First Camera Advice!

On 9/18/2021 at 5:01 PM, mcranga said:

 

thank you again for going to the trouble of this! That pricing seems quite reasonable for a setup, is there any regrets or things you wished you did differently with the setup?

Not really mcranga. It's done me really well over the last few years, and taken some excellent, excellent photos. 

I've enjoyed trying to push the boundaries of what a compact can achieve, too. 

That's what I was looking for when starting out, a reasonably priced, travel friendly setup. It will still be my shore diving rig, as I'm not lugging the big setup over the rocks.

Good luck with your choice! :). I happen to have the full list of the mirrorless setup next to me (been pricing it all up) so not too much hassle.

On 9/19/2021 at 9:24 PM, TimG said:

Mike's advice is good, mcranga.

It's not just buoyancy and trim that's the issue. It's the level of concentration that you put into u/w photography that makes you lose sight of many of the usual dive precautions: equalising, bottom time, remaining air, depth..... It's seriously easy to get completely lost in the picture-taking moment and, bingo.... you are where you don't want to be. I think many (most?) of us have been there - utterly focussed on the image, you check your computer and 2 mins of RBT left.  Wall dives are a particular one to be very wary of!

 

Should I just hold off getting a camera then? I don't want to rush and end up going backwards with my skills as a diver.

On 9/20/2021 at 11:51 AM, Mel45 said:

Not really mcranga. It's done me really well over the last few years, and taken some excellent, excellent photos. 

I've enjoyed trying to push the boundaries of what a compact can achieve, too. 

That's what I was looking for when starting out, a reasonably priced, travel friendly setup. It will still be my shore diving rig, as I'm not lugging the big setup over the rocks.

Good luck with your choice! :). I happen to have the full list of the mirrorless setup next to me (been pricing it all up) so not too much hassle.

Many thanks, enjoy your new setup!

1 hour ago, mcranga said:

Should I just hold off getting a camera then? I don't want to rush and end up going backwards with my skills as a diver.

It's hard to say, I started taking photos relatively early in the piece and managed OK, this was on temperate reefs-  I was much more nervous on my first coral dives but managed OK.  You could start off just shooting dives where it's harder to get in trouble - sites that you are never going to run into bottom time limits for example.    While you do need to have good skills - many people find they go out the window as soon as they get a camera in their hands.  Better to practice on the sand next to rocky reefs to see how you go than jump straight into a wall dive with the bottom sitting below your depth limits and fragile structures everywhere you look.

8 minutes ago, ChrisRoss said:

It's hard to say, I started taking photos relatively early in the piece and managed OK, this was on temperate reefs-  I was much more nervous on my first coral dives but managed OK.  You could start off just shooting dives where it's harder to get in trouble - sites that you are never going to run into bottom time limits for example.    While you do need to have good skills - many people find they go out the window as soon as they get a camera in their hands.  Better to practice on the sand next to rocky reefs to see how you go than jump straight into a wall dive with the bottom sitting below your depth limits and fragile structures everywhere you look.

oh okay, the dive sites closest to me are shallow temperate reefs. I try to focus my attention on dive skills while using my go pro currently and haven't had any issues. It will definitely been a jump up from go pro but I think I should be alright 

On 9/16/2021 at 11:08 PM, mcranga said:

 I have no issue spending more money and get it right the first time, nothings worse than buying twice

I think you're falling into the old "more money = better photos" vortex. The argument has some merit, if you're a capable photographer, but as you said yourself, you have almost no experience with photography and not much more with diving. Most new UW photographers discover it's exceedingly tricky to get good shots out of the bag. Many years ago, my brother, who is a sponsored Canon pro, borrowed an old UW film setup of mine for a trip to Galapagos. He came back and pronounced that "underwater photographer is impossible".

My point is only that starting with a complex system is more likely to yield frustration than strong images. So contrary to what you said above, there is nothing wrong with "buying twice" as your skills improve. You may find it comes easily, or you may find you don't have an "eye" for it. It's always better to take crappy images with a cheap camera than a fancy one... if nothing else, you have a good excuse! We all have friends who have to have the latest camera gear but they can't make a memorable issue to save their lives!

17 hours ago, Stoo said:

I think you're falling into the old "more money = better photos" vortex. The argument has some merit, if you're a capable photographer, but as you said yourself, you have almost no experience with photography and not much more with diving. Most new UW photographers discover it's exceedingly tricky to get good shots out of the bag. Many years ago, my brother, who is a sponsored Canon pro, borrowed an old UW film setup of mine for a trip to Galapagos. He came back and pronounced that "underwater photographer is impossible".

My point is only that starting with a complex system is more likely to yield frustration than strong images. So contrary to what you said above, there is nothing wrong with "buying twice" as your skills improve. You may find it comes easily, or you may find you don't have an "eye" for it. It's always better to take crappy images with a cheap camera than a fancy one... if nothing else, you have a good excuse! We all have friends who have to have the latest camera gear but they can't make a memorable issue to save their lives!

I'm not sure I agree with premise that a more complex system will confuse you, generally I find I'm giving people advice on kludges to get around limitations in cheap systems like lack of manual mode or lack of manual flash. 

If you compare a TG-6 to m43 you have to shoot the TG-6 in aperture priority and accept the bottomed out shutter speed or dive into the the menus to activate the minimum shutter speed option with flash which requires auto ISO and min ISO of 400.  _ what you really want to do is fix the shutter speed and use base ISO100. 

The m43 camera you put it in manual mode and dial in any shutter speed you like and shoot.

The TG-6 does great macro but you need to be on top of the subject and even then it's not life size.  and lighting is difficult.  A 1"sensor (RX100 etc.) for macro you get about 0.5 - 0.7x  magnification  with a strong diopter that only focuses between 45 and 80mm, some are even more restricted in range.  The 60mm macro on m43 focuses from infinity down to life size with about 50% more magnification than the 1"sensors and has at least 80mm working distance at max magnificationand is overall easier to use and to get your strobes the light the subject.

Certainly an interchangeable lens camera is very complex but you only have to use a very small subset of that complexity to take you UW images.