white balancing raw files

because of technical issues i had to dive with out my strobes today, using only my new olympus E520. (technical issues: i am getting old and keep forgetting things. this time i forgot my tray so i couldnt attach my two strobes to the housing)

i was shooting RAW+jpg. the jpg was at the highest quality setting (probably a bit unnecessary if you have the raw file as well). i was using auto white balance, auto iso and shutter priority on all ambient light photos. i tried some quick white-balancing using picasa and the "pick neutral color" tool on both the jpgs and raw files. i clicked at the same region for the white balancing in both the jpg and raw file (usually a patch of sand or bare rock in the photo).

some samples of post-white-balancing. 

the original (jpg, but the raw is very similar looking, not as sharp and with some more highlights), 

resulting image after manually post-whitebalancing the jpg file (left) or the raw file (right)

  

same deal here: 

white balance done on the jpg versus raw

  

and some more examples of applying white balancing on the raw files (original versus white-balanced):

  

there is a bit of a difference, even with very basic quick fixes (which is all i have time and skill to do). white-balancing raw seems also easier: in the jpg files if you click some seemingly neutral looking color which happens not to be a good area to use, then the photo is all messed up. so some more clicks might be required to get a good result. the raw file is more forgiving it seems. In most of the case in these pictures i used parts of the sand for white balaning (avoiding the highlights on the sand, so i picked the more dark sandy regions). In the photos with the diver (greg) i tried both the sand and the buckles on the tank (good thing he is using steel ones and not black plastic...). the sand was not as good in that particular shot. All photos were taken at bare island east side (left), at roughly  10-12m depth, with seriously crappy weather (rainy windy cloudy cold). visibility was very bad, maybe 4-5m at some points, but maybe a bit more in the last photo above. max auto iso was set to 800 which was not needed, should be ok at 400.

All photos available at my flickr page

new sea & sea DX-2G ?

as i read on digifish.nl/ sea & sea might release the successor to the sea & sea DX-1G. according to what i read on the web, the new sea&sea will be using the ricoh caplio GX-200 (following information from dprview.com):

• 24mm f2.5-4.4 lens, 3x zoom
  
• sensor image stabilization
  
• macro at 1cm
  
• manual focus and raw
  
• hotshoe
  
• no optical viewfinder (an external viewfinder can go on the hotshoe)
  
• ISO to 1600
  
• 12mp

a few reviews for the ricoh camera are listed on dcviews.com. i dont see a lot of differences with the previous model.

panasonic lx3

Might be a great camera underwater. Problem is, no housing exists. Yet. I was reading through some reviews about the lx3, including this one, apparently showing a 2 stop advantage (or some advantage..) over the G9 in terms of noise and lens aperture, as discussed here. 

One link led to another, and i saw this post on dpreview.com about a possibility that UK-germany is planning to make a housing for the LX3. uk-germany was making a housing for the panasonic lx2, as you can see on digideep. odd looking one for sure. 

would be great news. panasonic lx3 looks like a great compact camera: leica f2.0 lens 24-60mm (35mm equivalent), full manual control including manual focus, image stabilization (lens), raw, hot shoe.

cannot find any other information about this at the time. 

is there any other information around?

nimar housing for canon 450D

canon 450D (XSi) is about $700 these days with the kit lens. (USD)

the cheapest housing on the market seems to be the Nimar NI303D, $1150 (USD) including the port (for the standard kit 18-55 lens). 

total under $2K, not bad. the nimar housing has a standard nikonos bulkhead. not sure if it works with inon strobes for TTL. (photos are from the nimar site).  also the housing does not have a hotshoe on top for fixing focus lights.

the dSLR barrier

the barrier to dSLR:
(for the following comparison i use canon G10 versus canon 450D)

price

• top of the line compact is about 600AUD, housing about 300AUD, total of about 1000AUD
  
• entry level dSLR camera with a kit lens is about 700AUD, housing with a port 1500AUD, total 2200
  

weight

• compact is 390gr, and the housing is next to nothing. total of 500-600gr.
  
• dSLR is 425gr without lens, lens is 250gr, housing 3200kg (ikelite housing for canon 450D), total of 4kg.

size

• a compact is compact barely there, can fit in a (big) pocket 
• dSLR needs an extra suitcase and an extra hotel room to fit in when traveling.

features

• a good compact has manual controls, macro, attaching wet lenses, video, all in one
  
• a dSLR is not very flexible (for entry level models), not flexible with strobes
  

So, from a relatively affordable, $1K 0.6kg small, manageable, easy to travel with, all around camera that can do everything at any time, you go to a very expensive 4kg, huge, not-so-flexible-at-all set up. so (entry level) dSLRs are much more expensive, terribly heavier, ridiculously bigger, horribly inflexible.

and that's good: if we take into account all those issues, the price difference between the top compacts and entry level dSLRs is the least of the problem. as for the rest, well, one just has to get used to carrying a closet around while diving. until technology manages to catch up.

new Canon G10 and WP-DC28

canon announced the G10 (top of the line compact) as well as a matching underwater housing WP-DC28. (photos are from the canon website)

about the G10: 

• 28mm wide lens with 5x zoom, 
  
• i-constrast, which is something that claims to boost brightness in order to retain detail in the shadows. sounds great.
  
• one more dial, for exposure compensation
  
• raw, 
  
• 1/1.7" CCD sensor with loads of megapixels.
  

  

the WP-DC28 housing looks a lot like the WP-DC11 for the G7 (and the one for G9) with a large oval shaped lens barrel which made it impossible to use wide angle wet lenses for the previous models. i guess the same will be true for the G10.

any hope ikelite will choose to make one of their new "compact" housings for this camera? that would be great.

fantasea dSLR housings no more?

cannot really find much info on fantasea housings for dSLR cameras. did fantasea give up on making housings for SLRs and only makes compact camera housings now?

panasonic G1 - micro fours thirds

panasonic announced the first micro four thirds camera, the Lumix DMC-G1, along with two micro four thirds lenses, 14-45 and 45-200 that include image stabilization. (the photo is from the panasonic press release)

here are some links to read more:

• imaging resource with hands-on preview
  
• dpreview hands-on preview
  
• dcviews.com (press release)
  
• divephotoguide.com (press release)

Panasonic also announced that we should expect a couple more (micro four thirds) lenses early 2009 (one of them is a 14-140). the new panasonic g1 is smaller than the olympus E420 in every dimension (the imagingresource.com site has a good photo comparing the two cameras). 

 

some good things:

• 23 area auto focus, 
  
• very fast contrast detect auto focus (according to the dpreview preview), 
  
• electronic viewfinder (optical viewfinders with pentaprisms mirrors and all that, are sooo last century)
  
• depth of field preview
  
• shutter speed effect preview (camera changes the refrsh rate of live view to mimic the shutter speed effect)
  
• 3 inch swivel lcd monitor
  

other things:

• video/movie mode? why no video?
  
• and where are the underwater housings?
  

pricing is expected in early october according to the press release. but this site mentions an estimate of 840USD (inc lens). the camera should be available mid november.

new Nikon D90

The new Nikon D90 has been announced (see preview on dpreview). the D90 has a new 12.3MP DX format CMOS sensor, offers a movie mode, live-view with contrast detect AF, ISO 100/200-3200/6400, 3" lcd, and image sensor cleaning. There is also a compact gps unit available that connects on the hotshoe.
the price tag is 1000USD (camera body only) on bhphotovideo.com, expected in october.

hmm. i dont know.

i will just continue to look forward to the first olympus micro four thirds camera...

housing for pentax w60

the pentax w60 was announced on 23-May-2006 (no, no, i am not that late finding out, here, i posted about it earlier..). I just found (through digifish.nl)some information about a Seatool 40m housing for it. But the only page i've seen is in japanese; here is a link to a google-translated version of the seatool.net page.



the page mentions a price of about 350AUD and a release date of august 8. and some accessories, such as M67 adapter, optic fibre adapter, and a close-up lens. Apparently the seatool products are available directly from seatool.net (japanese only) website. You can buy all the w60 goods here (again this is a link through google-translate).
The pentax optio W60 is waterproof itself (4m) has a wide 28mm lens, ISO to 6400 (on a 1/2.33" 10mp sensor..) , manual focus, no image stabilization.

was wondering if anyone has seen this housing available in any other site on the web. the US version of seatool (seatoolUSA.com) only lists dSLR and video camera housings as far as i could see.

micro four thirds

Excellent news !

Olympus / Panasonic announced the micro four thirds format, which is basically the four thirds format without the mirror box and the optical viewfinder. The lens mount becomes slightly smaller too, but will still accept the four thirds lenses with an adapter. New micro four thirds lenses should be more compact.

I read the press release from dpreview.com. But of course the news can be found in many many pages and blogs.

ok now, when will the first olympus micro four thirds appear on the market?

new blog on the block

Bjorn has started a new blog on diving, the "Sydney Diver Daily", only not so daily in his posts i guess. There is an interesting post there about the salvo 12W LED canister light.

quick price check for dSLRs

A quick price check for entry level dSLRs with a housing
(prices are in US dollars, so also in AU dollars..)

• Olympus E520 in an Olympus PT-E05 housing, with the standard lens port PPOE05 :
  700 + 830 + 300 = $1830
• Canon 450D in Ikelite with port:
  800 + 1330 + 200 = 2330
• Canon 1000D has a price tag of 700USD, but not sure about a housing for it.
• Nikon D60 in fantasea (fantasea housings prices include a port):
  630 + 1000 = 1630
• Nikon D80 in fantasea:
  950 + 1100 = 2050

I believe that the olympus housing is the only one (from the short list above) that allows the camera's internal strobe to be used (for use with external strobes connected with optic cables).

creatures of bare island: pygmy lionfish

We keep seeing a pygmy lionfish (possibly more than one?) at bare island. it has the strange habit of sitting inside sponges upside down, or pointing its "nose" straight down.

I was just reading this article about lionfish that threaten reefs in the Caribbean, so I remembered the lionfish photos i got from bare island, somehow!

The most recent encounter was saturday 19-Jul-2008. This time it was not hiding in the sponges as usual.

.
photos from 25-May-2008, and on 26-Apr-2008.



from 10-apr-2008, night dive:



More pics (14-Mar-2008)



I believe my first photos of this lionfish at bare island are from 30-Jan-2008.




Here are the photos that i got from different dives, side by side, oldest to most recent.

rumors of a new nikon P6000

I am reading through DivePhotoGuide.com that there are rumors about a new nikon P6000.
The specs mentioned in the photo that appears on flickr, in full size, include:

28mm eq. wide lens, Raw format, 6400 ISO, nikon's VR, 2.7in screen and 13.5 mpixels on a 1/1.7 sensor.

new Canon 1000D

canon 1000D announced, which is placed below 450D. most features are similar to 450D (including the live view with both phase and contrast detect auto focus) but with a smaller lcd screen, slightly slower in continuous mode, no spot metering, 7 point (instead of 9) AF, no highlight tone priority, and slightly less magnification on the viewfinder. for a detailed preview see the dpreview pages.

new pentax Optio W60

a new compact camera from pentax, which is

• waterproof to 3-4m (13ft) for 2h
• dustproof and freezeproof to -10C (13F)
• wide lens (28mm equivalent)
• manual focus
• 1cm macro focus
• 9 point TTL contrast detection AF (9 point, spot, auto tracking, macro, super macro, infinity, pan, manual focus)
• ISO up to 6400
• High-Quality Movie mode with HD resolution up to 1280 x 720 pixels
• 10mp, internal optical zoom 5x
• available in July 2008 for US $329.95

if only pentax would make a proper underwater housing for it. i like the idea of having (possibly as a second camera) a waterproof compact camera in a waterproof housing.

my first underwater camera was a pentax optio s30 in a pentax housing, and i was very very happy with it. especially the super macro mode. using just the camera's internal flash and super macro mode the photos (sometimes) were very good. i still cannot get such photos with my canon g7, two inon strobes, and an inon wet macro lens, after thousands of photos. some examples from my old pentax camera: one, two, three, four. a problem with my old pentax was that it was very very slow to focus and take a photo.

more info about the new pentax w60 on dcviews.com or the h2ocamera.com site.

dolphins

for the first time this saturday i saw

• dolphins while diving
• dolphins while ... driving !

cant believe there are many other cities around the world (or any) where someone can see dolphins while driving their car on a busy road with traffic jams and all that.

we saw two (small i think) dolphins at kurnell diving the leap to the steps, close to the steps and while we were at a depth of around 10m. after the dive, and while driving back into the city over the taren point bridge we saw dolphins again in botany bay with a few boats circling them.

high ISO with red filter

great visibility these days in sydney. it seems that the port jackson sharks are arriving. Here is a photo of an eastern blue devil fish we saw at shark point (sunday may 18).

i tried using high ISO with a red filter at 25-28m depth. With ISO set to Auto the speed would go down to 1/5 (shutter priority mode with speed set manually to 1/60, and aperture 2.8). i manually set the ISO to 800 to get good exposure speeds (at ISO 400 still there was not enough light). At 25-28m with ISO set at 800, i would get exposure speeds around 1/30 or 1/25 which is ok along with the image stabilization to avoid too much blur.

there is plenty of noise in the pictures. simple filters (such as the ones i use with picasa) will have trouble fixing the colors due to noise (following photos tint filter with 60-70% color preservation and the original next to it).

olympus E-520 and olympus housing PT-E05

New dSLR by Olympus, the E-520, with image stabilization (sensor), contrast detect AF in live-view mode (as well as phase detect AF through menus), Shadow Adjustment, and a matching underwater olympus housing PT-E05. about 699USD with the F3.5-5.6, 14 - 42 mm lens.

Cannot find any pricing for the PT-E05 housing yet. the PT-E03 housing (for E410) was about 1000USD including the port for the kit lens.

underwater housings for canon 450D / XSi

ikelite 6871.45 on bhphotovideo.com listed for $1,330 USD.
some more housings listed on digifish.com.

canon 450D/XSi preview

dpreview.com has published a part of its canon 450D/XSi hands-on preview. it is about half the usual review, the full review will follow within two weeks according to the website.

some features that look interesting:

• live view with edge detection auto focus
• highlight tone priority- according to dpreview, in this mode canon should capture more information in the bright areas of the image at the risk of more noise in the shadows
• better (or more) noise reduction in high iso
• "my menu"
• displaying the iso in the viewfinder

creatures of bare island: striated frogfish

interesting creatures from bare island:
i believe this is a striated frogfish (Antennarius striatus), a kind of anglerfish.



i got this photo in sydney - bare island, february 14, 2008. (canon G7 two inon strobes). i have a there are a couple more photos on my flickr site.
for more info see wikipedia or fishbase.

canon 450D / XSi dSLR

the new canon 450D is available in most places for around 900USD with the kit lens (IS 18-55).
No housing for it yet. Just to get an idea i looked through digideep.com, to see how long it took for the underwater housings to be available after the camera hit the market. i only looked at fantasea and ikelite to get an idea.

camera	announced	available	ikelite available	fantasea available
canon 450D/XSi	26-jan-2008	15-apr-2008 (for US, i guess)	under consideration
canon 400D/XTi	26-aug-2006	15-sep-2006	10-Oct-2006 1 month	1-Apr-2007 5.5 months
nikon D40	15-nov-2006	1-dec-2006	15-mar-2007 3.5 months	1-may-2007 4.5 months
nikon D200	28-oct-2005	1-nov-2005	4-apr-2005 (?) 6 months
nikon D70	12-dec-2003	12-mar-2004	12-may-2004 2 months	1-mar-2005, +1 year ! (announced 1-feb-2004??)

so fantasea is a bit slow with its housings, is it?

too bad, i would choose fantasea over ikelite since the price is better, and also some of their housings are slightly more compact. but if they take 6-12 months to get the housing out, well... that's not good, is it?

Olympus E-420: no olympus housing for it?

here is a thread from wetpixel.com on the subject. PT-E03 (the housing for E410) has been discontinued and olympus has not announced any plans to build a housing for E420.

photo opportunity

yesterday at shark point, i was taking a picture of a nudibranch:



and this little guy swam right next to the nudibranch, to get in the picture...
fish really like to be photographed it seems....

canon G7 raw

here is a post on tweaking G7 to produce raw- from the dpreview discussion forums.

new olympus E420

there is a new olympus E420 dSLR, available in may 2008. here is the announcement on the olympus australia site and the dpreview site.

Improved Live view with contrast autofocus (no mirror flap i guess), shadow adjust should improve some issues with dynamic range, high contrast scenes. about 500USD body only, as reported on dpreview.

Beneath The Sea - 2008: Photo & Video Competition

winning photos from the "Beneath The Sea - 2008" Photo & Video Competition.
i like the happy fish by Steven Kovacs (2nd in macro category)
well i like all of them really... the smiling fish was sort of funny.

the best-in-show photos (photographers) win trips to papua new guinea.
how about that. these days i was arranging my next overseas diving trip to papua new guinea...

Olympus waterproof compact cameras

Diving without a camera feels like sort of cheating. so easy to swim, no heavy camera rig with all the strobes lenses arms etc making you use up lots more air. it's just too easy.

So sometimes one might want to dive "without a camera". Which of course means diving with a smaller camera rig-- diving with no camera at all (really no camera) is impossible, lets face it. It makes no sense whatsoever.

I've been looking at the olympus waterproof cameras. Compact thin cameras, probably good to use on land, when traveling, a small camera that is easy to keep in a pocket. Also, when using them in a housing during diving, a leak is probably not a big problem since the camera itself is waterproof.

The images on this post are stolen from the olympus australia webpages (and link to them). There are several models, in, lets say, two categories: the ones waterproof to 3m and the ones waterproof to 10m. the newest model is the 1030SW (Shockproof-Waterproof).

see the olympus australia website for more info and more pictures or dpreview's page.

Olympus 1030SW, 10mpixels, wide 28-102mm equiv lens, 1/2.33" Type CCD, waterproof to 10m, shockproof for drops from up to 2m, crushproof for up to 100kg, freezeproof down to -10C. According to the olympus australia webpages, the camera has a 1fps for flash sequence shooting, or 6.9fps flash sequence shooting at 3MP.

Bad things about it: no aperture/shutter priority, no manual controls, no image stabilization. Only up to 10sec high quality (VGA) video recording. And also those stupid useless xD cards. But fortunately there seems to be a micro-SD to xD adapter.

Other models include 850SW and previous models 770 790, 795 etc.

Olympus makes proper underwater (40m) housings for the SW series. the 1030SW goes with the PT-043 housing, waterproof to 40m, with a threaded lens fitting (52mm) that can take wide angle, fisheye and closeup wet lenses, as well as red/color correction filters. A step-up ring (52 to 67mm) is available (by olympus and others).
The 1030SW is listed for 400USD, and the housing around 220USD (for the housing see for example from videodirect.com). Previous models are now much cheaper but the housings are about the same price as far as i can see. 790SW or 770SW are about 250USD.

Reading the reviews for SW series olympus cameras from dpreview and other websites it seems that the actual image performance of the camera is not that great, however the features and the underwater-friendly attitude of olympus make these cameras very attractive.

The newest model 1030SW is the best choice because of its wide 28mm equiv lens. The biggest problem is the lack of aperture/shutter priority and manual modes.

Blue ringed octapus and a lionfish

During a night dive at bare island last night we saw a blue ringed octapus sitting on top of some sponges. Unfortunately when i stuck my camera to its face it decided to hide and i couldnt get any decent photos of it.



abit further down there was a juvenile lionfish. It was a bit cold i thought, and I guess so did the lionfish that was hugging a sponge very tightly...



I was using my new Inon UCL-165 macro lens and i believe i had some minor problems focusing. mostly i need to get used to the lens i guess but i sort of thought the camera was slightly slower in focusing when my focus light was not aimed properly for example. but still i am quite happy with the new macro capabilities...