How do you get those underwater pics?

[star2515]

Over the past few months of researching for our STJ trip in June I've seen so many wonderful pics, both new and old from all of you. I was just wondering what kind of camera everyone uses to get those underwater shots that are so clear and vivid. I have used disposible underwater cameras in the past, but they never come out very well. I was thinging about getting waterproof housing for my digital camera but am scared on how well it works. And don't have the money for a new waterproof camera.....so what are the secrets for such good pic underwater??

[waterguy]

The secret is digital and photo shop to clean up the pictures

[Steve S]

The secret to the best shots you see is post processing on a computer to compensate for the filtering effect of the water.

I have an Olympus 770sw ~$250 and a Vivitar 6200w ~$100 as a backup. You'll find that screens and viewfinders are for the most part useless in the water... practice literal point and shooting and remember that the higher the mp on the camera the better quality pictures you’ll have after cropping photos that aren't centered.

The cheapest housing I've seen are those heavy duty "Ziplocs" with a window, but I have no idea how they work.


Steve

[California Girl]

I have a Canon SD880 IS and an underwater case. I haven't used this setup yet, but last time in STJ I used my Canon SD400 w/ case and it worked out GREAT! I'm totally confident that the case won't leak and I got some awesome pictures. Like Steve says, it's sort of "point in the general direction", snap the picture and hope for the best. Sometimes I really think I'm missing seeing things underwater because I'm so busy taking pictures. But I know the minute I don't take my camera in the water I'll see that big turtle or some squid or something! LOL!

[liamsaunt]

My camera is a canon sd 800 and I have the canon housing. The whole package was under $400.

You really need to have the photo processing in order to have pretty underwater photos. Otherwise, your pictures will be way too blue. I have photoshop, but there are free programs, like picasa, that work \well too.

One good trick for underwater pictures is to take a lot of shots of what you are looking at! You really won't be able to see your viewvinder underwater because of the glare, so just aim in the general direction of what you are interested in and take a bunch of pictures at different zooms. You won't really be able to tell what you have until you upload the pictures to your computer. I would estimate that for every underwater picture I keep, I delete between 15-20.

[star2515]

Thanks for the suggestions….I saw Steve’s Vivitar for $90 on Amazon, which isn’t bad. Better than the couple hundred Sony wants for the waterproof housing for our Cybershot DSCW90. California Girl is probably right, it’s better to just relax and enjoy the snorkel than worry with a camera….however if I missed “the” shot cause I didn’t have one I’d be upset.

California Girl….are your cases’ Cannon Case’s or an off brand?? I just don’t know if I trust those cheap camera bags that are essentially a zip lock bags

[djmom]

regarding the housing. can you put it on and off at the beach? or is it something that should be done at the house and taken off when you get back?

can you take "out of water" shots thru it? do they look normal?

sorry for the dumb questions, but I have always wondered that. we really like to take photos of the kids on the beach, would we need to bring two cameras?

[susan & herb]

So I guess when you use the throw away cameras you really can't adjust the pictures as you have them developed?

I also have used the throw aways and find it very frustrating when I see everyone's pictures on this forum that are so beautifu.

[Carolyn]

regarding the housing. can you put it on and off at the beach? or is it something that should be done at the house and taken off when you get back?

can you take "out of water" shots thru it? do they look normal?

sorry for the dumb questions, but I have always wondered that. we really like to take photos of the kids on the beach, would we need to bring two cameras?

They are NOT dumb questions. A lot of us have learned right here about the pros/cons of different camera's.

I use a canon powershot digital elph w/ underwater housing, also canon. It is a small point and shoot camera....and like liamsaunt I agree w/ taking tons of pixs and then edit to good ones.

I would NOT put the camera into the housing at the beach. A tiny speck of sand might void the seal. I was meticulously careful to follow instructions as to proper procedure in preparing the case before and after use and did not have any problems.

There is no need to take a second camera...all controls are accessable and there is no reason to remove from the case for an above water photo.

Also even tho the canon housings seem expensive I think they are worth their name. I couldn't be happier w/ mine. Those "zip-lock" style look way too flimsy to me!

[djmom]

mine is a powershot A610. Maybe 2 years old? is that a camera worth buying housing for? or should I just start over since the housing is "expensive"?

I like the camera, I guess. It is our 2nd powershot so I don't have other digitals to compare to...I get good photos except I don't know or remember what all those thingies are on the dial so I don't know what settings to use. So I always have it on the auto one.

[Carolyn]

You could find an underwater housing for that camera for somewhere between $150-175 online.~Waterproof Case WP-DC90. You are the only one that can decide if you want to invest in a newer camera/housing, etc. It really depends how much you want to spend. These days 5 mega-pixels is a little low, but I only have 6 mp's and decided it was worth the investment in an underwater housing for it just last fall.

You should have an underwater setting on one of the dials. Some say it doesn't do much, but I found it did help somewhat. I still needed to do some photoshop work to clean up my photos.

You will definitely notice if you use the underwater setting for an above ground setting so just switch off for above photos.

[star2515]

Thanks for the info Liamsaunt, I especially liked your picture of the turtle in one post I read recently. We have photoshop, on our computer but may need to get a book or something to fully take advantage of the program. We tried to use it with our pictures from Hawaii, but I know there is more that can be done if we knew how. We mounted and hung a bunch of Hawaii pictures and hope to do more of the same on our upcoming STJ trip.

Carolyn your underwater shots are great as well....I hope to get shots half as good as you all.

[m1franck]

I was looking into a heavier duty camera for snorkeling & diving, but the price tags were just a little too high, around $1,000. Sea&Sea & Sealife for example. I came across this camera that Intova sells. The price is right & the reviews I've read seem to indicate it's a whole lot of camera for the dollar amount. Only $100 for the camera & a housing good to 180ft. Another $120 for a strobe light. For deeper depth pictures they recommend the red filter lens.

I'll going to pick one up on Amazon with the strobe light & red filter & will be using it in June while in STJ. We'll see how the photos turn out.

http://www.intova.net/

[California Girl]

California Girl….are your cases’ Cannon Case’s or an off brand?? I just don’t know if I trust those cheap camera bags that are essentially a zip lock bags

Hi Star! I have the Canon cases for my cameras. Yup, they're expensive, but I think the pictures I get make it well worth the cost! I can't remember what I paid for the case for my SD400, but it was less expensive than most because it's advertised as an "All Weather" case, which means you can only take it underwater to a depth of 10 ft. My new case for my SD880 is priced at $240 on the Canon website (almost as much as the camera!), but I found a brand new one on eBay for $184.95. It's new and from an authorized Canon dealer & came with full warranty.

It seems that a lot of people have had good luck with those camera bags (ifloat, used one, I think), but like you, I don't trust them either for leakage or for picture quality. That being said, ifloat got some awesome underwater shots!

As everyone has suggested, I process all my photos with Photoshop. On my SD400, the underwater setting didn't seem to do anything different, and if I used it, I couldn't fix the pix in Photoshop, so I just used the regular settings for underwater. Since I haven't tried my new camera underwater yet, I don't know how well the underwater setting will work, but since it's a more expensive camera, I hope it will work good so I don't have so much "fixing" to do.

Susan - Using your camera out of the water while still in the housing works great... but just make sure you don't have any waterspots on the lens. I found out the hard way that your pictures don't turn out too well with spots on the lens! LOL! Some people keep their camera in the housing the whole time, but I find that too bulky when I'm on land, as I like to slip my camera into my pocket.

My underwater pictures are here: http://www.pbase.com/thegripps/underwater

[jmq]

For first trip in 05 I didn’t want to spring for the $$ Canon housing for the PowerShot, so I bought the UK made product called the AquaPac underwater camera bag. Google it and it will pop up if you are curious.

This is actually a pretty well engineered waterproof plastic bag that I tested for water tightness before I left but was unable to test for true functionality like in a pool or something.

When trying to use the Aquapac in 05, I found out the Canon is apparently VERY sensitive to the extra humidity created in the bag and kept shutting down. Maybe silica packs in the bag would help that. And there may be better bags out there like ifloat may have used.

Second, even though the Canon has an LCD screen that swivels out from the camera at various angles, I was pretty much unable to use it to see what I was framing, although found out later and as indicated here, that is a problem no matter what.

Thirdly, the bag seemed to play tricks with the lens and auto focus and I had troubles with exposures, tried different ISO settings, white balance, etc. It finally dawned on me the last day of the trip to try my older 2mp simple Kodak digicam that I let my daughter use and that worked better.

It was so frustrating to me (but I'm pretty picky about photography) that I got the Canon hardcase housing for the 06+ trips with excellent results and regret spending the money on the Aquapac, although I have it in case I need it for other situations at home and travel involving bad weather.

All that said, use of the case does require a willingness to fuss with the equipment a lot more, especially for me, because I don’t like having the camera in the UW case for land shots even on the beach because then I cant use a polarizing filter with it.

If I were starting over, I would be anxiously waiting for the release of this new Canon PowerShot D10 Waterproof camera next month (but then I am biased for Canon, being a user for 30 yrs). Solves the problem of fussing with that bulky case, and likely to live up to the great rep of the PowerShot series.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09021805canond10.asp

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-D ... 162&sr=8-1