This says a lot though.RichKirby:
Sealife DC500
- Thread starter Tanked
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
RichKirby
Contributor
howarde:
Yes it does. But again, that's only because I have been reading this forum non-stop for a while now. The SeaLife camera is designed so that a newbie can pick it up and go diving with minimal fuss and still take good pictures to preserve those memories. The Canons and Nikons are great, but not as easy for a novice who's never taken a camera u/w. The SeaLife cameras have their place, that is my point.
Ok, so here's a question..
What is the learning curve on using a strobe? I dont mean mastering it, just being able to make decent use of it without screwing things up. The reason I ask is that on Backscatter they offer this http://tinyurl.com/z7f89 as a "starter package". Now I dont know much about strobes, but apparently they consider the Inon D-2000W something that would work in a starter pack, making it a "starter strobe". I looked it up and found a picture of the back of the strobe and my first reaction was "woah...." cause well......it's got quite a bit going on, lotsa fun switches and dials and just rather complex looking.
So does something like that really count as a "starter" pack? As I said in another thread, I have experience using a Reefmaster 35mm camera sans strobe just point and shoot here and there. Some pics came out ok, some crappy, some awful, and some nice. So if I were to get something akin to that "starter package" on Backscatter would I be in over my head? Or can I figure it out easily by reading the manual and trial and error?
What is the learning curve on using a strobe? I dont mean mastering it, just being able to make decent use of it without screwing things up. The reason I ask is that on Backscatter they offer this http://tinyurl.com/z7f89 as a "starter package". Now I dont know much about strobes, but apparently they consider the Inon D-2000W something that would work in a starter pack, making it a "starter strobe". I looked it up and found a picture of the back of the strobe and my first reaction was "woah...." cause well......it's got quite a bit going on, lotsa fun switches and dials and just rather complex looking.
So does something like that really count as a "starter" pack? As I said in another thread, I have experience using a Reefmaster 35mm camera sans strobe just point and shoot here and there. Some pics came out ok, some crappy, some awful, and some nice. So if I were to get something akin to that "starter package" on Backscatter would I be in over my head? Or can I figure it out easily by reading the manual and trial and error?
pterantula
Contributor
Valadian:
Your success rate underwater without a good strobe will probabaly be 1/20 (or worse), as opposed to a potential 1/10 or even 1/5 (for the experienced), but if you're shooting digital this becomes much less of a concern: you can just shoot as many frames as you want until you get "the" shot (or run out of air...
).I would have to say that the learning curve of a new strobe will be steeper, but the payoff once you know how to get the most out if it will be far greater than had you bypassed the experience entirely.
Sort of like swimming vs. diving, I guess: diving is harder, took more time to learn and cost more money, but man, the payoff....
Cool, thanks for the info Pterantula.
But just one last thing to clarify, would that Inon D-2000W be something I could figure out on my own without having to resort to finding some experienced photographer to hold my hand through it?
But just one last thing to clarify, would that Inon D-2000W be something I could figure out on my own without having to resort to finding some experienced photographer to hold my hand through it?
My wife was a total novice. She didn't know what F-Stop or shutter speed even was. She started taking excellent photos right away with her Canon S70. She didn't add a strobe for several months. The Canon even has an UW white balance mode. Not trying to drag this out. But I have to disagree with your point. She just used the camera in P (Program / Automatic) mode, and took great photos. Now she shoots in manual, and controlls her strobe manually, and her pictures are even better.RichKirby:
My point is... Why waste money on a "beginner" camera that you'll probably outgrow at some point. Wouldn't it be more prudent to get a camera that CAN grow with your experience?
RichKirby
Contributor
Well, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you. Still, I took down my DC500 without a strobe and feel I took some great photos right off the bat too. They were taken with the SeaLife u/w mode set to on and in the auto mode, no manual settings were made (I did set white balance underwater the second or third day of diving). Your post makes it sound like the DC500 can't take good photos. That's just wrong. Second, we outgrow everything. Everyone starts somewhere with an interest and most of us don't buy in at the high end of anything starting out. Look, I'm not a shill for SeaLife. You can buy other cameras, and many will be better than the DC500. No doubt about it. For someone wanting to buy a camera and get diving while taking some photos of the cool things they see u/w, it fits the bill. Maybe it's because SeaLife knows how to market to first time u/w camera buyers. Canon and Nikon sure don't.
dherbman:I've had several freezes and use a 1 GB card. Like I've been saying, the camera is crap. Glad I didn't pay for it, but I'll keep using it.
Mine froze and I sent it back directly to SeaLife. The new one doesn't have any problem with a 1 Gig card.
I orginally had the digital strobe for use with a Nikon. The Sealife sucks less than the Nikon with the long flash cycle time. I've had problems with the flashlink coming undone. I had to tape it down. The battery dies before the end of dive 2, but so does the battery in Tom's Cannon.
Valadian:
That's an excellent starter package. I wish it had been available when I bought mine. The Inon is an excellent strobe, which is where you should start. You can dink and dunk around with cheap stuff, waste a lot of time and money, or you can start with something quite adequate with good quality that will grow with you. I have well more money in my set up doing the former and would have better results had I done the latter. About the only thing you'd need to add to that package to take consistently good pictures is some practice and a couple of UL extension arms for the strobe tray-maybe a hundred dollars.
Similar threads
