Eddy's Scuba Blog

Today was a chance to review the settings that I have used on my Olympus SP-350. Jack Drafahl was also a fan of the SP-350, so this was good opportunity to tweak some of my settings and learn from the masters.

I first learned what settings to use on the SP-350 with a private class that I took with Cathy Church in the Cayman Islands. She had taught me to use two settings that she stored on the "My Mode" settings, one for Macro and another for Wide Angle. Here's a table of those settings.

Mode Menu -> Setup Tab

Reset	Off
Language	User Preference
PW On Setup	User Preference
PW Off Setup	User Preference
Rec View	On
Speaker	Off
Beep	User Preference
Shutter Sound	User Preference
My Mode Setup	4 Custom Modes
File Name	Auto
Pixel Mapping	Run Occasionally
Screen Bightness	Middle point
Date	Date
Dual Time Setup	User Preference
M/Ft	User Preference
Video Out	User Preference - NTSC for US
AF Illuminator	Off
Short Cut	A: Flash+/-, B: ISO, C: Macro
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off
Custom Button	My Mode

This is what I have programmed as "My Mode 1":

MY MODE - Wide Angle

P/A/S/M/Scene	M
Fno	5.6
Shutter	1/125 sec
Monitor	On
Zoom	38mm
Flash Mode	Flash (Lightning Icon)
Metering	Center weighted (Screen with dot in the middle)
Macro (Flower Icon)	Off
Drive	Single
ISO	100
Timer/Remote	Off
Flash	0.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1 (Front Curtain)
Flash	External
Digital Zoom	Off
Noise Reduction	Off
AF Mode	Spot
Focus Mode	AF
Fulltime AF	Off
Microphone	Off
Time Lapse	Off
Resolution	SHQ or RAW
WB	Cloudy
WB +/-	0
Sharpness	0
Contrast	0
Saturation	0
Info	On
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off

This is what I have programmed as "My Mode 2":

MY MODE - Macro

P/A/S/M/Scene	M
Fno	8.0
Shutter	1/500 sec
Monitor	On
Zoom	38mm
Flash Mode	Flash (Lightning Icon)
Metering	Center weighted (Screen with dot in the middle)
Macro (Flower Icon)	On
Drive	Single
ISO	100
Timer/Remote	Off
Flash	0.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1 (Front Curtain)
Flash	External
Digital Zoom	Off
Noise Reduction	Off
AF Mode	Spot
Focus Mode	AF
Fulltime AF	Off
Microphone	Off
Time Lapse	Off
Resolution	SHQ or RAW
WB	Cloudy
WB +/-	0
Sharpness	0
Contrast	0
Saturation	0
Info	On
Histogram	Off
Frame Assist	Off

First Boat Dives: Witches Hut and Nearest Point (Klein Bonaire)

We started the day with a boat dive. I had purchased from the Drafahls 10 boat dives at a discounted price of US$ 10/dive. I was disappointed that you were on your own on the boat dives, we did not go out as a group. The boat dives as well as the shore dives were just opportunities to capture pictures to take to the class. I had been "warned" by Sue Drafahl that the best dive was the house dive: the shore dive right on Captain Don's. She was right. The two boat dives that I did that day was somewhat disappointing and compared to yesterday's ,I did not see as many interesting creatures.

I took this opportunity to play with the settings of my camera and tried to "practice" both wide and and macro. I tried the macro settings on this anemone on Klein Bonaire and soon discovered that there was a pederson shrimp inhabiting it.

Playing with macro shots I discovered that focusing was really hard to accomplish. For some reason the camera had a hard time to focus. At that time I knew that my camera had manual focusing, but I had not learned how to use it yet.

Lecture: Menus and Exposure

That night the lecture gave me some hints to refine my settings. The lecture was on Camera Menus and Exposure.

Menus

• Nikon: Icons
• Olympus: Rotating Menus
• Drive: Single shot or multiple
• Contrast: Use zero or slightly negative
• Histogram: Not a lot of value under water, hard to see under water

ISO speed

• Not the same as in film. Point & shoot: up to 400. SLR up to 1600 because of bigger chip
• if using higher than ISO 400 on a P&S, pictures will be very noisy
• P&S sensor elements are crammed together. On SLRs, they are more spread out
• DON'T use auto ISO underwater

White Balance

• Use cloudy setting or shade
• Custom WB: Use a white card only (that you carry with you), not sand on the bottom
• My mode: Program WB at 10, 20, 30, 40 ft, specially when relying on ambient light
• Jack uses ISO 200 or ISO 400 always. Not ISO 100. Modify settings until exposure is right
• ISO 200 is more versatile. Use ISO 200 for night dive

Resolution

• Always set to maximum resolution
• Don't use TIFF, massive file use lots of space

Sharpness

• Use default

Modes

• Don't use P/A/S modes
• Shutter Priority: Use if need to freeze the action
• Sharks in the water use ISO 800

Shooting Techniques - Exposure

• Use Manual exposure. In Bonaire, can only use Manual
• Shutter speed: Regulates more or less ambient light in the picture
• F/stop max F8.0 on P&S
• Background: Sunlight control by shutter speed
• Foreground: Fix with F stop, flash and ISO

Lighting

• On shallow and white sand bottom, turn flash off, and use "P" mode
• Deep Large subject. Use "P" mode, let camera decide

Backscatter

• Change the shutter speed by one stop to reduce backscatter
• Use twin flash
• Point flash away from the lens

Macro

• Subject to distance really close
• When diving deeper you have more control of exposure, because of less ambient light
• Manual exposure works with TTL
• Use manual even for bright sun

Blooming effect

• Problem with red sensor
• Use shutter speed to fix it, use higher shutter speed

Flash Position

• Make sure to point flash in position. When changing WA to macro, needs flash adjustment
• Simulate sunlight: Put flash above, looks like sunlight
• Two flash: One above, the other on the side, not necessarily symmetrical

Coming up with More Settings for the SP-350

After listening to Jack's lecture I confirmed my thoughts for settings for night dives, shark dives and macro. Here's a list of those settings that I started to use on this trip.

Macro

Macro	Super Macro
Focus Mode	MF (Manual Focus)

Regular Macro allows you to get as close as 8 inch. Whereas, Super Macro allows you get as close as 0.8 inch. Once the MF (Manual Focus) mode is set, use the up and down arrows to focus. You can turn the manual focusing mode on and off by keeping the "OK Menu" button depressed.

Fast Moving Wide Angle (Shark Dive)

Fno	5.6 - 2.8
Shutter	1/30 - 1/125
ISO	200 - 400
Flash Sync	Sync 2(Rear Curtain)

As confirmed by Jack's lecture it is better to use a high ISO for fast moving big creatures as in a shark dive. Unfortunately, there was no shark dive in Bonaire. But I made notes for myself. A slow shutter (1/30) would create an impression of motion and a rear curtain flash sync (firing the flash at the end of the exposure) would create a lighted imaged in from with a trailing image behind.

Night Dive

Fno	8.0
Shutter	1/200
ISO	50
Flash Power	-1.0
Flash Sync	Sync 1(Front Curtain)

I came up for these settings for night dives after some experimentation. In some sense, it is similar to a Macro shot in that you want all the light coming from the strobe. These settings are for a Sea & Sea YS-110 and Heinrichs-Weikamp connector. Depending on whether I am shooting wide angle or macro I would adjust the the f/stop and flash power. However, at night I have found that most of my subjects were no further than 3-4 ft.