Not impressed with Stylus 750

[JNelson113]

I recently purchased and olympus stylus 750 and took it diving with me in the Maldives. I was not impressed with the quality of pictures, not to mention you couldn't see the screen to compose a photo. The underwater photos were quite often "washed out" when there were light and bright colors. The housing I was pleased with as it allowed all functions of the camera to be accessed while u/w.

I'm looking for another camera and have been looking at the sony cybershot DSC-N2 or possibly a canon powershot. Any suggestions/opinions on these or other cameras and housings?

 

[justleesa]

hmmmm....Strange, I tested that one and should have the screen on to compose your picture. Would you mind posting a picture that you think didn't come out? whcih mode was the camera set on? was the flash on?

 

[JNelson113]

Sorry, I should have been a bit more clear. The screen was actually on it just was not bright enough to be able to "see" the screen. I could kind of see some larger objects but if there was a good amount of ambient light I could see next to nothing on the screen, even with the hood and pressing my mask up against the housing.

I will see if I can get a photo or two that really didn't turn out posted. As a note I did previously have an Olympus C4000 with a housing that took very good pictures and at no point did I run into any of the results (the really washed out colors) that I had with the Stylus 750.

 

[justleesa]

aaahhhhh ...ok, looking forward to your post

 

[alcina]

Skip the sony, head for a Canon if you decide to change.

{edit} Ah, it makes sense now...this camera has no manual controls. Ebay it and get something that allows you to control what is happening. As in the Pink Link, cameras that are set in auto or scene modes will often result in washed out colours, soft looking images and other problematic results. These modes are great on land, but just not good enough for underwater work imho.

The viewfinder is a common problem as too much light just makes those lcds painful to view sometimes...I even find that now and again on my Canon 20D.

 

[justleesa]

shouldn't it have that backlit thingie?...I have to check

 

[JNelson113]

Thank you for the imput. I am going to go with a Canon Poweshot SD900, hopefully it will work out better. We'll see how it goes.

 

[justleesa]

good luck! and post some pictures

 

[alcina]

Just one word - the SD range of Canons do not have manual controls either so you are likely going to run into many of the same problems with your images!

To avoid these issues, you need to have some control of your apertures and shutter speeds - it's not that hard to do, even while on a dive. I would highly recommend the Canon A series over the SD range in this instance or you're just trading one piece of hardware for another that will give you essentially the same results.

 

[Charlie99]

The underwater photos were quite often "washed out" when there were light and bright colors.

If your main complaint is that colors are washed out, particularly the red channel, then the feature you need to make sure you get in the replacement camera is MANUAL WHITE BALANCE.