Olympus Stylus 1030sw

[suzette]

Forgive my complete cluelessness, but this is my first underwater camera, and while I am pleased with a lot of the pictures I've taken, I'm not happy with a lot of them as well and maybe another user can shed some light on it all.

One situation I find myself in with the SW1030 is that I'm trying to take a picture, say of a grouper under a ledge at 25 feet or so (I'm in Key Largo, so there's usually good natural light, but not great). If I use the flash, it washes the subject out completely so it ruins the picture. If I use the "fill" feature, it doesn't look right either. If I use no flash, it's too dark.

I usually just use the underwater snapshot setting for my pictures. Any advice on getting the most performance out of this camera? Particular settings to try? Are there attachments/extra lighting for a camera like this or not really?

It also seems that close pictures come out pretty good, but trying to shoot anything at a distance just doesn't work out so great. Thoughts?
I can post examples if needed.

 

[ApexLongimanus]

i am having similar problems. i took the camera down to mexico mexico and while some pictures turned out great, some were just totally sub-par.
i was using the 1 or 2 underater setting (flash on / off) but did not change aything on the white balance. should i have done something about the white balance?

 

[Fathomer]

The camera does have 4 underwater scene settings that help with the issues that you are having. I've definitely taken my share of bad underwater photos, including with this camera. That's just part of the process. Most of the pros, whose photos you see in the magazines, shoot hundreds to get a few great ones.

You can get a housing for the camera which allows you to take it down to 130 ft. I'm waiting for Inon to support the SW1030 with the same strobe enhancements they have for older Olympus models. It should be pretty soon.

 

[alcina]

The housing itself won't solve the issues for this camera, unfortunately.

The only thing you can really do is experiment. Because of the nature of the controls - pretty much the camera decides what is best - you have to try to figure out which of the presets will give you the results you need and then remember those settings for each situation. Not impossible to deal with, but a little frustrating in the beginning for sure!

Suzette - distance is the enemy underwater. If you are more than an arm's length or so away from your subject, your internal flash is just not going to cover it and anything further away will be blue-ish. You can gain a little distance with external strobes, but you won't gain miles, maybe a foot or two. Water eats light.

Examples are always good so others can try to trouble shoot more exactly the problems. There are two major problems that most divers have with underwater cameras - 1) too far away. Pretty much I use an arm's length as a guide when using internal flash. and 2) too close. Every camera has a minimum focus distance that you cannot encroach on no matter how much you want to fill the frame with some small thing. Much better to stay back and get a shot that is in focus so you can crop later!

If you have a manual white balance option in your menu, it is well worth learning how to use it as this can let you turn off the internal flash and give you a little more pleasing results on things slightly farther away or when the water has a bunch of floaties in it that would normally just cause backscatter from the internal flash.





If your camera offers you the option of turning your flash power down a notch, try that. I know on the Canon A series, in my experience, I've had to turn the internal flash down one notch or things right at arm's distance and closer are going to blow out. Thankfully with digital it's easy to chimp when you see your shot and adjust your settings to try again (assuming you have a cooperative subject...if not, you have to wait til the next guy swims by!)

 

[suzette]

Great advice and I'll take it! I know that most of my pics that came out great were armslength or so, but a few far away have really come out great too- I think because I was in shallow water with loads of light. I get spoiled!

I will fool with some of my settings and see what works best with what. Thanks!

 

[ApexLongimanus]

one of the negatives is that this camera does not offer manual white balance adjustments.

 

[suzette]

I went out today and really played with the camera and boy, did I get some great shots! I'm not sure the best place to share them, though. A few are real keepers!

 

[ApexLongimanus]

I went out today and really played with the camera and boy, did I get some great shots! I'm not sure the best place to share them, though. A few are real keepers!

try the photo gallery right here on scuba board! easy, simple, free

 

[alcina]

Suzette - head to the sticky to find out how best to include them in a post. Then go to the main uw photo area and start a new thread so we can see them!!

 

[suzette]

Suzette - head to the sticky to find out how best to include them in a post. Then go to the main uw photo area and start a new thread so we can see them!!

I sure will do that. I should have time this afternoon to mess around a bit. I found a sponge with 2 christmas tree worms on it that look like the old sesame street characters- the Yip Yip guys. Now you probably think I'm nuts, but you'll see.