Best camera for aquarium photography for under $300?

underh2o

Wonderful advice!! I wish there was an easy answer!

eileen

I use a Kodak EasyShare C813 , I do not use a flash while taking pictures of aquariums because of the glare. Seems to work good for a not so expensive camera. Sometime I put my magnifying glass I got at Staples in the front of the camera and the picture come out even better mine has a zoom but this works sometimes and if my fish can stay still while taking the pictures help also. Here's a picture of my Red Cherry shrimps I took with that camera and those are tiny. A good subject as they do not move fast like a fish. Oh and I just noticed in my tanks today that I have new tiny tiny baby red cherry shrimps.

Attached Images

Java Fern attatched to driftwood & a little red cherry shrimp.jpg (101.8 KB, 22 views)

Mikaila31

I honestly see nothing wrong with your current camera. The Canon SX210 IS has a manual mode so it should work pretty well. I would not expect anything amazing since it is a slim compact and will be sacrificing quality for size, none the less it should be perfectly adequate for the situation. What was the problem you were having with it?

Aqua Jon

I have a nikon coolpix and a beast DSLR Minolta Maxxum 7D with macro lenses and some other syrup and STILL can't get great pictures of fish. Like Mikaila said, it has to do with who is behind the camera. I'm still learning how to shoot fish through experimentation. It is difficult to do, even with the gear.

Your Canon Powershot is a very nice digital to have. One of my best friends is a professional photographer and uses a Powershot, for non-professional stuff. So your set there. Just try be opportunistic and make sure the flash is off. You have some options if you want to get in to the technical aspects, but you should be able to upload your pictures to the computer and crop those. I bet a few of those turn out decent. You may not be able to count the scales, but it will still look great.

But if your looking for a professional consumer DSLR, maybe buy used or rent one for the weekend. Keep in mind that even if you get a body for under 300, you need a lens too and possibly other peripheral gear.

Mikaila31

I don't recommend DSLRs because of there cost and know-how the user needs upfront. I personally have never used a DSLR and have never had a problem with photography. I bought my panasonic not knowing much of anything about manual operation. I was able to learn it pretty quickly by myself just through the internet and trial and error with my camera.

Fish or aquariums are no easy subject to shoot though in any setting. Here are the tips I can give you. No flash. ALL room lights off, tank should be only source of light ideally. If there are windows, then shooting is probably easiest in the evening. Start by setting camera on shutter-priority, this gives you a few manual controls and lets the camera pick the rest. Use menu and set ISO to 100 or 200. Now shorten shutter speed the most you can. If it is too short the image will start to get darker, and this will likely be the limit of the shutter-priority function. Don't be upset if you need to take a dozen pictures for one good one. Also don't chase the fish around the tank with the camera. The more you move the more they will move. Also make sure glass is clean inside and out. Only half-way pressing the "take a picture button"(I'm blanking on what its called) will hold the auto focus on most cameras. Don't zoom much or any at all, I would say 4x if your camera can auto focus well with that. Take pictures straight on when you have glass between you and the subject, angles will distort. I'm not into editing images or anything like that. Even cropping I rarely do. I take pictures of everything with my camera.

Aqua Jon

IMO, "Take-a-picture-button" is probably the best term , but I think it's called a shutter release.

I agree completely the cost of a DSLR is extremely high. For this reason it may not be worthwhile to most everyone. I disagree with the know-how up front, nearly all of the DSLR have a fully auto mode. And if you're jumping into shutter priority and ISO settings I would consider that more advanced information. Still it is not worth the costs to buy a DSLR just to change the ISO and shooting mode. Today, the gap between a digital point-n-shoot and the DSLR is now a thin line defined primarily by price and peripheral equipment. I looked at the specs for the cannon sx210 and it can do almost everything you would want a DSLR to do (at the prosummer level), but is at least 1/3 the cost!!

The only additional information I'd give to anyone using a digital is to NEVER use the digital zoom, only optical zoom.

I'd love to see some of your other pictures mikaila! Do you have have a site?

Mikaila31

I have a flickr account but will have to link it later when I am at a actual computer. And shutter release was the word I was looking for! I don't really consider manual controls as really all that advanced. I have learned a little more indepth on a few then I feel I need. Shutter speed. aperture. ISO. are the main three contols IMO. Yet IDK what ISO actually means. Just how it effects the picture which is all I really care about. The powershots are okay cameras. The picture in my sig. was taken with a much older powershot S1 IS that met its grave not to long ago. I feel certain the newer ones should function better.
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Mikaila31

Here are what I consider my amateur portfolio pictures. There are not many fish ones, because those are hard to get. Getting a decent picture is pretty easy, but getting a great picture is a whole different matter. More then half of those were taken with my cameras auto option. Auto works a lot of the time for me and I don't have a problem using it. Most of the time there is not enough time to shoot in manual. I will happily use it though if I am able too. The dragonfly on the first page was shot in manual because the auto function simply had no success at getting the shot right and the dragonfly didn't fly away. I've had my camera about 2 and a half years and have managed to take over 18K pictures. Apart from the few timelapses I attempted I don't want to know how much of my time that took up lol. Only accessories I have for my camera are extra battery, high capacity memory card, tripod, and a water tight box since it goes out on my kayak. I would really like a polarizing filter for it, but IDK if that will ever happen. Someday I intend to get a DSLR, but will probably run my current camera to the ground first. I still have things to learn using it. I took this on Monday after a friend showed me a fun technique. No editing or anything like that simply playing with light. I already have some cool ideas for this summer on how to mix it with my preferred nature photography >.>

Aqua Jon

WOW!! My eyes are very happy!! You've got some talent. Those pictures were all wonderful. I really loved the fire images about halfway through! How did you get those colors out of the fire? Amazing. Very inspirational to me as an amateur photographer as well Thank you for sharing those.

Oh and the photo you recently took with the lights in the room, look up light graffiti. It is very similar and there are some cool stop motion videos done using extended exposures like that. I think you'll like it.

Mikaila31

Thank you. And that fire is burning copper wire. We do it in the outdoor fire pit when we have scrap wire for parties. It confuses the drunks cuz the fire really is that color and most of the wire is buried under the wood.

Yeah that I believe does fall under light graffiti. Once summer comes and we are no longer the land of ice and snow I have a plan using my two RC speed boats and some LEDS on a lake. Should look neat depending how much of the water disturbance is caught, but that might look cool too. Only problem is those boats have obedience issues which is why I have not used them in over a year >=( .