Nauticam NA-LX7, WetMate dome & 67mm red filter?

[Mike]

I tried sand, reef, tank. All things that worked in the past doing MWB with the filter. It reminded me a lot of my experiences with my camcorders. MWB with the filter always came out better. W/O the filter, coloring is similar with LX7 and camcorders.

A quick color correction in editing, but colors still off my tastes.
[vimeo]69924743[/vimeo]

Do you dive with strobes and video lights together ?

Biggest problem I see with that clip is the exposure. The sand is without detail and the shadowed areas are full of detail, indicating over-exposure.

In still photography when it came to color correction, the basic rule was proper exposure is the baseline requirement before trying to dial in color correction, without proper exposure color correction can be a game of continually chasing your tail.

It's surprising how often a properly exposed image will hide color correction problems, as soon as you start over exposing or underexposing you easily see an exageration of the color problem.

In short, what I'm trying to say in a round about way, is I wouldn't be surprised if that clip was shot with no changes to your color setting that were used and properly exposed, I think you'd possibly be seeing a color result that you'd be more happy about.

Your shadows can reveal color problems, and the shadows I see under the turtle over the sand look pretty good. What is interesting is in the video from about the 16 second mark to the 22 second mark the sand in front of the turtle is visibly pulsating in exposure changes, I wonder if that is the camera acting weird, or was it a day with some clouds and you were shallow and the clouds were whisping in front of the sun and effect exposure and the camera was simply trying to change with the quickly changing lighting?

 

[ronscuba]

Yeah. Looks like compact cameras do not auto expose video as smoothly as camcorders. Probably should have expected that. Full manual will be my next test.

 

[Interceptor121]

There is no need to work in manual the camera has an exposure lock button
In general the lx7 seems to overexposed even on land I would try first a few things before going into full manual

 

[Mike]

I watched it some more and I think its definitely clouds. If you watch from the 3 sec to 8 sec over and over again, watch the shadows appear and disappear behind the coral head ledge that is behind the turtle... then watch the same section of the video and watch the darker areas in the frame that are in shadow. I see the shadows appear and disappear but I don't see shadow detail in the darker areas getting lighter and darker.

If the footage wasn't overexposed I think it would be very natural looking and easy to tell its the clouds and the sun.

 

[comodino]

For sure a properly exposed composition makes everything look better, but if the red colour is gone due to depth, it's gone.
and after the first 5 meters, you hardly have any reds.
Our brain adjusts for it pretty amazingly, but the camera doesn't. and nothing can restore reds as a filter in front of the lens. sadly, it also reduces the amount of available light, and with such a small sensor it makes a big difference.
Of course we have to remember that we are still dealing with a stills camera that also has video capabilities. There is a reason why companies still produce camcorders even though the demarcation line between the two, especially at amateur levels, is getting thinner and thinner every other month.

I took my lx7 for a couple of dives here in South Male atoll and I am not impressed with the stills. Focus hunting on closeups and poor bokeh the main concerns, but I guess I just need to adjust my technique, coming from DSLRs and tri-ccd camcorders.
Using the WetMate dome, I noticed a nasty reflection of the camera's lens barrel engravings in backlit scenes, specifically when trying to capture subjects against the sun from a deeper and angled position. I knew it was happening with the silver version of the LX7, but wasn't expecting it with the black one.
Haven't extensively tried the video mode yet.

At a tangent I'd like to ask Panasonic what's the reasoning behind locking the dedicated video shutter to "auto" settings. At least make it linked to the stills shooting mode, if not completely customisable as a preset....it drives me nuts that if I want a proper video I have to rotate the dial rather than use an otherwise well-thought and well-placed comfy button.
Not to speak of the nearly useless lens-mounted control ring. C'mon, just a couple of bytes more in the firmware to change it, I'm not asking for the moon...
On the contrary, a big praise to Nauticam for the NA-LX7 housing, it makes the camera so easy to use that I think it's even better than Panasonic's button/dial system design!
I came to the conclusion that I should've bought the red filter though. Everything's too blue/green for my likes.

 

[Mike]

Comodino, you should do a search for the LX-7 on this site, a lot of good information available that might easily help you with some of the hic-ups. I blacked out the writing on the lens with a black sharpie thanks to a tip by Interceptor121. He has a blog that offers a lot of good info on that camera also.

 

[Interceptor121]

The lx7 has no issues with focus and it does bokeh
The wetmate needs the marking on the lens deleted but also it is not a good lens for stills in my opinion offering too little field of view

Some lx7 macro here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/interceptor121/sets/72157633633911230/

 

[comodino]

Comodino, you should do a search for the LX-7 on this site, a lot of good information available that might easily help you with some of the hic-ups. I blacked out the writing on the lens with a black sharpie thanks to a tip by Interceptor121. He has a blog that offers a lot of good info on that camera also.

The lx7 has no issues with focus and it does bokeh
The wetmate needs the marking on the lens deleted but also it is not a good lens for stills in my opinion offering too little field of view

Some lx7 macro here

Lembeh 2013 - a set on Flickr

Thanks for the help, both of you guys.
I already went through Interceptor's blog many times before now, and that's where I actually got the most infos about an LX7 UW rig.
Of course the lx7 does bokeh, it is just not nearly as good as a camera with a bigger sensor.
It does not have focusing problems per se, I agree, it is just less precise than my previous bigger cameras. That's why I said I must learn how to modify my technique in order to adjust to this new setup of mine.
Given the chances I get to bring the camera down are limited to the UW guiding that I do as part of my instructor job, I cannot possibly afford the time needed to swap lenses on the fly while diving, plus I kinda need the WetMate on the housing all the times because most of my customers request short videos with the highlights of the dives plus some random FB profile pics sort of thing.
So for my needs the dome is good enough, I didn't realize the marking's reflection was such a big problem even with the black version of the camera.

 

[Interceptor121]

What you need to consider is that the dome is not ideal for very close range work and if you zoom more than 50mm you need to use manual focus
The camera still has a small sensor you get bokeh only at f1.4 at wide end but with a diopter it is easier

 

[Manly]

Info Info Info.. love it guys.. thnx..

but is the wet dome worth it? any good for wide video shots ?

/Manly