SONY P-9 help!!!

Greetings! Some assistance if you please. Recently purchased a SONY P-9 digital camera (4 megapix) w/ marine pack, filter, and tray. Opted for Sony's 45w marine pack lamp instead of the 20w for better lighting.

Problem: many of my shots turn out fuzzy. There is no shutter speed adjustment on the P-9 that I can find. Bouyancy control is good for the shots...but few are turning out. Additionally, moving subjects create a significant problem. I have the camera set on autofocus (spot) with the illuminator off. Others with MUCH OLDER 1.3 megapixel camera are getting better images. Serious loss of cool points! Any suggestions would be appreciated! Many Thanks! Be kind to Honus!

Hi Joe,

Looks like it's time for you to learn about the fundamentals of photography! Welcome to the secret society!

Digital cameras will usually get great shots above water that are nice and sharp with good color - all you have to do is push the button. Not so underwater. Remember - in photography, light is everything. There could be a couple of reasons that your shots are blurry: too slow of a shutter speed and too little depth of field. I have found that in low light situations (and anything under about 20' on a sunny day is "low light") digital cameras in automatic mode will go for the smallest f-stop (somewhere around f2.8) and the fastest shutter speed. If you shot is anything slower than about 1/60th of a second, background and non-moving things can blur. ANything slower than about 1/90th or 1/125th and fish and moving things will definintely appear blurred.

In order to up your shutter speed and f-stop, you need to throw more light into your shot. A 45w video light will provide some of that, provided you are less than about 1 foot from your subject. Are you? If not, you are either going to need a VERY powerful video light or an underwater flash (strobe). I'm unsure how your camera works - but hopefully you will be able to set some of the important values (fstop and shutter speed) yourself.

Hope that helps,

James Wiseman

Unfortunately, this particular camera model has no manual exposure controls.

Thanks Mike and James for the replys, I understand about f-stop and shutter speed stuff...what I DONT understand is the guys with the 1.3 megapixel cams getting good crisp shots. The video light seems to work extremely well and brings out bright colors. Getting within a foot of my subject "burns" the shot, about 2-3 feet seems to work best. I am going to try and attach a pic to this message, if someone can tell me how, I can place more examples of my attempts. Thanks to all for suggestions!

Joe

Hi Joe, this may be a silly question but are you half pressing the shutter button to lock in the focus before you shoot?

I have a P9, too, and experience many of the same problems you do but I am getting the best results with the camera in macro mode, forced flash, flash level LOW and + 1 in camera sharpening. I also experience the "burnout" that you describe mainly with fish and other creatures that are mostly white. I haven't figured out how to work around this yet other than getting further away from the subject, 1 foot away is usually enough if you have the flash level turned to low.

Oh, and get rid of the filter. A friend of mine bought one for her P1 and her shots with the filter turned out horribly!

I have a few sample shots from night dives with the P9 here.....

http://www.pbase.com/imagine/p9nightdives

Hi "ellenm" thanks for the ideas on using the inhousing flash! I was wondering about it and had not yet tried to shoot with letting it fire. Your shots turned out VERY NICE! I am attaching a link with a few of mine, open for comments...please be gentle!

I will try the native flash on my next outing and let you know how it goes!

Thanks again for the idea!

Joe

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/ussfpa