Need recomendation on DSLR camera

[valice]

if so, it maybe because your camera unable to focus inside the tank. Those happen with my compact camera (Fuji F11).

If your hand shaking then you might want to take photo with higher ISO.

Not exactly true on this part. Number enemy of aquatic photography is lighting.
With compacts that do not give you manual setting, you will have a problem of the camera automatically giving you slow shutter speeds to compensate for the low lights. Therefore, shaky hands or moving objects will give you the blurred pictures.

Increasing ISO will definitely help to compensate for the low lights. However, best method is still improving light source and also knowing your subjects and the capability of the equipment.

Taking the example of Benny's camera-phone, the subjects were slow moving and the positions they were at has alot of lights. Therefore, it came out brilliant.

And when he meant by correct setup, it is with much more lights than what the conventional tank lighting can provide.

Great to see the Aquatic Photography Group coming back up!

luenny,
can I join?am using fuji s6500fd. prosumer camera.
no budget for dslr.
richard

All are welcome Richard! Don't need to have a DSLR. Prosumer, compacts are all welcome! We can all learn together.

[illumnae]

great tips vincent...thanks =) looks like i'll have to invest in alot more lights for my tank just for photography purposes

[ranmasatome]

Well... they aren't awesome but its just to prove a point... here are some pictures of mine...all take with a compact camera...and some additional lighting...

Gourami


Shrimp


Tetra - by the way.. i would love to reshoot these fellas but i've only ever seen them once in singapore....guess what it is?? haha..


Local Goby that i found..


Plecos..


And even plants..


no excuses guys..

[eeeeemo]

hello im not good at photography though id love to pick it up soon. no point having such beautiful pets but no one to share with =)

heres a pic of my fish. also taken with a lousy digi cam. Don't know prosumer or not.

olympus C730 3.2megapix only!!!

[luenny]

luenny,
can I join?am using fuji s6500fd. prosumer camera.
no budget for dslr.
richard

Sure Richard. The more the merrier. Got so many experts around here you can ask questions. Best part is you can go influence your brother to upgrade his camera and pass his current one to you.

Hey guys, let's start poisoning Richard to get a DSLR ... hehehe!!

[luenny]

Ok, since people are showing the shots taken on compact cameras. Here's mine. No PP done here except to resize to the forum's allowable size. I didn't bother about PP when I was using compact. Picture 2, 3 and 4 were taken without flash. Only existing aquarium lights. Pic 1 is with flash (that's what the EXIF info says).

[illumnae]

looks like i'm the only one who sucks with phototaking =(

[wasabi8888]

Include me in the cirlce of 'phototaking suckers'....

Luenny, what is the pleco in your 2nd pic? I like it..

I think we super OT

[luenny]

That's a leopard frog pleco. I think it is L134.

[trident]

Luenny,
I guess more is better and we can focus on shooting fishes, which is what I shoot most of the time. Here's a shot of what the Fuji S6500fd can do.

[eeeeemo]

besides playing with ISO settings how to improve shots for fast moving fishes?

[trident]

Luenny,
no need to poison me, I already wanted to get a DSLR for a long time, just no budget.

eeeeemo, I find it quite difficult to shoot small fast swimming fishes especially with compact or prosumer. The focusing is slower than a DSLR. Only way to improve is have very bright light, open aperture to the biggest, focus at a place where you think they will go, lock focus and when they are there, shoot. I do that, I hope that helps.

[Shadow]

What I usually do is focus the camera to some object about the same distant with the object you want to photo. You can do this by pressing the button half way (not sure all compact camera have this function). The drawback is your finger might get cramp because pressing half way for long time while waiting for the fish to be in the right posse

[ranmasatome]

to get the fastest focus.. dont use auto focus.. either it is compact or dslr... you never shoot fishes with autofocus.. all focus is manual and done moving the camera most of the time. so it doesn't really matter whether its dslr or compact...whatever autofocus you use will loose out to the human body...you also dont want the biggest aperture.. because that decreases your DOF..
Generally what you want is small aperture, lots of lights.

[luenny]

besides playing with ISO settings how to improve shots for fast moving fishes?

Playing with ISO settings is not really a good way to shoot faster objects. Only use it as a last resort (or if you have a D3 that can allow you to shoot decent pictures with ISO6400). Otherwise, high ISO may give you noise (depending on which camera you use).

[Simon]

use remote flash with high sync. more lights will make your life easier

[luenny]

use remote flash with high sync. more lights will make your life easier

Talking about remove flash. Does anybody know where to get a flash clamp?

[Simon]

clamp for flash? for what purpose? and how about do you want to mount the flash?

[luenny]

I was thinking to clamp it to the top of the tank and shoot down at an angle. (Open top tank)

[Simon]

just handhold the flash