confused about settings!!!

[KenByrne]

from what you said-but I may be wring here- is that I def SHOULD use either strobe or flash (guess the strobe is better) would this be in dmidday as well? guess the max would be 30 m so can I use no flash in this condition or is it best to use flash/strobe ALL the time?

as for ISO settings- am I best on an automatic setting or should I be bold and have a play with the manual settings or aperture priorty bits? technical speak here you see!

I assume when you talk about flash you mean the built in flash. Strobe is just american for flash but seems to have caught on in the UK for underwater photography. Anyway use the external flash it allows you to get the light away from the lens and this improves the lighting and reduces backscatter.

Use ISO of 100 or 200 for best quality and 6M fine for the same reason, this also allows more lattitude for cropping before printing.

The underwater mode is probably meant for shallow water natural light. For deeper natural light shots the manual white balance would probably give the best results, but you may not be able to use this if there is insufficient light. You might want to increase the ISO but the quality will go down, whether or not this is acceptable only you can decide. The cloudy setting sometimes works well but would probably give similar results to the underwater setting. If using the strobe try daylight or flash.

Don't be tempted to zoom right in on subject, use the widest setting on the lens and get yourself closer. By reducing the water between subject and lens you will improve your pictures.

There's really nothing better than getting in the water and trying things out. At least you don't have to pay for film to do it.

[simonmort]

Did manage to find a couple of bits about the camera.
Would pretty much go with kens post.

The underwater mode is probably meant for shallow water natural light

.
According to the fuji web site, the underwater mode acts as a red filter. So not sure if the camera adjusts the white balance at different depths. any body any ideas?

Also set the camera flash to (flash +) if possible, as this will force the camera to fire the flash every time, and also fire the strobe.

Focus wise i would use the auto on single option, this will stop the camera continuously trying to focus, and will only focus when the main shutter release is pressed.
And i would use the centre focus option setting.

As ken has said play with the camera, work out the focusing distances as this will help as well.

Set up an item on the dinning room table, and in darkened light have a play with the camera and strobe. dont over use the strobe out of water as could over heat.

Lets us know how your doing?

whens the hols.

simon.

[mrs b]

thanks everyone for the advice. Hopefully I should be doing a couple of uk dives soon as my hol, isnt till the first week in june but will practice and let you know what happens -good or bad!