Nick's Compact to SLR Journey

Nick's Compact to SLR Journey

Month 1. The Compact Camera

Each month join Nick Catran's  journey, as in makes the transition between camera formats.

My name is Nick Catran and I’ve been diving since 2003. I’m now a PADI Instructor.

I did my Open Water with Queensland Dive Centre in Southport after which I moved down to Byron Bay and began volunteering for the Dive Centre there in exchange for free dives at Julian Rocks. I became a dive guide and once I was pretty confident with navigating the Rocks I began to want to do something else with the dives.

My first camera dive was with a $45 underwater instant camera and all I remember is that everything came out really, really green.

I made the move to a compact camera. I chose the Nikon ‘Cool Pix’ for a couple of reasons-mainly because it was in budget and came with its own housing which, as anyone who dives with a camera knows, is one of the major expenses. It was new on the market at the time, had a big live-screen on the back and was small enough to take to parties after the diving had been done. The compact camera was easy to use as a beginner and small enough to keep in my BC pocket if guiding.

It was great, and I can’t remember what I did during a dive without a camera now. It not only kept me interested in diving but has continued my underwater education in all aspects. I know a lot more about the critters and marine life which makes a better dive guide, and now Instructor and has increased my education ( and decreased my bank account) about cameras, underwater photography and Photoshop.

My first 2000-odd I took photos of everything. Although everything was still pretty green- the white balance came on the next 2000 photos- I began to learn the basics as well as understanding the limitations. My photos of Sharks had ok focus but using the camera flash brought out all the scat in the water which was frustrating since the Grey Nurse Sharks like to hide in the murky water. I was limited to the fish I could shoot too- it was no good for the faster fish- thank god for Wobbiegongs! As I began to look for the smaller stuff I found the Macro only worked in really good conditions and was hard to focus.



As I said, the concept of what the White Balance was and why I needed it became clear after I started to use it! I’d use the manual white balance at 10m only and use that setting for the rest of the dive.

Within the next thousand photos I’d refine the white balance every 5m, if I moved into different environments and if the direction of the sunlight had changed. I also started to use a small Gorilla Grip tripod on the dives to stabilise the camera- which helped with the macro shots especially. And, of course, I began to use Adobe Photoshop...



The Pros: Small: Great for beginner photographers, easy to use and low maintenance, one ‘O’ ring which are easy to get hold of, easy to store, had SD card and at the time had a good price range.
(In defence of the Cons of the compact I’m now the proud owner of a SLR so I may be slightly harsher on my former camera than is fair...)

The Cons: Couldn’t leave it on underwater because the heat it generated caused the lens to fog up, slow to focus, hard to focus on the macro, couldn’t use the flash unless in perfect close up, only 5 Mega Pixels, gets frustrating when you know the shot you should have got but couldn’t get!

Saying this, I got some really great photos using my compact and even made some money from them. I’d recommend using one to anyone wanting to start taking photos underwater and doesn’t have the spare cash to go wild.





However, 2 months ago I became the owner of a Nikon D80 and the Ikelite Housing that has enabled me to play- albeit as a beginner again- with the big boys and I’m loving it.

Next month My First Dive with the SLR

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