Camera For Fish

[lozronz]

Hey Hey,

You guys might already know about this, if so humour me cos I'm still exited about it-
If anyone is thinking of getting a Digi Camera and are intending on taking Photos of fish, I just got Pentax Optio W20 and have really enjoyed the results, I'm crap at taking photo's of fish (well anything really) but this has been awsome, it has 1cm Macro rather than the usual 5cm... Its water proof upto 1.5 meters! No more glass reflection.

This is a macro of my ACF and one of my Long armed shrimp-

 

[three-fingers]

Woah! I'm looking in to that camera! Theres just so much right now that i want/need to buy...i cant get it all .

£160, thats twice the price of my current camera...so it's a decision between this camera and a microsoft zune....

 

[paul_219]

Very nice pics. Nice camera also. Congratulations

 

[Dave Spencer]

That shrimp picture is awesome. And scary!

 

[raptorrex]

jaw hits floor. skin turnes green and flounce off into corner! awsome man awsome, looks like a special camera.

 

[redtailblackshark]

Wow! I have never seen such a beautiful photo. That camera must really be amazing. Since you said it's waterproof, did you actually put it into the water? Or is the camera so awesome you didn't even need to?

 

[smithrc]

Am I they only one thinking the image compression is poo...

You can clearly see blocks all over the pics ??

 

[raptorrex]

Am I they only one thinking the image compression is poo...

You can clearly see blocks all over the pics ??

humm i missed that one, but true! lozronz did you use an editor, or are these right off the camera? even so, would have a look at the cam settings. bump the resolution to maximum and change the JPG settings to super fine, i you can. but that still dont change just how good these shots are IMO

 

[lozronz]

Actually yer, I needed help with that, the image has lost loads of quality in sticking it on the page but I don't know what I'm doing really I just put it in photoshop and wacked it down to 100k. whats a good way to reduce without loosing quality?

Here is one I took today without compression, the fighter is looking a bit rough at the moment cos hes just getting over illness but you get the idea.

Yer the camera goes under water, its only supposed to go to 1.5 meters but I have read of people taking it down diving with thhem with no adverse affects.

 

[raptorrex]

Actually yer, I needed help with that, the image has lost loads of quality in sticking it on the page but I don't know what I'm doing really I just put it in photoshop and wacked it down to 100k. whats a good way to reduce without loosing quality?

Here is one I took today without compression, the fighter is looking a bit rough at the moment cos hes just getting over illness but you get the idea.

Yer the camera goes under water, its only supposed to go to 1.5 meters but I have read of people taking it down diving with thhem with no adverse affects.

Ok i see your problem, this is how i do it:

open image in photoshop, press Ctrl +a then Ctrl +c then Ctrl +n and Ctrl +v then press enter!
you can do this when cropping, just miss out the Ctrl +a.
looks a bit daunting, but it is a basic precept to maintaining quality, that you do all editing in a lossless format, i use PSD, photoshop basic format. all you did with that lot was cut an paste into a new image. close down the original image(i dont save any changes to the original image).
now i go to the image menu and select image size. now what you do next depends on your image host, i change the physical size of the file, till the image is about 1mb. then save the image, using the save as option, save as JPG and select maximum file size, 12 on Photoshop 7.

i find editing the image size gives far better results, than increasing compression! using an editor like photoshop, also increases quality.

 

[lozronz]

Thank you bud, will try that I'm on Mac so I think that its the apple key rather than ctrl cos I'm not having much luck with so far but will get my head around it.

One last picture, not great quality but its cute. Meet Mr & Mrs Krib sharing their lunch of sinking fish food... they really do share and take their lunch to the same place in the tank each day. Bless!

 

[smithrc]

Thank you bud, will try that I'm on Mac so I think that its the apple key rather than ctrl cos I'm not having much luck with so far but will get my head around it.

One last picture, not great quality but its cute. Meet Mr & Mrs Krib sharing their lunch of sinking fish food... they really do share and take their lunch to the same place in the tank each day. Bless!

loads better

post the shrimp one back up

 

[Gankutsuou]

dude! look at the purple in that shrimps eye!

 

[raptorrex]

Ehmm. I know you said your camera's a Pentax Optio W20, but I was wondering if you could post a more detailed specs for it? I'm looking at the prices online and it's around $299 max. It's a little on the cheap side for a good resolution camera, was wondering maybe I'm looking at a different model

Thanks in advance!

lol i do my pics on a £150. 6mp compact.

this is less than half the image aria, cropped image.

lozronz please post a full image of the shrimp.

 

[lozronz]

Hey, I love the glass fish, as requested here is the shrimp hopefully without the blockiness and a fuller picture

Fish killer, I wasn't claiming it to be high spec camera it was only £150, its just that the specs are pretty cool for photographing in tanks- 8mp, small and water proof!
I have never heard of a waterproof Digi SLR and even if you could get the casing it would be a bugger for manouvering in a tank.
Its good for amaturs like me who can just master pointing and shooting.