Sea Life DC 500 Questions

[IwakuniDiver]

Heidi, those are absolutely beautiful shots.

I took the camera in the pool today to take pictures of the first scuba class of the year. Of course I took the opportunity to start playing around with the settings on the camera and I'm starting to think my color or shutter settings may be a bit off. Oh, BTW, I did upgrade the firmware on the camera, followed the formatting instructions earlier and no more lockups!

I can post the pictures so you all can see for yourselves but I started to notice a few things.

1. In the External Flash mode, even in a well lit pool, if I attempt to take a picture of anything more than 6 feet away it comes out dark and grainy and beyond 12 feet, the entire picture is black. Less than 5 feet from my subject, say a guy swimming in front of me, and the guy is way over lit and everything behind him is dark. Diffuser needed?

2. Sea mode works drastically better in the pool. Colors are a bit more balanced, not as grainy and I can actually capture a subject 20 feet away but it's still pretty dark compared to what I was "actually seeing". Close up pictures, especially when the pool bottom is behind the subject come out great.

3. Regular Auto mode seemed to provide the best quality, 15 foot and over shots with the most realistic color but still not quite there.

4. Video mode captures color, clarity, brightness, everything perfectly no matter what angle, moving, whatever.

In short, I can get better pictures right now from taking stills from my videos instead of actually taking pictures. That just sounds really wrong to me.

Sorry for being such a photo-newbie.

 

[divingHeidi]

I had it in underwater mode, using the optical strobe with Difuser and mist picture were really fine.
Some pictures were a bit dark as the flash doesn't work far, but with photoshop you can make it brighter and then it looks ok.


But I had problems with the buyoncy, I had bought 2 ballast weights(one for the camera and one for the strobe)
Using one ballast weight on the strobe made it very negative, using none made it very positive.
As the screw on the camera wasn't long enough to allow the ballast weight, i didn't try the weight on the camera itself.
Any advice?

Check out my Turkey report with DC500 pics on http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1971890#post1971890

 

[divingHeidi]

Heidi, those are absolutely beautiful shots.

I took the camera in the pool today to take pictures of the first scuba class of the year. Of course I took the opportunity to start playing around with the settings on the camera and I'm starting to think my color or shutter settings may be a bit off. Oh, BTW, I did upgrade the firmware on the camera, followed the formatting instructions earlier and no more lockups!

I can post the pictures so you all can see for yourselves but I started to notice a few things.

1. In the External Flash mode, even in a well lit pool, if I attempt to take a picture of anything more than 6 feet away it comes out dark and grainy and beyond 12 feet, the entire picture is black. Less than 5 feet from my subject, say a guy swimming in front of me, and the guy is way over lit and everything behind him is dark. Diffuser needed?

2. Sea mode works drastically better in the pool. Colors are a bit more balanced, not as grainy and I can actually capture a subject 20 feet away but it's still pretty dark compared to what I was "actually seeing". Close up pictures, especially when the pool bottom is behind the subject come out great.

3. Regular Auto mode seemed to provide the best quality, 15 foot and over shots with the most realistic color but still not quite there.

4. Video mode captures color, clarity, brightness, everything perfectly no matter what angle, moving, whatever.

In short, I can get better pictures right now from taking stills from my videos instead of actually taking pictures. That just sounds really wrong to me.

Sorry for being such a photo-newbie.

Hi IwakuniDiver,

I will try to help you, but I am a newbie too, normally it is my husband who is the photographer and it is his camera, it got used for the first time, and poor huband has not used it yet, as he was sick during the diving trip.
Answer to your questions.
1. When External Flash mode, yes I use diffuser always
2. Sea Mode I use all the time
3. I use Auto mode for most shots, unless I ma really shooting something special and we stay still at one place for a while, than I play around a bit to try things out
4. The video mode worked fantastic, but I wouldn't use it to take stills out

 

[Darnold9999]

I had it in underwater mode, using the optical strobe with Difuser and mist picture were really fine.
Some pictures were a bit dark as the flash doesn't work far, but with photoshop you can make it brighter and then it looks ok.


But I had problems with the buyoncy, I had bought 2 ballast weights(one for the camera and one for the strobe)
Using one ballast weight on the strobe made it very negative, using none made it very positive.
As the screw on the camera wasn't long enough to allow the ballast weight, i didn't try the weight on the camera itself.
Any advice?

Check out my Turkey report with DC500 pics on http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1971890#post1971890

Rather than buying the ballast weight I added two 3oz fishing weights to the inside of the strobe head. Wrapped in tape to ensure no contact with anything electrical. This makes the whole unit just slightly positive so if I drop it it will float to the surface - eventually.

You might try changing to ISO 200 to brighten everything up a bit rather than shooting ISO in auto mode, this could be the difference between video and stills. Have not tried it, but it might help - mostly I shoot very close up. I also use the diffuser for the strobe for very close shots to prevent the flash from washing out the picture.

 

[trigfunctions]

As the screw on the camera wasn't long enough to allow the ballast weight, i didn't try the weight on the camera itself.
Any advice?

Sealife sells a special screw to attach the weight to the camera under the flash tray. It's around $10. To me, this is really a prime example of Sealife give the screw to their customers with this camera setup.

 

[Bbarnes]

I have the elite set that has the digital strobe. Since you can turn the intensity of the strobe down with the dial, I do not use the diffuser. I used it on my first trip with the DC500 and got some 'burnout' around the edges of some of my macro photos. When I used the yellow, non digital strobe, I would definitely use the diffuser.
In terms of buoyancy. I attach one of the ballast weights on the bottom of my strobe plate with a longer screw that I got from Sealife. When you have the wide angle lens attached. the unit is slightly negative. I like this so that it doesn't beat me in the face while floating up.. If you have the yellow strobe, you can put the weight inside the strobe head and forgo the additional screw.

 

[micahjt]

That sounds like too much hassle to continue using. ebay it and buy a compact digital with housing.

Absolutely correct!!!!

SeaLife is not worth the headache at all!!!!!!

Sorry but....you'll be much happier with something that has manual white balance at the very least. I'm not sure why SeaLife is even in the business.

 

[Darnold9999]

Absolutely correct!!!!

SeaLife is not worth the headache at all!!!!!!

Sorry but....you'll be much happier with something that has manual white balance at the very least. I'm not sure why SeaLife is even in the business.

or you could use the manual white balance setting in the camera - its not hard to find.

 

[Bbarnes]

The DC500 DOES have manual white balance. No, this camera is not for someone who is wanting full manual control or is used to working with a DSLR. It is not marketed or designed for that type of diver. It is designed for someone who wants a good point and shoot system at a reasonable price from a reputable company. To say that you are "not sure why SeaLife is even in the business" seems a little.....harsh. Everyone has preferences that go into deciding what they think is a 'good' camera. While I am not expert in the field of underwater photography, I will say that I have gotten wonderful pictures out of both my dc500 and its predicessor the DC310. They are small, lightweight and easy to master, although there is, like any other piece of electronics, a learning curve. One of the biggest selling points for me is the high quality of customer service that I have gotten from SeaLife. They have always been helpful when I have had a problem or a question. Something that we did not have with Olympus. So, if you are a diver that wants good pictures without having to spend your dive focusing on deciding on which f-stops and aperture settings to make, something like the DC500 may be just what you are looking for. If you enjoy aspects of photography where you have control over all of your settings, you would be happier with something else.

 

[IwakuniDiver]

Just thought I would chime in with an update.

First off, thanks to all who posted their advice. It's really helped.

After following your instructions on the formatting of the camera's internal storage, no more lockups! Yay!

Also, I went out with the first scuba class of the year to just mess around with the settings and try some of the different tips that some of you suggested. Let me just say that setting the ISO manually really made a huge difference! Especially with the green hue that the local waters have around here. I got some spectacular shots. After I reduce the size of one pic I took of a Scorpion Fish, I'll post it for you all to see.