OCB

Hi All,

I've been looking through the forum looking for some answers. I found some, but I'm also getting confused with the volume - and often contradictory advice!

I'm off to Martinique in a few weeks (lucky me!). My last scuba holiday was in the Maldives a couple of years back, which was my first attempt at underwater snaps with a digi P&S in a case.

I wasn't happy with the results.

A friend of mine came back from her hols around the same time, and she'd bought a strobe for her P&S. The photos were *much* better. I thought the *answer* was "a strobe" - one of the kinds that slaves off of a fiber optic trigger.

HOWEVER - reading this forum has left me a tad confused. Here's a summary of some of the comments:

1. A filter and internal flash is just as good for close (10-20ft) shots?
2. Strobe is only good for "close" shots (10-20ft, or for close-ups) - not for longer reef shots?
3. Strobe plus spotter light really help auto-focus and is basically a must?
4. Forget strobe - just fill the card and do digital post processing at home?
5. Forget Auto, set fixed EV, WB and ISO?

For info, my setup is a 5mp Casio Exilim Z-50 with the EWC-40 case. I'm a P&S kind of guy - as I don't dive that often any longer and am there to enjoy the view and not spend my dive fiddling with gadgets!

Going through my Maldives photos, the biggest issues are:

1. Focus. As in lack of.
2. Colour saturation/balance.

2nd point I've made some progress with iPhoto - but I'd prefer to have more "natural" colours rather than my post-processing guesses.

Strobe: I'm tempted by the Fantasea Nano Strobe setup - but am I wasting my time and adding extra weight to my luggage and additional stress during the dive with extra pointy bits??

Filter: I watched the video on the Fantasea website. The "with" and "without" red filter was quite spectacular.

Any help would be most appreciated!