Chaaya Reef / Maldives

After visiting the Maldives, in January, for the past few years for a bit of winter sun. This year we thought we would look at another Island, Chaaya Reef in  the Alifu  Dhaalu Atoll. With reviews of the coral reef  in general rated as good we were hoping for opportunities to capture some good  images and armed with a new Olympus Stylus Tough camera we ventured out to the house reef. Despite the reef suffering quite a bit of damage over the years and not being as extensive as we have seen on so of the other islands. There were ample opportunities to try out the camera. The first trip out beyond the man made wall that surrounds the Island  revealed  a number of blacktip reef sharks patrolling the reef wall.

Successive trips out to the reef revealed an amazing array of colourful fish.  In good numbers and ample opportunity to work with the camera settings, as can be seen from the images below. 

The Olympus Stylus Tough on Test 

In the past we have used a camera encased in a housing. Which had produced some decent images but we had always had three major problems. One of condensation forming in the case once the camera had been on for some time in the shallow waters of the reef. The second the speed of image capture, always difficult with fish that are constantly on the move. Also  viewing the screen image though the case can be difficult is some light conditions. With the Olympus’ Tough TG-6 compact camera these problems didn’t  occurred.

The battery lasted for the daily trips on the reef, with no condensation occurring,  the screen was bright enough to see what you were taking. With the multi image setting turned on we were able to take successive images ensuring at least in one of the shots the fish would be in the right place. Combined with lots of other features such as Wi-Fi and an underwater setting which removed the blue cast, overall  the camera proved to be an excellent choice.