Canon EOS D30 Opportunity - PICS ADDED
 

I will be borrowing a Canon D30 this Friday afternoon with the intention of shooting my corals. I want to make sure I take the best pictures I can the first time as I only have the camera for the one afternoon. Please any tips or techniques appreciated.

I know SLR cameras, how to set ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc and I have a Canon PowerShot that I'm sure I have taken the best possible pictures with.

The 17-85mm lens is not a true macro but it does have a macro setting. I think it is this one:
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography...85_review.html

I will also have a nice tripod and automatic shutter release.

I want to take the best pics of my corals, mostly zoas, rics, shrooms etc. as possible. Thanks
Keith.

have the flash off and use a high enough iso/apt that your shudder speed will be high enough that it will be clear with no movement or noise also turning off all pumps will help alot too

Well considering I had two hours and most of the first was figuring out this new camera I got a couple of shots worth posting.

Dendrophyllia - Too bad the large top polyp was closed all morning, still this one looks fine.
http://snaz.com/marine/dendro2.jpg

Blue Zoa's - Pumped up a bit with Photoshop to bring out the blue.
http://snaz.com/marine/zoa2.jpg

Pink and Red Zoa - I got this from a Reef Network regular at the last dinner. Thanks Callum!
http://snaz.com/marine/zoa3.jpg

Shroom and Random Polyp - I like this one.
http://snaz.com/marine/shroom1.jpg

Sexy!
http://snaz.com/marine/sexy1.jpg

Very nice pics...

very nice indeed. Seems you have learned "how to" already

Thanks. I think the lens I had was what held me up for an hour, I kept trying to use the macro setting to no avail. The magic bullet was certainly the automatic aperature setting.

I only wish I had used a slightly higher ISO and the Dendro would have been crisper.

Here is another with the saturation increased with Photoshop. I am glad I shot RAW files, it makes post processing magic!
http://snaz.com/marine/polyp1.jpg

I have yet to get into this digital camera age. You seem to have slid right into it very well. Did you notice what fstop the auto used?

Pics look great! Are you going to be buying this camera?

No it will be a few more years before I can afford a camera like that. My growing family takes priority! The camera is in the family though so I'm sure I will get another chance to use it. It takes great shots..

hillegom - I'm not sure what the F-stop was as everything was automatic except focus and ISO.

The remote shutter release was a BIG bonus as I could snap away without touching the tripod and not have to worry about timers. I think I took 150 shots to get those 4-5 that are worth posting. With more practice I'm sure the ratio would improve.

Great pictures Keith.

What were some of te settings used?

Tom R

Thanks Tom. I really not sure what I used. The Marco setting just messed me up and after I switched to aV(Aperature Priority) things improved. F stop was between 6 - 11 which in hindsight was probably too narrow and ISO was 500 - 800.

I should have bumped up the ISO and opened the aperature I think. Does that makes sense?

Keith

Hi Keith,

Yes, I think :-) What you want is to bump up the ISO so you can use a smaller aperature (larger number - which is confusing). F11 to F16 would give you pretty good depth of field for macro work without compromising the sharpness of the lens to much depending on what lens you are using. Of course it's always a trade off as the higher the ISO the more noise you pick up which can degrade image quality somewhat. But the Canons have always been pretty good at higher ISOs. But if you go beyond 800 you'll start to pick up some noise. It won't be horrible but maybe noticeable.