November 2012
I just want to mention the cameras we are using on this trip. I used to buy the latest and greatest in digital cameras. I lugged around a great big SLR and several lenses. That is, I lugged it around when it was convenient, so often, I didn’t have it when a great photo-op came along.
For this trip, we chose a different approach. With the advances in small, point-and-shoot digital cameras, we bought two different ones.
For land use, we have a Canon Elph 310HS. It’s been a great camera. The battery life is excellent and it’s even survived being dropped at least twice. There’s just a little bit of vignetting at it’s widest setting but Photoshop corrects that when necessary. The picture quality is great and it takes perfectly acceptable videos.
For wet weather, or for underwater pictures, we have a Nikon Coolpix AW100. While it also takes great pictures, maybe even a little better than the canon, our review can’t be as 100% positive as it is for our Canon. This is our second Nikon AW100. The first one leaked and then quit working. The replacement is also showing signs of leaking so when we snorkel, we take turns diving while the other person holds the camera at the surface. Not exactly waterproof – not even very water resistant.
We also have a GoPro video camera but it’s been mostly useless. The user interface is terrible and from what I understand, a known defect is that with the lens they used on the housing, it doesn’t focus underwater. We took it snorkeling in the coral gardens and when we got back, found we had nothing but completely blurry video. (There’s no LCD to preview what you shoot so you don’t know what you have until you get back to your computer – kind of like the old film days!) I would solidly place the GoPro in the “Don’t Buy” category.
One of our New Zealand tasks is to try to find a better underwater camera, or maybe buy another Canon and a waterproof housing for it. We’d sure like to be able to take better pictures underwater.
One thing I’d like to point out is that the photos we post on twoatsea are not always as they are straight out of the camera. We do use Photoshop to make the photos look more like they did in real life. I’ll post a “Photoshop for Cruisers” section with some of the Photoshop tricks we use sometime soon. -Rich
