Lack of sharpness with dive filters

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Synonymous

Registered
Messages
68
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Location
Amherst, New York, United States
# of dives
100 - 199
I use a GoPro Hero 3 Back, with Flip 3.1 Dive filters. I also have a Sidekick Duo light mounted next to the camera.

I've gotten great results in shallow water with good sunlight- colorful and sharp. In deeper water using the filters, however, the video is fuzzy looking. Can anyone suggest a technique to fix this? I've only been on a few dives with the camera and it seems I must be doing something wrong.

Also, when using the light, should I remove the filters or leave them in place? I'm not sure what the best use of the light is. It seems to either light up too small an area with a very bright spot or even to wash out the video almost completely.

If anyone can suggest good resources for me to learn better techniques, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Tom
 
That is due to insufficient light. You will need to either add light or reduce frame rate or resolution.
 
I tried Polar Pro and had issues around the borders of the video...blurring...looked like aberration of some sort. I switched to Backscatter and have had beautiful results with the magenta and red filters for both green and blue water. If you don't take the filters off when using your lights your video will be corrupted by the red/magenta tint. It is possible to correct that in post production but it is a pain.
 
Thanks. I will try using my light with the filters on.

Are you talking about close up shots or distance shots? Artificial lights are only effective within 3 or 4 feet max. If you are taking video closeup of a damsel or eel or lobster, then lights are what you need. If you are taking video of sharks and mantas and turtles ten or more feet away, then filters are what you need. But if you are deep and distant and light is low nothing can help you but a better camera sensor. Your gopro offers amazing value to the average diver but does not have the ability to record HD video at a high frame rate at high resolution in low light conditions. Gopro has allowed the average diver to take some amazing video but sometime it leads to unrealistic expectations. There is a reason that National Geographic is not filming their next documentary with a gopro.
 
Firstly, gopro is good on wide angle shot, that means something far away. So filter is necessary. Unfortunately, the best distance is more than around 1m from object. When u want something less than 1m, close up lens is necessary. If not, image will be blur. In situation, video light is the best accessory to recover the colors. As reefhound mentioned, video light max distance may be few feets max. I'm using a 2800lumen video light, max power can be more than few feets but absolutely less than 2m.
When u use video light, just for something close and u need to take off the filter. When shoot something far away or something big like whale shark. Red filter is the thing which can help u. And also the ambient light.
U faced a problem of sharpness, because insufficient light, or your filter quality is not that good, block too much light. U can try adjusting the iso limit.
I think about buy a close up lens for gopro before. But i give up finally. Keep changing lens and filter is quite trouble. So i mounted gopro on top of my cam housing. Gopro mainly for wide angle, with filter. And i take close up by my camera when i need only.
 
Thanks for those replies. On my most recent trip I used a deep dive filter and my light at the same time, at depths of around 70'-90'. As ReefHound mentioned, the light did nothing on further away shots, but up close I could see the difference. Results with light weren't great, though. I guess I have to remove the filter for those shots. They seemed orange-tinged. My light also seems to wash out the picture sometimes, though. Maybe I need to turn it down some?

Thanks again.
 
there are many possibilites cause color not balance, quality of filter, video light power, deepth, your setting...etc
in case u take close up, u should take away your filter and take with your video light. sometimes u need to power up or down your video light according to the ambient light. u need to try.

when take something far away, u can just rely on the ambient light, use filter to help for color balance. for me, i set the protune off, whitebalance "native", Color "Flat". this is much easy for me to do the post production when u go deep when the filter become useless. my filter become useless when i go deeper than 20M, i need to do the post product to recover the color base on the Cineform format of Gopro.

i wasted many dive on setting up the gopro and trying different accessaries of Gopro. i hope i can help u. have a nice dive.
 

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