 Many people take pictures using the built-in flash of their compact digital cameras. If you really want vivid colors in your photos, though, the first thing to consider is an external strobe. The YS-27DX, recommended for the DX-860G set, has a completely different light level and beam angle than the built-in flash. As you can see from the examples, when you use the YS-27DX, its light spreads to fill the entire image. It’s strong enough to reach subjects in the medium distance, filling your captured images with bright colors. You’ll be surprised by the difference in color this strobe brings to your shots. Pictures of subjects large and small benefit from the crisp details available when you add an external close-up lens. The DX-860G housing comes with a special close-up lens that lets you make the most of tiny macro subjects. If you set the camera to macro mode, zoom all the way in, and use the accessory close-up lens, you can take life-size photographs from a location as close as 15cm / 5.9inch from your subject. (By life-size, we mean your images will appear the same size as subject.) Macro subjects are perfect for the YS-27DX, which can easily fill your close-up image with light to bring out brilliant colors. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
To get close to larger subjects, an optional wide-angle conversion lens opens up the world of wide-angle photography. Use it to get very close to your subject where your strobe light can bring out its colors, and take advantage of its wide field of view to get all of your subject in the frame and add some background as well. If you get too far back from a small subject while shooting wide angle, you might capture a lone small fish in the middle of a large blue ocean, which lacks impact. Try to get your wide-angle lens as close as is safe to your subject to capture the most beautiful and forceful images.
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
 When you use the YS-27DX external strobe, its light fills the entire image for beautiful results. The strobe is able to reproduce the color of the Chirostylus ortmanni, which was dark blue in natural light, as well as the color of the background coral.
In natural light (left photo), colors don’t show up at all. Using the camera’s built-in flash (center) brings out the red of the soft coral. Compared to the photo using the YS-27DX (right), though, the middle photo lacks brilliance. Its light doesn’t fill the entire image and it leaves background subjects dim.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
 This photo of a frogfish was taken from a distance of roughly 15cm / 5.9inch with the camera zoomed in completely. It gets in close to perfectly capture his expression, and it displays beautiful colors because it was shot using the YS-27DX for illumination. Be careful when shooting close-ups without the close-up lens, because when you’re zoomed in completely subjects will be out of focus if they’re closer than 30cm / 11.8inch from the camera.
 *01 (left photo) is an example using the close-up lens; *02 (right photo) is an example taken up close with a wide zoom using the camera’s lens alone. The two photos look similar, but *02 was taken at a distance of 5cm / 1.9inch. If you want to accurately capture your subjects’ expressions, we recommend that you use the close-up lens to shoot your subjects in close-up detail while remaining at a distance.
Using the close-up lens, you can shoot tiny creatures with close-up detail from a distance. Example *04 was taken using the close-up lens with the camera zoomed in completely. It perfectly captures the subject’s expression and behavior. Without a close-up lens, you can zoom completely out and get as close as possible (*03), but it may be difficult to get within centimeters of a timid subject. Using the close-up lens, you can shoot from a distance of approximately 15cm / 5.9inch and get the same details.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
 This school of small fish was photographed completely zoomed out for maximum wide-angle coverage. The wide field angle allows the photo to capture the appearance of the entire school as well as its underwater background. Without the wide-angle conversion lens, part of the school would be cut out.
 With the wide-angle conversion lens
Looking at the two examples, the difference in coverage angle (the captured field of vision) is obvious. The wide-angle conversion lens gives even compact digital cameras like the DX-860G+860G set the ability to capture images with breadth and depth.
*All of the product images of the DX-860 housing used in this page are prototypes. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
 |