Hi all,
Took my GX200 aka Sea & Sea DX-2G to Indonesia and Lembeh Strait for two weeks of diving. Lembeh is mostly about the little things so a lot of opportunities to show off the amazing macro capabilities of the camera. None of these shots have been cropped and PP is minimal - a bit of curve tweaking and slight sharpening is about it.
One of the more spectacular nudibranches. This one is actually fairly large as well, about 5-6 cm in length.
The eye of a flounder.
A pygmy seahorse. These are about 1 cm in lenght and reside inside fan corals, making them very hard to photograph. Just finding them can be quite problematic, but to then manage to get close enough... There was a lot of luck involved with this shot as I had to get the camera and strobes close enough to it without touching the coral, and there was a quite strong current picking up at the same time... Anyway, it's my first ever shot of a pygmy seahorse with its face clearly visible and decently in focus.
A hairy squat lobster. Another tiny creature, about 1-1.5 cm overall.
A mandarinfish (a type of dragonet). One of the most spectacular fishes in the ocean, and one of the most shy... We did get to see them mate which only happens at dusk just before dark. This specimen is about 4 cm in total length, so fairly big for a mandarinfish. Helps of course...
A seahorse portrait.
Finally, another eye. This time that of a sole. Getting this close to them is very hard, they usually swim away. Holding your breath and moving incredibly slowly with minimal fin kicks does help.
The bottom line is that the GX200 / Sea & Sea DX-2G is an amazing camera for UW purposes with its amazing macro performance and good manual control (I even used manual focus for some shots). The only gripes I had was the somewhat slow write speed (I only shoot RAW), the focusing in low light and - actually - the close working distance. On many occasions I ended up scaring critters I were trying to photograph.
Took my GX200 aka Sea & Sea DX-2G to Indonesia and Lembeh Strait for two weeks of diving. Lembeh is mostly about the little things so a lot of opportunities to show off the amazing macro capabilities of the camera. None of these shots have been cropped and PP is minimal - a bit of curve tweaking and slight sharpening is about it.
One of the more spectacular nudibranches. This one is actually fairly large as well, about 5-6 cm in length.
The eye of a flounder.
A pygmy seahorse. These are about 1 cm in lenght and reside inside fan corals, making them very hard to photograph. Just finding them can be quite problematic, but to then manage to get close enough... There was a lot of luck involved with this shot as I had to get the camera and strobes close enough to it without touching the coral, and there was a quite strong current picking up at the same time... Anyway, it's my first ever shot of a pygmy seahorse with its face clearly visible and decently in focus.
A hairy squat lobster. Another tiny creature, about 1-1.5 cm overall.
A mandarinfish (a type of dragonet). One of the most spectacular fishes in the ocean, and one of the most shy... We did get to see them mate which only happens at dusk just before dark. This specimen is about 4 cm in total length, so fairly big for a mandarinfish. Helps of course...
A seahorse portrait.
Finally, another eye. This time that of a sole. Getting this close to them is very hard, they usually swim away. Holding your breath and moving incredibly slowly with minimal fin kicks does help.
The bottom line is that the GX200 / Sea & Sea DX-2G is an amazing camera for UW purposes with its amazing macro performance and good manual control (I even used manual focus for some shots). The only gripes I had was the somewhat slow write speed (I only shoot RAW), the focusing in low light and - actually - the close working distance. On many occasions I ended up scaring critters I were trying to photograph.
