Sliding lens cover on S-series

[wwu123]

My wife and I currently shoot underwater with an Olympus C4040 and a now-ancient Olympus D-400z (1 MP), the latter which we've been using underwater since early 1999. I'm looking at finally upgrading the D-400 with something less than three generations old ...

The D-400 worked great underwater, the only key hindrance was the sliding lens cover, which had to be slid open before closing up the housing. This usually meant opening up the housing to power on just before the first dive, and then again before a 2nd dive to change batteries. I was always a bit uneasy opening up the case on the dive boat, though never had any problems even with occasional drops of water splashing on the inside of the housing. There was a powersave mode that hibernated the LCD and camera after a few minutes inactivity, however this also resulted in being slow on the draw because it would take about 5-10 seconds to get it active again for a sudden shot opportunity.

I'm looking a the entire range (A, S, SD) of compact Canon's for a replacement, but am concerned about the S-series having these same sliding lens covers. From the number of people using this series on the forum, it seems that it is a non-issue these days. Is that correct, or are there still techniques that must be used for battery conservation and shot optimization?

 

[hvulin]

on my S45 you push WB/Func button for some 5sec to turn it off (if you wan't to save battery on life) but it still takes couple of seconds to get it back on...

battery on S series sucks, I have 2 canon made ones (570mA) which are good for 1 dive each, and 2 noname ones (1200mA each) which are good for 2 dives each...

 

[ChillyWaters]

on my S45 you push WB/Func button for some 5sec to turn it off (if you wan't to save battery on life) but it still takes couple of seconds to get it back on...

battery on S series sucks, I have 2 canon made ones (570mA) which are good for 1 dive each, and 2 noname ones (1200mA each) which are good for 2 dives each...

Yup the batteries aren't that great, but 2 dives is "usually" all you need.


I actually like the sliding lense cover. My S30 is a SOLID, well-built camera!!! You'd have to take a sledge hammer to break this puppy.

- ChillyWaters

 

[archman]

You can dramatically extend battery life by turning off the LCD display when you're not taking pictures. This also slows the housing from heating up, which can lead to lens fogging up. I've learned this from experience in the Bahamas.

 

[Willar]

Canon S-series will go to sleep when you leave the sliding cover open and don't use the camera for 1-2 minutes. Keep the LCD screen off, load the camera in it's dive case and it will go to sleep shortly.

I have never heard of the WB+Func. button shutdown.... I'll try that. Thanks!

 

[ChillyWaters]

Canon S-series will go to sleep when you leave the sliding cover open and don't use the camera for 1-2 minutes. Keep the LCD screen off, load the camera in it's dive case and it will go to sleep shortly.

I have never heard of the WB+Func. button shutdown.... I'll try that. Thanks!

Yup, they started that on the S45. The S30/S40 don't do it, but, as you probably already know, the sleep mode works well for a couple of dives.

- ChillyWaters

 

[RonFrank]

When not is use for a bit, and first it sleeps. Battery drain is not high if you are not shooting and not using the LCD.

What I did was power the camera up with the lens cover off (you can also power it up with the lens cover in place, but that kinda is pointless for inserting into a housing) at the hotel, and insert the camera into the housing.

After a couple minutes of no use the camera powers down (I believe this is configurable). Once you are ready to dive power the camera up with the preview button (I believe).

I generally had enough battery life to do about 80+ shots in RAW mode with lots of LCD use. I never ran out of batteries during a dive, and we were doing two shallow reef dives (generally max depth 45-50fsw) and got a full 60 minutes BT on each dive.

If you plan on more than two hours of BT, with the S series camera's plan on a second Battery, at least shooting RAW. They may do better shooting jpg as my RAW files are between 6.5-8mb. This is something I can't explain.. as they are not compress, I'd think that they would all be about the same size.. .Hmmm..