There are a number of limitations that taking a camera underwater places on you as a photographer. One of the most significant is that you can’t change your camera battery during a dive. Because of this it’s a wise move to keep your camera’s power consumption to a minimum. I’ve put together a range of tips on how to get the most shooting possible from that battery.
Flash output
Did you know that if you are using a strobe on manual power (rather than TTL) with a fibre optic cable for triggering, your camera flash will trigger most strobes on any setting? This means you can set your flash to manual on the lowest output option, which will save you considerable camera battery power if you haven't already been doing it.
As a couple of examples the Canon G9X MkII along with many other Canon compacts has three different manual flash powers: Minimum, Medium and Maximum. You can only alter these in Tv, Av and M modes. So if you are using a strobe it's another reason to get used to using the more advanced shooting modes. (You can find more about this in my blog What makes a good underwater camera part 4: A full manual mode ). Instructions on how to alter the flash power setting are on page 95 of the G9X MkII manual.
The Canon Powershot compact cameras are very popular for underwater photography and most have a manual flash setting that allows you to reduce the output for strobe triggering.
As a second example the Olympus OMD EM10 MkII allows you to set the flash down to 1/64 power. This can be done via the super control menu (normally accessed by pressing the OK button. Scroll to the flash window using the back dial and select manual using the front dial. The window underneath will now show you the power setting, move down to this and scroll with the front dial again to select the power. This is true for the other Olympus mirrorless cameras and their TG tough cameras (menu system for these is slightly different).
So if you haven't done so already have a look at your camera manual and see whether you can change this. Bear in mind that some compact cameras don't allow you to adjust flash output manually. For these cameras such as the Sony RX100’s you can reduce flash output somewhat by using the camera flash on Fill-in (so it fires every time) and setting flash compensation to -3.0 EV.
LED strobe triggers like this one made by Fantasea can be used to optically trigger strobes instead of the camera’s flash. They are ideal for cameras like the Sony A6 series that don’t have manual flash settings. But you do need a hotshoe on your camera and enough space inside your housing for the trigger assembly.
For more about strobes and lighting go to my Underwater Photography FAQs Part two: Strobes and Underwater Photography FAQ’s Part three: More about strobes. If you are unsure about lighting options have a look at my blog: Strobes vs Video Lights For Underwater Photography
WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS
Since digital cameras began to grow in popularity manufacturers have added more and more amazing features to get consumers to keep coming back for the next model. Two common camera features now are the ability to connect wirelessly to various devices either by Bluetooth or WiFi, and the ability to track where you are by GPS and add this info to the metadata of your images.
Both of these features can be useful but neither one can be used once you are underwater and they use camera battery power to function. So better to turn them off before you get in the water especially if you are in a situation where changing batteries between dives isn't an option and you want to drag all the life you can out of one battery.
If you are like me and don't use these features on land either (I find wireless transfer too slow compared to using the card reader on my laptop) leave them off all the time. All of these can usually be turned on and off in a camera's setup menu but not all are straight forward.
Turning off the GPS on the Olympus TG5 for example is definitely not straightforward as I discovered when I tested one. To do this you need to carry out three different steps. First move the LOG switch to off, then turn off the Record GPS location setting and finally the Auto Time Adjust. You can find how to do this on pages 68 and 70 of the TG5 manual. This not only gives you more battery life when shooting but also stops a n irritating, constantly flashing satellite symbol from appearing every time you take it underwater. For more about settings and using the Olympus TG cameras for underwater photography read my blog Get The Best From Your TG5 Underwater. Part Two: Settings and Techniques
Turning off the various GPS based features on the Olympus TG5 (shown here in its housing) before you take it for a dive is a three step procedure
As an aside when taking wildlife images on land be aware that poachers of rare creatures such as rhinos look for GPS info in the metadata of images placed on the internet to locate animals. So turn your GPS off or remember to remove location info before sharing your pics while on safari.
Shooting Video
Anything that uses processing power when you use your camera will in turn consume battery power and video is top of the heap for doing this. It is also a big generator of heat inside your camera and when enclosed in a housing will increase the likelihood of your port fogging up and even your camera overheating and turning itself off.
Limiting your video clip lengths will help to save battery power and make it easier to edit what you’ve produced. Be careful to check you’ve actually stopped shooting when things have stopped being interesting. When I started taking a camera underwater I regularly started recording video of something exciting then forgot to stop it and shot ten minutes of random seabed. Be judicious about what frame rates and resolutions you opt for as these tend to increase heat production, use more power and fill memory cards quickly.
LCD’s and EVF’s
Reducing the brightness of the screen or electronic viewfinder on your camera will certainly decrease the amount of power they consume but obviously it still has to be useable. As with on land whether using a camera or looking at another sort of screen the brightness of conditions and where the sun is coming from affects how bright you need the screen. In very bright ambient light I tend to use the electronic viewfinder on my camera rather than the screen but EVF’s do use more power.
It’s best to set your camera if it has an electronic viewfinder and a screen to not have both on at the same time. One advantage of DSLR cameras is that their viewfinders by definition are optical rather than electronic which helps keep power consumption down. If your camera has a sensor for it’s EVF remember to turn it off before you put it in the housing otherwise it will immediately switch to the viewfinder instead of the screen. I tend to get in with the LCD screen turned on and then change to the viewfinder if I feel the need.
There’s always opportunity to get some pictures on a dive, right up until you are back on the boat. But you need some battery charge left. As your battery gets low you’ll see the recycling rate of the built-in flash get slower.
Power Saving Settings
You’ll likely be aware that cameras have built-in power saving features which shut them down to varying degrees after set times. These are usually heavily customisable allowing you to turn them off or alter the length of time that the camera is not actively used before a power saving mode is entered.
From slightly bitter experience I tend to customise the power saving modes on cameras so they don’t shut down beyond a level where a press of the shutter release will quickly get them back in action. Underwater photography is often similar to wildlife and sports photography where you want to be ready for something interesting suddenly occurring. The last thing you want is for your camera to have to completely start up when a dolphin or seal has appeared out of nowhere. Get a handle on what the power saving functions will actually do when they kick in and customise them to suit you.
For me anything that goes beyond turning the back screen or EVF off and/or won’t start back up instantly is too much. The most infuriating of all are those on some cameras that not only turn the camera off but also reset the zoom lens to its widest. If you are using a wide angle wet lens with a camera and housing combination that has some vignetting at the camera lenses wider end having that happen is a real pain (for an explanation of vignetting have a look at my blog about using wide angle lenses). I tend to leave the camera set to stay on all the time it’s a choice between that or it being completely off and save power in the other ways previously mentioned.
Another way to address issues with lack of battery life is to add more battery. This battery pack can be fitted to a Sony A6500 camera in a Nauticam housing to supplement the camera’s own battery. This is ideal for videography where power consumption can be very large.
Focusing
If you find your camera is struggling to auto focus during dives it will also be consuming more power with the focusing motors running more and also if it has a AF illuminator (aka focusing beam) that will be coming on. AF illuminators are LED focusing lights built-in to the camera which come on in low light conditions when the camera’s auto focus system is struggling. If you have a transparent fronted housing this may be useful when don’t have any light source but a focusing light attached to your housing or even a handheld dive light will do the job more effectively while not consuming camera power. As with most features a hunt in your cameras custom menus will likely give you a way of turning the focusing light off if you have one.
Parting Shots
Hopefully these tips will let you squeeze more power out of your camera and let you take more pictures on those long dives or snorkels. Different types of cameras have more or less battery life, with some of that being from having larger or more efficient batteries and some being from camera design. DSLR’s tend to be the top dogs in giving you shots for your charge but some of the latest mirrorless cameras have closed that gap and a lot does depend on what you are doing with it.
I’m currently doing talks on diving and underwater photography every Thursday at 8pm UK time for the foreseeable future. Go to our Facebook page to watch live at time of broadcast and for recordings of previous talks. You’ll also find blogs on this website based around some of the talks with relevant links and extra information.
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