paddling with a camera

I am considering a filter mount for my Pentax Optio W10 camera following modifications made by Adame Grace. I am mostly interested in using a polarizer filter and some sort of lens hood in my paddling photography. Before making any modifications to the camera I am going to perform some tests.

I started with some rather casual experiments to explore the polarizer effect with Pentax Optio and to check if it is possible to see it when shooting. I was just holding 49 mm Tiffen circular polarizer filter in front of the camera lens. It was a regular polarizer, not a warm version.

It was afternoon around 3 pm on the partially frozen Beaver Pond in Arapaho Bend Natural Area. The light was not the best one for photography. Normally, I am shooting my paddling pictures much later closer to sunset.

The below pictures on left were shot without the filter and on right with the polarizer. I was shooting in a direction perpendicular to the light direction, so the polarizing effect should the highest. The first conclusion was rather trivial: you see the effect of the LCD screen if you can clearly see the LCD. Well, I ended up looking directly through the filter and rotating it before placing it in front of the lens.

The results are not exactly as I would expect. The polarizer filter had a significant warming effect on my pictures. The sky was getting a little bit darker showing some delicate clouds which were not visible on the pictures without it.

I was shooting in my regular setting in the "P" mode. It seems that the camera was compensating for the filter by opening the aperture rather than extending exposure times.

I am going to repeat these tests with a camera mounted on a tripod, so I can have a better control of the filter. I will also use my DSLR camera for the same scene as a reference.

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• How to Mount a Camera on a Kayak Deck with Suction Cups from Sticky Pod