sony hc-3 and light & motion housing

[jepuskar]

"An advanced new control set allows the user to access the touch screen menu to provide for One-Touch White Balance"

What exactly does this mean? One-touch gets you to a screen or one-touch and you are automatically adjusted for your given conditions at the time?

 

[limeyx]

"An advanced new control set allows the user to access the touch screen menu to provide for One-Touch White Balance"

What exactly does this mean? One-touch gets you to a screen or one-touch and you are automatically adjusted for your given conditions at the time?

Honestly, I am not 100% certain. A friend gave me a quick demo and it seemed like more than one touch was required to get to the menu item for WB.

Then it was one touch to balance (if you aim at a white slate/sand/surface etc.)

However, this was on land and he has not gotten it wet yet so may not have it 100%

 

[ronrosa]

Getting to the menu, setting the WB, exiting the menu. Someone with an HC1 said it took 5 touches in total. The HC3 may or may not be different.

 

[limeyx]

Getting to the menu, setting the WB, exiting the menu. Someone with an HC1 said it took 5 touches in total. The HC3 may or may not be different.

That sounds about right. Better that not being able to set it though.
I heard there was an improvement made to that method that was on display at DEMA recently, but no details

And even the L&M/FX1 only has theoretical 1-tough WB. The buttom definitely is 1-tough but unless you have 3 arms (one for button one for housing one for slate), my opinion is that it's essentially a 2 person operation

 

[ronrosa]

...
And even the L&M/FX1 only has theoretical 1-tough WB. The buttom definitely is 1-tough but unless you have 3 arms (one for button one for housing one for slate), my opinion is that it's essentially a 2 person operation

Depends on what you use to white balance. With my TRV900/Gates I can push the MWB button with my hands still on the handles.

My new FX7 has the MWB button in the same place.

I don't know the technical details of white balance. I get good results using the sand or sun. Maybe it's looking for something neutral ? Even the brownish sand in St Vincent worked well.

Guess it all boils down to how big of a camcorder/housing you can deal with and how much manual control you want.

What camcorder and housing do you have Limeyx ?

 

[limeyx]

Depends on what you use to white balance. With my TRV900/Gates I can push the MWB button with my hands still on the handles.

My new FX7 has the MWB button in the same place.

I don't know the technical details of white balance. I get good results using the sand or sun. Maybe it's looking for something neutral ? Even the brownish sand in St Vincent worked well.

Guess it all boils down to how big of a camcorder/housing you can deal with and how much manual control you want.

What camcorder and housing do you have Limeyx ?

FX1 and bluefin. The housing is 14" long. The WB button is on the back left of the housing. I cannot (I think) hold the left handle and WB button at same time.

if I WB on sand, I can do it (just point to the sand) but using a slate is next to impossible unless there is some other trick I am not aware of.

 

[ronrosa]

I've seen great footage/video from the FX1 and the Bluefin has gotten great reviews too. Congratulations.

All of my diving is while on vacation, so I was looking for something smaller then the FX1.

 

[limeyx]

I've seen great footage/video from the FX1 and the Bluefin has gotten great reviews too. Congratulations.

All of my diving is while on vacation, so I was looking for something smaller then the FX1.

here's my first FX1 footage.
Kind of washed out due to no red-filter and lots of ambient light

D/loads are 30M for the first (low res) 330 M for the second (full size medium quality)
I am liking H.264 encoding for the web but it doesnt seem to scale very well.

http://nickambrose.com/diving/movies/catalina-11-4-2006-ship-rock-cdrom.mov
http://nickambrose.com/diving/movies/catalina-11-4-2006-ship-rock-H264-med.mov

 

[ronrosa]

Files wouldn't play. Some kind of quicktime error came up. Do you have a wmv version ?

 

[Ryan]

I can white balance the bluefin hd on a slate one of two ways-

1. Cradling the housing in my left arm like a baby, and pressing MWB with my index finger.

2. Tucking the housing in my left armpit, and white balancing with my thumb.

Neither is easy. The HC3 allows MWB with your thumb from the handle