14th Sept 2007
Time to get wet!
I asked over the fence if I could jump in the pool (still unheated from winter - 13c, so donned the drysuit and scuba gear) and after checking the orings too many times took the first slow steps into the water.
I took a few colourful objects to photograph like Nuditor the test nudibranch and Fragmento the test great white shark.
Using the 60mm macro and flat port here are a few of the first shots.
First impressions
The very first thing I noticed was the restricted view through the viewfinder! I was not expecting this! With my Mares X vision mask, which slopes forward at the top, I could not get my eye close enough to see the full view. Note: Next dive try my older smaller mask. (This improved the view markedly but could still be better)
Once I accepted this issue I started to have fun with the lightning fast and accurate autofocus. It was like using a real camera again, just brilliant.
Andrew - what a wonderful diary of your Nikon D80.
ReplyDeleteI bought both the D80 and the Ikelite underwater housing yesterday and took it for a test run in the Hotel pool this afternoon.
I immediately noticed that it was hard to look through the viewfinder and being a SLR novice (last underwater camera was a Sony DSC W5 in std Marine Pack), I immediately tried to find the button to turn on the monitor screen and take pictures that way...
No luck there - and then I ran into another problem - the afternoon was over cast and the sun had set - so the light was bad - and the camera couldn't focus and therefore didn't want to actually take pictures (LCD screen gave "r11" error when I depressed the shutter lever.
The frustrating things was that it would work fine on the surface but not work 30cm underwater.
I had not put the strobe set on - one thing at a time - and thought this may be part of issue.
Anyway - it got too dark to see anything... have to wait 'til tomorrow.
r11 error?
ReplyDeleteI think that means you can fit 11 images on the buffer with your current settings.
Thanks for leaving a comment. You are the first.
Let me know how you go. Good luck.
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteyes - I found the section in the manual (when in doubt RTFM). "r11" means 11 shots in the buffer.
The fact that this was the last message before the camera didn't take a picture was what threw me.
I managed to get some pictures of people's torsos underwater - but anything closer than 1.5m (using the standard 18 - 135mm lens) was a problem - the auto-focus was not able to work and hence the camera quite rightly didn't take a picture.
This is my first SLR and there is so much to learn...
Yes, r11 does mean there is space for 11 shots left in the buffer but it is quite a well known issue that this appears when trying to autofocus in some situations.
ReplyDeleteThis drives me mad on my D80, there are all sorts of shots I can no longer take that would have come out find on my Canon 300D.
There are more details on this problem at http://www.fixya.com/support/t236700-nikon_d80_auto_focus".