School me on what I need to shoot and edit tourist Video in tropical water, please

[diversteve]

No you just carry it around on your feet now:

Apollo Split Fin White reviews and discounts, Apollo

 

[ronscuba]

Silver/gray fins work too.

Some people do carry a white card/slate. I use my fins, sand, or the sun. Nothing extra to carry.

I think for a casual hobbyist, manual white balance is probably an expensive option they could live without. For serious hobbyists or professionals looking to sell their work, it's a very worthwhile feature. I wouldn't underestimate what a paying diver expects for their dollar. The novelty of an uw video wears off quick. Most people are only going to pay for a quality video.

 

[beanojones]

I see what you are saying there about people wanting quality. I guess I do not trust in my ability to shoot well enough for it to matter, maybe.

But I am also curious. If I am shooting the same location every day, isn't there a way to set the camera to match the condition pre-dive? (And I will be shooting the same conditions and spots every day,)

MWB seems to indicate some manual-ness, but is it really an automatic setting that cannot be directly controlled?

 

[ronscuba]

If you will be shooting everyday, your skills will quickly increase.

Theoretically, if you are shooting the same location everyday, you could set MWB pre-dive. I guess with a lot of experimenting you could find a topside condition to simulate your UW location, although I've never heard of someone doing this.

If you have the time, I suggest watching some UW video via the internet. There is a lot out there, some very good, some very bad and a lot in between.

When you see something that matches what you envision your videos looking like, contact the person and ask them some questions on their system. Most people won't mind answering a few questions. Depending on your expectations, you may not need/want MWB.

If you come across video by Howard Hall, don't bother asking what equipment he uses.......

 

[beanojones]

I think I have this right, from looking at housings. MWB capable housing are all mechanical, and thus all model specific.

Is this right?

 

[diversteve]

Not exactly, there are a few electronic housing exceptions. But except for 1, all use a mechanical control to touch the camera's LCD screen. Focusing only on 1CMOS Sony HD cameras - they are:

Ocean Images HC series - pushrod through the back cover.
L&M Bluefin - manual control to access the LCD screen functions.
Amphibico EVO for the HVR-A1U - the "pro" version of the HDR-HC1. It has an assignable MWB button
that Amphibico provides a mechanical button for. Sony still sells the camera on their pro site.
Aditech Mangrove - this one seems to do MWB electronically. from their website:

Manual White Balance (optional).
Automatic/Indoor/Outdoor White Balance mode (optional)

Seatools has a White Balance Shift option, but it's not a true manual white balance - just switches between pre-sets afaik.

 

[C8X]

Theoretically, if you are shooting the same location everyday, you could set MWB pre-dive. I guess with a lot of experimenting you could find a topside condition to simulate your UW location, although I've never heard of someone doing this.

I suppose it depends on depth/visibility for how much light is coming through but the time of day and the cloud conditions topside definitely affects light temperature, from 3500K on a clear sunrise/sunset to 7000K for an overcast afternoon.

I guess if you will be bothering to use MWB at all, then setting it each dive is the way to go.

 

[beanojones]

I suppose it depends on depth/visibility for how much light is coming through but the time of day and the cloud conditions topside definitely affects light temperature, from 3500K on a clear sunrise/sunset to 7000K for an overcast afternoon.

I guess if you will be bothering to use MWB at all, then setting it each dive is the way to go.

So that makes me wonder...

Does setting the MWB for a closer item, translate for something a good bit away?

I am trying to reason it out. It seems that at least you will make it look like it would for a diver the same distance away......

 

[C8X]

I think so, just as the light changes colour with depth, so it changes with distance. It's the same when you look at a snow capped mountain 20km away, that appears blue due to atmospheric scatter in that 20km of air between you and the peak. I guess that's why people tend to use wide angle and get up close to a subject, to decrease the amount of water between lens and subject. Probably a good rule is to do WB against a card/surface that is the same distance away as your intended subject, so the white fins make a lot of sense to me.

I think I will start doing MWB as well after talking about it, even though it's a pain with the ikelite's little robo-fingers. I'm spoiled by my DSLR that I don't take underwater, since it can shoot raw files that are very forgiving, but with my HF100 the compressed image is locked in and suffers a lot when I try to change colour, I'm just finding this out now but it seems like getting WB right before shooting is really important in video, esp compressed digital formats like AVCHD.

 

[Video rookie]

...Amphibico EVO for the HVR-A1U - the "pro" version of the HDR-HC1. It has an assignable MWB button that Amphibico provides a mechanical button for. Sony still sells the camera on their pro site.....

That's the setup I use and it works great. I would like to get a set of the Apollo white fins for white balancing (I had already bought a black set before they came out with the white), currently I use the flat white plastic lens protector from the housing when white balancing. I swear by the MWB, and would personally never buy an underwater setup without it.

Vic