Kristin

Thanks, Everyone! Super helpful. It sounds to me like she's not really gaining as much as she's losing by switching, but only she can figure out which elements are most important to her. I'm passing it all on to her. Once again, thank you for taking the time to add your thoughts and suggestions!

Hoping you can help me help a friend. She currently uses an Olympus TG6 and has housing, strobes, wet lenses etc. Loves the size, ease of use, macro/small critter capabilities, flexibility on a dive. What she doesn't love is how it does on wider scenes, soft/messy/ugly backgrounds (I agree!) and battery life when she does videos. Wants: better overall image quality, small/light, flexibility as the Oly offers, better video and battery life, available now. Budget would be a flexible USD$1500ish for camera/housing. I don't keep up enough to know where to really point her and hoping you all can help. Lionfish for photo tax.

I'll be very interested to hear what you think if you choose to go this path. I have a ton of Nauticam stuff and was intending to stick with Nauticam for my upcoming update, but exploring a new option isn't off the table!

Super, I'll try that, thanks!! In all my reading, I saw something about h265 and clearly did not understand it enough to consider it as the problem. So much to learn.

yes to da vinci. I'm not sure what you mean by preset? on export I choose mp4 (or quicktime for mov) H265? I wish I didn't need to use FBmsg but sadly most of my friends use it!

I hope someone sees this, didn't want to make a new post and clutter things up too much. I'm struggling to figure out how to send videos via FB messenger. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't - both from the messenger app on my phone and from my laptop (no app). MP4s seem to be the issue, mov files send but they are so big that creates another issue. Signal never has these issues 🙃 After trying to trouble shoot it, I thought it was because somehow I had created & exported a 60fps video but FB only supports 30. So I tried to redo it at 30 and 24, both by creating a whole new project with those settings and by just changing the setting from the 60 at export ... still won't send. This is the little video - it's tiny. Can someone help me because googly isn't solving my issue! 2309_whalesB30.mp4

Oh poor baby - are those urchin spines?? Love her face 🥰

That warbonnet is so cool looking - glad you made the rig you had at the time work. I'm a huge fan of being able to shoot a big range of sizes each dive :) Any wolfeels? I've never dived with one and I am kinda in love with them!

@gstrek thanks, I'll check that out!

Thanks so much for the extensive input. I agree that this footage has serious technical issues and that a second light would make a huge difference, however a lot of the time I'll only be dragging one around with me and I'm comfortable knowing that I can't have the whole scene balanced - definitely a trade off! Glad to know that I am on the right track on the foreground for this first try. With the single light, I will concentrate of limiting the hot spots and trying to get something that is still pleasing enough, knowing there will be a big compromise. This was about 13m in fairly darkish, bit murky conditions. I always think video makes the scene look better than it was, even before one edits! I don't have a set of filters but Xmas is coming 🙃 I have been searching for tips on the action camera and found some re white balance & other settings, so have setup with some of those but today's dive was a bit ridiculously filthy (but still awesome) for trying much of anything. I have higher hopes for tomorrow where I will also try to remember to take some with no lights at all and some with my single light. Wind is coming up again next week so will have a play with more footage. Very much appreciate all the knowledge and suggestions - looking forward to trying again!

thank you so much to all who have posted links and advice re making some colour corrections for video. I played around with a small clip while watching one of the recommended youtubers Daniel Batal and was hoping for some feedback. I've put the straight out of camera and two options; I've had people like both (and some prefer the original!) so it's interesting to hear what is pleasing to individual eyes. These are the first edits i've done and getting input on what works and what I need to consider should be very helpful as I learn. I was using a single Kraken light fwiw Video link https://youtu.be/2jolHTw_9nI Photo screen shot attached. Again, thanks so much for any time and feedback you can offer :)

thanks so much, everyone! I have lots of reading & viewing to do now! I had a lovely little dive today and used the Kraken light for most shots and honestly, I didn't love it. I've had more success on other dives. We had quite variable light conditions and I think the camera struggled with that and the light. Shame as I had a lovely lionfish in midwater but it looks terrible. Good for practice though. And I guess it means I'll just have to go diving more to keep trying! :)

@Davide DB thanks so much. TBH you pretty much lost me early though as I'm not even sure what a "primary correction tool" would be, assumed Davinci could do most things even if it's way more than I'll ever need. I don't even know what I'm shooting in - I put it in the housing and hit the button. I'm using the Insta360 Ace Pro 2. Most of what I've shot is just with the camera tho I have a Kraken video light that I've used a couple of times so far, too. I suppose I have been thinking of it as an all over white balance. I figured selectively adjusting colour on certain elements in video is well beyond me, I've just been trying to make it not blue. Clearly, I need to try to find some good reading to help me get started not thinking video is the same as photo!

I've just started thinking about working with colour and video. I've got DaVinci and have watched a couple of getting started tutorials & had a bit of a play. I'm hoping you all have some suggestions on what to learn first and/or good tutorials to get me started. I'm a total beginner and at this stage am hoping for some light editing - I'm not sure full on editing is my bag, but I want to learn a bit. This morning I had a play with the colour warp which seems more intuitive for me than the other options, but clearly I lack skill & finesse at this stage! This is a quick before/after quick clip of a few seconds and I've put a four shot of screen captures in a comment below - which probably isn't very interesting :D oolour01Vs.mp4 top two are in the video above; bottom two were little changes to see what happens. Only colour warp was used.

Nice, I am waiting to see what else comes out this year before changing my Big Rig, so in no hurry. Good to have options

As I continue to add new bits, I'm thinking of options for shooting both videos and stills in the same dive and trying to keep gear to a minimum. Currently I use 2 Inon 240s for stills and a Kraken light when I remember it for videos. it's kinda unwieldy and I don't love not being able to operate the Kraken with one hand, but it's what I have on hand right now. Obviously it's all a compromise but what are your suggestions to get the best "do it all" lighting bang for buck?

Absolutely - people here have been wonderful!!

Thanks everyone for your input. So many things are bullshit now...am I just getting old or are things truly sucking more? Seems it's a YT issue, so ok. I wasn't talking so much about the quality of the footage, it's all action cam so it is what it is, but the playback looking crapola. I'll see if I can figure anything out to make it better. Appreciate the help!

I'm brand new to YT and just looked at a video I put up there. When I view it on YT, it's crappy. When I view the file on my laptop, it looks fine. Can anyone tell me what I've done wrong? I went to YT because I just wanted an easy place to pop videos to share with friends/family, but I'd like them to look good! Thanks https://youtu.be/hyr6ihGUlJs

I just bought the insta Ace Pro 2 and like it. As I was reading and watching reviews/footage people shared, I liked it best for what i thought I wanted. I didn't look at the prices of anything so can't compare it, but I'm sure there's a site somewhere that does. I've not used other action cams (other the insta360 X4), so don't have any personal experience with others. I am happy and think it's a solid choice. https://youtu.be/0_MN55Feqfc

as far as I can tell, my newest Pros are not counterfeit. Must just have a wonky batch. My super old black Pros that are all at 60-80% give me the same results - missing shots - as the brand new ones. It is what it is, I probably should have contacted the company after the first time I noticed it and gotten swaps. If I had access to Ikea, I'd buy theirs next time. I probably would choose the white standard eneloops over the black pros if I had to choose between them right now.

I recently bought eneloop pros because my regular eneloops were getting on in years. They are crap. My old white eneloops last well longer and recharge way faster than these new black ones - I actually miss shots now, which has never happened before. I'm kinda grumpy about it, tbh. YMMV

thanks, all. I am talking with Elie now :)

I don't have instagram but will try to find him on ebay, thanks! You mean here? If anyone wants them, please do reach out :)

I have two lovely NikVs doing nothing for me but taking up space. Is there any market for these at all or are they destined for the bin? I'm in Australia, but I'll be in the USA in a few weeks and would drag them along if there might be more potential to get them to a new home from there. What do you all think?