Sealife DC300/DC310 manual Introduction, How It Works a Very Unique Camera Land & Sea

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INTRODUCTION

How It Works - A Very Unique Camera

Land & Sea®

The SeaLife Reefmaster Digital Land & Sea camera allows you to choose between Land Mode for taking land pictures, Sea Mode for taking underwater pictures and Flash mode for taking underwater pictures with your SeaLife External flash (optional accessory). This is essential for taking great pic- tures and achieving the perfect picture exposure.

Sea Mode: If the camera is set to Sea Mode and used inside the Underwater Camera Housing, the camera is programmed to automatically find the best exposure control combination in an underwater environment. The internal sensor reads the light conditions through the lens (TTL). It evaluates the whole picture in 64 segments with higher priority in the center. Then it automatically sets the correct exposure time and CCD sensitivity. SeaLife has tested several thousand combinations to achieve the optimal exposure controls. If the sur- rounding light is too dark, the flash will fire automatically. While in the Sea mode, the camera flash will actually fire two, three or four times depending on the distance to the subject. The weaker flashes, called a pre-flash, is used to determine the brightness and reflection of whatever you’re taking a picture of. The primary flash will fire 0.2 seconds after the pre-flash (hardly noticeable). Only the primary flash is used by the camera for properly exposing the final picture. The combination of the pre-flashes and main flash ensures the optimal exposure setting for the camera. The reach of the inner camera’s flash is limited to 3’, so we highly recommend you get the SeaLife External Flash for the brightest, most colorful pictures.

Flash mode: In order to reduce underwater “backscatter” (spots that show up in pictures caused by tiny particles in the water) and get more vivid colors, we recommend that you use the SeaLife External Flash, which is sold separately. You can even use two external flashes, like the pros do, in order to eliminate shadows in your pictures. When using the SeaLife External Flash, you must set the camera to the Flash Mode. The Flash Mode does not use a pre- flash, since this would cause the external flash to fire during the pre-flash and not during the primary flash.

If you are taking close-up pictures with the SeaLife Macro lenses and External Flash and you experience overflashing from a reflective fish or object, you have the choice of immediately deleting the image by pressing the shutter button again within 3 seconds (the monitor will show you the picture and display “DELETE THIS?”). While in the Flash mode, you can press the LCD button to select between MACRO flash mode and FAR flash mode. MACRO flash mode will adjust the camera exposure program and prevent overflashing of close-up pictures. FAR flash mode will increase the camera’s exposure setting for brighter images beyond 6 ’shooting distance. The camera gives you many options to create great photos under many different conditions and using the various flashes or lens accessories.

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