Lack of White Balance Control

[Grey_Wulff]

I have a Panasonic GS500 camcorder and was thinking of taking it underwater. Having talked to a number of people it appears one problem is that while the GS500 has manual White Balance controls, no housing is currently manufactured that allows access to these controls (the GS500 has a joystick rather than the earlier GS400 that had push button controls).

If I take this camcorder underwater it will be used almost exclusively in Southern California waters and I'm led to believe due to water conditions that most video shot without lights and under auto white balance control will come out with a green cast.

I have three sets of questions:

1) Does anyone know of a housing that allows control of white balance on the GS500?

2) Does anybody have experience of using either a GS500 or another camcorder without white balance control in SC or similar waters? If so, what have been your findings?

3) Can you successfully correct (or partially correct) the color cast using features available on video post-processing software? If so what post processing software are you using?

Thanks in appreciation,

Grey_Wulff

 

[crpntr133]

1.) don't know.
2.) set the camera to auto white balance and dive.
3.) yes-Pinnacle Platinum.

Some will say that white balance is the end all of video. While I agree that it is important, it won't ruin your video.

 

[robint]

ditto, don't worry about the white balance issue. Once you start shooting underwater videos you can decide if it matters, then you can adjust it through your editing program on your computer. Diving skills and video abilities -- i.e. a good video depend more on you than the camera!
Check out some of my southern california videos:
http://www.rnrscuba.net/Channel_Islands2006.html
scroll down to the bottom of the page, I have 4 videos shot this past August. I don't have "white balance" control, I do have a red filter which came with my Ikelite housing. I use it anytime between 10' and 100' and it makes the colors pop in my opinion. Lights are another whole big issue and if you are planning to add a light system you don't even need to worry about the "white balance" thing.

robint

 

[crpntr133]

Oh Lord, you had to mention lights! Personal preference again.

 

[ronrosa]

I'm a big fan of manual white balance. However, many people do without it and feel it's not worth the hassle.

You can do a simple test on land to see the difference it can make underwater.

Go to a room in your house where the lighting is kind of dim, not dark, but not bright either. Film some objects that range in different colors in auto white balance. Red, yellow, white, etc.. Zoom your cam onto something white and set manual white balance. Film the same objects in the manual white balance setting.

You should see a difference. Just how much of a difference depends on your cam and the lighting. How much that difference matters ? Only you can answer that ques.

 

[JamesD]

Just as a note, personally I'd say if you don't have a manual white balance depending on depth will depend on how realistically you can "fix" the lack of white balance. I've used my JVC camera without white balance control before and found that at depth of say 50'+ the video that was got (without white balance or color correcting lens) just wasn't salvageable, it was blue on blue with blue bits (this is in the Caribbean).

 

[crpntr133]

Red lense should help a lot of that. Without the lense I could see totally blue.

 

[limeyx]

Red lense should help a lot of that. Without the lense I could see totally blue.

Red lens helps, but ...
if you use it too shallow then without white balance, the footage will be too red.
And (depending on ambient light), it starts to block too much light at around 80 feet.

I shot for a long time with auto white balance, but I definitely like having manual on my new camera.

EDIT:
Oh, and I think it's probably (from what I have read) easier to get rid of the red than try to add it ...

 

[bluesbro1982]

If you are not using lights, the most important thing is to get as much light of any color into the CCD / Cam lens as you can. Personally, if I don't have lights I don't use a red filter unless I know exactly what sort of conditions I will be diving in, what depths I'll diving in, and what the lighting conditions at that depth on that day are. If its great viz in the shallow caribbean, then put the filter on, otherwise I would rather have the light in the camera.

Most cameras will allow you to "lock" the white balance on a white card for a reference. Manually lock the white balance with a bluish colored card instead of a white card on the surface before you put the cam in the housing. Then, you'll have a *slight* bias toward red underwater with no filter sapping away your light. Trial and error with the exact shade of blue will probably be required.

If this isn't practical, my method of choice is to fix it in software. Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere have professional level color correction features that will work very well for U/W use. Just boost the reds a bit and things start to look more or less normal...

Good luck and happy shooting! If you need a buddy sometime, let me know.

 

[limeyx]

If you are not using lights, the most important thing is to get as much light of any color into the CCD / Cam lens as you can. Personally, if I don't have lights I don't use a red filter unless I know exactly what sort of conditions I will be diving in, what depths I'll diving in, and what the lighting conditions at that depth on that day are. If its great viz in the shallow caribbean, then put the filter on, otherwise I would rather have the light in the camera.

Most cameras will allow you to "lock" the white balance on a white card for a reference. Manually lock the white balance with a bluish colored card instead of a white card on the surface before you put the cam in the housing. Then, you'll have a *slight* bias toward red underwater with no filter sapping away your light. Trial and error with the exact shade of blue will probably be required.

If this isn't practical, my method of choice is to fix it in software. Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere have professional level color correction features that will work very well for U/W use. Just boost the reds a bit and things start to look more or less normal...

Good luck and happy shooting! If you need a buddy sometime, let me know.

I do and dont agree. Yes, you need to get as much light in as possible.
But

1) you can get decent video with no lights
2) lights only really help for closeup part of the scene. Anything more than 8-10 feet away and they are not much use (unless you can stage HMI on a diver)