sea & sea 8000 focussing

[pwl]

hi folks,

after using an old sony dsc-p3 for a couple of years, i lashed out on a sea & sea dx-8000g - not least to take advantage of the much faster shutter speed.

so - shutter speed is nice - i get blurry pictures of the _sides_ of fish now rather than blurry pictures of tails - but i'm having some problems with the auto-focus

the sony, for all it's slowness seemed to be pretty good at taking in-focus snapshots. the same can't be said for the sea&sea. this was particularly noticeable since the chances i've had to use the camera so far have been in delicate environments where it's difficult and/or not done to hold on to anything for support.

any tips for off-the-cuff shooting with the 8000g ?

 

[vetdiver]

We just flooded our brand new 8000G in the Solomons....be very careful of the O-ring in the housing! (our issue may have been our own fault, but apparently, there have been problems in the past... our dealer is looking into it for us.)

Anyways, the Sea and Sea 8000G has manual focus, so you don't have to be a slave to autofocus unless you wish to. Read your manual carefully, and I'd also recommend getting a basic UW digital photography book for beginners if you need help with other settings. Michael Aw's book, for example, assumes you know nothing about exposure and stuff and was pretty helpful in giving me basic ISO, aperture, and speed settings to start from (I am a beginner with underwater photography, though, not just the new camera).

That said, once we flooded our camera, I used our Canon Powershot SD700, which does not focus manually - I was only able to control ISO and EV settings (both of which you can change on your cam), and I was able to get some very nice shots with patience - but be ready to take a kazillion pictures. I would sit there, stare at the viewfinder, and autofocus, autofocus, autofocus until the camera focused on the right thing...and shoot. Repeat 50 times. Then go home, delete the superfluous pics, and keep the 4 that focus on the right thing....

Good luck.

 

[pwl]

thanks vet.

see - the interesting thing is that with the sony auto-focus i got some nice shots.

could it be the sea&sea/ricoh is justa suckier atthe autofocus algortihm?

i _did_ know about the manual focus option - i guess i was just being a bit lazy

fwiw i know my way around photography. it's a poor craftsman wo blames his tools, but so far the sea&sea hasn't been giving me the results i've been used to....

 

[vetdiver]

Yeah, I got some nice shots from the first few days (prior to THE FLOOD), but not as many as I was expecting...but I am a total beginner, so I'm expecting to have to take a kazillion pictures anyways.

I think most of the nice pictures I got were with manual focus, though - it is super easy (not that there is anything wrong with laziness - I am a fan and participant!!!). Give it a shot!

 

[Regulus]

Hi,

What sort of strobe are you using and at what depths & vis?

If you haven't seen this, be sure to start with the basic settings: http://www.seaandsea.com/PDF_manuals/DX8000GSetup.pdf

Are you being careful with your breathing while shooting?

Cheers

 

[pwl]

What sort of strobe are you using and at what depths & vis?

If you haven't seen this, be sure to start with the basic settings: http://www.seaandsea.com/PDF_manuals/DX8000GSetup.pdf

Are you being careful with your breathing while shooting?

just using the built-in flash. experimented with & without the diffuser.

depths have been fairly shallow - 2-16m for the most part. vis has been variable, but i usually don't try to take pictures of anything more than 1-2m away anyway (and ideally try to get about 30cm or less)

i'm fairly careful with my breathing.

hmm - it's mainly macro mode that's causing me grief i suppose.

testing macro autofocus on land, the sea&sea had real problems focussing, especially when the ambient light was fairly low.

i guess the thing is that i'm getting poorer results with the sea&sea than the old sony - for some reason i was expecting instantly improved pics given that the only thing that's changed is that i've started using this improved gear.

for example, my profile pic of a baby red cuttle - 3cm long if that - was taken with the sony in macro mode. the sea&sea has yet to give me a pic of equivalent quality.

maybe too many knobs & dials to fiddle with

 

[divv]

FWIW, I was looking at the 8000, and a dealer advised me away from it; he said many of his new camera sales were a result of people being unhappy with their 8000's...
And since this was someone I was pricing accessories from, he had nothing to gain or lose by advising this...
I ended up getting a Canon A620 instead.

 

[Doc Harry]

I have a S&S DX8000.... Pretty happy with it so far.

I shot SLR cameras for years (slides) as an avid amateur photographer. The 8000 was my first foray into underwater photography. Once I figure out what I want when I grow up, then I'll get an SLR set up.

The 8000 works just fine. I've had no operational or technical problems with the setup. Seems to work as advertised.