Questions to the Flip 3.1 owners!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

A.Y.

Registered
Messages
40
Reaction score
8
Location
California
I received Flip 3.1 filters and noticed the one marked SHALLOW and the one marked DIVE are pretty much identical unlike the Yellow and Orange filters shown on Backscatter website. The one marked DEEP is indeed noticeably darker and redder than the other two.

My questions to the Flip 3.1 owners are:

1. Are your SHALLOW and DIVE filters more like Backscatter product images and videos shown here (very different) or more like mine (practically identical)?

2. Does your Flip 3.1 filter frame fit the GoPro 3+ or GoPro 4 Standard Housing better than mine?

I just want to make sure the SHALLOW or the DIVE filter I received are not mislabeled.

flip31.jpg
 
You have to make sure the screws are all tightened evenly and the lens is seated properly. As for the color I am no help. I got the green water filter instead.
 
Yes mine filters colors look almost identical also. Havent tried them yet as I havent been to blue waters and mostly use the Macromate and lights, and sometimes the magenta (greenwater) filter.
 
Thanks for the replies!

gopro3+-filter.jpg


So far I've only used the Flip 3.1 DIVE filter under about 12 meters or 40 feet of water. I'd say the results were pretty good. In the majority of the clips the highlight and shadow areas turned out pretty neutral which made color adjustments easy. Getting rid of the air bubbles on the filters is quick and simple. Going deeper than 15m or 50ft, just switch to the DEEP filter. However, I don't like these plastic filters that get scratched up easily.

I'd used Polar Pro Red Filter before and found it too strong for 12m or 40 ft depth, resulting in a lot of red in the shadow areas, which required using an advanced NLE like Final Cut Pro X to fully correct the problem. Rated 4-24m or 15-80ft, I'm sure the Polar Pro Red filter performs well in deeper water.

Overall, the Flip 3.1 filter system is much easier to use than the clip-on type and produces pretty decent results, IMO.

The UW red filters I have:
Ikelite, Equinox, and Flip 3.1 DIVE filters deliver good results under around 12m or 40 ft of water.
Polar Pro Red filter has slightly deeper red and more magenta so it's good for deeper and slightly greener water.
Flip 3.1 DEEP filter has even deeper red, but not as much magenta, comparing to the Polar Pro Red filter.
 
All the thick external acrylic filters will produce that reddish effect on darker areas, as you noticed. The scattering of light inside the filter material becomes visible when it's contrasting against a dark area. The Polar Pro, specially, is known for the kool-aid color it gives to the scenes.

Internal thinner filters won't cause that effect - it's a thinner material with less chances for light to bounce around.

As of the "DEEP" filter, I wouldn't even bother using - once it's DEEP, there's no color to bring back anyway. By adding a thick light-blocking material you're just bumping up the camera ISO and making it all noisy.
 
Yes I just checked and my shallow and dive are very close to being the same, with shallow just a tad lighter (not as dramatic as their website shows, but that's probably just to emphasize that they have a different filter for shallow).

As for your gap, I had that too and I contacted their support and they mailed out one to me that fit a lot better. They said some of their manufacturing makes some that fits more than others so I would contact them and have them send you one that fits yours better.
 
[video=youtube;bq5mFUX5wBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq5mFUX5wBE&feature=youtu.be[/video]

This short Hero 3+ Black video was mostly shot with a Flip 3.1 Dive filter under around 12m or 40 ft of water. Simple grading was applied, using Final Cut Pro X. Shutter sound from my NEX-5R can be heard in one of the clips.

Click here to see the ultra smooth and more lifelike 60p version as YouTube doesn't support fast frame rates yet.
 
As for your gap, I had that too and I contacted their support and they mailed out one to me that fit a lot better. They said some of their manufacturing makes some that fits more than others so I would contact them and have them send you one that fits yours better.
Good info. I accepted this gap as "normal". Just wrote them a email about this.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom