Let me say I'm in no way and expert but this is some of what I have found out over the last year using a small point and shoot camera in not ideal conditions. I hope it helps someone looking to play around underwater.
Last year my wife picked up a little point and shoot camera (Sony DSC-W80 / MPK-WB / SL960D) for me. I was diving every week and was able to make changes to help the pictures look better each week. The area that I was diving has lots of junk in the water and is very hard to shoot in. I think for the most part if I could get good shots in 20ft of vis 100 ft vis would be easy. Starting with a point and shoot also was good due to other issues that came up plus the size was not to large to really cause issues with my diving.
The Stock Rig
The first few times with the camera my shots were really bad. I knew I would have to make some kind of change.
The first change that I made was to cover the flash on the camera but still let the optical cable trigger the flash. This was done with some black tape just on the housing itself. The tape was on all year with over 50 plus dives and no issues. This quick change made a big difference in my pictures.
The next thing that helped was replace the plastic base with a longer metal base that moved the flash far away from the camera. I worked with a few different sizes and ended up with one that would let me fold the flash in toward the camera. This kept the rig smaller when dealing with other issues not camera related. When I made this change I really felt like I could bast more flash onto the subject. This photo does not show the tape over the camera flash.
Here are a few that were getting better but too much flash or not enough was become and issue.
After 50 or so dives with the camera this is what I came up with as my better shots. Started to force myself to get close to the subject. So close that it felt wrong. If I had that feeling I knew the shot would be ok. I also learned to work around the limited issues with a point and shoot in less then ideal conditions.
It's also funny that most of my favorite shots are with out using the flash at all.
Really nice how You have shown You'r step by step progress and amazing just how much one can do with a simple P&S camera with some practice.
Congrats Mayor and thanks for sharing You'r excperience!
Scubamoose
Really nice how You have shown You'r step by step progress and amazing just how much one can do with a simple P&S camera with some practice.
Congrats Mayor and thanks for sharing You'r excperience!
Scubamoose
Just wanted to add some more information. For this 2009 season I made a few changes that I feel should help. The metal base was replaced with alum one. It was also bent so I could use it as a handle. Holding the camera caused the bolt to get loose all the time. This should help with this issue. I also extended the base form 12in to 16in. This is the max size for my pelcan carry on case. It also let's the flash fold flat to the base which allows the camera to fold up nicely. A clip was added to hold the flash to the base when not in use. This also keeps everything out of the way when dealing with any issues (OOA, free flow, etc comes to mind). The bent handle helps protect the camera when I hook it to my d-ring on the crotch strap. Here are a few shots of the rig. I hope some of you find this useful. One other mod was to put the optical wire in a plastic tube. It seamed to take a bit of abuse over the last year.
