Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 205,000 divers diving from around the world. If the topic is related to scuba diving, this is the place to find divers talking about it. To gain full access to ScubaBoard (and make this large box go away) you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:
Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 5,500,000 posts.
Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
Post your own photos or view from well over 100,000 user submitted images.
Gain access to our free classifieds marketplace to buy, sell and trade gear, travel and services.
Use the calendar to organize your events and enroll in other members' events.
Find a dive buddy or communicate directly with scuba equipment manufacturers.
All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.
I have an older JVC camera in an Ikelite housing. I tried using it in autofocus mode, but everything was out of focus. So on the next dive I prefocussed the camera on 15" and set the zoom to wide, but it was still out of focus.
I have an older JVC camera in an Ikelite housing. I tried using it in autofocus mode, but everything was out of focus. So on the next dive I prefocussed the camera on 15" and set the zoom to wide, but it was still out of focus.
I have an older JVC camera in an Ikelite housing. I tried using it in autofocus mode, but everything was out of focus. So on the next dive I prefocussed the camera on 15' and set the zoom to wide, but it was still out of focus.
What is the best way to focus the camera?
Thanks
Andrew
I agree that auto focus underwater is rubbish. The video camera doesn't know what to focus on, the fish, the particles in the water, or the port on the housing. Do you have a dome port on the housing? If so, you should set the focus for a few inches. The dome acts as a lens underwater and makes a fish 10 feet away seem less than a foot away to the video camera. Even with a flat port, I would set the focus for a couple feet away instead of 15. If you don't already have a screw-in wide-angle adapter for your video lens, it would make a huge difference. The depth of field is basically a few inches to infinity so you don't have to worry about focus. I'm assuming the video camera focus works fine on the surface and the problem is not with the camera itself.
I've been using an older Sony Handy Cam in a DIY housing with a flat port for years and I've always set it manual focus and adjusted it to infinity. It always seemed to work great, that is until I installed a dome port. I tried the manual focus the first time after installing the dome port and everything was blurry. I set the focus to auto and it's worked great ever sense.
I'm no expert at UWVideo but this seems to have worked for me.
I've been using autofocus with good results on a 'newer' miniDV camcorder. Since its autofocus, its important to make sure that the lens of the camera and the housing is CLEAN. Any dust or air bubbles (check once underwater) and the camera will focus on these. It also might be a case of the newer technology being better at finding contrast better as I haven't had any focus problems unless the visibility is very poor. If all else fails, setting focus to inifinity, as mentioned already, should do the trick. Good luck.
Thanks for the advice. I will try it both ways. The autofocus worked fine at about 10-15 feet in depth and in bright sunlight, but deeper came out blurry. I will try it on infinity and and try.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by O2Addict
