Photography Gear and Technique / Archived topic
Started by mccarthy ·
Read-only discussion
It is a very compact 5 MP digital camera with a large LCD display, and Sony offers an underwater case. The negatives I've heard are weak flash (I would add an Epoque external), bad red eye, and (my biggest concern) so-so performance in low light situations. Has anyone had a chance to try this camera underwater? Thanks!
Kevin
I have used it underwater. It works fine underwater but it is does not have any manual control so it wont work very well with a strobe. If you know you are going to get a strobe, go with something that has a manual exposure mode. Once you add a strobe you loose the advantage of it's small size, so you might as well get a larger camera that is full featured.
The reason you need manual control of the camera to use a stobe is because the camera is not expecting there to be a stobe so it sets the exposure as if the stobe was not there. The "stobe" that sony sells for this camera for underwater use is actually just a waterproof flashlight. A regular C or D cell divelight will work better.
The T1 has the most impressive macro I have seen in any camera. You can literally touch your subject with the camera and it is still able to focus.
I have not seen any P&S camera that works well in low light. I would estimate that the T1 is average in this respect.
Red eye is not much of an issue in the water because you wont be using the flash for anything but macro. Any camera's internal flash is going to cause horible backscatter and shoule only be used at ranges less than 1ft. The flash is plenty powerfull for use in this range.
The camera is perfect for snapshots to email friends or print out 3x5's for a photo album. You can strap around your wrist and forget about it untill you see something that catches your eye. If this describes you the camera is great, if you are looking for magazine quality pictures to print out bigger than 8x10 you need a camera with manual control and a stobe(s).
double post
One additional point. The T1 takes excellent videos. This is one of the main reasons I purchased it a year ago. Not many cameras could take 30 fps at 640 by 480.
Now a number of other cameras can do this. The new Sony P150 also does this, I believe and it uses MPEG 4, twice as efficient.
I find for underwater recording, video captures the atmosphere better than pictures.
You can see some of my pictures / videos here. I am a new diver so don't expect anything beautiful yet.
Jim
One additional point. The T1 takes excellent videos. This is one of the main reasons I purchased it a year ago. Not many cameras could take 30 fps at 640 by 480.
Now a number of other cameras can do this. The new Sony P150 also does this, I believe and it uses MPEG 4, twice as efficient.
I find for underwater recording, video captures the atmosphere better than pictures.
You can see some of my pictures / videos here. I am a new diver so don't expect anything beautiful yet.
Jim
MPEG4? Dammit, the guy I talked to said that the p100 & p150 have the same video mode... & the p100 is anything but efficient for video storage size. Are they different?
Sorry Fuzz, I stand corrected. It's the Sony M1 that has MPEG 4. The P150 has MPEG VX as does the T1.
Jim
If you are considering buying a T1 you should take a look at the newer version the T3. I have recently started out with the T3 and find it even better than the T1 was. Good little compact!
The macro is awesome, even though you can't get quite as close underwater as you can on land.
Have found that the flash is more than enough for most shots ... i have been using the lowest flash setting possible in fact 
HTH
Lndr
Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.
A worldwide community for underwater imaging.
