I’ve been having issues getting decent photos of sea life at aquariums. I went to two different ones recently. I used a Canon R10 at both: for the first I took a 24 f/2.8 pancake lens and felt like the maximum aperture wasn’t providing enough light to autofocus fast enough. For the second trip, I used a 50 f/1.8 and that did address that problem, but I’m still left with blurry photos and massive blue-yellow chromatic aberration.

It’s a challenging environment to begin with with how dark it is and how fast and unpredictability some fish and other animals move. The best - still pretty bad - results I got were at f/4, 1/300 or faster and moderate ISO speeds.

Part of the issue is that, with my username being very literal, I can’t really adjust my settings in response to image quality, on the spot. Reviewing images in the EVF with magnification is awesome and helpful, but I still end up getting disappointed when I open the photos up on my 32 inch monitor…

So… any tips? Is there a secret for this, something like a Watery 16 rule I don’t know about?

For what it’s worth, one of these places is pretty close by. I could get an annual pass and head there every weekend and try something new. I don’t want to, but I could. Hehe.

  • MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.comOPEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think they’d let me use a tripod, but tracking is a good idea… It certainly works for race cars. I’d probably be able to stop down too and rely less on perfect focus.

    • everett
      3·
      1 year ago

      When you can’t use a tripod there are some better-than-nothing alternatives you can try for getting some steadiness, like bracing your elbows against your abdomen, or pulling the camera forward against the neckstrap.