Sealife Mini Washed Out Green Video

[krawdady]

Alright so I just got a sealife mini and shot some video with it today. I was diving in 27-29 feet of water and vis was bad, about 6 feet at best with a lot of snot in the water. Anyway, I got back home and watched it and the video was very green and kind of washed out. I assume this probably has to do with improper white balance settings? I tried the settings for both above 25 feet and for below 25 feet. I see that it also has a setting for auto and a manual setting but I didn't try those. If I do choose manual, how do I manually adjust it? Would using auto have helped? Any suggestions on what I should have done differently would be welcomed. Thanks.

 

[DandyDon]

Go with auto. As conditions change, the camera does a lot faster than you would on manual.

How well have you studied the manual? I don't have that model so don't know it; does it have a choice of video size? If so, go with largest and a large card.

You can upload the video to Vimeo.com and post it here for review, like this...
[c]
[vimeo]3783470[/vimeo]
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click Quote to see my codes.

 

[krawdady]

Hey DandyDon. Thanks for the tip. I will try auto next time. I've never heard of that site to post the video so thanks for that too. I've gone through the manual a few times but it doesn't really explain the fine points of white balance all that well. I'll keep playing with it and see what happens. Thanks again.

 

[DandyDon]

Yeah, you may have to search the net for more info on digital camera settings, but I haven't seen anything great. For video especially, auto is the way to go. As I think I said, be sure to shoot in largest & high resolution possible with large memory card. I hate to see people buy a 6 mp camera and shoot in 2 mp.

I don't know what format your camera shoots in or how many minutes you can shoot on a GB; do you? My DC500 shoots up to an hour in 640 wide on a GB and downloads in ASF - which I think I have compressed in Windows Movie Maker, which all Windows puter has. Tutorials at Microsoft. Anyway, since you usually get a lot of clips, WMM is good for splicing them together into one video, with titles, sub-titles, etc.

Post a clip will ya...?

 

[texbob]

I had a mini until April at which point I had the pleasure of watching it get flooded because I left the battery door open on a dive in Cozumel. Anyway, I just say that because I cannot verify what I think is going on because I had washed out video too.

I believe if you have a strobe attached and set the camera up for the external strobe, the color correction (Sea Mode) is turned off, and I think that applies to both photo and video. So, when shooting video with an external strobe, it is shooting in non-color correcting mode which gives the greenish video result.

I only say this because it seemed the video quality was much better before I bought and attached the external strobe. Without the strobe, I used the camera with the color correction dive mode turned on which I think had better video quality.

This is just my theory...I have not been able to verify this.

 

[DandyDon]

Good guess, Texbob. On my DC500, there is a Sea mode and Ext Flash Mode. Yeah, it'd be best to set on Sea for video, but I don't think needed. You can't change modes while on video. Be worth investigating tho on the Mini.

 

[krawdady]

Thanks guys. I have a strobe for it but I have'nt used it yet. I guess I just need to get out there and play around with a little. I'll be down in the keys in a couple of weeks and see if I can figure it. Where I usually dive up in Vneice there is typically not much vis so it isn't the best test of the camereas functions.

 

[texbob]

I noticed with my replacement DC1000, while in External Flash mode, when switching to Video, the LCD image is overwhelmingly red while on the surface. This tells me the DC1000 has a sea mode for the video even when the external flash is attached. I don't remember this with the Mini. Perhaps the video wash out effect that I noticed before is a thing of the past for me.

Well, ask me again after my inaugural trip to Cozumel.