Checked out your blog Friscuba. The shots look great, especially the macro on the eel. Lucky you still have your hands!
Which Oly camera is best for a newbie ?
- Thread starter agnies03
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Checked out your blog Friscuba. The shots look great, especially the macro on the eel. Lucky you still have your hands! They're coming up on all your posts now.
Sorry for the double post. It didn't pop up the first time. Lost in cyberspace I suppose, so I backed up and reclicked.
Sorry for the double post. It didn't pop up the first time. Lost in cyberspace I suppose, so I backed up and reclicked.
Amy B
Contributor
LindaBluedolphin:
Uhm... Not my blog I think?!
Those photos are great! Can't wait to start using mine underwater.
I have work today though until 7pm, so play time with the camera today will be somewhat limited...
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me either, I just go finished going through the whole Advanced manual and played with everything, played with housing too. Tomorrow is pool time with the housing and then a dive on Sunday if I can scare up a buddy.Amy B:Uhm... Not my blog I think?!
Those photos are great! Can't wait to start using mine underwater.
I have work today though until 7pm, so play time with the camera today will be somewhat limited...
friscuba:
Friscuba sorry about mistaking the name and photos, they are great, I hope I get photos that good from my 350. Love the eel...
I got a stylus 600 and a pt 029 oly case to go along with it, cost me about 450 bucks in total, but the system is a great starter system and is very intuitive, you'll be able to use most if not all the functions with or without the case without reading the manuals. Also has pre-set underwater shooting mode that corrects the absence of red light me thinks. Anyways if like me you are not really a big camera person or into the advanced photography and are just looking for some easy to take but cool photos to document your scuba exploits then you cannot go wrong with this setup.
pontosmina
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friscuba:
The reviews I read were not about the camera's performance underwater but as a regular digital camera. That's why I was wondering--has anyone of you experienced frustration due to slow focus and shutter lag and slow flash recycle? The person was complaining about difficulty focusing in low-light conditions without a flash. The reason why I am asking is becuase I have an old Sony which is about to die on me, but which can take great pics in low-light conditions without the necessity of a flash and I think I would miss that capability very much if the sp350 can't do it....
friscuba, great pics BTW!!!! You were only using the internal flash, right?
pontosmina:
Internal flash only. It seems to be good to about 18-20 inches on the basic settings, after that colors start washing out. I have'nt tried bumping up the flash power just yet to see what it can do a bit further out.
One problem with shooting underwater without a flash in low light can be subject movement. Just playing with my camera in the living room right now and I can probably hold still for a shot as alow as 1/8th to 1/10th of a second and get a relatively OK non-blurry shot, underwater that won't cut it, I'm looking at more like a 60th to 100th of a second to stop motion. It likely has to be bright enough that it's not a problem focusing, or you need really low f-stop capabilities. I can't say authoritatively, but I suspect comparing cameras for above ground low light focusing capabilites might not translate perfectly to underwater usage.
The test is comparing cameras underwater. It seems the big three consumer cameras in underwater circles right now are the Fuji 900whatever, the Oly and one or two of the Canon models. I know for a fact that my wife struggles with the focus with her Canon A620 underwater, and it's got a lot of fans. I can't be real opinionated about which is best due to lack of experience with both my camera, or the other models. It would be nice to really hear actual times for underwater focusing from people. I took the little camera out yesterday again and I actually think it's faster than my 8080. I had a passenger with a Nikon D100 -a very nice camera- on board and asked him if focus was instant, he said it still took a second or so of drift before the focus was good. I think basically no matter which camera you end up getting, you'll probably find the focusing and exposure to be tough at first compared to what you are used to, 'til you get the hang of things.
Amy B
Contributor
pontosmina:
I was playing around with my SP350 camera last night, scrolling through the menus, and found a pre-set option called "use available light". Bearing in mind that the only light in the room was coming from the television, the photos came out as if they were taken in natural day light (apart from one where I focussed directly on the TV, which was fairly light but kind of greenish). No flash - it just beamed out a red light, then took the photo. I was quite impressed with that.
pontosmina
Registered
thanks for all your feedback peeps! my sp-350 and underwater housing are on the way! I love b & h! ordered at midnight last night and this morning the order was shipped...
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