 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Welcome to Michael Andrew’s Blog!
Welcome to Michael's blog. Michael Andrew, (aka Michael The Maven) is a freelance photography instructor and tech innovator. Read More
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
G12 Testing & Giant Stingray |
So I have been going on more and more Scuba Scooter Dives with my good friends Greg and Liz Walker. The main problem with this is my Ikelite Water Housing is just too dang big to bring with, (it will create too much drag), and while the Go Pro Hero2 is a very small, affordable solution, it also has it's own hangups (no manual controls, no RAW, short battery life with monitor).
Ive been looking for something compact enough to fit into on of my BC pockets so it is streamlined, yet still has all the manual controls, video options, and most importantly, RAW. Shooting RAW allows me to correct a lot of white balance issues, and I wanted to test it out in a rather inexpensive housing. I know a lot of divers who like the Canon G12 , so I decided to take the plunge and check it out. This test was in a Canon Housing for G12 , though there are many better housings out there. I did not bring an extra strobe or any other lighting because I wanted to see how it performed. |
These shots were at about 55', where there is no red light. There was plenty of debris in the water, so this isnt the camera's fault. The original image is wayyy blue cast, which is common for shooting in water. The G12 corrected pretty well considering the depth. Here Greg is meeting a nice Octopus.
Greg spotted a HUGE Stingray. When I first spotted it, I thought it was a manta ray (which are enormous). It cant be a Bull Ray or a Southern Ray simply because it would be the wrong geography for them. There are rare Hawaiian rays, but these max out at about 3'. I would say this one was about 6 or 7' across (wing to wing). There was also an Ulua flying wing pilot with him, probably would eat the left overs of the Ray's Prey. |
| I didn't want to get too close because this was the thing that killed Steve Irwin, it started swimming towards me but I kept my distance. |
| Pretty interesting sight as I have never seen giant stingrays around Maui. |
There is also an underwater cave we like to check out. Ive been in it several times, but never been able to take a really great picture in there because it is so dark. Bumped up the ISO to 3200 and used out flashlights, and it worked good enough. This is Liz in the Cave.
I'm thinking the G12 is going to be a good solution for me. If I can get a compact strobe light, I can easily fold it up into my BC pocket for any kind of dive. If I am shooting Macro with my Ikelite and something big approaches (like a shark did one night) I should be able to grab the G12 and still get the shot. |
|
|
