I wanted to let everyone know I haven’t disappeared… have been very busy with work (got to pay the bills for diving somehow) and school (getting my Masters degree). Anyway, I just got back from the most amazing trip ever where not only did I get to do some great diving, but also learn from some of the worlds leading experts in underwater photography, videography, editing, photo manipulation, and much more. I will start very soon with a series of posts about the trip, my experiences, what I learned, and so much more. My work, way of looking at potential shots, and how to make the most out of the equipment and tools I have is now completely transformed and significantly for the better. Thank you to all the staff at Backscatter, Erin Quigley, and Mary-Lynn Price who have opened my eyes to a whole new level of shooting. Hopefully you all will see the fruits of this effort in my future work.
Thanks and stay tuned for the Little Cayman Digital Shootout 2012 series.
On a recent trip to Hawaii (11/27 – 12/10) I was given the chance to play with the brand new Sony NEX 5N camera and an even newer Nauticam housing for it. Obviously this camera is quite a bit more advanced than the Sony Cybershot TX7 I have talked about in my starter camera post.
Since I only had the camera for 1 day prior to my trip, I didn’t really have time to learn all the bells and whistles on this system. The first step I had to do was figure out how to put the housing together and then the camera in the housing. When first looking at the housing it looks rather complex (it was made even more complex for me because I had no documentation). After about 10-15 minutes of reviewing the various parts, I was able to fairly easily figure out how to put the unit together, attach the camera to the unit and try it out.
The camera has many advanced features, of which I only had enough time to scratch the surface but I tested the ability by snapping a few shots in my hotel room, with the lights off, the shades pulled (very low light) and I was shocked at how much I was able to pick up in a photograph. This is not true for the video mode as that definitely needs good light in order to shoot a good video.
After playing above the water with the camera in my hotel room, it came time to get wet with the camera. One of the
A close up of a Titan Scorpion Fish shot with the Sony NEX 5N
cool things I wanted to try with the camera was shooting video in 1080P 60p (60 frames per second). The quality is simply amazing. I am finding however, that in this super high-end mode, Windows Live Movie Maker does not seem to be able to properly import the video.
Both Sony Vegas and Adobe Premier are capable of importing the videos, but both of those programs are far more complex, so one disadvantage of the higher video mode is that the simple, and easy to use video editor (Windows Live Movie Maker in my case) hasn’t been able to process the codec correctly.
As I get the photo’s and videos from this camera edited, I will post them here, but things I noticed right off the bat compared to the TX7 was how quickly and correctly the camera focused for still shots, especially smaller items. With the TX7 trying to focus on small items requires many tries, zooming out and back in, and other tricks to get a shot, while the NEX 5N almost always was able to correctly focus on what I wanted in a very quick succession (10 shots per second quick if I wanted).
One problem I found when shooting video (and a few times for stills) was that autofocus on the camera would sometimes focus in and out of the particulate in the water vs the image I wanted to shoot. The video that shows this clearly happening was when I was swimming with Hammerheads (a VERY cool experience). See how the camera comes in and out of focus of the sharks vs the near floating particulate?
I would have loved to spend more time with this camera learning the in’s and out’s, as well as mastering the best settings for both the camera and the external flash in order to get the most optimal photographs. What I did discover was that for video shooting, the best light was a Light & Motion Sola Video 1200.
In all, this was an amazing camera and housing to use, and I found the quality of my photos and videos increased dramatically while still having the compact size I love about the TX7. No big bulky DSLR and heavy housings to carry around.
One last note that was one of the GREATEST features of this system was that shooting video and shooting a photograph are accomplished with two different buttons on the housing (and camera) such that I was able to switch between video and photography without having to use any menus. If I wanted a picture, I simply pushed the photo button, and if I wanted video, I simply pushed the video button. It was amazing to easily switch back and forth to get both types of images.
The first underwater camera I used (and still the only one I own so far) for scuba diving is the Sony Cybershot DCS-TX7 with the Sony Marine housing.
For basic underwater photography and videography the camera is ok, but sadly the camera was fairly limiting for underwater photography (in terms of getting good color, and configuring it for underwater shots).
This camera, however, shines when it comes to shooting 1080i underwater videos. Most of the video’s on my website so far were shot with this camera.
If you need a relatively inexpensive underwater setup that can double as a great above water point and shoot and video camera then this one is for you.
It is very light weight, easy to travel with, and the underwater housing works great.
In the end however, this is a starter camera setup, so if you are really going to get into underwater photography or videography then this system will only take you so far.
Problems with the camera for underwater use:
In housing mode (to use it in the underwater housing) you can not configure many options, including ISO. This makes it hard to use external flash correctly, causing either too blue or too washed out of photo’s.
The auto-focus had problems with particulate in the water, as many cameras do, but also could not properly focus on a subject in crevices and the like.
Battery life was limiting underwater. The battery could make it through a 1 hour dive no problem, however, it would not endure a second 1 hour dive. You will need at least 1 hot spare battery and a dry place to switch it on your surface interval for each additional dive.
Taking pictures of very small creatures was not effective with this camera. It does a far better job with larger items.
Next up… my use of the Sony NEX 5N camera and Nauticam housing for it…
