P&S for Reef Photography - selection and best practices

[qfrisco]

Hi all - I was inspired to start this thread by the Post your POINT & SHOOT Pics thread. Although I've done photography as a hobby since I was 12 years old (my dad gave me a Nikon FE at that time), and at that age was already processing film and making prints in our in-home darkroom, and even processing and mounting my dad's 35mm slides for his presentations (Powerpoint? What Powerpoint? ), with college, grad school, then a family and kids, I found myself using P&Ss more and more. The SLR was just too darned inconvenient to lug around, and I found myself leaving it behind in favor of whatever my P&S was at the time.

These days, having just gotten into reefing, I find myself wanting to take great looking photos of my livestock, but can't really justify spending $1K+ on a D-SLR body, lenses, etc. Since I've been perfectly fine with P&Ss, I would be getting a D-SLR only for the tank, and that wouldn't make sense.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, and as evidenced by some of the great photos in the above-mentioned thread, these P&Ss are quite capable, given they have certain features. So here we go - a thread for those of us that want to take great pics with our P&Ss. How to choose a capable P&S and how to take great livestock pics with them.

 

[qfrisco]

I guess I'll start.

I just recently bought a Canon A590 IS through Craig's List. I chose this camera specifically because it was cheap, and it had decent manual controls (Aperture Priority, Manual Focus, Custom WB, etc.) Moreover, I found someone local that had an unopened one for $90. Here's my favorite pic so far:

I think the colors are pretty true, but I wish the depth-of-field was a bit better. The camera was on a tripod, and I used the 2-second timer. Anyone have any suggestions for what else I could do to improve this pic? The EXIF data should all be in there.

One other problem I seem to be having - taking sharp pictures of livestock that's farther then 4-5" into the tank. The Blue Tort in the pic above is about 3" from the glass. Any suggestions?

One last thing - is anyone familar with the CHDK Firmware add-on? Supposedly it could be used to enable RAW mode in Digic II and Digic III-based Powershots.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14147817#post14147817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by qfrisco

I just recently bought a Canon A590 IS through Craig's List. I chose this camera specifically because it was cheap, and it had decent manual controls (Aperture Priority, Manual Focus, Custom WB, etc.) Moreover, I found someone local that had an unopened one for $90. Here's my favorite pic so far:

Manual controls are a huge plus and you got what seems to be a decant price for a might-as-well-be-new camera! Oh happy days

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14147817#post14147817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by qfrisco

I think the colors are pretty true, but I wish the depth-of-field was a bit better. The camera was on a tripod, and I used the 2-second timer. Anyone have any suggestions for what else I could do to improve this pic? The EXIF data should all be in there.

Exif is intact. As far as more DOF goes, your aperture was only f/4.5. While your reletivly small sensor will greatly help you achieve max DOF, f/4.5 obviously just wasn't enough. Try f/6 or f/8.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14147817#post14147817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by qfrisco

One other problem I seem to be having - taking sharp pictures of livestock that's farther then 4-5" into the tank. The Blue Tort in the pic above is about 3" from the glass. Any suggestions?

While I don't know this camera specifically, point and shoot auto focus often leaves a lot to be desired. You said the camera has manual focus (which probably also leaves a lot to be desired) but at least with manual you can control where the focus point will be.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14147817#post14147817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by qfrisco

One last thing - is anyone familar with the CHDK Firmware add-on? Supposedly it could be used to enable RAW mode in Digic II and Digic III-based Powershots.

RAW mode is a blessing to any would be reef photographer. It would be a great asset but my cameras already have RAW standard so I don't know about these firmware add-ons. I have heard mixed results and I won't sway one way or the other but I wouldn't upload any 3rd party firmware on my personal camera.

 

[qfrisco]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14149247#post14149247 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitusvileSurfer

RAW mode is a blessing to any would be reef photographer. It would be a great asset but my cameras already have RAW standard so I don't know about these firmware add-ons. I have heard mixed results and I won't sway one way or the other but I wouldn't upload any 3rd party firmware on my personal camera.

Well, I figured it was worth a shot on my $90 camera. As it turns out, the CHDK firmware add-on doesn't modify the camera's firmwire. The camera just executes the program (it's loaded on the SD card) when you power the camera on, and enables all the extra features at runtime.

So I've got to play with RAW mode a bit. What's becoming obvious is - RAW mode is great and all, but it's no use when you've got no clue how to tweak it in order to get it looking great. Ah well, more stuff to play with and learn!