Camera Suggestions?
Will be doing the Grand Australia / New Zealand tour at end of October. I am your basic photo dork and want to take photos from the Balloon Ride over Caims, skin diving at the Great Barrier Reef and on the boat ride at Skippers Canyon. Plan on getting a GoPro Hero5 for the underwater photos, but would like to know what previous travelers have used and had success with. Not sure what they allow on the Skippers Canyon high speed boats or on the balloon. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
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1. When you say you are a "basic photo dork" do you mean you are not very experienced with cameras, especially hi-tech/fancy/complicated ones, and are not a skilled photographer?
2. Have you ever used a DSLR?
3. Do you plan to take stills, videos, or both?
4. Have you ever done any video editing?
5. Are you a decent swimmer and how are your snorkeling skills?
6. What is more important to you - having a photographic diary of where you went and what you saw, or taking high quality photos that can be used in a number of ways?
7. As a follow-on to #6. above, what do you plan to do with your photos- share them with friends on social media (Facebook, etc.); put them on a photo sharing website; use them to make a photo album (e.g. Shutterfly, Snapfish, etc.); or have them enlarged and printed (on paper, canvas, or glass) to display on a wall?
While I have not taken the AUS/NZ trip (yet) I used a GoPro and a Canon DSLR (w/16-300 mm lens) while participating in all the activities you mention during our K&T Africa trip and Peru & Galapagos, and other Tauck trips. FYI, I upload selected (usually too many) photos to my wife's Facebook account albums, have had numerous photos enlarged, printed on canvas, mounted and hung on our LR walls, but never managed to make it through putting together an actual book. I have also shot videos with both GoPro and DSLR- both panoramic shots of scenery, and true videos taken while riding a Segway in Munich, riding in a balloon over the Masai Mara in Kenya, and while snorkeling in the Galapagos. I uploaded a few of the videos to FB, but mostly they reside, along with all my stills, on my iPad. Believe me, editing videos can be a very time-consuming pain.
Depending on your answers, I and others can hopefully make some solid recommendations. Also, something to think about, you don't want to see all the wonderful sights on that trip just through the viewfinder of a camera.
1. I am an experienced amature photographer and have top of the line Canon Equipment (5D mark IV) and an array of Canon lenses, but I travel with a Tamron 28-300 lens only. I have attended lectures with Scott Kelby who recommended this lens for travel, as I am shooting for my own pleasure and don't need to lug a bunch of equipment. I intend to shoot stills only and have taken some great pictures on past trips around the world that I blow up in my office, home and have used as gifts. The few pictures I like (usually one a trip) I print under acrylic glass from Whitewall in Germany. (A great resource for super enlargements like you find a YellowKorner and similar mall and online photo galleries.) I don't take much video, but my kids use GoPro's skiing and get incredible pictures of my grandkids flying downhill. I do want the GoPro for the underwater opportunity at the Great Barrier Reef and not sure if I will use it for video or as a resource for stills. I will be on this trip with my wife and will not post on Facebook, (don't like doing this, unless I have kids on the trip with us, and then only post their pictures) but I have created a youtube slideshow video from a past Tauck China trip that I shared with others on the trip. Basically, my concern is what will work on the high speed boat ride, where I think the Canon will be too large and difficult to use, so my thought was to use the GoPro with a head harness. Similar concern with the hot air balloon ride, which will be my first, as I'm not sure about how much room there is in the suspended gondola. Here, i do think, I would like to use the Canon. I don't keep my eye over the lens at all times, but have my camera at my side with an "R" strap (again recommended for travel by Scott Kelby) for quick grab and shoot opportunities. I think this is why I describe myself as a photo dork, as I am sure many on our trips feel this describes me, but they never complain when I email them pictures I randomly shoot of them throughout the trip.
2. I am long winded.
3. Thanks.
The boat ride is so very very fast, and very sudden stops and turns just as you think you are going to crash into the rocks. One of the most scarey but fun things I have ever done. You need to have a waterproof camera or be wearing something you can just poke the lenses through and of course a firm strap so you do not lose the camera. Definitely limit yourself to a few photos then forget the camera and enjoy the experience as it happens because any pictures do not do the experience any justice at all. If you try to focus too much on getting the perfect shot, it will be over and you will miss the 'live' event properly.
Can't review my photos on that trip right now or balloon ones in Africa because I'm on down time on another Tauck's tour. Hey, guess where I am?
Ok, that really helps. It sounds like we have similar experience and equipment. I'll try to address each point in order-
I have a Canon SL-1 (I like its smaller size and weight) and my go to lens is a Tamron 16-300. It is the only lens I take and I love it- it probably has some aberrations but my eyes can't tell! I have a GoPro as well.
I mostly shoot stills, although I also shoot videos- panoramas and some action- but almost exclusively with my SL-1 instead of the GoPro which has an extremely wide angle, fixed focus lens. I find the GoPro best for handheld or selfie-stick, action selfies- skiing, surfing, etc. or when the effects of environment or weight of the DLSR are not optimum. Since the GoPro supplied editing software allows you to extract stills from videos, I rarely use the GoPro for stills. The GoPro website has some great videos, but you have to realize that they were made with multiple cameras at multiple positions, and required significant, very time consuming merging and editing- something that I and my slightly old laptop don't do well!
Again, except for a few selfies (using a long pole) that allowed me to include both of us, the balloon, and gondola in frame, I have used my DSLR to shoot most stills and videos using the 16-300 lens which has allowed me to capture animals on the ground and distant features. By the way, most tourist balloons have very large metal of heavy wooden framed wicker "baskets" with multiple compartments that provide plenty of room to use a DLSR.
I used my GoPro with a helmet mount (strapped through the helmet vent slits, not attached with adhesive) on a Segway tour in Munich- that worked out ok- but during post processing I had to edit out significant chunks and set some segments to run at 4X+ speed- it would have been way too long otherwise and there wasn't always something interesting to see, often just the back of the rider in front of me! I recently took my GoPro on 'Romantic Germany' and was going to use the elastic head strap mount to shoot video of our Alpine Coaster ride in Oberammergau. We did this when others were clock shopping or touring the Passion Play theater which we had seen on the Alps tour. I left it on the bus however which was just as well. There was absolutely no way the headstrap would have prevented the camera from flying off my head through some of the hairpin turns- it probably would have flown off into the bushes at the first turn. I suspect something similar would happen to you on the high-speed boat trip. I think the only options would be a secure helmet mount or to hold it in your hand, but even then, all the bouncing and fast turns, spray on the lens, etc., etc. might have significant impact on the quality of your photos or videos- an expensive experiment. Also, as you probably know after viewing videos taken by you and others, you must hold the camera relatively still and if you pan, do it much, much more slowly than you ever thought necessary.
That kinda leaves underwater photography. I have been a SCUBA diver (and instructor) and snorkeler for over 50 years and have also taken a lot of U/W photos with a NIKONOS and other U/W cameras using BIG strobe lights. If you go to my posts in the Peru & Galapagos archives you see I don't recommend that people get too excited about trying to take U/W photos and videos- it is just too hard for the average person and results can be marginal. Briefly, it is easiest if you are using SCUBA and can stay underwater, otherwise you'll need to be a good swimmer/snorkeler. Shots from at or near the surface while snorkeling and ones taken if you dive down if you don't have powerful movie lights or a strobe are likely to have marginal color- water filters out sunlight colors. Every foot deeper you go, every foot your subject is below the surface, or further from you, you will lose more color- first, everything quickly turns blue/green then gray. I didn't use flotation when snorkeling so I could regularly dive down 5' - 15' to shoot fish. That took a bit of lung power. Even though I workout in a pool 1 - 2 miles, 5-6 days a week, I'm not as young as I used to be so my videos were limited to about 15 seconds (max of about 30 seconds)- a lot of editing was needed because each segment was even shorter- part of that time you are diving down or headed to the surface. Since you must hold the camera still and wait til the fish slows or stops it is not always easy. Even with an U/W movie light I built using a 300 LED array and plexiglass housing, the colors were washed out if the subject was more than 2' away. Remember the wide angle on the GoPro? You gotta get up really close to get a full frame shot of smaller fish. All that being said, our guides, me and a few others were able to get some fairly decent shots in shallow, clear water with the GoPro mounted to a long pole. That is not without its issues, however- it is hard to point or know where you are pointing and the whole assembly can flutter if you try to shoot video while swimming after a fish. Talk about being long winded! I hope I've given you some perspective and ideas. Best of luck!
One more thing about the GoPro- you and the fish may be moving (swimming, waves, surge, current, etc.), there may be glare caused by sunlight, you will be looking through the camera housing + a swim mask, etc. etc. so it can be difficult to use the view screen to aim the camera.
Here are some GoPro examples. The colors are accurate (what the camera and eye would see) though the resolution is not the best due to limitations of the forum software:
Still photo of my wife parasailing over the ocean cliffs of Lima, Peru. I extracted it from the video taken with the parasail pilot's pole-mounted GoPro:
Here are just some random U/W GoPro stills taken w/o my U/W light and not the clearest water conditions. Notice the extreme lack of color:
This pooping Parrot fish was only 4' away. Its colors are normally vibrant, almost iridescent yellows, purples, oranges:
Photo from the web showing the true colors of the same fish. It was obviously taken using a flash:
Puffer fish (black w/white dots) taken from 3 - 4' away. There are other normally colorful fish (yellow tailed surgeon, seargant majors, tangs, etc.) in the frame that blend in. This demonstrates the impact of the GoPro's wide angle lens and color attenuating affect of the water:
This star fish was bright yellow and the wall of coral was a medley of color when my light was turned on. Everything is muted without better lighting:
This is a photo of me in my "skin suit" warm water diving suit in about 3' -4' of water and headed to the surface after a dive. The pale stripe on the side is normally shocking yellow chartreuse! A friend who was floating on the surface just a few feet away took this with her small Sony U/W camera. I'm holding my homemade U/W light with the GoPro mounted on top in my right hand. Notice, even though I had no flotation device and the skin suit was thin (much thinner than the supplied shorty wet suits), I still needed diving weights to help me submerge due buoyancy caused by the high salinity of the water. Buoyancy could also be a problem on the Great Barrier Reef if you intend to submerge.
It was difficult to determine the names of some of the fish because the color attenuation made them look different than the identification guides.
Here is a link to one of the Galapagos U/W GoPro videos I uploaded to Youtube. It is made up of 5 - 7 (?) short segments. The occasional side to side motion was caused by being lazy. I reduced the playback speed of certain sections to 1/2 or 1/4 but did not apply a smoothing process during editing- the extra process, while automatic, would have required 1-2 or more hours of editing! The water is much clearer and it contains some interesting fish. It is best viewed in HD and full screen. Other U/W videos posted by IBOXPAPA (that's me) may start automatically too- I think I uploaded a total of 6.
Thanks. Someday I may try to redo them using the original clips. This time I will still slow the speed down, but use the software option to reduce the jerky motion.
Frankly it is hard to tell when I used my light- definately during the turtle videos- but not the shark ones. If you watch carefully you can see areas of brightness and better color in some parts of some of the videos. After the first 2 - 3 days the LED light started cycling- slowly dim then go full bright and it was eventually unusable. The battery charger stopped working too- no idea why on both- cheap stuff from China. The light cost less than $100 to make (I had the plexiglass, special solvent, and fittings for the housing in my shop leftover from an old U/W light project). A retail light designed specifically for underwater use and with similar LED design to mine would have cost me $500-$1000. Another way to improve color is to use filters like Backscatter's Flip 3.1 system.
The clarity of water varied widely from site to site in the Galapagos- worst visibility, probably the turtle lagoon (<15'); best, the area where I discovered the resting sharks (50' - 75'?). Like the Galapagos, the visibility on the Great Barrier Reef will depend on the time of year, currents, and wind conditions. I couldn't find it, but you might want to check out Quicksilver's, Agincourt Reef platform website to see if they give conditions for when you are scheduled to go. I believe Tauck still uses that outfit. According to their site the reef experienced some bleaching in 2016 but overall it is doing well.
Oh, one suggestion I posted in the P&G forum- once you get your GoPro take it to your local pool and if possible practice using it with snorkel gear including a shorty wetsuit if you have one. Shoot both stills and videos of swimmers (faux fish) with their permission of course, and also small water toys spread out on the bottom, so you are used to the camera- its controls, how to point it- you won't be able to use the view finder so use back LCD screen (if equipped- I believe it is built in on the 5?) and also nothing at all, just aim the body. To see what the lens angle will be, spread the water toys out on the bottom and shoot them from 2', 3', 4', etc. away. Remember, one-quarter of its angle of coverage is lost underwater due to the fact that it’s shooting through a flat port that changes the lens perspective. I have an older GoPro 3+ and even though I got the add-on LCD touch-screen back, I still wish it had a simple plastic frame type viewfinder that mounts to the top of the housing, like my old Nikonos. Practice until you are really comfortable or as much as you can before your trip.
I hope you purchased 1 or 2 spare batteries and a charger.
I bought my 16-300 mm lens from B&H- good service.
Let us know how it all works out, and post some pics! (I can tell you how)
p.s. I just uploaded another U/W video to Youtube. It consists of snippets (of me) extracted from the DVD that our guides made and shows me using my U/W light. It took over an hour to upload at 5 Mbps (50 Mbps Internet service)!
OOOPS- wrong video, it has the content I mentioned plus much more and all shot by our guides. I'll try to upload the correct (shorter) one tomorrow. They edited the video so most of it is in slow motion, though I don't know what speed they used. Also, most of it, if not all, was shot with the GoPro mounted to an extendable pole. I don't know for sure, but it might have a tendency to hang up also (Youtube issue). Watch for the Hammerhead shark.
Enjoy this tour, you will experience much, but even if you don't capture everything digitally to show others, your personal memories will always be there.
We went to the Great Barrier Reef with Tauck on the "Cruising down Under" tour. Assuming they are still using the same outfitter (Reef Magic) for your tour, you have other options for getting photos. They station a diver near the platform who will take pictures of you with their pet bass, Wally (extra fee, of course). They also offer a thumb drive with stock photos. Our Tour Director bought everyone the stock photo drive (this probably varies by tour, ask your TD). It has about 70 photos on it (reef life and aerial shots of the reef and boats).
You can see some of their photos at their website:
http://www.reefmagiccruises.com/
At one time I contemplated getting an U/W housing for my Canon, but I just don't snorkel or scuba enough anymore to make it worthwhile. Leicas are a bit out of my price range! A fairly young (late 20's early 30's) couple on our P&G tour each had their own very nice mirror-less Leica. As you can see from my pics, for me at least, taking U/W pics is a challenge- I get so few decent ones! My best U/W photos from years past were taken of small, stationary or very slow, but colorful stuff- small fish and corals like tube worms also called "feather dusters" or "XMAS tree" worms. For the small, stationary stuff I used a simple, totally manual Nikonos and the standard lens with simple slip-on diopter magifier lenses with wire framers. Set the distance to min. (or infinity?), the f-stop to F-8 and shutter speed to 1/125 for ambient light or 1/60 if I was using a strobe. Place the object between the framer uprights and activate the shutter. I had two huge photo flash U/W strobes- they required special non-rechargeable photoflash batteries, one was 150 volts the other 510 volts! I think the only place to find them now is in the Smithsonian! : )
The Sea Star III is one of the strobes I had (and still have)- I didn't have the camera housing shown. Both were designed by famous U/W photographer, cinematographer, producer, director Al Giddings- check him out on Google or IMDB. His resume includes movies like "Titanic" (co-producer), "The Deep", "For Your Eyes Only", "The Abyss", and tons of smaller movies and documentaries.
Everyone had their DSLRs on the balloon ride and that worked out fine. They also take photos of you, including several while you're airborne, since there is at least one camera mounted on the balloon itself. In this case, they give you a URL and password for you to look at the photos on-line afterwards and purchase a copy to download for $20 NZD.
It was a fabulous trip. Have fun!