P&S with manual controls

Hi all,

Do you know cameras with manual control ? Like the G10/11 or S90. And if they also have the raw option (not a necessity).

Thanks.

The G10, G11 and S90 have manual controls and RAW.

And the discontinued G9 which, IMO, may be a better u/w camera than the G10 or G11/

In an Ike housing the G9 will accept wide angle lenses - the INON UWL-100 and dome unit. Neither the G10 or G11 will but, IIRC, they may take a Fantasea / Dyron domes which restores their FOV to 28mm which is not as wide as a G9 with the INON lenses (130 degrees).

HTH, Tim

The G10, G11 and S90 have manual controls and RAW.

I know about those and their capabilities.

What I'm trying to look for, are other cameras who also have manual controls.

Sorry if I wans't clear in my question.

I know about those and their capabilities.

 

What I'm trying to look for, are other cameras who also have manual controls.

 

Sorry if I wans't clear in my question.

The Nikon P6000 and the earlier models, P5100 and P5000 all have full manual controls. I use a P5100 and it does not have RAW. The P6000 does in Nikon's version of RAW. With Ikelite housing (67mm threads), you can use the INON WA lens and the -165 closeup.

Hi,

If you go back a a bit!

Olympus SP350 has manual aperture and shutter speed controls, manual white balance and RAW.

Adam

pany zs5 & zs7 And pany makes housings.

sony h55, hx5, most of the most recent sonys. And sony makes housings too.

I've been using an Olympus C-8080 in an ikelite housing with a flat port for macro and a dome port with the WCON 08D auxiliary lens for 22 mm UWA. It conncects with Ikelite strobes using the camera's TTL flash control. It's the best system I've seen for a P&S in an UW housing until the Olympus micro 4/3 EPL-1 came along. The Olympus Camedia series, C-5050, C-5060 or C-7070 in an ikelite housing are good too, but the IQ is not as good as the C-8080. The C-5050, C-5060 and C-7070 had available UW housings from Olympus that were a good value for the size and configuration of the camera and flash. These allow the use of a slave strobe fired by the built-in flash. All of these offer RAW file formats.

RAW file writing with most P&S cameras is so slow it's prohibitive for use UW because the action happens fast when that turtle, ray or great fish shot appears. You want to be able to shoot faster than once every 10 or 12 seconds when the UW photo opportunities occur. You need to find a P&S that has great jpg files right out of the camera. The Olympus Camedia cameras are known for this.

Most of the P&S being sold today are no good for UW. Most of what's being offered today by Canon, Olympus, Nikon and Panasonic with an UW housing are simple P&S with no manual exposure or flash control.

The best digital cameras for UW allow manual control of exposure so you can set shutter speed to sync with the flash and set aperture for distance. Without manual settings most cameras shoot in auto mode, setting ISO, SS and f-stop for the available light. Because there's enough available light UW for a simple P&S pocket camera to take a picture without flash the camera won't fire it's flash much. In Auto mode with any camera (any P&S or DSLR) you get slow shutter speeds with blurred fish because you need a faster SS to stop action. You also get a bluish tint to everything because the primary light source is available light, which is mostly blue below about 10 feet. You need to be able to force the flash by setting SS faster and f-stop smaller, as if the scene was well lit. The camera will then fire the strobe longer by TTL control.

As I said in my post above, I've been shooting with the Olympus C-8080. To find comparisons and costs for similar, entry level alternatives to the C-8080 that are available today from Nikon, Canon and Olympus I looked for the better P&S that provide, manual exposure controls for control of flash exposure, a rugged Ikelite UW housing, dome ports, macro capability and external strobe capability.

Currently, the Olympus EPL-1 in an Olympus UW housing is the best P&S available, with a relatively inexpensive plastic housing for UW photography. It has two fiber optic cable receptors for slave strobes. It comes with a fixed flat port (no dome port option for wide angle) and a wet-add-on macro diopter. All this lists for $1510 retail – a little less if you shop around. The camera and UW housing just became available this spring. I've played with the housing and it is better than the typical plastic housings sold for P&S but less versitile than the Olympus housing for the E-620 and not as rugged as any of the Ikelite housings for P&S or DSLRs.

One problem I see with this UW housing is the same thing Olympus does with most of their DSLR UW lens ports. They sell a flat port for wide angle lenses like the 14-54 mm and 11-22 mm DSLR lenses. They're offering one fixed flat port on the EPL-1 housing for both micro 4/3 lenses that fit inside it. The 2 lenses that fit are the 14-42 mm lens and the new 9-18 mm ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) angle lens (18 - 36 mm in 35 mm). To get the true WA view out of this UWA lens it deserves a dome port like the 6" or 8" dome ports made by Ikelite.

And there's still no macro lens for the Olympus Pen system, only a wet, add-on diopter accessory. The best value for the EPL-1 and Olympus UW housing will be using it with the 14-42 mm lens (28-84 mm).

I think the EPL-1, EP-1 or EP-2 would be great in an Ikelite housing. So would the Panasonic G-1, GH-1 and GF-1. But Ikelite has no plans to make one for any of these yet.

One alternative to my C-8080 system is the Canon G-11 P&S in an Ikelite housing with a flat port and a WD-4 dome port for about $1650. But as far as I know there's no auxiliary Canon ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) angle lens to fit the dome port. I'm not sure but I suppose the dome port is for the same zoom lens. The housing for the Canon G-11 resembles my Ikelite housing for the C-8080 the most, but it's smaller with a simpler dome port. There's also the Nikon P6000. It's similar to the G-11 but it's an even smaller camera with a slower lens. Like most P&S it has high pixel density on a small sensor. The Nikon P6000 in an Ikelite housing with the Ikelite W-20 wet-add-on wide angle lens sells for about $1440. In terms of image quality the G-11 and P6000 are not equal to the Olympus C-7070 and C-5060 which they resemble in size and control features. But none of these come close to the lens quality, UWA option, dual macro options, versatility, creative controls and overall image quality of the Olympus C-8080 in my system.

Of everything being offered today, the new micro 4/3 P&S from Olympus and Panasonic look like the best options for good UW photo.

I have just got a Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) which I havent got in the water yet, but the housing has arrived and ready to go. While it doesnt have RAW capability and the manual features are slightly limited (mostly the aperture). It does have nice HD vid capability and the focus is smooth. The Pana housing doesnt seem quite as good as the Fuji one I am used to (F100) but looks well made. You might also consider the Fuji P+S's F200 and F80, excellent housing and on the F80 similar manual controls to the Pana.

Mooseman

Panasonic LX3.......brilliant camera

Panasonic LX3.......brilliant camera

Panasonic LX3. Great topside camera. But as far as I know the only housing available is the 10Bar for around $1000. For the nearly same price you can get the EPL-1 and Olympus housing. With any luck the Panasonic m4/3, 45 mm macro lens will fit in the housing too.

I have just got a Panasonic TZ10 (ZS7) which I havent got in the water yet, but the housing has arrived and ready to go. While it doesnt have RAW capability and the manual features are slightly limited (mostly the aperture). It does have nice HD vid capability and the focus is smooth. The Pana housing doesnt seem quite as good as the Fuji one I am used to (F100) but looks well made. You might also consider the Fuji P+S's F200 and F80, excellent housing and on the F80 similar manual controls to the Pana.

Mooseman

Moose,

According to the spec's and description I found, this camera has P/A/S/M controls, allowing full manual control of aperture and shutter speed. For external flash control you'll want to set the shutter speed to sync with the slave strobe and adjust aperture for distance. Set ISO to the lowest, ISO 80 for this camera. Start at 1/100 or 1/125 second and f/5.6 to f/8. Try to set the user preferences so you can change f-stop with one button so you don't have to use two hands to adjust UW. Otherwise you have to let go of the camera or bracket to press the buttons, which is very hard UW. Don't bother shooting over 100 mm focal length. The ss required to overcome camera shake at tele zoom will be too fast for the flash, OIS notwithstanding. If you use the tiny built-in flash use the same settings and stay within a 2-3 feet of your subject for better color. Here's a link to the description.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1001/10012605panazs7.asp

Most P&S record RAW files too slowly to be practical for UW. Better to shoot jpegs UW. When the fish action, photo ops or turtle shots occur you want to be able to shoot multiple shots from different viewpoints quickly.

Good Luck.

Dave

Cheers for the tips Whaleshark. Unfortunately I havent got a strobe, but have just purchased the inon lens mount and Inon m165 lens so at least I can have a crack at some macro work when I get over to Bali in September. Thankfully on the manual settings, changing aperture/exposure etc is quite easy, manual white balance a little more involved but should be fine once I learn the menus.

I still need to decide on filter or not and my posts re quality of pics with each of the different filters out there have yielded no joy so i think its a case of "you pay your money you take your chances". Looking forward to using the video function with the macro lens too. Had the thought of rigging my new LED Lenser frogman torch as a dive light for the video (attaching to hotshoe somehow and adding a diffuser) but not sure if it has too much power for the job. Any more advice much appreciated, meantime Ill practice with the camera topside

Mooseman1007,

i hate to be pessimistic, but some considerations regarding the Led Lenser Frogman as i had one.

1. Be VERY carefull when screwing the head back on or switching the lamp on if you have the old type. Screwing on too much will break the treaded top of the battery compartment and seh will flood!

2. This lamp has a concentrated beam (due the lens) wha t makes her nice for dive lamp but not very useful as video light becaus it will illuminate only a small spot. You may experiment to create a diffuser using some frosted plexiglass/glass or translucent plastic bag to archiev a wider beam. You may do some experiments on land to verify what works best.

3. I fear the 1 Watt 75 Lumen LED is far to weak to illuminate anything more far than 3 ft. using a diffuser except on a night dive maybe.

Chris