My first time using a real camera (above or below), the Sony ZV-E1 with the Sony 16-35mm lens in an Ikelite housing. Upgraded from a GoPro 12.

 

I felt a bit overwhelmed, so mostly kept it to F8 and 640 ISO with frequent white balancing as I have no experience with apertures or ISO.

 

Fairly happy with the results, although I noticed on wide shots the sharpness and clarity of some wide angle shots with a lot of small fish and detail was downgraded quite a bit cropping to add additional stability in post which really downgraded the quality at 4k which was a bit disappointing (i put the lens hood on the wrong way Day 2 and had to crop, so may as well stabilize more. Doh!)

 

Open to any helpful tips if you notice something!

 

 

 

 

 

Are you using a tray system? That might help with the hand held stability, so you don't need to introduce as much stabilisation in post. 

 

The AutoWB seems to be working great. 

Looked at the first video - very nice! I was at Koh Lipe in February - poor viz and really green water. Fabulous sites!

On 12/28/2024 at 8:06 PM, shokwaav said:

Are you using a tray system? That might help with the hand held stability, so you don't need to introduce as much stabilisation in post. 

 

The AutoWB seems to be working great. 

 

Manual white balance, maybe I phrased it wrong -- I point the camera at sand and do manual white balance.

 

Yes, I'm using a tray system but I find the footage is a bit more jittery than my GoPro 12? Although the current was quite strong the entire trip, and it's a bit negatively buoyant maybe I need to add some lift... some extra practice using a tray might help too.

 

I thought it would be a bit more stable since my gopro 12 footage was very stable one-handing it and now I'm two-handing it. 

 

I also debate how much camera movement is acceptable to the viewer? I don't really know where the line is exactly, I just go by feel.

19 hours ago, humu9679 said:

Looked at the first video - very nice! I was at Koh Lipe in February - poor viz and really green water. Fabulous sites!

Thanks!

 

Yes I was impressed by the sites, very nice spot and good alternative to Koh Tao. Not too many people for high season which was great.

 

The vis was also not great for most of my dives I felt? I'm really itching to get some crazy good vis like I got in Komodo last year with the ZV-E1 and see what it looks like.

 

Batu Balong on a nice day with a full frame camera would be a dream 🙂

2 hours ago, canada_diver said:

 

Manual white balance, maybe I phrased it wrong -- I point the camera at sand and do manual white balance.

 

Yes, I'm using a tray system but I find the footage is a bit more jittery than my GoPro 12? Although the current was quite strong the entire trip, and it's a bit negatively buoyant maybe I need to add some lift... some extra practice using a tray might help too.

 

I thought it would be a bit more stable since my gopro 12 footage was very stable one-handing it and now I'm two-handing it. 

 

I also debate how much camera movement is acceptable to the viewer? I don't really know where the line is exactly, I just go by feel.

 

Are you doing any color grading in post? All in all, good stuff!

On 12/30/2024 at 12:58 AM, humu9679 said:

 

Are you doing any color grading in post? All in all, good stuff!

 

Yes, in DaVinci, which is such an amazing program. 

 

I would actually say color grading in post is one of my stronger suits, especially with my GoPro 12 footage which I constantly salvaged from the abyss. 

 

But this Sony footage barely requires any color correction? It almost makes everything I learned feel useless over the last 2 years because when I white balance manually it comes out almost perfect? I do some slight adjustments but compared to the Herculean feats required with my GoPro it feels quite minor.

 

Granted, I did have to salvage some shots where I forgot to white balance or had the wrong settings, which was a decent amount of effort, but those were less than 10% of the shots.

Excellent video. I will have to try koh lipe  as i have done similans so many times. Your work in davinci is excellent