Meeru Island Resort :: View topic

fermentall

Hi everyone,off to meeru in oct & have a p120,would this be ok for pics on meeru & also would it be ok in a waterproof casing (bag type) for underwater pics Question

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many thanks ken

Humble Jim

The Maldives can often be justified as an excuse for buying new kit (!) but the truth is your 5 megapixel camera should be good for Meeru. Should be fine above and below water. For some sort of comparison this is what my more modest (only 3 megapixel) Canon Powershot managed back in 2006:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76012233@N00/sets/72057594100931000/show/

If you are after a soft housing (bag) for your camera do make sure it is declared as fully compatible with your exact camera model.

Soft housings are not rated to great depths compared to hard housings but bags are usually OK to 10m which is more than enough if you're just snorkelling.

Couple of things I'd recommend you think about when it comes to the underwater photos.

1) Take loads of photos. You'll take many more duds than not underwater, so expect to take several hundreds to get just a few keepers. Weed out the worst each evening and gradually you will learn what 'works'.

2) In the light of 1) consider getting extra memory card(s) for your camera. If you're going to record video, even more important to consider this. Also having additional memory out of water doubles up as some sort of insurance against flooding disaster.

3) While underwater stick to the widest angle zoom setting you can all the time. If you keep trying to zoom in you will end up with a lot of pictures of just fish tails (or no fish at all!). Stay at wideangle always, don't zoom in.

4) Pictures you take underwater can sometimes initially look dull / colourless, the more so the deeper you go. That's because water filters out red light. Your eyes will see all the colour as they adjust naturally, but your camera won't and I don't think your model has an "underwater" setting. You can still compensate for this if you need to by carefully adjusting the colour balance of photos at home afterwards with software.

5) Snorkelling is OK around Meeru but the full delights of live coral reefs are to be found on a purpose snorkelling excursion to the house reef (inexpensive short trip on a boat). If you are unsure about swimming in open sea just ask for a floatation jacket.

6) Approach all fish cautiously. If you rush in with a camera they'll tend to scarper. Move slowly and sometimes they'll even come in to look at you out of curiosity.

HTH

fermentall

Thanks HJ for all the info,you answered a lot of questions that i thought about but didn't ask.cheers ken