Fuji E900 manual settings for an impatient beginner

Hi everyone,

I have had a Fuji E900 for a year or so now and have taken a mixed bag of some nice and some not at all nice photos. I have recently added a strobe and WA lens to my setup to try and get that jump in quality I have seen the e900 is capable of from looking on these forums.

However, could someone give me some further help and suggest what sort of settings such as shutter speeds, apertures, isos, focusing type etc etc that have worked for you (assuming that you use manual mode and if not do you find auto modes work well for you)?

Obviously I know these settings change on an almost picture by picture basis but a rough idea of the sort of settings would be very useful to me as I only use a camera when I am underwater! Almost all of my diving is done at less than 30m depth in tropical waters with reasonable visibility if that is any help.

Thanks guys x

See a couple articles on my blog:

Getting Started in UW Photography

And probably better:

5 Tips for Better UW Photos

Poke around, there's bits and pieces of info in other articles.

Jack

Hi Kristy and welcome to Wetpixel,

I believe that Jack has used the E900 extensively if I recall - it would be great if he could post some tips or answer Kristy's questions. Thanks for helping Jack.

There are also some other E900 users here so hopefully you'll get some other help too.

Cheers

James

Been a while since I've shot it now and having written these things for the blog, it's easier just to give a link...

Here's maybe some better direct info written for the F810/E900

http://opticalocean.blogspot.com/2006/12/u...r-digicams.html

Other info is in various trip reports in bits and pieces with notes of what I've tried and photos of results are in my Flickr gallery. Full EXIF information is available by clicking the "more Information" link, then you can see exact settings.

Auto mode in spot focusing worked fine I can remember.

Jack

Thanks for your comments Jack,

I have had a look through many of your beautiful flickr shots and have gained a good idea of the general settings you are using under macro and WA conditions so thank you.

Some areas I am still unsure of are the photmetry option (multi, spot, average), focusing (AF centre, multi, continuous etc) and whether you set up a custom white balance when you begin your dive or whether you just shoot in RAW and sort it all out afterwards?

I just use spot focus and metering. Auto white balance, which works quite well, although I tweak it a bit in RAW depending on the subject matter.

Jack