Underwater/scuba photo and Canon Powershoot G7/G9

[pszemol]

How do Canon Powershoot G9 or G7 performs in the underwater photography during scuba trips in good visibility Hawaii?
I am talking a nature photos, animals macrophotography, etc.
Is this a good enough camera for this purpose?

I wonder if it is worth it to invest in the underwater housing for this camera or it is just too weak for this application anyway and I should upgrade camera for something stronger for underwater photos?

What are your recomendations?

 

[kactusficus]

HEllo!

Here are samples of waht you can do with Canon G9 in its housing, no additionnal flash or lens complement....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kactusficus/sets/72157605499866717/

I'm not saying it's the coolest pics ever, lol, it's just to show you what you can do with it. It was my second dive travel with this gear, I'm quite happy with it, anyway I don't have the kind of money to afford a housing for my DSLR, so, I have to be happy with this solution!

The major drawback on this camera, to my opinion, is the autofocus getting slow and sometimes wrong, on low light. You are supposed to be able to make the focus manually, but it's sooooo slow and hard, with the underwater housing, that the subject will be very far away when you'll manage to put the focus right!

I project to buy an additionnal flash, because underwater, it's really really REALLY useful!

To my opinion, the best way to use the full potential of the G9 would be to buy the Sea & Sea housing, that allows to put the lens complement (wide angle or macro) on the camera + 1 or preferably 2 additionnal flash. That'll make a very cool gear, very effective! Not the DSLR potential, that's for sure, but it still making nice pics.


The nice thing, with the compact compare to DSLR, though, is that you can do video as well!

I hope this can help.

cheers,
sabine

 

[pszemol]

Underwater/scuba photo and Canon Powershot G7/G9

Underwater/scuba photo and Canon Powershot G7/G9

Cool pics!

What housing you got for your G9? Was it Canon WP-DC21?
How did you like it? Does it have the hookup for the external strobes?

People tell me that it has small, noisy sensor, as with all other compact cameras.
They tell me that for underwater conditions I would not use all features of G9 and I would spend less money to get Powershot A720-IS to get the same results underwater... I wonder if this is true or not.

G9 is kind of pricey for a compact - that I can surely agree on.
But DSLR is just too bulky for me, even I could afford one to get better results... Some DSLRs do not cost much more than G9 anyway.

 

[kactusficus]

Hi!
Yes, it's the WP-DC21 housing, and it allows an external strobe.
As I said, I'd prefer to have the Sea and Sea housing, but it wasn't released when I bought the gear, so I had to take the Canon housing. Though, I'd prefer to have the opportunity to put my lens complements, and the Canon housing doesn't alllow it.

The sensor is better than the average compact camera, but of course it's not a DSLR... But the G9 has a quite good one, though, and its 12Mpix allows to make big prints or to resize images and still be able to make nice prints of it.
The details are ok, but you can't go further than 200ISO, that's true, it's too noisy if you go beyond.
The best technic is to stick at ISO100 and put an external strobe to get enough light. And shoot in RAW file, to have the capacity to correct the balances and contrast after the shooting, RAW will keep a high quality image, even with the correction, that you won't have with JPEG.

Powershot A720 is too old, to my opinion, to invest in it now. The unique features of the G9, that you won't find in an older camera:
- the manual focus (to use when you're doing "terrestrial" images)
- the 12Mpix (for large prints or resizing)
- the RAW file mode, which allows a lot of digital correction...

You're right when you say some DSLR are kind of same price than the G9, but what about the housing... I don't know for the US, but here in France, price for the DSLR housing is just crazy, like I would have had to pay more than 2000 dollars just for the housing of my Nikon D200, for the cheapest model...

Whatever you choose, I hope you'll be posting the images after your trip!

cheers,
sabine

 

[pszemol]

Yes, I will post some pictures if I made some worth posting.

Coming back to technical questions, how do you use external strobes with this WP-DC21 housing?
I haven't noticed fiberoptic socket on this housing.

What strobes are compatible with our camera & housing?