| I'd strongly agree with Uwila but up to a point! Certainly, two basics for successful pics are (i) not having to think about any of the diving aspects (should be second nature, and relaxed etc) and (ii) a pretty good awareness of basic photographic principles.
My one key lesson with the F30 is to learn how to use manual white balance effectively. That makes the biggest single difference. Beyond that, it does kinda depend what sort of photographs (and diving) you do. My own interest is mainly in scenery and fish - not closeups or macro - so I rarely use a strobe; and manual controls (yeah, the F30 is relatively poor in that respect) are of lesser relevance - correcting +/- the exposure is largely all that's involved, and some minor tweaking in Photoshop etc afterwards. For macro/strobe use I'd accept that better manual controls would be a major advantage.
So - kinda horses for courses. A decent little camera, like the F30, used intelligently, can give very good results in available light ("decent snapshots"). Beyond that, it depends how much time, effort and learning you're able/willing to apply.
Oh - finally, it also depends a bit where you dive. In clear, warm waters it can be much easier to get decent results - in the UK it's certainly harder!
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David P. |