Underwater Photography on a Budget: Can the Olympus TG-6 Beat a Pro Rig?

Ross McLaren always jokes that when he started diving, one expensive hobby spawned another in photography… but is great underwater photography on a budget possible? Do you really have to spend thousands of pounds to be able to capture good underwater images?

Building a Budget-Friendly Underwater Camera Setup

I started thinking about this when I was asked to run an underwater workshop recently and set myself a wee challenge to see if I could put together a set-up for less than £1,000 that was capable of capturing images I was happy with -and could compete with those I got with my ‘big rig’. I knew I would have to compromise in some areas, but would these be a deal breaker? After a bit of research and scouring the internet, I eventually put together two options.

Option One: This is closest to my current set-up:

• Olympus TG-6(second hand – MPB): £300

• Olympus PT-059 Housing (second hand – Facebook): £200

• AOI Q1 Strobe: £300 Total: £800

Option Two: This is likely the route many just starting out in underwater photography will go for initially:

• Olympus TG-6(second hand – MPB): £300

• Olympus PT-059 Housing (second hand – Facebook): £200

• Diving Flashlight 18000 Lumen IPX8 Scuba Dive Lights (Amazon): £65 Total: £565

Option Three: I appreciate that neither Option One nor Two is cheap, but let’s compare that to my usual set-up.

• Olympus EM1 MkII (second hand – MPB): £400

• Olympus 30mm f/3.5 Lens (second hand – MPB): £150

• AOI UH-EM1III Housing: £900

• AOI FLP-04 Lens Port for 30mm Lens: £225

• AOI Q1 Strobe (x2): £600

• Diving Flashlight 18000 Lumen IPX8 Scuba Dive Lights (Amazon): £65 Total: £2,340

You’ll notice neither the ‘cheap’ option, nor my own set-up, includes pricing for trays, arms and clamps as these are needed irrespective of the actual camera, housing and lighting. So these prices are still a bit lower than the actual value needed to build a rig from scratch. But, with a difference of between £1,540 and £1,775, is that gulf in price obvious in the image quality?

The TG-6: Size Isn’t Everything

One of the first things that struck me about the TG-6 was the compact sizing. Yes, I know it is a compact camera, but I didn’t realise just how good the size was. When I put together my EM-1MKII set-up I was determined to make it as compact as possible. With the EM-1 being a Micro Four Thirds sensor camera, not only was the body relatively small, but the lenses were also much more compact when comparing to APS-Cor Full Frame options. But looking and handling the TG-6, I was really struck by just how small it was compared to what I thought was an already compact setup.

Now, there are some downsides to this. If you’re using it in colder climates with either dry or wet gloves, the buttons can be a little tricky to get used to and it wasnt the firs’t time I accidentally hit the wrong one when I wasn’t paying attention. But, within a dive or two I’d got used to the slightly smaller layout, and if you’re coming to it for the first time never having used a bigger camera, I reckon there will be less of a ‘feeling out’ phase.

The big positive of the TG-6 being such a compact package is it is easier to ‘carry’ underwater and shift out of the way if needs be. A big set-up with a big camera body, lens, multiple lights, arms, bulky housing and a tray, can be a real distraction and be quite cumbersome. So having such a small rig, which is still capable of taking excellent images, is a massive plus in my book.

Real-World Flexibility Underwater: TG-6 in Action

The flexibility of the TG-6 is absolutely second to none in my opinion. With it you can go from shooting medium to macro subjects with a couple of button pushes, which is not something you can easily get on a larger interchangeable lens camera set-up. The TG-6 has an equivalent focal length range of 25-100mm and to achieve that on a mirrorless/DSLR system requires a relatively large lens, which I’m not even sure you can get a lens port for the camera housing to fit.

To get the same flexibility and range, you would need to physically swap the lens on the camera, as well as the port on the housing, which obviously isn’t possible underwater. Meaning, you are a lot more restricted in the type of shooting you can do with larger set-ups. With a system like my EM-1I essentially have to decide before I get in the water on what I want to shoot and chose a lens suitable for that particular subject. Whereas, with the TG-6that isn’t an issue. With its large zoom range and incredible macro capabilities, you can shoot just about any subject aside from very wide-angle seascapes/wrecks.

Now for mirrorless/DSLRs, you can get round this by adding wet lenses to the outside of the lens port which either widen the field of view or to help improve the macro capabilities of a lens. But these are another expense to put out and another addition to an already bulky rig. With the TG-6, you literally have all these options in one very small package and for me, that’s so important.

Manual Control Limitations: Do They Really Matter?

There is one major downside I thought I’d found with the TG-6 and was sure would be a deal breaker for me, and that was the lack of full manual camera controls. When I mean full manual control, I mean choosing the aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings on the camera. To casual photographers and beginners, this might not be a big deal. Many people like to keep it simple and either have the camera on full auto (which I’ve been known to use in the past and I suggest people start off with until they get comfortable diving with their camera underwater) or aperture priority mode (where the only thing they need to worry about is how much the subject and background is in focus). But for someone who is used to being in complete control, it was something I was wary of.

With the TG-6, the closest you can get to full manual is to shoot in aperture priority mode, set the ISO to a maximum value (usually this is between 100 and 400) and then to control shutter speed (to ensure the subject isn’t blurry if it is moving) using the exposure dial. It felt like a bit of a faff to start with. But in the end, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I didn’t miss manual mode, and it felt far more freeing to do it this way.

I did spend a bit of time dialling in the settings before I went in the water and setting it up how I wanted it, but the custom buttons on the TG-6meant I could save them and when I got in, I found myself barely changing them at all, which was a completely different experience for me. Although I can do this on my EM-1, I would never have thought of shooting this way. But, because I was ‘forced’ to with the TG-6, in the end, it was almost like shooting on auto. I picked my saved custom setting and just simply enjoyed taking the photos without worrying about the settings. Whereas with the big camera I’d be taking several shots with slightly different shutter speeds or slightly different apertures so I could choose my favourite later. This way I didn’t have that choice, which on the face of it sounds like a negative, but in practice made for a much more enjoyable shooting experience.

There is one major downside I thought I’d found with the TG-6 and was sure would be a deal breaker for me, and that was the lack of full manual camera controls

Is the TG-6 Good Enough for Serious Underwater Photography on a Budget?

Image quality is obviously a huge consideration when it comes down to it at the end of the day. Let’s be totally honest, you’re not going to get the same quality from a TG-6as you would from a bigger camera, but just how different is it and does it justify such a big price difference?

Without getting too technical, the actual 12mp sensor in the TG-6is roughly 8x smaller than the 20mp one in my EM-1MKII. Which when you read it on paper sounds like a big difference, but in reality, most images are viewed on a phone screen and really, I wouldn’t say there was a £1,540 to £1,775 worth of a difference. Yes, if you are pixel peeping and heavily cropping in you can see there is a reduction in the image quality. With less megapixels and a smaller sensor that’s naturally going to be the case. But the trick here is to simply get it right when taking the shot, and with the macro abilities of the TG-6, there’s no reason you can’t, so get in close and avoid cropping in afterwards. If you do find yourself having to bump up the ISO in the TG-6, above about 400, yes, there is a bit of noise in the final image. But again, there’s a work around. Make sure you are shooting in RAW and put the files through an editing software (there’s plenty of free options to choose from) to help reduce the noise and it’ll easily fix this issue.

Maybe if you’re producing large prints issues might arise with the smaller sensor TG-6, but with most images being viewed on screens, unless you look really closely, there isn’t a huge difference. Certainly not a £1,500-plus one anyway in my opinion. Will I get rid of my ‘big rig’ now and downsize to the compact camera ‘full time’? The jury is still out on that. I do love my Olympus EM-1MKII! But what I think is clear, you don’t need to break the bank to get excellent underwater images!

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