Freediver looking at C4040

I freedive exclusively and am looking to buy my first camera. I've had the c4040 recommended to me and from what i've read here, it sounds like much more than a great place to start. The shop i plan to buy my housing from has told me that i don't need a strobe as a color correcting filter will be sufficient. Am hoping ya'll can help me out. All the spiffy pics i've seen using the c4040 or any camera have lighting - especially dick's at http://homepage.mac.com/dicklundholm/Menu10.html. [url fixed. -eric] looking forward to spending more time on/off the big island.

Also, i find myself a bit overwhelmed when reading about all the equipment, etc.... There seem to be plenty of reviews available, not to mention this forum, but am wondering about intros to underwater photography and the like.

Thanks,

Richard

IMHO, if you've never done any kind of photography before then start with a camera in a housing. Learn how to use it with ambient light and the internal flash. Don't bother with the red filter - save your money. Once you're comfortable with camera then get a strobe.

For starters look at http://www.jaytreat.com/Diving/Photography.../Camera_use.htm and

http://www.daveread.com/uw-photo/

IMHO, if you've never done any kind of photography before then start with a camera in a housing. Learn how to use it with ambient light and the internal flash. Don't bother with the red filter - save your money. Once you're comfortable with camera then get a strobe.

Shooting in ambient light with a filter is the easiest way to shoot and the filter produces better results when you are below 20 feet. How much do you save by not buying the filter? Here is the filter I recommend for the PT-010/015. $30 at B & H. I doubt anyone would consider that a waste of money even if they don't use it in the long term.

Those interested in filters should seek advise from photographers who've actually used them. As a freediver, I suspect you'd like your camera to be as easy to use as possible and would prefer to not mess with an external strobe. I believe your shop's advise is fine. I'd start out disabling the internal strobe, using the filter I recommended above and seeing what that gets you. Without the filter you can expect any shots below 30 feet to be seriously lacking in color.

I'll chime in on this since I have some experience [link fixed] in the realm of freediving..

Richard - which housing are you purchasing for your camera? I can tell you that the Olympus housing works great for freediving and is much cheaper than other housings out there - you could take what you save and apply it towards a good beginner strobe or another lens at a later date.

I would also say that getting the Inon 100 W/A lens is a must for freediving. I use mine almost exclusively while freediving and have had several images published in print form.

Thanks all! I was planning on the PT-010 housing and, at $30, the filter recommended sounds perfect. It had occurred to me that a strobe would encumber me a bit so i think i'll start there. As being free is something i find very gratifying about freediving, i'm already concerned about carting just a camera/housing around....

Cliff, you'd recommended the Inon 100 W/A lens. How does it compare to the Epoque DCL-20? I've seen the epoque at ~$325.

As i've never even used a digital camera, i figure i'll start with the basics. I've got some time to play around on the channel islands off the southern california coast before i head to some tropical waters later in the year. Or, should i just bite the bullet on the W/A lens?

The INON is only a few dollars more and to be honest, I think it is a superior piece of glass.

Add to the fact that you can add the INON dome port to get even more coverage and you begin to see how INON planned ahead with the design of this lens.

I seriously recommend it over anything else - unless someone here in the forums can lend their POV on the other options out there

I've found with digital I could do a much better job of color correction using software like photoshop.

Assuming no strobe, a filter combined with software correction allows you to capture usable color down to great depths. 70 feet or deeper is not unreasonable. Without the filter there is nothing you can do for a shot taken at 50-60 feet that has absolutely no red detail. While they may seem interchangable, software works by "addition" and filters work by "subtraction". The two are quite different and are complimentary.

The reason filters aren't popular with still is that strobes are so powerful. Still, it's interesting to experiment with ambient light shooting in combination with a filter if you can. You'd be surprised how easy and effective it can be.

Nice website Cliff. Proud owner of a C5050

What about a smaller camera in a housing - like the Olympus C50? Would that be more suitable for freediving?

Without the filter there is nothing you can do for a shot taken at 50-60 feet that has absolutely no red detail.

True, but if there is no 'red detail' present then your filter will not do anything either, except absorb the opposite spectrum.

Right! So.....all sounds great. But what about a smaller camera like the C-50. Ah, but is there even a housing for it.

Gonna go with the b&h filter but, which filter is it? Whoops, bit of a neophyte and just now discovered the link. Thanks, Craig!

How significant is the difference between green and blue water filters? Do they just filter out excess green and blue light, respectively?

As it seems that any filter has its shortcomings, i can start slow and perhaps move up to a strobe.

Without the filter there is nothing you can do for a shot taken at 50-60 feet that has absolutely no red detail.

True, but if there is no 'red detail' present then your filter will not do anything either, except absorb the opposite spectrum.

There is "red" information available but the camera exposes to green and therefore underexposes red (grossly). By removing green (and some blue), a filter allows the camera to capture red detail that it otherwise can't.

The conventional belief is that all red is gone by 35 feet or so but this is not true. Some red information is also contained in violet light which penatrates down below 70 feet. I have captured plenty of color in the 60-70 foot range but a filter is absolutely required to do it.

There is "red" information available but the camera exposes to green and therefore underexposes red (grossly). By removing green (and some blue), a filter allows the camera to capture red detail that it otherwise can't.

Craig,

I currently use a Olympus 4040z housed in a PT-010 with just the internal strobe and am pretty pleased with the results, however I'm interested in the discussion above about the use of filters. Do you or anyone else have any examples of photos taken with/without such a filter.

Thanks,

Richard

There was a complete thread on this earlier. Here is the link.

Richard,

I am using an Olympus C5050-z in an Olympus Japan housing for freediving- per Cliff's suggestion on another list.

My next puchase will be a wide angle lens, probably Inon, for it.

In the past i did all of my freediving photgraphy with a Sea and Sea MMII and a 16mm lens. Wide angle is really the way to go. You can get right yp next to something and get the full image.

I have been playing around with the panoramic feature on my camera to put together some larger underwater seascapes, but the wide angle lens would do a much better job.

I use no external strobe as it is too much to carry up and down from depth.

I haven't had any problems diivng this way until this past week. I was freediving on a wreck ( at 75') in Lake Michigan on a cloudy, rainy evening at about 6 PM. My photos came out too dark to even fix on the computer afterwards. I am going to try and reshoot those photos this weekend in the middle of the, hopefully sunny, day.

Hope that helps,

Jon

Hey Jon, glad to see you aren't just lurking anymore...