Those using the Canon SD 870...

Several of you have been kind enough to send me over to see Flickr pages with photos taken by the G9.

What I'm really looking for are to see some u/w photos taken with the Canon SD870 in the Canon housing.

Thanks.

Larry

These photos were taken with the SD700IS in the Canon housing. No external strobe.

http://reefpix.smugmug.com/gallery/2868228#153912962

Cheers

James

These photos were taken with the SD700IS in the Canon housing. No external strobe.

 

http://reefpix.smugmug.com/gallery/2868228#153912962

 

Cheers

James

James:

Thanks so much for the quick response. I think this camera will deliver exactly what I'm looking for.

Your pictures look great - wish I was there right now. 13" of snow last night and 16F today.

Larry

WOW those pictures look great for a CHEAP rig. I was thinking about the Canon 870 but I thought that pictures would not turn out clear or be all blue. That does not look like the situation from your pics. I was considering a Canon G9, Ikelite housing and strobes but that looked like it was going to be pushing $1500-$2000. But the 870 seems to be a great camera for both by using the Canon housing and paying about $500 for both. I usually only go on one dive vacation a year and really haven't done any UW photography but I would like to snap some "decent' pictures. That is why I am doing as much research as possible on the different cameras.

Thanks,

Aaron

You can make good photos with a point and shoot camera, but you have to understand how it "thinks" then "trick it" into thinking it's underwater. Also you have to work within its limits - which means if you have no strobe, your subjects can only be one foot away max....

Cheers

James

I've got the Canon IXUS 850 IS, which is the previous version of the 870. Fantastic little camera, and great for land based shot too.

During my last trip to the Red Sea in October , I spent ages trying to work out a good compromise in settings which would work reasonably well at all depths.

I ended up with ISO 200, flash turned off, focus set to centre of screen (rather than the intelligent multi-point), exposure set -2 stops, and, MOST important, reset set the manual white balance every 5 metres or so (using a bright white A5 dive slate).

I have got a strobe (Epoque 150 I think), but gave up on that (except for inside Thislegorm) as it would clash with the manual white balance.

I'm reasonably happy with the results once I had put them thru a bit of post processing to improve contrast and so on.

Have a look and see if they come close to what you would hope for.

SmugMug Shots

speaking of white A5 dive slates, where can I get one of these?? none of the photography shops around me sell them and my closest photo/dive store cameras underwater didn't have any ideas either..

speaking of white A5 dive slates, where can I get one of these?? none of the photography shops around me sell them and my closest photo/dive store cameras underwater didn't have any ideas either..

Got mine out in the Red Sea, as I had a problem finding one in my local area too. I just tried putting "A5 Dive Slate" in Google, and got several hits for that, mainly around £6.50 in cost.

MOST important, reset set the manual white balance every 5 metres or so (using a bright white A5 dive slate).

I just went diving for the first time with a nice setup and strobes ... I used a G9 underwater, but I also have an SD850 as a pocket camera - love it, takes terrific pictures and I really appreciate the IS and 28MM equiv.

I took a virtually indestructible grey card down with me on each dive, but I found that the subject matter (or sand) made for better custom white balancing than the grey card ... for one simple reason ...

Obviously a grey or white card is preferable in theory, but in practice, I found that it was too hard to get the card the right distance away from the camera to get an accurate while balance for my shooting distance.

Since you will be shooting JPGs, you want to get the "as shot" as close to "right" in the camera as you can.

I think you should play with the white card, but keep in mind a diversely colored subject that is at shooting distance will likely give you a better and more accurate white balance than a white or grey card held very close to the camera.

Know what I mean?

JMHO

I also found the Canon Underwater mode to work VERY well at depths under 30 feet.

This was shot in Underwater Mode on the G9. It is a JPG straight from the camera with no post-processing.

Cheers for that Jeremy, I'm going out to Sharm again in March, so I'll try using the sand where possible as an alternative.

I did try the Underwater setting on my 850, but found that only gave reasonable results down to 10 metres or so.

I must say, from reading many of the posts in here, and looking at example shots, I would dearly love to upgrade to a G9 outfit, but can't afford that at the moment.

You can do some great stuff with the canon compacts - I took these with a Canon SD 800 IS in the Canon housing, an Inon D2000 external strobe, and (sometimes) the Inon UWL 100 wet mount lens. This is using the pre-set "underwater" mode...

http://gallery.mac.com/philsokol#100023

They're great topside too.

Phil

What I'm really looking for are to see some u/w photos taken with the Canon SD870 in the Canon housing.

Thanks.

Larry

I've just joined WetPixel today to learn more about how to use my new (Christmas gift) SD870 IS. I wanted an all around camera but also bought the WP-DC17 U/W case for those once-in-a-while dives. I'm just saying that so you know in advance I'm not an expert photographer. My previous U/W experience was many years ago, struggling with a Nikonos III.

I set the camera to Underwater mode and between two dives took 206 pictures and 3 videos. About half the pictures were with flash. I learned quickly to set the flash to ON, not AUTO when I actually wanted it to fire and OFF when I didn't. I also learned to set the picture review time to a minimum so I could quickly take another shot. At the end of the day the battery indicator showed about half. Resolution was set to 3264x2448 and Compression was set to Fine.

Water conditions were fair to good (I'm told) for Banderas Bay in February - about 30' visibility, with enough plankton and krill in the water to give it a greenish tint as well as presenting a backscatter challenge.

As for myself, I love just about everything about using this camera and case. Compared to my previous experience with the Nikonos, it's unbelievably easy to get decent pictures. Anyway, I've posted samples to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23899015@N06/

Good luck with your decision!