New G11 Owner

[Matt Dunn 0]

I am an experienced land photographer, but have yet to take a camera underwater. Picked up a G11 and the Canon underwater housing (which I will be using without strobes for the moment). Am interested in picking up a book about U/W photography, but in the meantime, I was wondering if someone could give me a sense of what basic settings would be.

 

Just guessing, but I am assuming you guys are shooting at fairly high ISOs (400? 800?) I would also think you would want to leave the lens as open as much as reasonably possible in order to get your fastest speeds. Am I at all on the right track here?

 

Any assistance is much appreciated in advance.

 

Thanks,

Matt

[Chud 0]

I am an experienced land photographer, but have yet to take a camera underwater. Picked up a G11 and the Canon underwater housing (which I will be using without strobes for the moment). Am interested in picking up a book about U/W photography, but in the meantime, I was wondering if someone could give me a sense of what basic settings would be.

 

Just guessing, but I am assuming you guys are shooting at fairly high ISOs (400? 800?) I would also think you would want to leave the lens as open as much as reasonably possible in order to get your fastest speeds. Am I at all on the right track here?

 

Any assistance is much appreciated in advance.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

Assuming you've got your swimming/diving skills all sorted (and they are really important)...

 

Both Martin Edge and Maria Munn have books out in the new year - both recommended AFAIK.

 

ISO settings - lower than you think, I understand 400 is probably about the max you'd want to use. Many would say 200 max.

 

One golden rule is when you think you're close enough, get much closer and you may be close enough!

 

If you can operate the 'custom' button on the G11 in the canon housing it would be worth mapping that to evaluate white balance and carrying a test card etc.

 

I'm sure others on here can give more advice but that should get you going

[bing 0]

hi

 

coming from a g9, been learning to use the g11 in canon housing for a couple of weeks now. best would be to shoot raw. i've also set my custom settings to

 

(without strobes)

 

c1: macro mode, mf @min distance, mid zoom, Av f8 iso80, flash on with diffuser (TTL) wb auto/flash (alternative would be Tv set at 1/250 or 1/500)

c2: full wide, Av f2.8 iso80, flash off, wb sunny - for ambient light wide shooting

 

with strobes i retain both custom settings but tend to be on manual mode more as you don't get TTL with the wp-dc34 anyways. changing settings & focus point can be a pain at times but you'll get the hang of it. though ISO is decent for a p&s, i wouldn't really reco going above 400 on the g11.

 

my other settings are as follows:

 

flexizone

servo af off

continous af off

af assist off

mf point zoom on

safety mf off

review focus check

IS shoot only

 

 

hth

[f2tai 2]

I have both a G9 & G11 (gf's rig) but have a couple of suggestions:

 

> Don't go beyond ISO 400 to have usable print/desktop photos - too grainy too fast I'd say !

> Definitely use ISO 80 whilst working macro, the flash should fix up the darkness & sharpness/clarity is king

> Try using a bit of zoom to give yourself distance to macro subjects - the problem with subjects too close to the lens is that the lens actually covers a part of the flash & you'll get a definite shadow

> Learn to use the custom buttons as another writer mentioned to give you fixed focus @ fixed distance - you will pop the camera into a custom mode underwater & all you need to do is get the subject in focus

> for bigger stuff learn to use the white balance buttons & how to get yourself WB'd correctly - you can get some awesome results by doing just that to deal with the water colour

 

That's it for now - i have the Martin Edge book (make sure you get 3rd edition + as it covers digital) & its great.

 

~ Frank

[bubbzilla 0]

I just got a G11 and WP-DC34 to. I took it for a yesterday and noticed the flash kinda sucks. Ive been looking at strobes, but my question is how do I know weather or not the strobe is compatible? Does anyone have any suggestions for a good low budjet strobe? Im hoping to spent $100-200 (less if possible) I may be able to get an olympus UFL-1 for $130. Would this work with the G11? Im very new at this so I dont really know what im doing. Ive been shooting with really high ISO. like 1600 to get more light. Everything else is default. Is there a better way to increase the light>

 

Thanx

[marktol 0]

Bubbzilla,

 

I think you will struggle to get a suitable strobe for your G11 within your budget. A few suggestions however:-

 

Firstly are you shooting in RAW? This will allow you to edit the image more easily after you have taken it. If you arent already I would suggest altering the White Balance as you shoot. If you shoot in RAW you can easily change the WB afterwards but this will make a big difference to your results.

[tobyanscombe 0]

One problem that I have noticed with the G11 and Canon housing is the flash positioning and the curve of the housing. I have a G11, Canon housing and a S&S 110a with the fibre optic cable and the positioning of the cable is a bit of a bugger..

 

The suggestion of shooting in Raw is one of the best ones going - there is almost 2 stops of latitude; what appears to be dark on the camera can become rather good on the PC!

[bubbzilla 0]

As far as strobes, I might be able to get either the Olympus UFL-1 like i said earlier or the Sea&Sea YS-15a both for <$200. Would either of these work with the G11?

 

As for camera settings, I have set it to raw. BTW, when you are taking pictures of the camera, is there a more efficient way to convert them to JPG? Ive been using the "Digital Photo Professional" program that came with the camera, and doing them 1 by 1. Not a big deal yet, but when I go on a trip, ill have like 2000 pictures.

 

As for white balancing, im not really sure how to do that. I know a bit about cameras but not alot. My friend might be able to help me out thou.

 

Thanx

[tobyanscombe 0]

In reverse order (but bear in mind that I am new to this - I have taken many photos underwater but have only just got a strobe and not used it yet!)

 

White balance is just about telling the picture (assuming you are in RAW) what passes for white http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/whitebalance.htm is a good place to start.

 

RAW processing depends on what computer you have - I use Macs so I use Aperture but if you are a PC user then something like LR3 although in Beta will show you what can be done. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/ while in beta it should be free but of course when it comes out you will need to buy it. Although I have never used it DPP must have a bulk option somewhere....

 

I cant advise on strobes as I have only just got one but having spent a long time working out what was what I plumped for the S&S 110a - more money but I know that it will do me for at least the next two cameras as cameras change more often than strobes! If you spend $200 on a strobe now and regret it you have effectivly wasted $200; check the forums here for 2nd hand deals or on ScubaBoard - I assume that you are US based so the chances of finding something is way higher than me over in the UK!

 

Best of luck and keep us posted - I'm off diving next week so will show you what the G11 and 110a can do

[deucebrennan 0]

In reverse order (but bear in mind that I am new to this - I have taken many photos underwater but have only just got a strobe and not used it yet!)

 

White balance is just about telling the picture (assuming you are in RAW) what passes for white http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/whitebalance.htm is a good place to start.

 

RAW processing depends on what computer you have - I use Macs so I use Aperture but if you are a PC user then something like LR3 although in Beta will show you what can be done. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/ while in beta it should be free but of course when it comes out you will need to buy it. Although I have never used it DPP must have a bulk option somewhere....

 

I cant advise on strobes as I have only just got one but having spent a long time working out what was what I plumped for the S&S 110a - more money but I know that it will do me for at least the next two cameras as cameras change more often than strobes! If you spend $200 on a strobe now and regret it you have effectivly wasted $200; check the forums here for 2nd hand deals or on ScubaBoard - I assume that you are US based so the chances of finding something is way higher than me over in the UK!

 

Best of luck and keep us posted - I'm off diving next week so will show you what the G11 and 110a can do

 

Hi

 

I am have a cannon G10 and i am looking at getting a strobe, the S&S 110a is one im considering. Can you tell me if its worked well for you with your G11, and does it have good coverage for wide shots? The other strobes i was considering was the Ikelite AF35 or the DS51.

 

The housing i have is the Cannon WP DC28. I want to get a wide angle lens for it and want to make sure that if i do that the strobe covers well enough and not just a hotspot in the middle of my pics.

 

Hope that makes sense and any help would be grateful.

 

Many thanks

 

Chris

[tobyanscombe 0]

Hi Chris - It worked rather well for me on my last trip. I tended to use the velcro to cover the internal flash and use the fiber optic to drive the S&S.

 

I kept the diffuser on the S&S most of the time as I found that I got better results...You can see some of the photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobyanscombe/...57623380339279/ and check the EXIF to see which had flash and which didnt. I'm off to Egypt in early July so will have some more shots to show you...

 

From what I have seen on the single trip that I have used it the S&S works very well and I am very happy with it. The one thing that I would say is to check to make sure that the arm and tray that you get give you enough flexibility in terms of where you position the flash - I ended up changing the arm I used to give me the ability to have the flash as far away from the lens as possible...

 

Let me know if you need more info

[ChrigelKarrer 52]

@ Bubzilla,

i have a Inon D-2000 on my G11 with Patima housing and it work more than fine.

Every optical slave strobe will work on the G11, some easier some are more complicated to handle.

 

Cheap and maybe weak strobes are:

INTOVA ISS 2000

BONICA Neon Head

LYMPUS UWL-1 (Olympus says that it's especially for the Olymous cameras, i doubt that, but you never no...)

IKELITE AF-35 or DS-51

Epoque ES-150 DS

 

Medium priced and maybe more powerful strobes are:

INON S-2000 / D-2000 / Z-240

SEA&SEA YS-110 alpha

 

You may check this article too: http://www.digitaldiver.net/strobes.php

 

@deucebrennan

for real, true and even illuminated wide angle shots you need at least 2 very powerful strobes like the S&S YS-250 pro, Ikelite DS-200 or the INON Z-240.

Often you get much better pictures shooting with ambient light. Shooting JPG needs a manual white balance bevore every shot while

pictures recorded in RAW can have the white balance done while editing the pictures.

Some interesting pictures can be taken using the strobe to illuminate and isolate the foreground while the middle and background is illuminated

by the ambient light. This requires often a manual exposure to override the cameras brain and will to expose "everything" right,

where often the camera is wrong because she exposes perfect the forground but the background is too dark or the reverse.

 

Chris