Hello All,

Have read quite a bit of information on this and other sites regarding underwater photography.

I have a new Canon A85 and understand that the best pictures will probably come from using the manual mode. This is the only way to get the proper aperture and shutter speeds needed for many underwater subjects. I have been practicing macro shots around the house using the manual mode and the on-board flash and am getting good results. I can adjust the flash for 1/3, 2/3, or full output. The full flash allows for some fast shutter speeds for moving objects or when I want a lot of depth of field. The lower settings allow me to power down the flash for real close ups where I want a larger aperture or slower shutter speed. I do not plan on adding an external strobe for some time, mainly due to cost.

The A85 has an underwater scene mode that is supposed to perform some color correction as well as adjust other camera settings to optimize underwater results. Does anyone use this mode with much success. If I select this mode it takes away most of my manual setting options.

Another question I have is where to set the white balance. I see a lot of information that recommends setting the white balance for daylight for shallow water and setting it to cloudy for deeper conditions. This camera also has a custom white balance mode that allows you to set the white balance using your dive slate. What works best for you?

Another tip I picked up is to underexpose the picture when shooting more distant objects, especially in shots toward the surface. This is supposed to give a more natural shade of blue.

I guess if all else fails, one can use software such as Photoshop Elements 3.0 to correct many of the camera operator's mistakes - to some degree.

Boy quite a list there. Most of the following is my opinion; I generally leave the white balance in auto. The idea of an underwater white balance is dependant on not using the flash, well, that's something where I have never gotten a good shot, and it's not for lack of trying. I generally shoot one picture every dive w/o the flash. Those pictures just suck, no color, major motion blur and the camera rarely gets the focus right.

I think the right answer is use the flash, backscatter be damned. If the flash is on, then white balance should be correct if set to sunlight.

The idea of more distance objects just does not work underwater. Get close, then closer. If it swims away, find another that does not. Most pictures I am within 6"s of my subject.

Looks like we are both getting ready to use our new cameras soon. I just bought the A95. Pretty much the same as the A85, just more pixels. I'll be in Bonaire in less than two weeks, so I will be happy to post my results and experiences with the camera. My current thought for close-up photographs (under 10") would be to use Aperture priority. There are several things that influenced my decision. The camera's exposure system is generally great -- much better than I expect you'll get trying to manually adjust the flash. For any type of macro shots I want as much depth of field as I can get. In this case I will use f/8 as I do have an external strobe. With such a small aperture the shutter speed becomes irrelevant -- the flash will freeze the subject and no ambient light will be recorded anyway.

For wide-angle shots I concur that for you manual would be the best way to go. I recently realized that I can't use manual mode AND auto mode in the same dive. The downside to my external flash is that it can't be easily changed underwater from iTTL (imitating camera's pre-flash) to manual and no pre-flash -- you have to insert or remove a magnet to change modes.

I am also going to use manual focus. That way the cameras focusing system doesn't waste my time. It takes the A95 6/10 sec. to focus and shoot -- IF it can find a subject to focus on. Bye bye fish! When manually pre-focused it is 1/10 sec. to fire the shutter.

Cecil has a good point about getting close and always using the flash. The 2% of my Canon A1 shots that turned out were close enough for the flash to bring out the color. And I wasn't deep since I was snorkeling. Having said that, I will use manual white balance and try the movie mode for fun. It's unlikely they will turn out decent, but its digital so who cares. No cost in trying it!

Good luck! When do you get to try out your new camera?

Thanks John for sharing your plan of attack with your new A95; I'll be looking forward to your trip report and pictures.

I have a trip to Bonaire planned in early May and hope to get in some underwater practice with my camera along the Florida Gulf coast in March or April.

Hi All!

We are planning on buying a Canon A95 for our upcoming March trip. If we forgo an external strobe can we still look forward to decent underwater shots?

Hello Toby,

Contrats on your upcoming trip to Bonaire; will have to wait until May for my trip.

I don't have any underwater experience yet with my A85 but have been doing quite a bit of research on the web. Based on this, I am convinced that you can get great pictures just with the internal flash. I'm sure an external strobe will be even better, but my plan is to shoot for a while with the internal flash, then make the decision later regarding whether I want to put out the big bucks for the strobe.

I have run across some good sites that might help you. You might want to give them a look.

Scuba Board has a Canon corner; see the following links:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=309

http://www.scubaboard.com/t83711-.html

Canon also has a section on their website devoted to underwater techniques:

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/index-e.html

Good luck; hope to see some of your pictures on this site once you get back.

Thanks Richard!

We checked out the sites and they look like they have great info for us. This will be our first digital camera and we have a lot to learn.

We look forward to sharing our underwater photo efforts as well as a trip report with the board. This will be our 6th time to Bonaire and we can't wait!

Does anyone have an experinced opinion on which housing to get for the Canon A85? I have yet to buy the housing and don't know which to buy. Does the Canon WP-DC30 allow for an external strobe?

John,

You could check with Ikelite, but I believe your only choice at this time is the Canon WP-DC30.

Being that the WP-DC30 is a clear polycarbonate housing, it allows you to match up the camera with an optically triggered strobe. When the A85 is set to manual mode, it's "master" flash will send out a single "slave" signal, in sync with the shutter opening, to trigger the external "slave" strobe.

Swim over to the strobe finder on digitaldiver.net:

http://www.digitaldiver.net/strobes.php

Click on the quick query tab for optically triggered strobes. Find a few strobes in your price range and start the research from there. You'll find list prices, strobe specifications, links to the manufacturers web sites, a glossary of strobe terminology, and links to articles pertinent to the use of underwater cameras and strobes. It's all laid out in an objective format. The site is free to use. Nothing is being sold there and you don't have to sign up to use it. Enjoy!

You'll also need a tray and arms to compliment your strobe and housing. ULCS, Inon, Fisheye, TLC, and Ikelite among others all make trays and arms that could compliment your system.

Thanks! Good resource.

Anyone interested in seeing how my Canon A95 and Inon D-2000 did can see my underwater snapshots on my web site at www.risingphotography.com in the Gallery section. Here are a couple of examples.







I'll post a review of the equipment later. Many of the shots were from snorkeling rather than diving as I wasn't able to due as many dives as I was hoping since my diving partner was having sinus trouble. Overall I am pleased with the equipment and now just need to improve my photography!

John,

Well done.

Tell me more about the D 2000. Which mode, Auto, Manual, or S-TTL? Magnet in or out?

Did you use the Clear Photo System? There seems to be little if any backscatter in your images. Good strobe angles!

What mode on the A95? Manual, shutter priority, aperture priority, etc?

regards,
kbob

Hey kbob,

Most of my camera shots were taken while snorkeling and it did take a while to get used to the equipment. I started using the camera in aperture priority, iso 50, f/8 or f/5.6, and s-TTL for the strobe (-3 adjustment levels to keep the highlights from blowing out). The s-TTL worked great, but often the camera would default to 1/60 sec. which caused too much camera/motion blur. I tried shutter priority for a bit, but that didn't always provide the depth of field I wanted.

Finally, I decided to try manual camera settings at ISO 50, 1/250 sec, lowest flash output, and f/5.6 with the Inon set to Auto, magnet in, and the equivalent f-stop. That worked well and since the strobe assumes ISO 100 it kept the highlights from burning out. When the auto mode was fooled I found it easy to adjust the aperture of the camera, although I could have adjusted the flash output, too. Usually, bright sand would lead to over-exposed shots and required me to use f/8, and wide angles with little in them would lead to under-exposed shots, and I used f/4 while the strobe was still set to f/5.6. If I had more time and done more dives I would have tried manual strobe settings which would probably have given me more control. I'll have to try that for my next trip!

All of the photos were taken using the clear photo system in order to reduce reflections inside the housing. I liked the A95's ability to use manual focus modes, especially when freediving (which I suck at) where I would begin to float away from my subject or run out of breath before the auto-focus could acquire a lock.

John R,

I am new at this Hi-tec photography and have read a lot of your posts. I know that I must get a strobe but in due time. I did get the A95 and would love to hear any tips you might have. Is the underwater setting a bad way to go? Is there pics I should avoid taken since I don't have a strobe?

Heading to Bonaire in a week.


Thanks

Mike (Vermont diver-and damn cold too) LOL


quiet Tom

Can't be quiet Mike, it is not in my nature.

I believe Cecil has addressed the part of your question regarding underwater settings. Do a keyword search for Cecil Berry and you will find many wonderful shots he has shared with a set up similar to yours, including some on the Coal Barge and O.J. Walker.

Smack has received many good tips on scubaboard.com

The link Richard provided to the Canon Corner above should be helpful.

Here it is again:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=309

I hope you and Sherry enjoy your trip. Remember to show us the photos when you return.

Thank you much Tom I am looking forward to my trip soon.

Hi Mike,

All my shots were taken with an external strobe, so I have no experience with it's internal flash. General recommendations I can think of are: get close to the subject, set white balance if not using the flash (use a white slate or even the sand), keep your shutter speed at 1/60 or faster as CCD's are small and amplify camera shake, and don't forget you can manually focus the camera if necessary. My experience was that ISO 100 was the fastest usable one. Above that there is too much noise. The camera also has a low dynamic range and it is easy to clip the highlights, so pay attention to the histogram. I slightly underexposed my shots, sometimes too much, but after photoshop they looked fine. Blown out highlights can't be recovered.

The video mode isn't bad, so if you are diving give it a try. Remember to set the white balance. I didn't use the video often enough. I only tried it when snorkeling in high surge. Looking at those videos makes you sea sick!

Here is a link that might be worth browsing.

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/page/01-e.html

Have fun!!

John.

Hi Mike:

We are new to the digital photography world and after some research decided to purchase a Canon A95 with a basic underwater housing. We were pretty pleased with the shots we were able capture using only the underwater feature the camera provides and no external strobe. The camera defaults to an autoflash in the underwater mode which was a bit frustrating. Below is one shot of a scorpion fish without flash and the same guy with. I have also included some other photos taken with our CanonA95.

Sorry - didn't mean to post that! Here goes!