Sony DSC-P1 photos

[Sue]

Finally I have online some of the pics I've taken during Yucatan dives - you can check them @

http://photos.yahoo.com/scatita2

They were taken with a Sony DSC-P1 in a MPK-P1 housing. I've taken more or less 500 but only around 50 are like these.
Despite the limitations of this camera, I think the problem is my lack of knowledge about uw photography.
I'm learning and strongly considering taking am uw photo course, meanwhile I keep on practicing - even if my normal uw environment is the cold, green and low visibility water from Portugal



Sue

 

[Hulamike]

Not bad really. If you know PhotoShop you could adjust the color and sharpness considerably. I've been shooting digital for about three years and in my opinion NO digital camera image is acceptable out of the cam. They all need correction. This goes for the lowly Barbie cam as well as the Nikon D1X, a $5500 digital camera body.

 

[scubagibbon]

Hi Sue,
Love the Pics , pretty impressed - I am thinking of buying an underwater camera and have been looking at digital !
The sony DSC-P1 was recommended by a guy at work - How long have you had yours ? What do you think of it so far.
The main reason I like the look of it is it's nice and compact so you can clip it to your BCD and it's not a huge cumbersome thing weighing you down...
I'm not a big camera person really - not wanting to spend hours preparing for one photo - just want a point and click - and digital would be really cool for photoing students when they're doing skills etc so you can show them when they get out of the water..

Ben

 

[Sue]

I'm glad you liked them!
I'm still giving the first steps on uw photography. I have the DSC-P1 for a couple of months (I had a FUJI 1.3 before). What I really like is the fact you mention: it's small and compact, nice for travel and even inside its housing is light and easy to handle. Its also easy to deal with - both the camera and housing (easy access to almost all features uw, even with gloves).
I clip it to my BCD.
Things I don't like:
- positive buoyancy (if you let it go you must catch it above your head)
- shutter's low speed
- not enough zoom
- not enough flash
but well, you can't ask much for this price can you?
Besides it's very good for learning, you just test several features, and take as much photos as you want - no extra costs.
Besides that you can always adjust them later with Photoshop or any other software, like Hulamike said (I'm starting to use it now).
Digital rules!

Sue

 

[scubagibbon]

Thanks Sue...
I think I may go up to the Camera shop at lunchtime and give it another look..

Ben

 

[got4boyz]

Hi Sue, I just replied to your Yucatan trip post then went and did a search for the Sony Cybershot DSC-P1 and found your other post. I just purchased a DSC-P1 and wanted to see if anyone hear had used one, and here you were again!

I checked out your pictures and was much relieved to find out the camera did a good job! I was a bit worried about it because I couldn't find much information on how it did as an underwater camera.

Out of curiosity, how long did your battery last while diving using the flash?

I'm really excited to use mine. Last year my old camera kept messing up so I didn't get many dive pictures. I want a camera I can use for both diving and on the land, that's why I chose the DSC-P1. The housing for my other digital camera the 880 coolpix cost $900 plus you had to buy a $400 strobe because the housing covered up the flash. Who designed that! So I bought the DSC-P1.

I'm interested in any info anyone can give me on how it worked.

Thanks, Beth

 

[Newhampster]

I just passed one I grabbed from your site (at probably lower resolution than you have from your camera) and passed it through Corel PhotoPaint (part of Corel PhotoEssentials, a 70-80 dollar package) and did some auto adjustments and then some manual color balance, contrast, brightness and intensity tweaks and...this is pretty !@#$ good.

What's battery life like?

See enclosed file for processed (scaled back image with lossy compression).

 

[got4boyz]

Wow Newhampster, I'm impressed. How do you get colors from a picture that doesn't show the color? Thanks for sharing that. I'll have to get me that software to really show off my pictures! LOL

 

[Newhampster]

It's sort of what I used to do (hobby) in the darkroom with various filters. It's just so much easier with digital technology.

There are "hints" about colors in the image. Their is more color info than the eye easily sees. You can adjust
-- everything between yellow and blue a little (or a lot) more towards blue or yellow
-- everything between cyan and red a little (or a lot) more towards cyan or red
-- everything between magenta and green a little (or a lot) ...

It's just like inserting a yellow (or red or green) or blue (or cyan or magenta) filter in the enlarger or projector or ... to change the color

Plus, you can raise or lower contrast, brightness or intensity..

All really cool...

[PhotoShop's several hundred bucks; Corel Photo Essentials is about one tenth the price. PhotoPaint -- inside Photo Essentials -- is pretty much as powerful as PhotoShop.]

Enjoy!

 

[got4boyz]

OK, you got me curious so I downloaded the same picture from Sue's site and played with it with my software PhotoFinish. It turned out pretty good, but I couldn't get any reds and such in the picture like you did. Either a lack of knowledge or software limitations.

Either way, I'm hooked. I could spend hours tweeking photos now. I had only used the auto stuff before.