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wide and close WITH Alternatively, the 67mm threaded port allows me to switch to super wide angle in seconds, by adding a lens such as the INON UWL-100 with Dome Lens Unit while underwater. This lens gives around 148 degrees of viewing angle through the camera – that's only 32 degrees away from 180 degrees, which would be equivalent to seeing both your hands at the same time while you do jumping jacks. Now that's super wide angle, or in underwater terms, ‘fisheye’! The added bonus of this lens is that it’s also designed to work on land. Thus, the Patima PDCHG10 gives me the tools to switch from shooting a close-up portrait of a frogfish to a mermaid passing by – if I happen to notice the beauty while (excuse the pun) focused on the beast!
> STUNNING UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHS AREN’T JUST ABOUT GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS; THE TRUTH IS THAT YOUR CAMERA EQUIPMENT IS A KEY INGREDIENT, MUCH MORE SO THAN FOR LAND-BASED SHOOTERS. AN UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER'S ARSENAL IS MAINLY EITHER MACRO OR WIDE ANGLE PHOTOGRAPHY. MOST COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERAS HAVE VERY GOOD BUILT-IN MACRO CAPABILITIES, BUT OFTEN LACK SUFFICIENT WIDE ANGLE CAPABILITIES FOR THOSE SITUATIONS WITH LESS THAN PERFECT VISIBILITY. BUT IT’S THE WIDE ANGLE LENS THAT ALLOWS YOU TO GET CLOSE TO SUBJECTS WITHOUT FORSAKING A CLEARER PANORAMIC BACKGROUND – ONE OF THE SECRETS FOR A FANTASTIC WIDE ANGLE SHOT.
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he single block machined aluminum Patima PDCH-G10 housing is currently (as of this writing) the only housing for the newest Canon flagship camera, the Powershot G10 which allows wide angle and stackable macro lenses to be attached mid-dive in front of the camera lens on the housing. In contrast to land based lenses, these ‘wet’ lenses are designed to be attached and removed while underwater during a dive. On the macro side, the Canon G10 allows you to focus shots up to one
centimetre from the subject. Combined with the Patima PDCH-G10, the 14.7 Megapixel output on this camera allows for some great macro images with maximum sizes of 4416 x 3312 pixels. A pixel count this high allows photo prints of up to 14.72 x 11.04 inches at 300dpi (almost double A4 size) without any upsizing of the image. And if that’s not close enough for you, every Patima PDCH-G10 housing is sold with an extra ‘short port’ with 67mm lens threads which allows for stackable wet macro lenses to be attached to the housing lens port giving even more magnification.
sportdiving magazine october/november 2009
But wait, what about a close up shot of the frogfish with the mermaid in the background? This type of shot is what’s known as ‘close up wide angle’ or ‘wide angle macro’ photography. As well as increasing the viewing angle of the camera, this lens combination also increases the limited depth of field inherent to digital compact cameras and thus allows you to take a close up wide angle of the frogfish and mermaid in the same picture. Now if only I can find that mermaid! Furthermore, when taking half-air-halfunderwater shots, not only does the wide angle dome unit make the picture taking easier by having a greater surface area from the dome lens to help get that water line in front of the lens, but it also corrects over-magnification of the underwater portion when using only the housing port. Thus without the wide angle and dome lens, your image of the mermaid popping her head up into air will look like she’s got a whale’s body in comparison to her sexy scaly curves! If you do add wet lenses over the Patima PDCD-G10 lens port, you’ll have to zoom
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LAWRENCE ALEX WU
THE PATIMA PDCH-G10 the lens a touch to avoid the black spaces of the macro and wide angle lenses. Although this does create some fuzzy focus around the corners of the 4:3 format image, this is a small trade-off to being able to capture a photograph of an adult-sized diver with a super wide angle lens at a distance of just a couple metres away. It’s this short lens-to-subject distance that will provide clarity and sharpness to your wide angle photography. One thing to be aware of with the short port configuration is that you do not overzoom the lens out so that it hits the port glass. Doing so will get you an ‘Error’ message on the Canon G10 causing it to shut off, although this is not detrimental, as it can be turned on again in just a few seconds. WITH ACCESS ON THE PATIMA PDCHG10 TO FOUR CIRCULAR DIALS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, YOU CAN CHANGE THE MAIN SETTINGS – EXPOSURE VALUE (EV), ISO, SHOOTING MODE AND THE GENERAL CONTROL DIAL OPERATING COMMONLY USED SETTINGS FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL SHOOTING MODE – IN SECONDS, AS OPPOSED TO BUTTONING THROUGH MENUS AND INCREMENTS OF SETTINGS LIKE MOST OTHER COMPACT CAMERAS.
Another very important factor for underwater photographers is how quickly you can operate the camera. Things can happen fast underwater with currents, moving subjects and managing buoyancy, sometimes simultaneously, so the ability to adjust the camera settings quickly is a must to not lose that 'Kodak moment'. With access on the Patima PDCH-G10 to four circular dials at your fingertips, you can change the main settings – exposure value (EV), ISO, shooting mode and the general control dial operating commonly used settings for each individual shooting
mode – in seconds, as opposed to buttoning through menus and increments of settings like most other compact cameras. This is what sets the Canon G10 apart from other compacts and puts it into a new category of ‘prosumer’ cameras, between professional dSLR's, the cameras which have huge separate bodies with interchangeable lenses, and the average consumer compact cameras. Fortunately for serious underwater photographers who want a full range of tools, the cost and weight comes out between that of the professional and consumer range of cameras too... which also means you can buy that extra wide angle lens and still pay less than a dSLR setup by a few thousand (US) dollars. Most importantly, an underwater prosumer camera setup such as the Canon G10 combined with wet lenses on the Patima PDCH-G10 housing provides stunning wide angle and macro capabilities on the same dive, an impossibility and major setback of any underwater dSLR setup. As yet, there’s no dSLR lens that will provide great macro AND great wide angle capabilities, thus locking underwater dSLR shooters to either macro OR wide angle on
any dive. This reason alone has converted many land dSLR users, including myself, to sacrifice the advantages of a dSLR camera to become an underwater prosumer shooter. With its jet black anodized body, the PDCH-G10 looks like something out of a Navy Seal's toolbox. The only change I’d suggest is relocation of the dial under the palm of the hand to make for even faster operation of the camera and less accidental changes in settings.
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THE PATIMA PDCH-G10 Nonetheless, with the right handed neoprene hand holster, single handed operation is possible with 16 out of the 19 camera controls which also happen to be the most-used controls of the camera; the control dial and all the buttons surrounding the SET button as far as the REPLAY button, ON/OFF button, MODE dial, zoom lever and (if you have slightly longer fingers than me) then possibly even the ISO dial in the front of the housing. As my Patima PDCH-G10 housing was one of the first-production run housings, I had some quirks such as the zoom lever not operating the camera 100% of the time, as well as some mechanical problems with the inside rubber control dial ISO connector not locking properly to its spin rod. However, Patima representatives assured me these minor problems are now fixed with the later produced housings. Although from dealing with the ISO connector problem, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all four of the dial knob spindles on the housing are equipped with dual orings. Now if only they had dual o-rings with the main body closure. The Patima PDCH-G10 connects to external strobes with a Nikonos 5 pin bulkhead or Patima 6 pin bulkhead sync port, as
well as an optical fibre bulkhead so you can trigger them with an electrical sync cord or optical fiber cable. Unfortunately, the electrical sync cord port only uses two wires to connect to your strobes and cannot take advantage of continuous shooting with the strobe nor TTL... not that I’ve ever shot underwater in TTL! Shooting with this configuration allowed me to shoot through three full hour-long dives on a single battery charge. The first production run of these housings had problems with the plastic optical sync port cracking, but newer production housings have a stronger piece in place. So if you choose to use the optical sync cord port, you’ll be able to take advantage of the fast continuous shooting of the G10 – rated at 0.85 frames per second (after the second shot in continuous shooting mode). Make sure that you have the fastest possible SDHC media card to keep up with the Canon G10’s powerful continuous shooting mode and to lower the flash intensity to save on batteries. This would enable you to catch moving subjects in sequence to get the perfect moment when that mermaid is more shocked than me from seeing a black neoprene alien strapped to an armed torpedo underwater. Like most other housings nowadays, the Patima PDCH-G10 provides 100% access to all camera buttons, dials and knobs but unlike other mid to low end priced housings, the Patima PDCH-G10 is built like a tank. Mine has accidentally fallen out of my rucksack with the camera inside and lived, but the Korean manufacturer has even dropped one from a two storey building and said the housing still worked and was still waterproof afterwards with only a few dents! Disclaimer: this is not something you should try, and if you do so, it’s at your own risk! So if you’re serious about your underwater photography and equipment, the flagship Canon G10 and Patima PDCH-G10 will let you capture all that you come across on a dive as it is currently (as of this writing) the only housing for the Canon G10 allowing the addition of ‘wet’ interchangeable wide angle and macro lenses. If you’re considering an upgrade, and with the Canon G10 being a very highly rated prosumer camera, you’ll stride into underwater photographic performance with the new Patima PDCH-G10 housing.
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Lawrence Alex Wu is an underwater photographer and scuba instructor based in SE Asia. Teaching since 1996, he dived into 'underwater' photography with the digital camera revolution in 2003 and has never come up for air since. With over a dozen international underwater photographic awards since 2005, all his underwater work has been with only digital compacts and he now teaches other divers the techniques of scuba photography with compact cameras. LawrenceAlexWu.com
sportdiving magazine october/november 2009