bghazzal

Gates housings typically used acrylic UR-Pro Cyan or Magenta filters, which are no longer manufactured but can still be found online (certain diameters at least). A good alternative for video - but not really similar as it is aiming for accurate colours rather than an aesthetically pleasing colour balance like the UR-Pro (or, to a certain extent, Canon colour balance...) would be the Keldan Spectrum filters, or certain Lee/Rosco gel alternatives Here's a thread on the subject: Keep in mind that shooting with a filter and lights will generate a light source unbalance (the "mixed light problem") which can be resolved with ambient (cooling) filters on the lights, but using these on 6000 lumen lights will halve transmission, turning them into 3000 lumen lights, so not really useful for anything else than closeups

Great stuff - currently drying out in cold Japan, I miss these guys 😍 Seems pretty consistent with what I saw on bonfires in neighbouring Amed before conditions broke down the last month or so. I see you're getting different handling of backscatter across shots, which I imagine must be from trying out different light placements. I found it was actually quite tricky to make out what works best on the spot, with sometimes surprising results in post - what worked out best for you in general? did you get any swarming on the lights or is it not much of an issue over deep water? Also, how was the AF with Sony 30mm? cheers cheers

Thanks Simon, this is very interesting - yes, the 90mm seems like it would be really tricky, despite having the fastest, video optimised AF of all the macro range, being a GM lens. On APS-C like the FX30 or a6700 it will be just too tight I think. For bw I was initially looking at the Zeiss Touit 50mm but alas, it's not optimised for video, which Zeiss considers unsupported "specialist applications" (so much for insects...). I'd also considered the Nikon 60 with adapter, but it's a no-go for video AF. And the Sony 50mm or 30mm macro are both supposed to very slow, unfortunately. Let me know how it goes with the 50mm and FX3 AF. For the time being, if i do manage to make the change to Sony (life is heavily in the way having just moved from Indonesia to Japan/Okinawa...), on APS-C I'm planning to try using the new Sony 16-50 kit lens (E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS II ). It's certainly not great but has supposedly been revamped for improved video support, including high frame rates, and stabilised, so could be interesting, combined with a smallish diopter on a flip. The 28-60mm lens with the WWL-1B sounds like an interesting solution! And it's great to know tracking toggle works for this - my main reason for moving to Sony is tracking AF (I usually shoot video in MF, but bonfire experiences in MF at 30fps have definitely sold me on AF to help follow critter movement 😅) Apparently the FX3, it's little sister the FX3 and the a6700 (along with most recent alpha cams) have a similar tracking AF, and an assignable toggle-on/off, which is a life saver! cheers

@Scuba_Si after reading in your intro post that you shoot with an FX3 and since organize a lot of bonfire/blackwater dives, I was wondering if you had any feedback on recent Sony video AF, especially for tracking small critters in the water column, as there's very little video-focused info. Based on user manuals, the FX3's video AF should be quite similar to the a6700's I'm guessing. cheers ben

Welcome Simon, great to have you onboard - I really enjoyed your blackwater video Q&A and amazing blanket octopus footage, wow! 🤩 cheers ben

Nice one Val - we moved to Japan a few weeks ago after two years based in Amed - muck diving there is quite underated - there are seasonal variations and clearly less diversity than Tulamben, but still really lots to see muck-wise at Melasti Amed and Amed Selfie / Amed bay. But what I enjoyed the most is the comfort and simplicity of hopping on my scooter for a 5 to 10 minute hop to the dive site where my nitrox tanks would be waiting 😉 After working on boats big and small for years, shore diving is where my heart is at the moment ❤️ Amed is changing fast though, we hadn't been back since 2017, and wow - the past two years have been a dizzying blur of constructions, restaurants opening, live music and what not. A night-club even opened up in Jemeluk of all places, not far from what is now the boombooming Sunset Point... Anyway, can't stop progress so best enjoy it while you still can! cheers ben

Yes, I was also wondering about that - need to compare results with Wags' test on the DJI4 - I can't remember if there were lens/fov changes between the two cameras. I'll also check on my AOI lens on GoPro7 test see if it's similar, as water clarity was pretty bad when I tested it as well. Regarding the file itself, it seems DJI's dlog M is not a real log profile - you can see the color space (farbraum) is listed as bt709, so it's some form of Rec709. Looking into it, I found this: Dlog-M is like a wanabee dlog. It has more contrast and more color baked in. Great for those who want a little more latitude than the "normal" color profile produces while not as difficult to grade as dlog. I also downloaded DJI's dlog to vivid 709 lut and tried in FCPX, but the results were not as nice as a simple re-WB and quick grade- bit too contrasty and flashy for my tastes (prefer more desaturated / pastel colours, which is why I don't like most auto SOOC results I see coming from which usually pump up the saturation and sharpness, which is, I'm guessing, for phones and instagramable flash-bang purposes😁) That said maybe the DJI lut is not for dlog-m, but actual dlog? Probably better not to use a lut for 709? There was a bit of a pink/magenta hue on my files which I noticed on the bubbles, but nothing massive - I think this is due to my default presets I normally use on the LX10. I spent less than 3 minutes on it, and it's very easy to go for a cooler profile, so this isn't an issue. Anyhoo, I don't have a paid version of dropbox, so limited to the 1080 dlogm file, but it's nice material to work with, clearly - however the background blurryness mentioned by Dreifish should be looked into further. cheers ben

Interesting - I only get HD download options on dropbox, wonder if it's because I'm not logged in... edit - it's the same logged in - can only download 480p, 720p or 1080p interface is a little odd, it gives me options to edit, change format etc... I found a 1440p option in there as well, but no 4K - anyway no biggie, there's definitely enough colour info to work with in the log file. Nice one!

Cheers for that Bio - I downloaded the file on drop box (max was 1080p?) and did the same quick white balance + quick CC in FCPX, really nice and lots of data to work with - exported it to 1080p 60fps with an old YT setting I had, no further stabilisation applied so as not to alter the fov

Great, that's exactly it. So all you need to do is get your subject in the center of the focus box and press once to lock onto it and start tracking, hurray 🍾🥳 I'm looking into the a6700 manual to see if it also has tracking on toggle EDIT - it seems there is also tracking off on toggle - so I imagine there is a tracking on as well - that's a relief, thanks a lot for clearing that up!!!

Great, thanks! So basically you set the tracking point on the corner with a single button press (no need to hold it down), and you can cancel (unlock) with the same button, right? Phew, this is a relief - it's such an obvious application I was really afraid they had killed it by setting it to touch screen only!

Thanks but it's still unclear - the "tracking on toggle" seems the closest, but it's not quite clear. Basically can you do this in video mode: - press a button once (not hold down as described) to lock tracking onto a subject I know this is possible with the touch screen for stills and video, and also with half-shutter press for stills. But can a button be assigned to this - not to turn on tracking but to manually lock onto the tracking target? Can you lock the tracking AF with a single button press onto your finger, and the camera keeps tracking it as move your finger around? thanks

Unfortunately it's the same for the FX30 - tracking lock only via touch screen.... 😥

Wow, thank - yes that would be fantastic - does it also lock the tracking on a subject, so that pressing the button sets the target the autofocus is to follow (like you can do with the touch screen, and also, for stills, with a half-shutter press?) When I played with the camera in the store, I found that pressing the button assigned to back-button focus in video mode (the name escapes me) enabled focus tracking on a subject, but only as long as the button was depressed. Is it possible to lock a target for video with assigning a button to Tracking on? Thanks! (this here is a painful example of an old Lumix AF tracking the subject it is locked onto but totally failing to maintain focus)

yes, and thanks for that! In a world where most test clips poste use autosettings, it's very interesting to finally have an example of what the camera is capable of recording out flat. I'm quite impressed by the data still left on your clip after being mashed-up by multiple compressions in this little experience, and imagine original files will be a real pleasure to work with in post. cheers

Thanks for these @Bio, corners look quite alright in these, and it's really interesting to see this camera and lens combo in action. Your clips also looked quite flat, so I tried a little experience - sorry for the copyright infringement 😁 I downloaded the 1080p clip from youtube, converted it, then dropped in finalcut pro X. I then manually adjusted the white balance (using the diver's tank as the WB reference) then applied a basic grade - all this took me less than 3 minutes. Here is your clip white balanced in post (exported to 1080p 60fps with massive compression loss due to the fact that this done with a 3x compressed source) Despite the obvious compression-loss, I'm quite impressed by the data left to work with in post, and look forward to working with original clips, if I ever get this camera, which was the plan until the corner/external lens issue was flagged. It will also be interesting to combine this with a good filter, which could give even more balanced results between background and foreground. cheers and thanks again!

Thanks for confirming, it's what I feared - I saw the stickiness and AF speed settings which are great, but not being able to manually lock AF tracking point for underwater video is an issue. I shoot video in MF, which is fine for wide angle or standard macro, but becomes a problem for blackwater / bonfire type macro video. The main issue is that the subjects are quite small, which means magnification and a small depth of field. This isn't a problem for standard, ground based macro, but in blackwater the subjects are also moving fast, and the shots handheld. They move in and out all the time, which is why most blackwater video you'll see are super slow-motion extensions of tiny in-focus clips. Based on my tests, I think is something else to explore, a combination of operator following ("manual tracking") and a fast AF tracking, which would allow for longer in-focus sequences. I've managed to get shots in MF (at 30fps) by following as much as possible (using focus peaking, which on the a6700 is also available in AF, great), but since I'm shooting handheld in the water column at high magnification, there is no way to refocus manually in time using backbutton focus or a focus knob -action is just too fast and induces camera shake or loss of the animal. This is why and where I would need a fast AF, to work with me to track the subject along a shallow focal plane - I would lock the AF on the subject, and physically follow as much as possible to keep in focus - the AF would complement this by making small adjustements to keep the subject in focus. All this is certainly possible with this camera - however, I would definitely need to be able to lock focus on the suject to be tracked. Bonfire type scenarios are chaotic, with lots of moving subjects - think of a lightbulb with swarming insects on a summer night - I don't think the AF will be able to stay locked onto one subject in such conditions. With AF tracking lock, however it would work - unfortunately, as you have just confirmed, tracking lock is done through the touch screen only in video mode (stills has half-shutter or touch screen for AF tracking lock). All this means there is no way for me to lock AF onto a subject to be tracked underwater in video mode, which was the plan... It's a shame because this possible on Lumix cameras which have a much weaker AF and, I believe on Canon cameras as well. Unfortunately, touch screen based functionalities are a curse for underwater applications...

as a side note to your setting questions (which I am also interested in as I might be buying an a6700 in the future - but too much life to deal with at the moment), I've been looking into the a6700's AF video settings. I recently spent a bit of time playing with one here in a store in Japan and it seems that it's not possible to lock AF tracking on a subject in video mode - or more precisely, the only way to do this is through the touch screen, which kills the option for underwater use. In the a6700's stills mode you can lock tracking with a half-shutter press or with the touch screen, but for video it's touch screen only. This is a big letdown for me as I was planning to use focus tracking for shooting fast moving macro (black water / bonfire type stuff, basically locking onto a subject so the camera can work with me to keep it in focus), but apparently it's a no-go. I was planning on assigning AF tracking lock to the backbutton focus button (C2? if I'm not mistaken), but nope - even more frustrating is that in default setting the video AF tracking works as long as you press the button, but unlocks on release... Of course the standard AF is very good, but difficult to know how it will react in a busy setting like the ones we get on bonfire dives. I've played with tracking on the LX10, and it's certainly possible to lock onto a subject (on Lumix, the main issue is that the lens AF doesn't keep up, too slow to maintain focus - it tracks efficiently, but doesn't maintain focus). Basically in the a67000's video mode it's either manual or AF-C, and video AF tracking lock is possible through the touch screen. For AF questions, I would recommend watching this video as well: Now this is a rather specific issue for a rather specific use, but still a letdown for manual control-freaks like myself 😁 If you ever look into it, do let me know if it's confirmed! cheers ben

Marelux plans to develop an A6700 housing next year, but final release date not set yet.

IIRC Ecuador also doubled their Galápagos National Park Entrance fee on in August 2024 ($100 to $200 USD) might have been an inspiration.... But on a daily levy like the Revillagigedo NP's, this really stings...

Very valuable feedback, which I hope will one day make its way back to Japanese operators aiming to expand to what they call the "inbound" market (translation = foreign visitors). For diving, the ministry of tourism mostly has eyes on the North-American market because of the number of divers in the US (but in this, they do not really take into consideration factors such as access to international travel and ease to do so, length and availability of holiday, general travel practices, diving culture etc), the rest of the project being mostly introductory diving experiences aimed at the greater Asian market. People stuck in their ways (which can be for multiple reasons) is definitely an issue here, and can also cause issues for local foreign operators willing to offer more customised, high-end services in line with what commonly offered in this big world of ours. The Chiba shark-scramble you mention (which is also quite something from an ecological point of view...), is a good example, as here the time-limit cannot really be justified by safety protocols as it is the case in Mikomoto. From what I understood it is mostly linked to the frequency of the chumming dives... To give another example, on Okinawa main island where I am now, especially in the north, it's very difficult to organise boat diving, because the rule/tradition is to go through local boat operators which are all fishermen / ex-fishermen. They boat operators set the rules, and 45 minute dives is all they have the patience for... Luckily there is good shore diving where operators do not face these constraints. Yes, it is definitely not the most flexible country ( let's keep in mind Japanese administration still uses faxes in some cases... 😅) and customer-service generally oscillates between great /over-the-top to... dreadful. And then there's the rest, the very same operator portrayed in the doc also offers / was recently offering this kind of aquarium diving experience with captive dolphins for instance, which I leave you to ponder: It's not exclusively Japan of course - land-based diving in Palau, for instance, is also somewhat old-school, favouring large groups as opposed to smaller ones (this is changing slowly with smaller operators like PDA), and actually not the most eco-conscious I've encountered despite the country's official positioning and the Palau Pledge, and there's of course much to be said about the practices of some operators in places like Egypt, Thailand or Mexico, just to name a few. But a major difference is that the Japanese economy is not as reliant on tourism and even less so on dive tourism (being built around a strong domestic customer base), and many Japanese divers stay on the "Japanese circuit" abroad, and are thus not really exposed to international diving practices (which are often seen as sub-par, something which transpires a little in this doc). And all of this tends to deepen the gap... This is a little sad because the diving here in Japan is actually excellent, but a little difficult to access because of cultural codes and something of a lack of communication (interest?) with the rest of the world up to now. Autarcy might be the key word here. Hopefully this will evolve with the new generation, but until now I can't help noticing we don't have many Japanese participants here on open discussion spaces like this forum, for instance, and I'm not convinced this is purely a language issue... But Japan is changing fast, for better or for worse, time will tell.

2 lights will always be better than 1 light for multiple reasons (flexibility, backscatter control, more even coverage of the area), so the clear answer would be two lights BUT if the main focus is macro, then a single light goes a long way. Two 4000 lumen lights will not be useful for anything more than closeups / nightdives, but for macro it's perfect - especially if you get a well designed product like the Backscatter MW4300 - this is a really functionnal piece of kit, with a flood and spot mode (most of which can be used for macro or mid-range), really nice button setup and accepts the MS-10 optical snoot and filters if you're into that - it does however have one major flaw in my opinion which is a low CRI (70 range), which you can feel when pairing with higher CRI lights... But I would still recommend this for macro video - to give some examples of mine, these macro clips are shot with a single MW4300 example one, two and three, as is this mid-range clip (worked, but 2 lights would have been even better) However, if you're going for wide-angle video, then there's no way around it - get a pair of lights, and the most powerful you can afford (ideally constant output, so not Big Blue lights which are not constant output) - a single light will be really complicated to use for anything else than closeups (for which 2 lights would be better anyway). I'd say a bare minimum for wide-angle would be 2x 8000 lumen lights, but most people will use a pair of 10K, 12K or 15K - there's no way around it because you need to cover a wide area, hence the need for two lights. And for this, don't fall for the retailer marketing hype, you actually want a tighter beam (say 90°) rather than a wider one (120°), because it will mean more light falling where it should be (on your subject). Or you can work in ambient light for wide (manual white balance with a filter), and a pair of weaker lights for mid-range, closeups and macro, which is a good compromise. You can mix the two approaches (ambient and artificial light) for wide angle by using ambient light filters on the lights and a filter on the camera to match both light sources (see Dreifish's the thread on the subject here), but filters halve your light output, hence the need for powerful lights to get results. cheers ben

I can't comment on the X-Adventurer brand - not sure if it's produced by the same factories as Weefine and Kraken and related in anyway, but design is similar (as is often the case for these products 😅) - and Kraken lights are nice. Really good light quality, constant output (you get the lumens stated during the whole dive, not something which dims constantly), good built BUT button ergonomics are really not great for UW video use (long press, short press, double press etc) - some lights have the option to use a remote, which is a game changer but less so for a single light kit. Weefine range is now different from that of Kraken, but they shared the same factory in the past and design/charateristic are still similar, as is the price range. Both are constant output for lights over 2500 lumen. These are not the cheapest however, in the upper mid-range - look into Hydras for instance. cheers

In Japan, Sony cameras intended for the Japanese market will be cheaper but with menus Japanese only (and sometimes cultural oddities like non-mutable shutter sounds), and no option to change language. The hacks/firmware tricks to add other language support to Japanese modes are iffy, risk issues with software compatibility for subsequent firmware updates and will void warranty. And importantly, most don't work for recent Sony models. It also means cameras will be difficult to resell outside the Japanese market because of this - individual buyers are taking a risk in buying a hacked camera, warranty is void and pro retailers will consider the camera to be in Japanese, which makes it lose value (50%+) However, you can also buy international models (海外仕様) in Japan at flagship stores or major outlets like Yodobashi or Bic Camera and, I think Kitamura, but they are a little more expensive. Most if not all second-hand models in Japan, like the ones sold at Maps, with be Japanese models only. You can then get a tax discount on new models and second-hand in stores offering tax free-shopping - just make sure not to use the auto-gates at the airport so that you get an entry stamp in your passport. You can then get a QR code for tax free shopping from visit japan web or bring your passport (Japan being Japan, bring your original passport anyway). Online tax-free shopping is allowed but inexistent, most retailers won't do tax free online, even if you have the QR code. There are limits, I think it's one camera and lens set per person. So it's a tricky decision, and one which I am currently facing for a Sony camera (I read Japanese, so a Japanese menu isn't an really an issue, but it won't be future-proof for resale, and I will need to know the Japanese menu equivalent for any English language info found online, which is a little tiresome). Panasonic and Canon no longer have this issue like they did in the past, not sure for Nikon. Lenses, however, are cheaper and readily available second-hand without language issues, with a solid second-hamd market I don't see massive discounts on Nauticam products in Japan, I find that they're usually in the same range as elsewhere. There is basically one major Nauticam dealer here. Where did you see good prices? It might be because the yen is low at the moment, which helps. Or maybe i'm out of touch with European prices. Second-hand underwater imaging gear market is limited (Mercari, Yahoo Auctions, Jimoti...) Dive gear is generally much more expensive than Europe.

Thanks for all this - unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a good solution at the moment for macro video. My first choice was the Zeiss Touit 50 macro, but AF support, more than price, is an issue here. Zeiss isn't being particularly helpful, support considers macro videography (where high framerates are quite commonplace, think insect videography) to be "special applications" Zeiss Touit 50mm documentation states: "To achieve maximum compatibility on APS-C cameras of the Sony Alpha series with E-Mount (AF in video mode) we highly recommend using the latest Sony firmware" . This seems to indicate the Zeiss lenses can handle video AF to a certain point, but it is difficult to know if the lens is capable of handling the Sony Alpha series latest AF - the a6700 has Sony latest tracking autofocus, which is more recent than the lens - and also, importantly, if it can support video AF at 120fps. To which Zeiss replied: Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that the lens will be able to support 120fps Video AF. The AF speed of Touit lenses is limited due to their design. We therefore recommend Touit lenses primarily for photo shoots and cannot make any statements about the speed for such special video applications. With the monster adapter + 60mm solution now no longer an option, it seems like the only macro lens capable of handling video AF correctly is the Sony 90mm (which is a G M series lens), and maybe the Sony 30mm (optimized for video up to 120fps, but which has working distance issues, especially with necessary diopters).