Difficulties with RF shooting at an aquarium

[Bosk]

Hi there,

Recently I've been having great difficulty getting acceptably sharp shots at my local aquarium using my R2A & 50/2 Summicron combination.


There are three main reasons, being:

1. So little light that I can only get 1/15 or 1/30 when shooting @ f2, using ISO 400 film.

2. Having to shoot through a thick layer of aquarium glass.

3. Constantly moving subjects that rarely slow down!


Of course the moving subjects negate the usefulness of a tripod (I don't like them anyway) so I guess my best bet would be to use faster film (which I'm hesitant to do, I want as little grain as possible) or buy a faster lens.
I'm sure I will get a faster lens at some point, but an extra stop isn't going to make a huge amount of difference and the narrower depth of field is going to make focusing on small, moving targets even more difficult.

Being so new to Rangefinders I've no doubt that more experience in focusing will make things a bit easier, but it's still a pretty challenging situation.


So how would you go about it shooting in such a place?

 

[Matthias]

Sounds fishy, but I'd try an underwater camera 🙂

 

[wlewisiii]

Tri-X @ EI1600 developed in Diafine. Or EI1250 depending on your tastes. But that would gain you three stops without messing up the image too much. If you like color, I'd give the Fuji 1600 a try at EI1250.

William

 

[rover]

Tri-X @ EI1600 developed in Diafine. Or EI1250 depending on your tastes. But that would gain you three stops without messing up the image too much. If you like color, I'd give the Fuji 1600 a try at EI1250.

William

What he said, TriX at 1250 here, be creative, use the contrast, prefocus and or take your time.

It isn't easy for all the reasons you state, but it can work.

 

[VinceC]

This is what f/1.4 lenses were invented for -- sometimes one extra stop does make a difference.

 

[Bill58]

Use a monopod--often museums/ acquariums ban tripods, but not monopods. 'Works here in Korea.

 

[IGMeanwell]

You can always try Fuji Press 800 ... or NPZ

Actually for color I really like the Superia X-tra 800, readily available and typically flexible film.

 

[Xmas]

Motor drive or trigger winder.

Focus on a plant or other fixed point you can easily see.

Shoot just before the fish reaches the focus spot. If it hovers machine gun it.

Use lots of film, hope.

Noel

 

[tkluck]

-Blasphemy warning-

Sometimes you actually need an SLR. (be patient and let the fish swim into focus)

Even if it is a thing of beauty, made by a master, with a soul of its own, sharper than Ocam's razor,
is it wise to bring a knife to a gun fight?

 

[Bosk]

Prefocusing and waiting for my 'victims' to swim into the area of focus sounds like a handy strategy, I think I'll try that one. 🙂

A monopod isn't going to help much though, since I'm already getting seriously motion-blurred subjects due to my low shutter speeds, and a monopod won't help there.
A 1.4 lens would be very, very handy, but then I'd have even less DOF to play with and I'm finding manually focusing on fast moving targets tough enough already.


Somehow I get the feeling that regardless of what I try it's one of those situations where one has to burn a ton of film to guarantee outstanding images. Lord knows it's a tough enough environment with an AF camera without flash (I've tried) and manual focus adds that extra dimension of challenge.