What's a good cheap camera for photographing an LED aquarium?

[STiTCH87]

So my Sony point-and-shoot is an amazing camera for $200, and has taken some awesome photos of tanks with T5s and the like.
But no matter what I do, every LED tank I photograph looks like i'm filming avatar it's so blue.

Even if I turn down the LEDs, it just looks awful and grainy.

What do others on here use for cameras to film their LED reefs?

I'm assuming most people use a SLR/DSLR, but if I upgrade my camera, i'd prefer to keep it under $750 so a brand new model DSLR isn't in my budget.

Any suggestions?

And no, my P&S Sony doesn't have a raw photo mode.

 

[diverbh4]

I would say getting a DSLR and some filters & some post production with photoshop (or your P&S with post production). Or turning up the whites on your LEDs because the pictures look blue, since your tank (water from leds) is blue.

 

[mchartier]

I'm assuming most people use a SLR/DSLR, but if I upgrade my camera, i'd prefer to keep it under $750 so a brand new model DSLR isn't in my budget.

Any suggestions?
.

I shoot a Nikon D60 with either a 18-55mm or 55-200mm, dont have money for a macro lens right now. I bought that a few years ago under your price range of $750. Both of the cameras below along with mine do not have the autofocus motor built in to the camera body so if you want auto focus you need to use the AF-S and AF-I lens.

The picture in my avatar was taken under AI Sol Blues with the above camera, along with everything in my 57 Rimless Photo Thread

For $650 you can get a Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm Lens and 55-200mm VR Lens at Best Buy

or For $700 a Nikon D5100 Black 16.2MP DSLR Camera Body and Extra 55-200mm Zoom Lens at Best Buy

So with both of those you would need to add a storage card.

I use Lightroom mainly to compress (due to the 150kb limit here) and also organize my photos. I can enter in a keyword to display all pictures of a specific fish or coral. These can be entered as a batch operation while importing to Lightroom.

Also Canon and others probably has camera packages in the same price ranges as those above

 

[STiTCH87]

Well I used Photoshop for post production but it still came out horrible. I'm gonna turn up the whites tonight and see if I can find a happy medium. The royal blue LEDs really wreck my p&s.

Autofocus isn't really a requirement for me as I've taken photo class in highschool and am used to manual. And those are certainly in my price range.

Do you know if all or any of those can shoot raw?

 

[mchartier]

Yes it can, its a NEF file format

 

[dz6t]

I use an old Canon XT 8MP DSLR with the al-cheapo 50 mm F1.8 EF lens. it is OK for taking photo for corals under LED (somehow its auto white balance works well under LED). I saw the same camera body used on craig's list for under $200. The lens is around $100 new.

 

[Matt W]

Good article http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-An....html?cid=eml-0612-lenewsletter-v1-article2lm

 

[STiTCH87]

Very good to know DZ6T. I guess I really don't need anything amazing as long as it holds it's own. And the price feels good in the wallet for sure!

And thank you Matt W. on that article.

 

[dz6t]

The blue tang in the article has a rotten head.

 

[higorc]

There is no need to spend a lot of $ on a decent dslr. Just got a Nikon d3000 dslr off eBay last week for $270.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320984271952?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

They usually go for around $350 used. So I got a good deal on it. I used to have a Nikon D40 and loved it. That's why I decided to get this one. Anything better would be an overkill for me anyways.

It takes a little practice getting used to it again. But after adjusting white balance and trying different settings I am being able to take good pictures again. Not as blue...

 

[higorc]

Nikon D3000 DSLR w/ 18-55mm lens

This is after I adjusted white balance using a white surface in the same lighting

 

[STiTCH87]

The blue tang in the article has a rotten head.

Lol yeah I saw that too and was like umm... yeah...

I see head rot quite often on them at a few LFS and it's just so sad.


EDIT: Turned down the blues, and this happened:



Go to my tank build thread and see the other pics!

Taken with a cellphone, but i'm thinking maybe my P&S will work with low blues too. I turned the blues down A LOT to the point where naked eye sees almost only white. But since the camera is so sensitive to blue, it made it near -true-to-life coloration.

I'm gonna play around a bit more with the LED channels and my cameras and see what I can whip up, but i'm still hoping Santa buys me a DSLR for XMAS.

 

[diverbh4]

Can you reset the white balance on your camera? or is it still too blue afterwards?

 

[STiTCH87]

Nope no reset. Just auto adjust and manual. Neither help unless I turn the blues down on the tank.