Fuji F80 EXR Digital camera and Fuji Underwater housing review

Last week, two of my dive buddies and I returned from a dive trip at the Red Sea in which we did 8 dives with 2 different cameras ( Fuji F80 EXR and Nikon P7000) , a couple of underwater strobes and 4 different video lights.ï¿½ The idea was to compare 2 cameras, one a very basic one and the other a more advanced (the P7000) and try different combinations with the external lighting we had available.

Our first impression of the Fuji F80 was a big disappointment ,ï¿½ we returned from the first couple of dives with pictures all blue-ish , incorrectly exposed and out of focus where as the P7000 produced clear , sharp , almost perfect images.ï¿½ Knowing my way around digital cameras and underwater ones, I knew this doesnï¿½t makes sense and decided to spend the evening learning and exploring the cameras features.ï¿½ As a result, the next dayï¿½s dives looked a whole lot different.

First Day Pics

Fuji F80 EXR Camera Review

White Balance ï¿½ The Fuji F80 surprisingly has an underwater white balance mode.ï¿½ I tried playing with this mode and was a bit disappointed to find out that it was not strong enough to fix the colors underwater.ï¿½ This mode might be nice when shooting at no deeper than 10 feet but below that , the colors are lost and manual white balance should be used.

Luckily the F80 has the custom white balance feature which is not obvious for a compact camera but as many compacts, it proves to be too strong underwater and makes the photos grayish and less saturated.ï¿½ My recommendation in this case is to set the manual white balance at 10 feet depth and use it like this for the whole dive, even at 90 feet.

Focus ï¿½ The F80 seems to have a decent auto focus system, better than many compacts but not as good as the P7000 or Canon G12 (perfectly understandable in my opinion).ï¿½ Sometimes, a few half-clicks are necessary but overall, I canï¿½t say this was a huge obstacle when diving.

Manual settings ï¿½ This is a place where I think the F80 lacks.ï¿½ Itï¿½s P / A and M modes allow only 2 aperture choices (3.3 and 9.0) and it seems that when using 3.3, It cannot determine the exposure correctly and most of the shots are burnt.ï¿½ I found the best mode underwater to be A with F/9.0 set permanently.
By using the above settings I was able to overcome the exposure issue and produced decent pictures.

Macro Mode ï¿½ Not nearly as good as the P7000, very difficult to focus, a video light is very helpful here.

Video ï¿½ The quality of the Video is ï¿½Okï¿½ , no more no less, itï¿½s nice to pass on the experience of underwater diving and I find it to be perfectly enough for such a camera .ï¿½ One big downside for underwater use is that custom white balance is not available in this mode.ï¿½ Therefore, if not using a video light, videos come out completely blue.
External Strobes ï¿½ I was not able to get TTL auto exposure when using the Sea and Sea strobes, I thought that would be possible but apparently it isnï¿½t.ï¿½ Some resources online suggested that with Inon S-TTL it should work, I have not tested it.ï¿½ As such, I was using the strobes in manual mode with my hand on the strobeï¿½s power knob, adjusting its power according to the objects distance and external lighting.

Fuji F80 WP-FXF80 Housing Review

The F80 housing is compact, easy to use, simple and seems to be quite reliable.ï¿½ It has a fiber optic connection for an external strobe which is not obvious for compact housings and it has a flash diffuser which is also great.
The fact that the built in flash cannot be blocked is a problem as it causes a lot of backscatter being right near the lens.
The housing is easy to hold and buttons including half-click shutter are easy and comfortable to shoot with.
Here are some sample shots and videos: