digital camera settings, anyone in Hawaii?

[electrokate]

Hi,
I got a simple point and shoot digital underwater camera last weekend... it's pretty darn fun even if it's no hot DSLR. I tried to find info on it before buying, but not one website I found using google had a review of it. It's from a local company and the camera is called "Intova" (made in China), comes with the underwater case for 350 bucks. Shoots 6 megapixels and with added 2 gig memory card I can take a ton of pics... most of which were pretty bad but I learned a lot. Like the debris in the water shows without the flash and shooting into the sun works about as well underwater as it does on land

Here is the website the company has for it:
http://www.liquidsnap.com/6mp.htm

One question: do you guys who have the ability to set white balance find it best to let the camera do the auto thing or set it to flourescent (which tends to be green) or some other setting? Any tips or articles I should read that would help?

I am living in Hawaii for now, and gave up my reef tanks to come here. Are there any other Reef Central people on Oahu? Am looking for possible snorkel buddies and tips on places to go. Some of what we have found is very surprising, and definitely not in any of the sites normally listed in guide books.

I don't know if anyone else is interested in the camera but if so I will review it a little more. I haven't played with any other underwater cameras so can't compare it and I don't scuba so can't tell how it would do deeper, but for snorkeling I think it's great.

Thanks,

Kate

 

[RGBMatt]

Look for a thread in the main discussion forum called "Hawaiian Reefers":

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8356106#post8356106

 

[electrokate]

Thanks for the link! I am not in the mood to break the law on the coral deal, considering I have no means of chilling my tank that would be stupid on so many levels. Plus I really don't miss the work and enjoy taking a break caring for the much easier FO tanks full of reef noshing critters. So it all works out in the end. What I don't like are rules allowing us to import dead coral to decorate and that people keep dumping their unwanted pets in the water.
I don't want to get involved with any illegal stuff, but snorkeling with fellow reef geeks I can enjoy. It's hard to get other people to enjoy staring at a particularly nice specimen of Pocillopora damicornis for any length of time, and they don't get my enthusiasm for unidentified black frilly anemones and iridescent blue-purple polyps.
Kate