S70 Owners?

[DriftDiver]

Anyone else have a new S70? I just purchased an S70 and WP-DC40 housing through Amazon.

I've had to send the camera back though (it had a noticeable distortion when fully zoomed). A new one is supposed to show up tomorrow...

 

[azcaddman]

Anyone else have a new S70? I just purchased an S70 and WP-DC40 housing through Amazon.

I've had to send the camera back though (it had a noticeable distortion when fully zoomed). A new one is supposed to show up tomorrow...

I have one, have taken it on a couple weekend trips to So. Calif diving.

Observations so far-
- it seems to have a hard time focusing if you're closer than 18" or so from the subject, and will take the shot even if its out of focus

- usual issues with shutter lag

- the lens portion of the housing shadows the lower right area if you're shooting closer than 18" or so

I know a external strobe will help the shadowing, but the main reason for the s70 was a small, compact camera I can take when I dont want to carry the big slr setup

other than that, I like the size & above water preformance, I attribute the underwater to learning curve (I hope) on my end, I'm just used to my nikon SLR film camera underwater.. but its quite a bit bigger.

photos taken with the s70 1-22-05 here 1-01-05 here the 1st page & half of second are film camera shots, then the "CRW" files are from the s70

 

[DriftDiver]

I have one, have taken it on a couple weekend trips to So. Calif diving.

azcaddman,

Thanks for sharing your shots - they are inspiring. I hope to be able to do as well with mine.

I bought my S70 through Amazon, and, as per their very generous return policy, I should have a new one today.

I have put the WP-DC40 through a leak test in the sink - any other advice you could give before I take it in the water the first time?

And one question - did you try the Macro mode button (looks like a flower - next to the flash / matrix photo button) when trying to get closer than 18". That was my plan, and it seems to work pretty well above water.

 

[azcaddman]

azcaddman,

Thanks for sharing your shots - they are inspiring. I hope to be able to do as well with mine.

I bought my S70 through Amazon, and, as per their very generous return policy, I should have a new one today.

I have put the WP-DC40 through a leak test in the sink - any other advice you could give before I take it in the water the first time?

And one question - did you try the Macro mode button (looks like a flower - next to the flash / matrix photo button) when trying to get closer than 18". That was my plan, and it seems to work pretty well above water.

yeah, i've tried the macro.

At some point in my fumbling with settings, I think something is not where it should be... guess its time to RTFM

advise ... hmm, the flash is good to about 3-4 feet max, if its further than that away, just turn it off.

if there's a lot of backscatter in the water.. get as close as you can.

Aquire & read Jim Church's book "Essential Guide to Composition" - written in nikonos IV-V days, but still very relevant today even for digital

 

[azcaddman]

Ok, Figured out the focus issues.

On the S70, when macro is ON, it will ONLY focus in the 4" - 1' range (on wide angle setting) and on 1' to 1.4' as you zoom.

So, if you're used to say... a nikon coolpix 5000, on which the macro switch is like a limiter.. on, and it will hunt for focus thru the macro to infinity, and might be slow .. you're in for a suprise.

So, if its less than a foot away, hit the macro.. if its more than a foot away.. better be sure to turn the macro OFF.

 

[alcina]

While not the S70, many of the ideas in this thread apply...good luck and I look forward to seeing some photos!

 

[DriftDiver]

Ok, Figured out the focus issues.

On the S70, when macro is ON, it will ONLY focus in the 4" - 1' range (on wide angle setting) and on 1' to 1.4' as you zoom.

So, if you're used to say... a nikon coolpix 5000, on which the macro switch is like a limiter.. on, and it will hunt for focus thru the macro to infinity, and might be slow .. you're in for a suprise.

So, if its less than a foot away, hit the macro.. if its more than a foot away.. better be sure to turn the macro OFF.

Thanks azcaddman.

I will be taking my S70 underwater for the first time pretty soon. I expected to use these settings for my first attempt:

Dial to P
AWB to Underwater
ISO to Auto
AEB on (Auto Exposure Bracketing) (Maybe adjust the bracketing steps?)
Maybe adjust the flash setting all the way up? (Any thoughts, anyone?)

I am expecting a 2GB cf card in the mail any day now - if it comes in time, I will shoot all of my shots in RAW mode (21 megs per shot - because of the AEB - that gives me 98 shots, I figure that's good enough for one dive). If the new card does not come, I only have the 32 meg card that it came with. In that case I'm not sure what I'll set the resolution/storage compression to...

 

[alcina]

Dial to P
AWB to Underwater
ISO to Auto
AEB on (Auto Exposure Bracketing) (Maybe adjust the bracketing steps?)
Maybe adjust the flash setting all the way up? (Any thoughts, anyone?)

I am expecting a 2GB cf card in the mail any day now - if it comes in time, I will shoot all of my shots in RAW mode (21 megs per shot - because of the AEB - that gives me 98 shots, I figure that's good enough for one dive). .

OK...I've gotta say it. P mode is not the way to go. The camera will almost always choose a shutter that is too slow so you get blur; or it will choose a wide open aperture.

AWB Underwater is no better or worse than any other Auto WB setting. Light changes so dramatically underwater that no auto setting will be right all the time. Personally, I'd just leave it in normal auto, but probably wouldn't get any more "right" that on Underwater...I'd be just too lazy to change the buttons!

ISO - set it ahead of time. Use the slowest possible. 50 if you have it; 100 if you don't. If the camera choose something faster you'll simply get more grain than you need. No amount of post processing can save that.

Flash - see my link above...you'll most likely fry stuff close-up and getting any shots on sand from close-up will be extremely difficult. I'd do a test on land to check what it does and then adjust it as necessary.

I think that you may be underestimating the number of images...on my Olympus 5050 in RAW mode on a 1GB card I get something like 120+ images. Can't believe the Canon would give you far fewer on a card twice the size!! I think you'll get lots!

Always download after a day of diving...don't leave multiple days on a card - you're begging to lose the lot.

That's my two more cents

 

[DriftDiver]

OK...I've gotta say it. P mode is not the way to go. The camera will almost always choose a shutter that is too slow so you get blur; or it will choose a wide open aperture.

So you go with M?

AWB Underwater is no better or worse than any other Auto WB setting. Light changes so dramatically underwater that no auto setting will be right all the time. Personally, I'd just leave it in normal auto, but probably wouldn't get any more "right" that on Underwater...I'd be just too lazy to change the buttons!

Thanks for the heads-up.

ISO - set it ahead of time. Use the slowest possible. 50 if you have it; 100 if you don't. If the camera choose something faster you'll simply get more grain than you need. No amount of post processing can save that.

I have 50, so I'll use that.

Flash - see my link above...you'll most likely fry stuff close-up and getting any shots on sand from close-up will be extremely difficult. I'd do a test on land to check what it does and then adjust it as necessary.

When I first read your other post I saw "this thread", and thought you meant - this thread and didn't bother following the link. Now I have, thanks - very informative.

I think that you may be underestimating the number of images...on my Olympus 5050 in RAW mode on a 1GB card I get something like 120+ images. Can't believe the Canon would give you far fewer on a card twice the size!! I think you'll get lots!

Here's how I figure it. The S70 is a 7 mp, and per the manual, uses 7.1 mb per RAW shot. If I turn on AEB, it takes three shots every time I push the shutter button. One step below, one right at, and one above the aperture setting (the steps are settable, but, I'll leave them as they are for now). I currently have a 32mb cf card in the camera, and, it only allows 3 pictures in RAW mode - I figure that's something like 24 mb for the three pictures, and since there must be some overhead on the card, it doesn't have enough left over from the 32 to allow another 7.1mb. So, figuring 2064 mb as the start for my 2gb card, I divide 2064 (ignoring overhead requirments) by 24 and get only 86 (I divided by 21 last time). Granted, this is 86 three photo sets.

By the way: I never recieved the 2gb card from the Amazon.com vendor I purchased it from. I'm now getting a credit from Amazon.com and will start the shopping process again. I expect I'll probably go for a 4gb card now, since they're available.

Always download after a day of diving...don't leave multiple days on a card - you're begging to lose the lot.

Do you bring a laptop with you on trips? What do you download to? I'm going on a liveaboard trip at the end of February and wasn't kean on bringing a laptop with me.

That's my two more cents

Thanks for your input. As a newbie, I appreciate all the help I can get!

 

[alcina]

DD -

Yup, M all the way. In that other article I suggested some starting points, but YMMV and you should get in the ballpark with a couple of test shots when in a new area. Shoot, review, adjust, shoot, review, adjust ad naseum.

I didn't realise you were taking three shots of each thing automatically. That might be neat, it might annoy the bee-jeebers out of me! Personally, I'd do all adjustments myself so I learned what was right pretty quickly...I do look forward to your results, though! Also, have you tested this feature on land? Seems to me there might be some delay - or is the buffer quite large? Anyway, that's just curiosity on my part

I am not sure what one stop up or down will do for your images, the more I think about it. There is usually quite a bit of latitude in a digital image - especially RAW images. Seems mucking with bracketing in set increments might not be as useful? Dunno, never used it. Again, I do look forward to your results!

IMHO you need a portable storage device. I would never risk losing more than one day's diving. So that means multiple cards (painful) or downloading after the dives. I am a downloader

A laptop is the best bet right now IMHO, though it's a bit of a pain to carry. There are several reasons I will be taking my laptop, not limited to:
1) one of the great things about digital is that you get to see your results right away. Without some way to view your images after the dive you can't learn as much nor plan to make adjustments for the next dive. The screen on the back of the camera is inadequate for this as are most screens from portable devices.

2) with your laptop you can immediately burn backups

3) you can do editing on your images while you are stuck on the plane. LOL Actually by being able to fiddle, rotate, crop etc while still on your trip again you can visualise what you need to change or improve so your next dive is not a repeat of the same mistakes.

4) if so motivated, I can actually input information on the dive, the critter etc immediately in the photo file and don't have to deal with such a daunting task when I get home

5) making friends. People love to see photos - even crappy photos. A nice thing is to bring a few extra disks along and make a little album for friends you make. I've found that a lot of our clients do that - they either each make one and trade or the non-photographer will buy the drinks or float the photographer $10 or whatever for a copy.

If I couldn't bring my laptop, I'd invest in an Epson P2000 as the screen has incredible reviews or an Archos 420 type...I will be buying one of these in a couple of weeks when I have a chance to hold and examine both.

But I think you are shortchanging yourself if you don't take advantage of the immediacy of digital.

And for cards, with a 7MP camera I wouldn't go anything less than a GB and I certainly wouldn't go on holidays withouth something, even if I had to pay premium price to set myself up! B&H are reliable and fast; I've used buydig.com with great, fast results.