[Coral-List] underwater camera

[Todd Barber]

Hi Trees,

The Reef Ball Foundation's Coral Team has had very good results using the 
Cannon Powershot 400 series.  The have an inexpensive housing that is rated 
to 100 feet.  The trick to taking pictures in natural light is to set the 
white balance just before taking pictures and change it whenever you change 
depths.  This can be done with the Cannon....whatever camera you get make 
SURE you can set the white balance with the controls available on the 
housing...many camera housings cannot control this feature on many cameras.

The only disadvantage is the Cannon housing is plastic....so you have to be 
a bit careful with it heat wise.  Also, if you are taking allot of pictures 
(more than 50 or so) in a short period of time, the lens tends to fog 
(common in most battery operated cameras) but using a little bit of mask 
defog on the underwater housing lens will usually stop this problem.

Happy shooting.


"take only pictures and leave only footprints,"

Todd Barber
Chairman Reef Ball Foundation, Inc.
3305 Edwards Court
Greenville, NC 27858
reefball at reefball.com

http://www.artificialreefs.org
http://www.reefball.org
http://www.reefball.com

Direct: 252-353-9094
mobile: 941-720-7549
Fax 425-963-4119

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Trees Seas" <treesandseas at yahoo.com>
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 2:34 AM
Subject: [Coral-List] underwater camera


> Hello
>
> I'd like to ask for advice on a digital camera (with
> an underwater housing) that takes good underwater
> pictures in natural light. I generally work  in the
> 5-20m depth range, taking still photos of benthos, so
> I usually use natural light to save on power. In my
> experience not all cameras that take good pictures
> above water can do the same underwater. I don't mind
> having to do a little color correction afterwards but
> I've had experience with some cameras whose underwater
> photos canNOT be color corrected.
> Does anyone know of a good model with 7-8 megapixel
> resolution? (A zoom/macro setting good enough to show
> corallites in detail would be a definite bonus).Any
> recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks a lot
> Michelle Reyes
>
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