Northwest Dive Club

I got a chance to try out the new A-640 at Les Davis today and my first dive with Bassman in a long, long while. From up on Ruston Way, Commencement Bay looked like nothing but mud. Visibility turned out to be pretty ok. It was conservatively 6-10'. We had a great dive with lots of nice nudibranchs. I had quite a bit of trouble initially trying to figure out how to get the camera to focus so what should have been the best shots, were all blurry.

About the only thing I can't quite figure out is how to mount it. I'm not all that familiar with using point-n-shoot cameras so I asked Cardiver. He had me set it up like in the picture below but it was kind of cumbersome to carry. I guess I just need to get used to it.

gutholmj wrote:...About the only thing I can't quite figure out is how to mount it. I'm not all that familiar with using point-n-shoot cameras....I guess I just need to get used to it.

Nice pics!
But....you've got it setup all wrong. The camera thingy is supposed to go where the light thingy is, and the light thingy goes where the camera thingy is.
Let me know if you need a schematic.

One big secret of the A640 is never use the zoom! If you are in Macro even a tiny bit of zoom will cause the camera to not focus. But then that is true of all Canons.

Nice shots James. I wish I hadn't drug my feet on that camera and missed it.
As far as the mounting goes, I think the only thing that can be done Is to mount it on my rig.

The pix just go to show that even an ok camera in the hands of someone who knows how to use them can do some real nice shots.

OMG . . . that thing IS a death star! But the intial pics look great--nice job, James.

Dusty2 wrote:One big secret of the A640 is never use the zoom! If you are in Macro even a tiny bit of zoom will cause the camera to not focus. But then that is true of all Canons.

I think this is very good advice - zooms in the point and shoots are not kind to image quality and they tend to cause the aperture to shrink (which doesn't help the auto-focus). If you want to fill the frame, get closer, then get closer again. Nice shots though, and I think the A640 is a great choice.

Ha ha .. Why you useing that sucker? You have a better high end camera to use.. Mz taught me everything I know about taking pics..nice shots for a point and shoot, someday I will upgrade to a cardiver set up..that guy has all the good cameras

Thanks for the advice on the zoom's effect on focusing. I looked at the out of focus images and most of them are not completely at the wide end.

As to why I got the camera, it's actually for my wife. I think she'll have a great time with it.

what depth did the vis open up at? vis at the surface, in that 'mud', couldn't been more then 8"...

olyvtx wrote:what depth did the vis open up at? vis at the surface, in that 'mud', couldn't been more then 8"...

By 20 fsw it was 6' and then got better from there.

Happy Birthday James!

here are a few of my pictures from this dive. I turned out to be a great dive!
I even encountered a vicious Ling Cod protecting some eggs. Is it that time of year again?
I got some video but have not learned how to post to vimeo or you tube yet.
Patience, I'm working on it when I can.
And whats up with the disfigured Stars? Is it something in the water?
I know! It's Taco Bell Sauce!

BASSMAN wrote:Happy Birthday James!

here are a few of my pictures from this dive. I turned out to be a great dive!
I even encountered a vicious Ling Cod protecting some eggs. Is it that time of year again?
I got some video but have not learned how to post to vimeo or you tube yet.
Patience, I'm working on it when I can.
And whats up with the disfigured Stars? Is it something in the water?
I know! It's Taco Bell Sauce!

It's called industrial waste! A century of dumping all manner of waste into the bay without any thought of what it would do. There is no way I would eat anything from the bottom of that bay. And yep it's that time of year. The lings and cabies are going to get crabby again.

Hey Dusty, What do you think of my mad picture taking skills?
Any pointers?
James and Ron have been showing me a few things.

BASSMAN wrote:Hey Dusty, What do you think of my mad picture taking skills?
Any pointers?
James and Ron have been showing me a few things.

Even though you didn't ask my opinion, that's quite an improvement over last time. Nice.

Get lower, get closer and in a few more dives you'll be getting some great pics.

The good news is there is allot of room for improvement

Sorry, Couldn't resist. Looks like you have a good start. Tough to get good shots when your swimming in coffee. You need to back off a bit on the flash and adjust your color balance. What sort of camera did you get?

We are thinking about Sund rock Mon. or tuesday if your up for it. This goes for James and crew too.

Dusty2 wrote:The good news is there is allot of room for improvement

Sorry, Couldn't resist. What sort of camera did you get?

We are thinking about Sund rock Mon. or tuesday if your up for it. This goes for James and crew too.

I got an Intova IC12 (twice!) it's a long story, I'll tell during a SI with you.

I just hope the new camera and housing I just got today, will not leak! :angry:


Yeah, I still need to figure out some of the manual adjustments, for now holding a camera in my right hand, is a brand new concept as I have a HID Light Cannon (pistol grip) in my left hand.

It will be better when I get my can light back.

Sund Rock on a Monday or Tuesday would not work for me, but I'm sure you'll get some takers on that!

BASSMAN wrote:
I got an Intova IC12 (twice!) it's a long story, I'll tell during a SI with you.

I just hope the new camera and housing I just got today, will not leak! :angry:


Yeah, I still need to figure out some of the manual adjustments, for now holding a camera in my right hand, is a brand new concept as I have a HID Light Cannon (pistol grip) in my left hand.

It will be better when I get my can light back.

Sund Rock on a Monday or Tuesday would not work for me, but I'm sure you'll get some takers on that!

Yea I didn't figure you would want to be away that long with the wife in the hospital. I offer to do it Thursday but I don't think it would make much difference?