Taking tank pictures

[Ah-lim]

Hi guys.

Couldn't find any tips on taking tank pictures.

Any recommended settings for taking tank pics?

How many mega pix?

Off flash light? on tank's light?

Shutter speed?

Quite lost. lol.

Lastly, any recommended camera? below 1 K

Thanks.

[reeftask]

below 1k? nowadays camera are lot cheaper. 1k can buy very good camera.

It depends on your budget. In $800 range camera, brand abc is best choice but in $700 range camera, brand cde may be the best choice.

So it is hard to choose unless you margin out whats the camera cost you prefer. $1000 and $500 camera has a huge difference.

When choosing a camera, 10 mega pixel should be more than enough as you dont print that big. First you have to select what type of memory card and battery you want. Some cameras uses their own design and very difficult to find everywhere in the world, just in case if you are in a holiday of remote village. So first priority of mine is SD card and AA size battery. Secondly, I go for optical zoom as this is the most important need for visibility. Next, go to internet and find recommendations. Some sites have sample pictures taken by a lot of brands and models of cameras. Next ISO range and shutter speed. Next anti-vibration device. Next is the given optical lenses. Lastly is the camera size which I usually ignore.

Now you should able to judge from there.

Taking a nice shot is not only depends on camera but also skill and experiences. I prefer no cameras lights on because even a very good brand camera still have red-eye problem which I just cant stand even a small tip of red there. Im fussy, LOL.

[blueheaven]

It depends on what type of tank pics you want to take.

For full tank pics, turn off any ambient lights so that your tank is the only light source (this way you blacken out any unwanted stuff in your picture and put focus to the tank).

For the advice on camera settings, I'm going to provide those for DSLR because I haven't used a point and shoot camera for a very long time and I don't know what is available.

Shoot in manual mode and dial in the biggest aperture (smallest f-value) and work on the shutter speed. Take a test shot and adjust the shutter speed according to the exposure you get. Reason as to why you need to open up the aperture is that you want the fastest shutter speed so that your fishes or anything that is moving would not be blurred.

Never ever ever use flash when doing tank photography. It will reflect off the glass and make your pics really unsightly.

As for the megapixel question, actually 4MP is quite enough if you ask me. Remember, the more megapixels the larger your file so if you want to process and post here, 4MP would give you an average sized file and your workflow till posting would be much smoother. When I shoot in RAW format using just 8MP, the file size is already a few megabytes large so that's a guage.

Anytime if you don't mind the size of the camera, I always recommend a DSLR. Reason being that although compact cameras are portable and pack the megapixels and cool functions, they still cant compare to DSLR in terms of dynamic range, versatility, etc. The sensor on the compact cameras are so much smaller than DSLR sensors!

So I'd suggest that you save up a little more and get yourself a second hand DSLR. Second hand cameras are very worth their price as photography hobbyists usually take very good care of their equipment so buying them at much lower price at the same quality as a new one is really worth it.

[tineng]

below 1k you can get a beginners DSLR. BH is right, mega pixel is less important as you are unlikely to go for large print....the speed and range of of DSLR should be what you are going for....my point and shoot camera and DSLR has the same resolution (and about the same price), but no way the point and shoot can win interms of the quailty produced....

[jc85]

Take a look at these articles if u have not.

Choosing Camera

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/gr/index.php

Photographing ur aquarium

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/gr/index.php

Getting close up

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-01/gr/index.php

White Balance

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/gr/index.php

Cheers

JC

[Ah-lim]

woohhh...

Thanks for the wonderful advise and tips!!

Will read up those links and also will go source out for a DSLR camera.

[sherman]

For DSLR you have to invest in lens.

So remember to add in the lens cost.

For pin and shoot camera you can look for powershoot

series or the G series.(Canon)

Other brand have good budget series also but I am not

well verse so cannot share