Comments on: First Underwater Images from the Canon G-10

By: Steven Lehner

Steven Lehner — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:37:36 +0000

Sorry to bug you one last time, how do I set “follow focus”. Not familiar with that?

I’ll be going to Mexico with my new G10 since the G11 has not been released yet.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:24:20 +0000

Hi Dennis,

I’m not familiar with Lightroom. I assume that it allows you to adjust the tint and colour temperature (and MANY other things) in great detail BEFORE loading into Photoshop.

I’ve found that the main reason that most people are not happy with their UW photos, no matter what camera and software that they are using is that they forget the first rule: The closer, the better. Most of my shots are taken at less than one metre. In fact most are taken at less than 30 cm. The less water between your camera and subject, the better.

If you like, you can email to me a few low-res images of your shots that you are not happy with and I can tell you what I think may be the problem.

Later,
MadDog

By: Denis

Denis — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:09:31 +0000

I have the same set up and I took it out for the first time last week. I thought I had decent images until I saw your work Jan – utterly amazing!!!

I’m going to have to try your settings the next time I go diving.

I had the camera set to 100 ISO with shutter speed of ~125. I did some lightroom work on the raw images, however they are far from being as clean as crisp as what youve done.

Any further advice you can offer on technique and settings would be greatly appreciated.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Sounds as if you’re already doing pretty much everything that I do, so no more advice, Steven.

I’d be very interested to hear back from you when you’ve had a chance to test out the G11 and housing. You are going to get the factory housing, I suppose. I’ve had good luck so far with the G series Canon housings.

I found very little difference between the G9 and the G10. I only bought the G10 because my G9 was stolen and dropped by the thief when a cop conked him over the head. It never worked right in the housing after that. I still carry it as an ‘everyday’ camera. I got the G10 and housing because I enjoyed the G9 so much, but was disappointed to see only an incremental improvement in image quality. They obviously went for megapixels instead.

From what I read, it looks as if they have corrected that error of judgement with the G11. The two gripes that I have with the G10 are high noise and less than sterling dynamic range. You can see it in the shots. The G11 claims to address both of those issues to some degree. The question is, “How much.” Those of us who are stuck in the price range of top-end point and shoots will have to live with noise until the market for full-frame sensors drives the price down enough for makers to start using larger sensors in the camera that we can afford. I hope I live that long.

If you get good results from the G11 I might sell the G10 and spring for a new rig. Let me know.

Jan

By: Steven Lehner

Steven Lehner — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:29:42 +0000

Thanks so much, I just ordered the G10 but think I may go ahead and go with the G11 and housing. It sounds like it is a far better setup for underwater. Sounds like you have the same opinion?

And yes, RAW is the only way to go for your diving photography

I’ve been using the G9 but don’t care to pay for the repair cost that was already not fixed correctly by Precision.

Any final advise before I pull the trigger on the G11 and housing?

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:33:42 +0000

Steve, I keep my G10 set firmly on ISO 80 unless I really need more speed for a certain shot. Even 200 gives me noise that I don’t like. As far as focus is concerned, lately, I’ve had it set on the “follow focus” setting (gives you a blue focus frame so you’ll know that it’s set). Another thing that I do is keep the camera set in a spot metering mode. I like the way that I can move the camera slightly to catch just the right exposure. If you set it that way and play with it a bit, you’ll see what I mean. I wish that Canon had brought out the G11 sooner. I would have chosen it. It has a CMOS sensor that gives half the noise and four times the dynamic range. It’s down from 14.7 to about 10 megapixels, but most of my images never get printed bigger than the cover of a magazine, so it doesn’t make any difference. If you’ve followed my journal, you know that I prefer available light to flash. On a bright day, at 20 or 25 metres or less you’ll get quite acceptable shutter speeds shooting in the RAW mode at ISO 80. Fast movers may require flash, but that usually doesn’t come out well anyway, because you get ‘ghosting’. Shooting deeper, I accept that I’m going to have a slow shutter speed and try to brace for it. Photoshop and the Adobe Camera RAW filter are essential. As far as I’m concerned, the RAW mode, Photoshop, and Adobe Camera RAW filter are the cornerstones of UW shooting. If you’re not doing it that way, you’re wasting your time.

By: Steven Lehner

Steven Lehner — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:51:52 +0000

Can you enlighten us on the camera settings you use. Especially the focus settings. Also, what is the max ISO you use. I know I got a lot of noise with my G9 when going past 200

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:18:54 +0000

Ian, I have no experience using a red filter. Your G10 will capture images in the RAW mode, which keeps the three colour channels separate. If you have Adbobe Photoshop (any version CS2 or later) you can use Adobe Bridge to open your RAW files into the Camera RAW filter. This will allow you do adjust your tint (first) and then your Colour Temperature to get just what you saw underwater. Shooting in the JPG mode with a filter will give you something that might look okay, but the colours are not natural. There is plenty of information available on the web concerning this technique. There are also other programs that will handle the RAW mode. This techniques also eliminates the problem of “when do I use my red filter”?

By: Ian Cloggie

Ian Cloggie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:47:54 +0000

Some incredible shots ,
I have just purchased the canon housing for my G10 as Im off to the Maldives next week.
I will be doing a lot of snorkeling this trip as Im taking my 10 year old daughter with me.
At what sort of depth would I start to need to use my red filter?
Would it help even in shallow water while snorkeling?

Thanks Ian.

By: MadDog

MadDog — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:04:17 +0000

Hi Doug,

The G11 looks as if it might be an even better UW camera. It has a third less pixels, but I’d be willing to bet that the noise levels will be significantly lower – that seems to be what they are saying. The G10 gives good results down to about 20 metres with available light (overhead bright sun and clear water) if you shoot RAW and use the Adobe Camera Raw filter to pre-process for colour temperature and tint. I never use flash unless there is no choice. I get much better results from available light and the few tricks that you need to make it work. If I were going to get another outfir, it would be the G11 and the factory housing. If you’ve never tried UW in available light, you have a treat in store. However it only works with the right software. Email me if you want some hints.

MadDog