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Underwater photograpy..newbie to it

Started Feb 12, 2020 | Discussions thread
Aquadrone
Aquadrone Forum Member • Posts: 85
Re: Underwater photograpy..newbie to it

thicks13 wrote:

Going to Hawaii in sept. Going to snorkel and snuba.

1. Looking for thoughts on a good camera for it. Have researched for hours on the internet..found the olympus tg6, sony 100, gopro, and a couple others mentioned. The one i have settled on is the canon g7x mk iii with housing. Any thoughts on this selection..pros, cons? Thoughts on a different one? Havent bought one yet.

Given the Sony super fast focus, it is a pleasure to work with it underwater.
I would suggest taking a look at the Rx1xx Salted Line model as the best all-around product for price and functionality. TG-6 is good for macro, but the focus time is not great. I have tried G7X II previously at the same time as I was using RX100 III side by side on a dive safari and Sony definitely was the one which was shining.

2. Regardless of which camera, does shooting thru a housing add stops as shooting thru a filter? Assuming it might, was one reason i selected the canon..fast lens.

I have not used G7X III underwater yet, but I have been underwater wit hRX100 VII for quite a long time now. Not too sure what you mean by adding a filter, but basically when you use a flat port your image will magnify and when you use dome port, your image will be as close to natural as it can be - in terms of focal length.

3. Using a housing, how difficult is it to see and change settings..i would probably use P mode, not auto, because ,i want to shoot RAW as well.

Not hard at all, the LCD display is fairly large and because you can access all of the settings, you can see them on display (as long as it is not close to surface on a bright day)

4. I read something about using color filters depending on blue water or green water..is this just for video or does it apply to photography as well? ..if so, then that is one more piece of glass...hmm

That is correct, for blue water you want to use the red filter and for green you use magenta. However, you can play with white balance in-camera settings to avoid using filters with a combination of underwater strobe or video light. Especially when using a video light, you pretty much just set White balance to "Underwater" and you're good to go, no need to change much. I have stopped using filters after I purchased video light and things have been working out great for me.

Raw photo

5. Any other thoughts..i am sure I will have more questions as i go..thanks..tim

 Aquadrone's gear list:Aquadrone's gear list
Sony RX100 III Sony RX100 IV Olympus TG-5 Sony RX100 VI Sony RX100 VA +15 more
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