Underwater photography with the FinePix F31fd and WP-FXF30

I recently bought the Fuji Finepix F31 as a replacement of my Konica Revio KD 500Z. I also bought the WP-FXF30 underwater housing, after extensive research and advice by an experienced underwater photographer.

I also added a Fantasea red filter, that can be easily attached and detached to the housing before, during and after diving. It is put over the port of the UW housing like a normal lens cap, without using an additional mount. This proved to be convenient when switching between underwater and surface photography. I further completed the set with the Epoque ES-150DS, arm and slave connector, which I could buy from a friend a friend of mine.

Experiences on the surface

The quality of the photos is good, and give a realistic result. The colors are lively but not overdone and color balance is excellent. The acclaimed sensitivity and flash program work like a charm.

You can take photos without flash in dark conditions without seriously reducing the image quality. If the flash is required, a natural result is still obtained. Overexposure in bright light conditions, as is discussed in some reviews, has only happened to me once. Also the so-called "purple fringing" does not bother me, especially as the F31 performs a lot better than my previous digital camera.

For a quick holiday snap I mainly use the full automatic mode. This will show reduce the depth of field as the aperture will stay low (2.8) for shutter speed tot 1/500 sec. This can be circumvented by using the Aperture priority mode. But if you want to do it manual, it is regrettable that a full manual mode that allows setting both shutter and aperture is not available.

My previous camera already had good battery life, but the F31 surpasses this by far. A full charge lasted me one day of shooting a wedding as well as two dives. During diving, the camera was operational for almost an hour, and I had people reviewing pictures between dives and during the wedding many times. The F31 camera is also very quick in both startup time and shutter lag.

And for Face Detection: if it works it works well. What I mean to say that if faces are recognized, the focus and exposure is adjusted for them as one would expect. As these faces are the subject in most cases, the results are fine. However, especially in dim or back lit conditions where one would need it the most, the system does not recognize the faces in many cases and is then useless. I'm not yet sure whether this feature was worth the difference in price between the F30 and F31...

Experiences under water

And now the most important bit, the underwater performance of the F31. Underwater photography is a special skill, mainly due to the colors. From my experiences as a light technician in the theater I know that white light and another white light as seen by humans can make very different indeed. The underwater challenge is the lack of light, and then mainly the lack of red and the resulting dark blue photos. This can be countered using two alternatives: a red filter or a strobe...

The lack of (red) light underwater varies with the depth, in addition the influence of the sun and clouds also influences the brightness and colors. I did use the F31fd's Underwater setting on some test shots at first, but found only minor effect at 1 to 3 meters deep.

From advice and my own experience I learned that a filter and manually setting the white balance will yield the best results. This implies that you must set the correct exposure and balance just before a shot. For this I used a "white" writing pad. Technically this worked fine, but this function could be made better accessible in the menu. Functions like ISO, aperture and white balance are accessed through different buttons, frequently leading to a mistake in settings.

After setting everything as required, the results are stunning! Again a natural result and nice colors and no issue with blue photos. I did not expect these results could be obtained without digitally post processing, given that the best shots in magazines and many underwater photographers on the Internet are in many cases edited.

The sensitivity of the F31, the filter and the well working manual white balance attribute to the good results. The only limiting factor is the amount of light, the depth and yourself. In tropical water, I got great results using ISO values of 100 to 400 at depth of 25 meters.

I've used the ES-150DS strobe only two dives: one to test and one at a wreck. In tropical regions, the F31 has more than enough light to shoot good photos, and a flash is not required for nice colors when you use a filter. Shooting without flash gives a balanced result, without the negative influence of particles in the water becoming "backscatter". Just as surface photography, an artificial light source will create an artificial effect. It can be beautiful, but I'm more into "nature as it comes".

In real low light conditions a strobe is of course a necessity. The Epoque ES-150 is just about the simplest slave strobe on the streets, with only a manual intensity control. The Epoque is however capable of ignoring the pre-flash of digital compact cameras.

The F31 en the Epoque yielded excellent results inside the wreck. For this occasion I did not use the filter, but did diffuser. I had to manually set the strobe flitser to the right strength, but did not require more than half its power (guide number 6-9). As manual control is required for the best underwater shots, a manual strobe should be regarded as a benefit instead of a drawback. Something that can save you a lot of money! I'm am still happy that I did not buy an automatic strobe.

Apart from photos, I also took some very nice videos of a turtle and my girlfriend at a depth of 5 meters and using the filter!

Conclusion

After a few dives in the pool, two weeks diving around Bonaire and 1000 surface and underwater photos I can only say that I am very satisfied with the camera and housing. The F31 has all the usual pros and cons of the digital compact versus the pros and cons of a digital SLR. But when evaluating the image quality and functionality of the F31 I think it comes close to the qualities of an SLR! If you, like I, do not want to drag along a heavy camera and equipment on your trip and dive, than the F31 is the way to go.

Summary

Major benefits:

• Natural results
• Startup speed / shutter lag
• Sensitivity
• Flash program in combination with sensitivity
• Battery stamina

Improvements:

• Depth of field in full automatic mode
• Menu structure for setting white balance
• Menu structure in combination with controls
• Lack of full manual setting of speed and aperture
• Face Detection works only when it works

Review by: René Tjong Tjin Tai

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