Olympus 1030sw white balance question/software tweaking

[jlyle]

I've played a little with my 1030 in an Oly housing using a slaved, Ikelite DS-125 strobe. Any external strobe will always give you overexposed images with the 1030 because the camera meters the image and sets shutter speed/aperture for ambient light; you can dial down exposure in the camera to compensate a little.

Since the camera's flash is necessary to trigger the slaved strobe, you can't use a strobe in supermacro mode. An Inon macro lens adapter used in macro mode will let you take closeups with the strobe.

Manual mode, white balance, and flash with supermacro are features this little point and shoot doesn't have. Instead of a housing/strobe for the 1030, think about your next camera, hopefully one that incorporates these features.

The 1030sw is a great little camera but is very limited in what it can do underwater. If you want better pictures, you will need to spend a lot more. I don't think a strobe is the solution to your problems with this camera. Warning: underwater photography is a hole in the ocean into which you can throw lots of money.

 

[scottfiji]

Manual mode, white balance, and flash with supermacro are features this little point and shoot doesn't have. Instead of a housing/strobe for the 1030, think about your next camera, hopefully one that incorporates these features.

The 1030sw is a great little camera but is very limited in what it can do underwater. If you want better pictures, you will need to spend a lot more. I don't think a strobe is the solution to your problems with this camera. Warning: underwater photography is a hole in the ocean into which you can throw lots of money.

Jim is a very experienced photographer - I'd listen to this wise advice of his! go with a camera with manual mode, custom white balance and flash in all modes. many of the older canon's fit the bill at a very very good price (I don't think you have spend lots of money, but to save money it takes lots of research .

Scott

 

[Nemrod]

I've played a little with my 1030 in an Oly housing using a slaved, Ikelite DS-125 strobe. Any external strobe will always give you overexposed images with the 1030 because the camera meters the image and sets shutter speed/aperture for ambient light; you can dial down exposure in the camera to compensate a little.

Since the camera's flash is necessary to trigger the slaved strobe, you can't use a strobe in supermacro mode. An Inon macro lens adapter used in macro mode will let you take closeups with the strobe.

Manual mode, white balance, and flash with supermacro are features this little point and shoot doesn't have. Instead of a housing/strobe for the 1030, think about your next camera, hopefully one that incorporates these features.

The 1030sw is a great little camera but is very limited in what it can do underwater. If you want better pictures, you will need to spend a lot more. I don't think a strobe is the solution to your problems with this camera. Warning: underwater photography is a hole in the ocean into which you can throw lots of money.

The Ikelite strobe is a manual strobe (in this use since there is no wired TTL), the Inon D2000 is an entirely different animal from the antique Ikelite, it has a built in exposure meter/system. It will work very well with that camera and produce nice snap shots, I have used my D2000 many times with my very similar Oly 770SW (older version of the 1030SW) and it does not over expose. The strobe can be set to auto or to sTTL. The sTTL mode is excellent and will expose just fine. The Inon D2000 in sTTL mode will mimic the flash from the Oly 1030 and provide nicely exposed pics. You can place unexposed/developed slide film over the camera's strobe or use the Inon Clear Photo System Film. This eliminates visible light from the 1030 because the sophisticated D2000 only needs to see the IR signal to properly expose the photograph and the 1030 does not know that the light is actually coming from the D2000 so it is as happy as a clam and the results are nicely exposed pics. The D2000 power level can be adjusted in the sTTL mode to produce the desired exposure value, lighter or darker, you can also compensate in the camera plus or minus two stops. The Inon S2000 will do he same thing and works the same way in this instance.
N

 

[jlyle]

The Ikelite strobe is a manual strobe (in this use since there is no wired TTL), the Inon D2000 is an entirely different animal from the antique Ikelite, it has a built in exposure meter/system. It will work very well with that camera and produce nice snap shots, I have used my D2000 many times with my very similar Oly 770SW (older version of the 1030SW) and it does not over expose. The strobe can be set to auto or to sTTL. The sTTL mode is excellent and will expose just fine. The Inon D2000 in sTTL mode will mimic the flash from the Oly 1030 and provide nicely exposed pics. You can place unexposed/developed slide film over the camera's strobe or use the Inon Clear Photo System Film. This eliminates visible light from the 1030 because the sophisticated D2000 only needs to see the IR signal to properly expose the photograph and the 1030 does not know that the light is actually coming from the D2000 so it is as happy as a clam and the results are nicely exposed pics. The D2000 power level can be adjusted in the sTTL mode to produce the desired exposure value, lighter or darker, you can also compensate in the camera plus or minus two stops. The Inon S2000 will do he same thing and works the same way in this instance.
N

That's great information. I'll be in Cozumel next month. Bonnie Pelnar may have an Inon strobe that I can play with.

 

[bmchugh]

Thanks for the replies, all! I had a feeling the answer was "get a strobe", which is fine, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything huge and obvious.

FWIW, I've been playing with the Neutral Color picker in Picasa with some success today. It was a pretty clear day for diving and I was in a shallow part of the reef and got this shot. Here is the before/after using Picasa.

This one is untouched- I was able to get very close and it came out great, I think:

Your best bet is to use a strobe or better yet two strobes. With proper strobe placement and clear water backscatter should not be a big problem, it just takes a while to figure out where to place your strobes for a particular shot. I adjusted this image with Lightroom using the eyedropper tool to set the white balance on one of the neutral tones and then upped the contrast and clarity a bit. Don't know if you think its an improvement or not but I think it brought out a bit of color.

Brian

 

[fallingspeaker]

The Ikelite strobe is a manual strobe (in this use since there is no wired TTL), the Inon D2000 is an entirely different animal from the antique Ikelite, it has a built in exposure meter/system. It will work very well with that camera and produce nice snap shots, I have used my D2000 many times with my very similar Oly 770SW (older version of the 1030SW) and it does not over expose. The strobe can be set to auto or to sTTL. The sTTL mode is excellent and will expose just fine. The Inon D2000 in sTTL mode will mimic the flash from the Oly 1030 and provide nicely exposed pics. You can place unexposed/developed slide film over the camera's strobe or use the Inon Clear Photo System Film. This eliminates visible light from the 1030 because the sophisticated D2000 only needs to see the IR signal to properly expose the photograph and the 1030 does not know that the light is actually coming from the D2000 so it is as happy as a clam and the results are nicely exposed pics. The D2000 power level can be adjusted in the sTTL mode to produce the desired exposure value, lighter or darker, you can also compensate in the camera plus or minus two stops. The Inon S2000 will do he same thing and works the same way in this instance.
N

Does the S2000 still have this feature? I know you like to promote the s2000 as an ideal P&S strobe. I'm just wondering because I have bought an underwater housing for my 1030sw and here I am a week later bidding on a used a570. I was also thinking of going with opticalocean's S-tray with YS27dx and focus light.

Will a focus light help the 1030 get proper settings for exposure? If not then I may save a little more and get an S/D2000 (depending on the s-ttl) to use with both my 1030 and my hopefully future a570.

Also, am I understanding that one (1) Inon macro lens in macro mode will produce supermacro image and that you do not need two ?

Thanks

EDIT: Oh my god, I missed your last sentance about the s2000 haha. But the focus light with ys27 is still a legit question