Cavechat.org

I miss my side flash.

I'll bet you miss your Kodak videocamera too - and that floated...

Chads93GT wrote:Keep it in that case at all times when traveling. They don't float lol.

Mud and grime will do them in sooner or later. Case is good

Good tip :)

That particular aspect of having a waterproof camera hadn't really occurred to me.

Finally have the time to upload some actual cave pics from the Lumix. These are all downsized to 800x600-

After seeing pics and video, reading a few of the best cave books, and going out to see some smaller caves with me, my mom thought she might like to see Coldwater Cave in Iowa.

Here she is wondering if this is such a good idea-



Looking happy at the bottom of the ladder-



Heading out to the deeper water-



A nearby formation-

more pics

Using the onboard flash in a river cave, I got some orbs. Sounds like there are ways around that, which I will probably look into.

But overall I'm happy with this camera. I can capture memories underground and not have to worry about the camera dying due to mud or water. Prior to this, caving killed off two point and shoots in two years.

JR> the way around orbs is to get a small tripod, you can get one from walmart that extends to about 4' and collapses down to 14" for about 15 bucks. very light weight, just not super rugged. Use the camera on a tripod and also use the night setting or whatever the long exposure setting is. Once its on the long exposure setting use the TIMER. Set the timer, 2 seconds is all you need. make sure the camera flash is off. Once the camera clicks and the exposure starts either A. use your headlamp to paint the area for the photo, or B. use a side flash.

You will ALWAYS have orbs if you use the camera flash in a cave, IF there is water vapor in the air. steam, breath, = orbs.

Another way to minimize orbs is to place a piece of white electrical tape or similar over the camera flash and use an external slave flash held or placed away from the camera. The tape minimizes the on-camera flash and eliminates virtually all the orbs, but still allows enough light to trigger the secondary flashgun. Just be sure your slave trigger is compatible if your camera fires a pre-flash.

I just received my Olympus - TG-1 iHS 12.0-Megapixel Digital Camera. After much deliberation I chose it because of the ruggedness, Interchangeable waterproof lenses (fisheye and telephoto so far, but they can be changed underwater if you NEED to), and the COAS sensor which is the reason the old TOUGH series sucked so much because of the high noise at low light, this sensor should change that. Ill write a review when I return, Im putting it through all the trials in the next week, 100 mile river trip and a good wet cave or two.

Just got back from a 100 mile river trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River here in Idaho. The TG-1 performed exceptionally well. It was attached to my PFD with a lanyard and felt the brunt of many a class IV rapid, lots of sand, and any other abuses I subjected it too. The Macro photos are great and the low light situations I put it through it handles very well. Im going to go into a lava tube here and get some subway tunnel shots and macro formation shots with a flash to see how it performs. So far, much impressed over my old Olympus Tough. And it even has a tilt shift setting.

I saw this camera advertised as I have the Tough 8010, which until this little baby came out, was the top of the line. The one thing I liked about this model is the interchangeable lenses and the much improved low light features. Please post a few cave pics. I am curious to see how well it performs underground.

I will. I just got my El Speleo headlamp also so ill do a bunch of shots and kill two reviews with one stone. give me a day or so.

Here is a Picassa link to some photos I took of Gwynn Cave in Idaho with the new TG-1 iHS camera. All photos were taken on a tripod using either the onboard flash or the Elspeleo. I dont have a firefly for my flash yet so they are a bit washed out and with some artifacts. The top three are using different settings, auto, "dramatic"(not sure what that does, looks like it just washes everything out), and Night setting. The next five are of a hundred foot section of lava tube where I used auto with flash, dramatic, and the last few HDR where it took five quick shots while I switched from flood to spot on the Elspeleo and then stitched them together. The next two are macro of some fungus and super macro of some dirt balls in the fungal hair with the onboard LED fill light which you can also turn on indefinitely as an emergency LED light to get your butt around if something drastic happened! And then I couldnt resist a shot of the local made pallet ladder thing.























Overall I am more impressed with this camera than the old Olympus for sure. Im not looking to take GREAT shots with it im just wanting a good, durable, waterproof camera and I think I found it. Usual problems with point and shoot cameras still apply including the non existent bulb setting...

If there is a problem with the link hollar and I'll fix it.
https://plus.google.com/photos/10063084 ... 5840586417

Link borked.

bah

Is it on your Google+ account or Picassa? The error message says I don't have permission.