Canon S3 newbie

[lEddyl]

Can any pros advise wat's the accessories i need to get good shot on CRS
i'm really blur in photography

Wat to purchase?
adapter?
filters?

My tank thickness is 12mm
so far i can only manage to get clear shot if the shrimp stay closer.

Or do u think i need a DSLR camera?

thanks in advance.
Happy New Yr

[benny]

Eddy,

It would be greatly appreciate if you could avoid using SMS abbreviations such as 'wat', u, yr, etc in your posts.

To use the S3 effectively, you might want to consider more light, or slave flash. If you tank set up is small, also consider a small table top tripod. Lastly, to get closer you might want to invest in a close up lens. Or you can use photoshop to crop down the picture if you are not making large prints out of them.

Hope that helps. If you need more advice, post some pictures and I'm sure the guys will try to help you trouble shoot your shooting set up.

Cheers,

[hwchoy]

what you need is light. the S3 already has a high optical zoom so presumably in super macro mode you will get rather decent magnification. have you read the manual? you need to turn on the flower symbol to get macro mode, which allows you to focus very close. zoom all the way in with macro, try to use manual focusing as well.

[lEddyl]

benny: apology for the SMS abbreviations. I took some with the built-in flash, doesn't looks nice. currently shots taken with only 4x 39watt 6500k lights 'ON'. Do you think changing to 10000k tube is effective? Will post some picture, on night shift this week.

hwchoy: i've been using super macro and manual forcus. But with macro mode, no zooming is allow. I also did some search at clubsnap. Folks there are more on wideshots

[valice]

Maybe you want to post up the pictures which you took with the built-in flash?

Usually, we (DSLR users) don't use the built-in flash, but make use of lots of lights projected from the top over the subject that we want to use. So for PnS users, the way to do it will be to blast your tank lights. I believe you have a 3ft tank, so what's the depth? If it is 1.5feet, it might be enough. 10000K lights will make your tank look slightly brighter than your 6500K lihts, so you might want to try.

Using Benny's suggestion, try offing your built-in flash, use a tripod or a stable ground and shoot. This is to force your camera to open the aperture for a longer time (slower shutter speed) and in the process, will be susceptable to hand shake, so need the tripod to prevent that.

Give it a try and post the results.
Have fun shooting...

[benny]

hmm... you are trying to shoot your shrimps in a 4 or 5 ft tank?

It might be easier to buy a 10 cm cube tank (S$20) with a small hang on filter (S$12). Then add a 2 X 11 W light (S$18 X 2). Put the tank on 2 phone books to prop it up higher and use a table tripod to hold your camera steady. As you shrimps don't move as fast, you will have a good chance of catching them in a static position even if you don't use flash.

Cheers,

[hwchoy]

strange you can't zoom in macro mode. they are two separate functions and the G5 can do that. have you tried zooming in first, before turning on macro? also if you are using manual focus, you acutally do not need macro mode since you just manual adjust the focus to minimum.

[eddyq]

I wish I had the money you guys have... to buy DSLR.

[hwchoy]

you don't need a DSLR, what you need is LIGHT! I used a G5 for a long time and within limits, I managaed to get pretty good pictures. Ask Benny.

[lEddyl]

hwchoy: tested too. once super macro 'ON' zooming will goes back to default.






Thanks for the helpful advise guys.
Photo taken with the built-in flash turns yellowish.
here's some i took today. without tripod and additional lights
all taken from 5-7cm away. any further away, can't get detail view of the shrimp.

Since there's a limitation for my camera to shot far macro objects
do i need a macro len or telephoto ?
saw a local site selling macro len DCR-250 and MSN-202. $110-140
i've try changing to 10,000k tubes first before getting more flashs

[lEddyl]

hmm... you are trying to shoot your shrimps in a 4 or 5 ft tank?

It might be easier to buy a 10 cm cube tank (S$20) with a small hang on filter (S$12). Then add a 2 X 11 W light (S$18 X 2). Put the tank on 2 phone books to prop it up higher and use a table tripod to hold your camera steady. As you shrimps don't move as fast, you will have a good chance of catching them in a static position even if you don't use flash.

Cheers,

it's a 3x1.5x1.5 tank

great ideal.
i'm preparing for a 1.5ft cube now. too big?

[hwchoy]

a 10000K tube doesn't give you more light (if their lumens ratings are the same) but the colour would be more blue compared with a 6500K tube. You need more wattage (i.e. more lumens) but it is close to impossible to do unless you should things that move very little.

Try adjusting your white balance if the picture comes out yellowish or whatever.

[ranmasatome]

I am PnS user.. its rubbish that you can't shoot good pictures with PnS.. you just need light.. and a tripod would vastly help.

When we say more light.. we mean ALOOOOOOOOOT more.. so adding a few more bulbs wont help.. neither would changing the colour temperature of your tank lights.. none of that matters when speaking in comparison to a FLASH... have you looked into a flash when you flash it off?? kinda blinding isn't it?? thats what we mean when we say more light... its an intense amount.. but only for a very short time. It matters especially when you're shooting small things like shrimps... for bigger fishes and stuff it is possible to add more "physical lights" and get a better picture.. but when you're going macro.. what you need is more intensity.

Heres just 2 examples of what PnS can do with the right lighting and equipment..

A shrimp...


And something MUCH smaller than your Shrimp... can even see leg hair..

Bonuses for anyone that can guess the genus.. or make it easier.. the family..

[lEddyl]

hwchoy
ok. thanks. key point intensity!


ranmasatome
Do you mean even for object deep inside the tank. e.g 1 ft away i need high intensity light too. May i know what flash you using?

[valice]

Regardless of the tank depth, you will still need high intensity light.
The reason is so that we can make use of a faster shutter speed as slow shutter speed will cause motion blur due to the fish or subject motion.

For flash, you can use either the 430EX, 550EX or 580EX depending... But for aquatic photography, there is not much difference actually... But for S3, you can probably only use the high power flash HF-DC1 right? But not sure if you can get hold of it...

[hwchoy]

vincent, what is this HF-DC1? the problem wtih S3 is that it has no hot shoe so very terok to add flash.

vincent how come never reply my SMS? Want to give you fish also so difficult?

[valice]

Regarding the HF-DC1, I got the information from the S3 specification sheet...
Found some information on this flash for the S3.

Canon has developed a new optional accessory called the High Power Flash HF-DC1. The flash is a supplementary unit that operates wirelessly and increases the effective flash range up to approximately 30 feet. The HF-DC1 flash is supplied with a mounting bracket so it can be attached to the camera, but it can also be hand-held or mounted on a tripod or accessory light stand to adjust the lighting angle for pro-like quality results. Multiple HF-DC1 units can be synchronized with a single camera for even greater lighting flexibility. This smart high-powered slave flash unit is compact and compatible with almost every PowerShot digital camera.

[hwchoy]

so it is triggered by the onboard flash? sounds good, but have to rig a shield to prevent the onboard flash from flashing the tank.

[valice]

Seems like it...
And it gives the flexibility to PowerShot users...
Only problem is whether it can be found in Singapore...

[Ivan]

Hi, I'm currently using Lumix FZ 7 to take these pictures with the help of a Nikon slave flash.

p1020309_std.jpg

p1020302_std.jpg

p1020256_std.jpg

p1020296_std.jpg

p1020314_std.jpg

Sorry, my tank a bit dirty.