Hi knowledgable compadres
I purchased an underwater housing for my Olympus Stylus 300 digital camera. I have never taken photographs underwater (none that I ever saw...see my February trip report) Does anyone have any helpful hints/tips/suggestions regarding camera settings, closeness/proximity to subject, flashes.....technologically speaking, if digital cameras were equated to evolutionary theory, I'd be an Australopithicene..so you may have to use small words

Cam:
For lots of great info on underwater photography check out www.wetpixel.com
Go to the community forums and there is plenty of good stuff.

Thanks Kay!

Cam,

The Oly Stylus 300 is an auto camera with few if any user controlled settings. Furthermore, it has been programmed by the manufacturer to capture images on land, through air, and not water.

Since the onboard flash is relatively weak, try to stay as close to your intended target (less than 2')as possible. Otherwise, expect washed out blue backgrounds (camera will choose a wide aperture, slow shutter speed, and high ISO to address what it considers low light situations) along with blurring and a "graininess" to your images.

If you practice enough topside, you may notice a correlation between lens focal length (zoom) chosen by you and aperture and shutter speeds chosen by the camera. If you're creative, you may be able to control motion blur in this manner.

As Kay mentioned, Wetpixel is a great resource. Recently their discussions have focused more on digital SLR cameras and other advanced technical aspects of underwater photography. You may also try digitaldiver.net for answers to questions regarding entry level point and shoot systems.

Active contributors from both Wetpixel and digitaldiver.net consistently offer the most accurate replies to digital underwater photography questions on the 'net imho.

hth,
kbob

Thanks Robert