RX100 IV White Balance - how disastrous at shallow depths?

[GrahamSL]

Hi,

I need to get equipped for a forthcoming sardine run trip to South Africa. I'm looking at either a Sony RX100 IV or a Canon G7X. I'll be shooting a mixture of video and stills, and given the nature of the event it's likely to be in and out of the RIB quite often and fairly shallow depths (probably mostly surface-10m), hence want to keep things small and simple and use ambient light. There are plenty of pros and cons with each camera, most of which I understand, but I think I'm leaning towards the Sony mainly because of the video capabilities and much faster continuous raw speed.

I'm keen to understand though, just how disastrous the Sony's auto white balance performance is likely to be at 0-10m without a filter? I'm not so fussed about the impact on stills because I'll be shooting raw, but the video concerns me. Yes, I can tweak after the event, but would like to understand what I might get straight from the camera at those depths.

Thanks in advance - any insights appreciated!

 

[tamas970]

without filter: disaster. With filter: close to perfect I use a piece of Lee's Dark Salmon filter with great results: Colour Information and Spectral Charts for LEE Lighting Filters

 

[GrahamSL]

without filter: disaster. With filter: close to perfect I use a piece of Lee's Dark Salmon filter with great results: Colour Information and Spectral Charts for LEE Lighting Filters

Thank you. With the filter in place, can you then let the camera do its thing with AWB to adjust for variation in depth, or is custom WB the only way to go?

I have read that setting and recalling custom WB is also pretty clunky on the RX100 line, so I really appreciate the actual experience of a user

 

[tamas970]

I've just let it on AWB, the results are fine for me. Sometimes I change wb of the stills a bit in post, but nothing dramatic.

(forget sharpness, I left the ucl-165 on for the cucumber shot, but I like the colors)

 

[GrahamSL]

I've just let it on AWB, the results are fine for me. Sometimes I change wb of the stills a bit in post, but nothing dramatic.

(forget sharpness, I left the ucl-165 on for the cucumber shot, but I like the colors)

Great, thank you. Looks like a mild filter and AWB might be the way to go for a balance of convenience and results. Will look more closely at the Auto Magic filters...

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Pajjpen]

What about shooting raw video and tweaking that in post?

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I have read that setting and recalling custom WB is also pretty clunky on the RX100 line, so I really appreciate the actual experience of a user

That's why I use custom mode, where one of the modes is set to custom white balance and internal flash off, so I can shoot larger critters that the external strobe won't reach.

 

[Interceptor121]

Sardine run will require a wide angle lens. For the Mark IV in order to keep the rig to a minimum size use the Inon UWL-H100 with push-on filter and AWB set the tint to G+1 for deeproof/mangrove
If you use the old UWL-100 for 4K and UR/PRO push B+1 as the filter has a yellow cast