Sony A1 , 50mm macro, Seafrogs housing w/std port, LED light

I don't do underwater photography often, perhaps twice a year. Therefore I purchased the lower cost Seafrogs housing, I have used before this brand without issues. Coupled to the A1 it was fast to acquire focus, although the 50mm macro from Sony is not very fast, however, I rarely had out of focus shots.

50mm macro?  Interesting choice of underwater lenses.

I'd drop the shutter speed a bit to lower ISO.  I generally find 1/160th-1/200th works well most of the time.

How is the light?  I found my Kraken focus light gives a reddish cast to things when I shoot in ambient, even when I didn't think it was bright enough to affect things.  But it doesn't take much added red to show up.

Thanks for your comment. I usually snorkel (limited mobility), and if the wind makes the surf a little hard to use slower shutter speeds, I felt it would introduce movement, and to be honest I will take grain anytime against a blurred photo.

What I like about this light is that it has a built in battery, not removable, therefore less risk of flooding, and its cheap $118, 1800 lumens and includes red and blue light if you like to use. It charges over USB-C which means no hassles for me as everything else that I have is USB-C. I didn't notice a reddish cast but then again, I only used it for snorkeling.

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PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

50mm macro? Interesting choice of underwater lenses.

I'd drop the shutter speed a bit to lower ISO. I generally find 1/160th-1/200th works well most of the time.

How is the light? I found my Kraken focus light gives a reddish cast to things when I shoot in ambient, even when I didn't think it was bright enough to affect things. But it doesn't take much added red to show up.

I'd add about 0.5 exposure in your shots.  They seem a bit dark.  Are you processing on a calibrated laptop screen?

I hear what you mean about the battery removal, but for me that would probably mean having two lights, so one could charge between dives.   I typically do 3 dives/day.

Kind of hard to tell the overall size, but it does look like it's 'snorkelable' on a wrist strap.

Try some macro shots of a Sea Rod tip - lots of interesting detail there, and you can always find a subject.

I tried my 60mm macro lens underwater, but for only two dives.   I was hoping the shorter focal length would let the lens be more flexible in terms of getting whole diver shots while still being able to do macro.  (As opposed to my 105mm macro).   For whole diver shots, it was still a bit long, but for macro you had to get ridiculously close to a subject.

thanks for your comment, not calibrated screen.

I found that for snorkeling it was perfect focal length (50mm macro)

Here is as close I could get , plus cropping (the 50 mp file helped).

As pretty much all my shots are for the web these days, I crop shamelessly.  And I'd expect to have to shooting only 50mm!  I can see why it is handy for snorkeling.   But you need bigger subjects!

I needed faster shutter speeds because I was snorkeling and had swell or waves that moved me, so I utilized 1/400 a lot.  In regards to closing down the lens, I agree with you but an important point is focusing accuracy, lock on and speed with macro lenses , Sony still has a weird algorithm for focusing with a lens that is closed down, usually opening up one or two fstops for auto focusing, so if you put the lens at f/11 it hunts or its slower in low light underwater environments.

kelpdiver wrote:

main question I would have is why not F/8 or F/11 with a long shutter speed? 1/200th or 1/250th is the norm for most because this is the sync speed on the strobe, but with an LED lighting you're free to range more. 1/200th also fits with classic rules of 2x the focal length, though with IS these days perhaps not so important. At 50mm, you could still drop 2 stops to 1/100th and satisfy it, but move the aperture substantially, boosting your DoF.

I'm in Bonaire at the Digital Shootout, and there are a couple of guys here shooting A1's, pretty much all in Nauticam housings.   There are a lot of different cameras here, for sure.  The instructors seem pretty high on the A1, though I think it has the same White Balance issue Nikon does - only works to 50 feet.  Canon has the advantage there.

Interesting about the WB on Canon.