[Coral-List] advice on lens for DSLR benthic photography

[João da Gama Monteiro]

Hi Dimitar

You should use a wide angle lens that will allow you to cover your quadrat
from closer. I would go for as wide angle as possible with  no or minor
deformation.
Make sure to use a fixed structure that assures distance and parallel
position and you will have to make sure that the area of your quadrat is
suitable for yous purposes (statistacally).
I use a 1 m2 quadrat, a 10.mm lens and the structure is huge...

Here are some papers on algae... They don¹t use CPCe but you can adapt
methods

Hope this has helped

-- 
João G. Monteiro
PhD Student
Dep. de Oceanografia e Pescas
Universidade dos Açores

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:18:38 +0200
From: Dimitar Berov <dimitar.berov at googlemail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] advice on lens for DSLR benthic photography
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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    <e70cfd570901200418k1ac0452nf41530620d13f742 at mail.gmail.com>
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Dear coral-listers,
I am a graduate student working at the marine ecology lab of the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and I am currently starting a PhD
project on the ecology of benthic macroalgae in the Black sea region.
I am looking into the possible uses of benthic photography as a means
of quantifying the percentage coverage of the benthos by dominant
macroalgal species. The idea is to use the methodologies developed for
tropical coral reef studies ( CPCE and field methods for photo
sampling) and combine that with destructive sampling and visual
transects. So far I haven't come across any macroalgal benthic studies
that use these methodologies and I am eager to see if good results
could come out with this approach.
 We are currently planning to purchase a Canon D450  underwater camera
system ( the sea&sea box/strobes) and I need some advice on the most
suitable camera lens for such studies. I assume that many of the
members of this list have a lot of experience with such studies and
equipment.. Would the 'kit' lens of the canon d450 system be suitable
for such studies ( 18-55 mm), or the quality of this 'cheaper' lens
would affect the quality of the data acquired. Is it worth investing
in higher quality lens for such a system, which models would you
recommend?
Thanks in advance,
Dimitar Berov


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