Newbie questions re: P&S in housing

Ok, I'm a newbie to underwater photography but been doing photography for a long time. I've got some questions I'd like to ask rather than do a lot of trial & error while on vacation (going to Maui on Fri). These questions pertain to snorkelling only. My gear is a Canon A610 with the Canon underwater housing.

1) Is condensation in the housing a problem? Are there any precautions I should take to avoid condensation?

2) I'll be using the camera above and below water while in its housing. What's the best way to keep water drops off the port while above water?

3a) Is using the built-in flash generally a bad idea? I'm considering using it for photos of fish at a distance of maybe 6 ft or less.

3b) The housing came with a white translucent panel for diffusing the flash. Under what situations would this be recommended? I'm guessing it's only good for macro.

4) I plan on using the Underwater WB mode. Will I end up with a lot of noise due to the heavy signal amplification used to adjust the colour channels?

5) Focus: do you recommend AF or MF? If MF, how should I set focus? My distance estimation, when wearing a mask underwater, seems off. So, if I visually perceive that something is 5 ft from me, is it really 5 ft from me? Do I set my camera's focus distance based on my perceived distance or based on an adjustment to my perceived distance?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

larsbc

Re: condensation, it really helps to prep the housing and load the camera under dry conditions, such as an air-conditioned room. That way there's very little moisture in the housing to condense in chilly water. And it doesn't hurt to put a silica gel pack into the housing. There might be some room on the front of the grip, just under the shutter button.

Be sure to take good care of the o-ring.

Using whatever u/w setting the camera has should work for the white balance. It's a good idea to set one of the empty shooting settings (C1 or C2, I'm guessing) for underwater stuff rather than tinkering with the Auto settings every time you go for a swim. That way you're just a turn of the dial away from being in u/w mode. You might want to experiment with which metering modes work best for you for different subjects.

Use autofocus.

The flash diffuser is supposed to help with illuminating things at a distance without reflecting off the suspended matter in the water column. Take the diffuser out when you're shooting macro. It's kind of a pain to keep the thing clear of the port, so you may want to shorten the tether it's on or just hold the diffuser plate in your left hand when you're shooting.

You might find that the best pics you get will be close-ups with flash (diffuser out) and distance shots using only ambient light. The nice thing about these little point-and-shoot cameras is you can move pretty fast with them and you can stick them into nooks and crannies that SLR housings can't go.

Ok, I'm a newbie to underwater photography but been doing photography for a long time. I've got some questionls I'd like to ask rather than do a lot of trial & error while on vacation (going to Maui on Fri). These questions pertain to snorkelling only. My gear is a Canon A610 with the Canon underwater housing.

 

1) Is condensation in the housing a problem? Are there any precautions I should take to avoid condensation?

 

I use a defog for plastic on the inside of my lens port window, don't use the same stuff as your mask.

Go to TAP Plastics and get the Novus #1 Plastic Clean & Shine, it's a antifog, antistatic, and dust repellent for $2.25 USD. To pick up any droplets of moisture I use one of my wife's kotex pads laid down underneath the camera body. You can cut the kotex to fit what you need. If it does get wet, replace it with a new one since it will swell up after absorbing the water.[/b]

 

2) I'll be using the camera above and below water while in its housing. What's the best way to keep water drops off the port while above water?

 

You can wipe with one of those Sammy towels, or keep your rig submerged in the photo dunk bucket.

 

3a) Is using the built-in flash generally a bad idea? I'm considering using it for photos of fish at a distance of maybe 6 ft or less.

 

Depends on how clear the water is. Usually any particulates will light up as backscatter right in front of your lens. Since the internal flash is fixed and right in front of the lens you have no way of avoiding it. Use a external flash that will be slave triggered, it will require that you block off the internal flash so it's just used for triggering the external flash.

 

3b) The housing came with a white translucent panel for diffusing the flash. Under what situations would this be recommended? I'm guessing it's only good for macro.

 

I used my diffuser for a wider spread in clear water as fill flash.

 

4) I plan on using the Underwater WB mode. Will I end up with a lot of noise due to the heavy signal amplification used to adjust the colour channels?

 

Try it and see if you like what Canon developed. I don't like it and just use AWB on auto.

 

5) Focus: do you recommend AF or MF? If MF, how should I set focus? My distance estimation, when wearing a mask underwater, seems off. So, if I visually perceive that something is 5 ft from me, is it really 5 ft from me? Do I set my camera's focus distance based on my perceived distance or based on an adjustment to my perceived distance?

 

Depends on the model of Point and shoot you have. In MACRO, I use manual Focus if my subject lets me, everything else I use autofocus. It's too hard to see on the tiny LCD enough details to determine that your shot is NOT in sharp focus unless you spend the time on zooming in digitally on the image and evaluate. Sometimes your metering choice will give your image a soft focus look. While in manual focus mode you should still be able to see the LCD magnified area if it's sharp or not. It's not like the old manual guess the distance type camera

 

Thanks in advance for your replies.

larsbc

Take a peek at our yahoogroup that's dedicated to UW Canon Powershots, we just started it so it doesn't have a whole lot of messages yet. It's free to use, but you have to join it.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uw_canon_powershots/

Well, we got back from Maui yesterday and I have to say that I was extremely pleased with my A610 and its housing. Results were way better than what I got with film and a succession of cameras (Nikonos II, Canon A1 Sureshot, Minolta dual something-or-other, disposables). White balance was easier to fix in postprocessing using the digital file, even when compared to scanning in film negs and working with those files.

It'll be a couple of years before I have chance to snorkel again but it'll see use in our backyard pool during the summer, and maybe we'll do some sea kayaking again this year.

Thanks for your advice.

larsbc