On my recent dive trip I exclusively shot macro subjects, which is unusual for me.  There was often quite a bit of particulate in the water and, especially early or late in the day, and/or at some depth, things were a bit dim. I of course understand the the reason loss of color at depth, but I am more used to a non-electronic viewfinder and found that the viewfinder on my Z8 really struggled to show much color and therefore after spotting a really tiny frogfish or nudi, trying to locate it through the viewfinder became rather difficult without any color clues.  A bright orange baby frogfish became just one of many gray specks on the seafloor.

Frankly, even in somewhat better light, the viewfinder image was closer to a black and white view of the world than color, and clownfish, for example, tended to appear gray and white instead of orange. The photos were fine and i could clearly see color with the naked eye, it was jsut the view through the viewfinder, and I was using the "adjust for ease of viewing" mode. I tried adjusting the color temp of the viewfinder and increasing brightness, but that was only marginally successful.  I am thinking that a focus light might be necessary going forward, and that is not a problem if necessary, but thought I should check here and see if there is something I failed to try or some trick I don’t know. 

Thank you

 

From the Z8 Nikon PDF Manual:

pg 595

d8: View Mode (Photo Lv)

Two modes:

• [Show effects of settings]

• [Adjust for ease of viewing]

Most of the time you want "Adjust for ease of viewing". This is basically night vision, you can see in the dark, but does NOT represent what the image will look like.

The other setting "Show effects of settings" is good for ambient light photography, like in the shallows. You see a representation of what the photograph will look like with the current camera settings, but obviously not the impact of FLASH. It's a good way to expose for the background colors, etc.

You say you have ease of viewing enabled, but there are more customizations that perhaps you tinkered with. Change it to Ease of Viewing / AUTO and the viewfinder boosts exposure of what you see in the eyepiece.

[Adjust for ease of viewing]

The effects of changes to settings such as white balance, Picture Controls,

and exposure compensation are not visible in the shooting display. Pressing

C when [Adjust for ease of viewing] is highlighted displays [Auto] and

[Custom] options.

. [Auto]: Color, brightness, and other settings are adjusted for ease of

viewing during prolonged periods of use.

. [Custom]: Press @ to make individual adjustments to [White balance], [Set

Picture Control], and [Brighten shadows].

- [White balance]: Choose from [Preview current setting], [Auto], and

[Choose color temperature]. Select [Choose color temperature] to

choose the color temperature for the shooting display.

- [Set Picture Control]: Choose from [Preview current setting] and

[Adjust for ease of viewing].

- [Brighten shadows]: Choose whether or by how much the camera

brightens shadows (dark areas) in the display; the available options are

[Off], [+1], [+2], and [+3]. The higher the value, the greater the effect.

. ME will appear in the shooting display.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Dave_Hicks

Thanks Dave, The viewfinder had been set to auto previously and when I began having issues on this trip I did go through and change many of the various custom settings without much success.

If you are not using a focus light, you need to get one. Image enhancement can only go so far, you need light to see detail in dim light. Assuming you have the viewfinder set to Ease/Auto, this is your problem.

Edited 34 minutes ago34 min by Dave_Hicks

That was my assumption, but wanted to see if there was something else I should be looking at. I have a focus light or two, so not an issue. I have generally not needed them during the day previously.