Paradigm Shift: Seacam DSLR to housed G9

I originally learned to dive in Puget Sound, with its cold (45-55 degree) water and strong currents. In the ensuing years, however, I have largely become what my friends around here call a "warm water wussie" (WWW) , and--despite my obsession with underwater photography in other places--I have actually never taken a camera into Puget Sound...until yesterday.

I've been using housed DSLRs in Seacam housings for years, but wanted something smaller and more manageable to use around here (with dry suit, cold fingers, etc.), so I got an OEM housing for my little Canon G9, which is a great little topside camera that shoots RAW (RAW is a must for uw photography, IMHO, because you simply MUST have the ability to adjust WB after the fact). I added an Inon UCL-165 macro lens using a 67mm adapter (this thread shows you how to make one). Because I already have Inon Z240 strobes, I got an optical cable for one of them from Inon and a few other parts (from UCLS and Reef Photo), and I was ready to go.

Yesterday, I did my first dive with this rig - at Seacrest, a popular dive spot only 15 minutes from downtown Seattle. It's pretty mucky, and vis was only 15 feet or so, but I still enjoyed it! Since this was my first "photo dive" in cold water, and my first dive using the G9, I figured I'd post a little about it here in the Beginner forum!

Here are some quick observations, as well as a few photos:

- The G9 OEM housing is awkward to hold onto - you tend to push buttons on the back unintentionally, at least with heavy gloves.

- OTOH, the OEM housing is very small, light, and - with a single strobe and Ultralight base and arm and one strobe, it only slightly negative, so isn't hard to hold steady.

- The G9 is a very capable little camera - I'm very happy with it!

- The G9's automatic settings in any of the program modes (P, Tv, Av) short-change you either on shutter speed (it chooses 1/60) or aperture (it uses low settings most of the time), so I put it on M and selected a shutter speed of 1/160 (to allow for wobbly hands in cold water) and aperture at f/8 (the highest it has available) for max. depth of field. Those were the highest settings at which I felt I could get a decent exposure with one Z240 strobe). I was quite happy with those settings, and didn't change them the entire dive. When shooting macro, I dialed the strobe way down, and when I took off the macro wet-lens, I put the strobe on full power. Note: if I were planning to shoot anything more than 1-2 ft away, I would set the shutter speed a little slower (1/100 or 1/125), which should still be fast enough for most things, and would give my strobe more oomph for subjects farther away.

- Using an external strobe, I would NOT set the camera's WB to cloudy (as I always do with my Canon DSLRs for underwater use). While WB can be fixed in raw converter software, the G9's interpretation of "cloudy" is way too yellow (at least in the greenish waters of Puget Sound), so it needs to be "fixed" in EVERY shot on the computer with that setting. In the future, I'll try AWB to see how it does...

- The UCL-165 lets you take pretty decent macro shots, but only focuses within a VERY narrow range about 5-6 inches from the subject. It is quite difficult to tell on the camera's display if the subject is really in focus or not.

- Transporting, carrying, diving with, and rinsing/storing the G9 is a helluva lot easier than a Seacam housing with dual strobes!

Here are several shots with the UCL165 macro wet-lens attached. (See reply post for non-macro examples.)

And here are two shots without the macro wet-lens.

Very nice Bruce - you're making me contemplate a housing for my G9 now!

James

Thanks for the tips! Beautiful photos!

The white nudibranch looks as if someone used white paint on its tips - very stunning!

N the details of the octopus r wonderfully sharp.

Very nice review of your G9 baptism in fresh water! I learned to dive in Switzerland and had some nice dives in Barkley Sounds on Vancouver Island two years ago - I know what you're talking about in terms of cold water ;-) In fact I wish I had started earlier with underwater photography, would be nice to have some pictures from the Swiss lakes at hand...

I am using a G9 for a few months now with the Ikelite housing and a Inon Z240 strobe (no wet lenses (yet)). My first setup with strobe. I can confirm almost everything Bruce mentioned about the camera. A few points:

- manual is the way to go. Initially I used the Av setting (aperture priority) with the strobe in S-TTL mode. This produced some nice pictures with good exposure, but, as mentioned before, the camera almost always chooses 1/60s shutter speed. In order to be able to play with the background colour and to have some more margin for a steady picture I prefer to use 1/125 - 1/250s for macros in manual mode.

- The G9 is NOT suitable for any sort of TTL if set to manual mode as the power of the internal flash needs to be adjusted manually too in this setting. Not a problem though, rather room for creativity.

- WB: I use the automatic whitebalance setting when shooting with the strobe. I am happy with the results, software treatment of the WB is rarely necessary.

Some sample pictures are probably more interesting than my text... I recently created a little picture gallery of my first tries with my setup (which is described in more detail here).

Very nice review of your G9 baptism in fresh water! ...Some sample pictures are probably more interesting than my text... I recently created a little picture gallery of my first tries with my setup (which is described in more detail here).

Puget Sound is salt water, but thanks for the comments! And you've got some great shots in your gallery - keep up the good work!!!

Puget Sound is salt water, but thanks for the comments! And you've got some great shots in your gallery - keep up the good work!!!

Thanks! Well, more my English than anything else, I tend to refer to cold water as being "fresh", forgetting about the proper meaning of fresh water...

Thanks! Well, more my English than anything else, I tend to refer to cold water as being "fresh", forgetting about the proper meaning of fresh water...

No worries, mate (that's about the extent of my Aussienglish!)!