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Bonaire Photography & Videography: Olympus C770 gear
Bonaire Talk: Bonaire Photography & Videography: Archives: Archives 2006- 2007: Archives - 2005-12-11 to 2006-04-01: Olympus C770 gear
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By chris spray (BonaireTalker - Post #12) on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 9:58 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

In 14 days I'll be on Bonaire for my second trip, This time i decided to try my luck at underwater photos. So I've got the camera Oly C770, the housing Oly pt-022, 1 extra battery and 1 16 meg card. I'm getting a 256 card also. This is what I've got what else do I need? Any help would be great Thanx. Buy the way I plan to download pix to my laptop daily.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Freddie (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #7094) on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 10:22 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Chris, at the very least take more extra batteries it is addicting and the LDC screen takes alot of juice to keep on... I would just use the 256 card cause the 16 will only hold a handful of shots , make sure you have a good tether for the camera attached to your BCD but so you can also hold the camera out to take a shot, but if you needed your both hands for something the camera doesn't go to Curasao without you. Once you get the hang of underwater photography you will also want a strobe, but this might be down the line some the internal strobe should be fine for your first few times.. try not to Multitask it can be dangerous..... so you should get comfortable with your bouyancy first before taking the camera down with you.. I always dive the first two dives without my camera gear..then I can settled down ,have good bouyancy and get good photos. Good luck and dive safe. also dont forget to stop by the underwater cam at eden beach and visit with us.. how will we know you??

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By herman mowery (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #549) on Sunday, February 12, 2006 - 12:01 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi Chris,

UW photography is a lot different than topside. Excellent buoyancy control is very important. Try photographing only when going into the current. That way you can slowly fin to maintain position. It's a lot easier to do than holding position in still water or down current. Consider learning to use manual (M) controls on your camera, presets don't work well underwater. As a starting point try an F-stop of 4 to 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/100. The F-stop controls the near field exposure, out to maybe 4 ft and the shutter speed controls the far field exposure (backround). The slower the speed the lighter, bluer the backround. The distance from your subject is very important in UW photography. You need to get a lot closer than you would think. If you think you are too close, you are about right. With your camera and no strobe concentrate on subjects at 4ft or less unless you are in very shallow water (<10ft). If you get much more than 3 or 4 ft your subjects will be dull, no color and there will be lots of back scatter (snow)in your pictures. Lastly, uw photographers make poor buddies (myself included). It is way too easy to get caught up in the viewfinder and forget little unimportant things like depth or remaining air. :-) Both you and your buddy need good dive skills and lots of experience. UW photography is fun but don't let it get in the way of the buddy team's safety.

 


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