug.com/photos/565560020_U8RV6-L-1.jpg

Flamenco tongue nudibranch:
http://handm.smugmug.com/photos/565558353_2Q2qb-L-1.jpg

Grouper and Green Moray hunting team:
http://handm.smugmug.com/photos/565558005_HcPom-L-1.jpg

UW landscape:
http://handm.smugmug.com/photos/565590364_sZcG6-L-1.jpg

All these photos are straight out of the camera with no further editing.

Henrik

 

[marcaumarc]

I think some people have poorer etiquette than others with or without camera, but when people first get cameras, I think often they are really excited and want to get a photo of everything they see. I'm sure they don't intend to be selfish, but can be hard to see the situation objectively when you are in it.

I haven't been taking photos underwater that long, but I do it pretty much every dive. Once I started getting a little better, I became more interested in taking better photos and less interested in taking photos of everything I see. Now, I'm not always in the swarm of photographers around something cool because I can tell from a distance that I'm not going to get a good shot. Also, switching to DSLR, I'm using either macro or wide angle, so depending on what the cool thing is, sometimes I don't have the right lens to shoot it anyways.

Of course, I'm sure every now and then I'm in there hogging the good photo op!

 

[HenrikBP]

I think some people have poorer etiquette than others with or without camera,

Good point. And it was only an issue when I had to stay with the dive guide/group due to not having my own buddy. So the crowding was at least part of the problem.

But like I said - mostly I had a lot of fun with it, and the camera served my purpose very well ... for now at least

Henrik

 

[saramiller]

which one is good for 100 meters with no sun light?

 

[NewbieH]

I was JUST thinking about this when I went snorkeling yesterday. I was alone and had planned to take pictures with my old camera, but it just so happened that it broke...thank God I have my new one on the way, 'cause if not I would be in serious withdrawals.. lol! Anyway, ticked off as I was about the camera, I still spent 2 hours just snorkeling and looking around. There were a few more people out there then normal (lots of kids) and I found myself getting irritated with peple bumping into me and worse yet, kids climbing up the jetties to jump off! As I continued and would come up on another person, I was always the one to swim all out of the way and go around. I wondered, is there some sort of proper "swim around etiquette"?!? LOL.. ALSO, what's up with the people actually using nets and catchin' the flipping fish?!? That really irritated me. As I was lounging on the beach for a minute.. some kid caught something he kept hollering was a "baby shark" (LOL @ that.. ahh, to be a kid again). But, he kept it out the water for SO long to show everybody.. I finally spoke up and said it may die soon if he doesn't put it back and he did.

Anyway... any place I can find a list of any official rules?!? LOL...