Re: [Leica] Underwater Photography - Slightly OT

[Dennis Painter <dwp@deltanet.com>]

Tom Finnegan wrote:

> My wife is forcing me to go to Maui for a week. I would of course much
> prefer to stay here at home trying to keep track of whom is being rude and
> insulting to whom, but there is no getting out of this trip. As part of this
> little adventure we will be doing a bit of snorkeling. My wife is very
> intruiged with the idea of doing a little underwater photography, but didn't
> want me to go out and spend a bundle on fancy underwater camera gear. So I
> picked up a little Canon Sureshot A1 camera that is good down to 16 feet.
> The A1 is basically an armored and sealed point-and-shoot with a 35/3.5
> lens. After the trip the A1 will become my 5-year old daughters camera.
>
> This now slowly brings me to my real question. Now that I have this little
> camera, what film would people recommend for use both above and below water?
> I'm assuming that a 400 speed color negative film is what I want but I'm not
> familiar with all the assorted flavors out there.
> - Royal Gold 400
> - Supra 400
> - Gold 400
> - Porta 400 NC
> - Porta 400 VC
> - 400 NPH
> - Superia 400
> - ??????
>
> Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Tom Finnegan
> Seattle

I have used mainly Royal Gold, both 100 and 400. In bright Hawaii sun the 100
works fine.

I don't go deep snorkling and seldom see any problem with too much blue. This is
a snorkling camera, no a diving camera so unless you are really good at free
diving you will be near the surface.

You need to get close, then closer, to get good UW pictures. Best way to do this
is in shallow water. It's surprising how much you can find in 3 to 6 ft of water
in Hawaii.

The camera is fixed focus underwater but there are 2 settings, one for close up.
I don't remember what distances are but the manual will tell. The close up
setting requires holding the lever in place, else it springs back. I never had a
problem with these settings underwater. If you aren't close it doesn't matter
because distant objects in UW photos usually have no interest. The 400 film will
give a smaller aperture with greater DOF but my experience is that bright sun
overhead and the 100 is good. If you don't have bright sun then colors tend to
be dull.

A lot of things can affect sharpness when you are UW. Turbidity in the water,
underwater springs with fresh water mixing with sea water causes havoc with
images.

Despite what Canon says my experience with transparency film above water
indicated the meter wasn't up to it, I would stick with print film.

IMO Nikonos is overkill for snorkling. Scuba, sure, but a lot of maintenance and
if you need flash, more $$$.

Be patient, LOOK!, and get close. I have had other snorklers swim past in a
hurry to go 'somewhere' when I was taking photos of moray eels and other
interesting critters.  (ok, I missed getting a photo of a flying gunard, but
that's another story)

Have a great trip!

Dennis (likes snorkling) Painter