O.K. before I go through my photos (that may take some time because I am very busy), here is my report from my first trip with my Nikon DSLR camera.
I was on the south side of Crete, in the Libyan Sea. The sea is very dramatic with cliffs dropping into the depth. The weather conditions were quit bad with very strong wind, in fact as bad one time that the wind scared the shit out of four experienced Greek spearfishers on the way back.
I was 4 times diving. I followed a group off spearfishers all the time and tried to find good compositions and interesting motives, something that is very difficult since the background is just blue, the bottom looks like a moon landscape, and the subjects do the same all time. I tried to catch the divers in times when they have beautiful or interesting body positions. In November I will be in Red Sea and I hope that there I will have more colorful pictures.
Like I have written before Nikon D70 have some problems to focus in conditions like low light, sandy water etc.. What I missed was (like Jean have wrote) the D2X autofocus that “grab the subject like a Pitbullâ€. I really hope that the new D200 will have this autofocus system…
Then is tge Nikon D70 viewfinder.... It is very small :-(
I am glad that I have Nexus diopter system that help some how but I really wourld like to have a great sport viewfinder
The other thing that I have discovered is that most of the time I chose to underexpose the Nikon D70s. In my taste the color of the water and the contrast is way better with – 0.3 to 0.7 EV
Because I freedive I have use Aperture Priority most of the time and with F8 I was quit happy with the results. Due to the fact that the air resources are limited to one breath and the freedivers move very fast in the waters there is simply no time to use full manual.
Some photos was slide blurry because in low light the shutter speed was to long and the freedivers moved to fast
In the 4 Dives I have use only one time the 16mm lens. I feel that the 10.5mm is way superior to catch the feeling of the big blue and the loneness of the freediver. But still I believe that the 16 mm will be of use other times and in other condition. On my next trip I will hang at a rope at app. 10 meters with scuba tanks shooting competing freedivers at a close distance. There probably the 16 mm would be better, wouldn’t it?
The lens must be used very, very carefully. I still need practice for this lens but one thing that I have discovered is that, if you don’t want to have mush distraction, you must aim the lens horizontal to the subject.
Another thing I missed during my dives was a zoom. Many times I saw the perfect shot, but I was too far away. And until I had managed to approach it was gone. But I don’t know if it worth changing my 16mm for a 12-24mm.
There was some reflections on some photos that I don’t know where they come. They occurred only with the 10.5mm lens.
The big surprise is that many of the photos are great direct from the camera, without need for Photoshop.
The Magic filter is a great investment. Freedivers and spearfishers are normally covered with black neoprene but the great skin color is reason enough to order this filter.
I am sure that in my next trip in the Red Sea the filter will show his full potential
I shoot Jpg + RAW. All photos are from JPEG files and direct from the camera. Only think that I have dome is grop the to 800 x 6000 pixels
Still I can't take great Over Under photos :-(
Lambis
that filter is quite a help for your type of image, 3 hourahs to Alex and Peter for making it happen.
