Nikolausz

I've recently came across a video on youtube about tips and tricks to shoot cinematic footage by any action camera. The YT channel is run by a couple creating mainly travel videos with lots of underwater sequences. The recommendations (use tray, add lights, get closer etc.) are totally appropriate but the underwater video sequences are just not OK and IMHO, and they are far from cinematic, or I just haven't seen that movie. My main problem is that they forced hyperview and the corners are somehow stretched and not sharp. Actually, only the middle segment is usable according to my standard. I left a comment, but in general other comments are positive. So the people are happy with those results. Most of the people will watch YT videos on smartphone, so maybe trying to reach cinematic quality is just overrated or the people's quality expectations are lowered drastically. I'm curious about your opinion. Please, don't leave negative comments on the video on YT, I don't want to bash their channels, so lets rather discuss here, and more as a phenomenon (with this particular example) general. By the way I think it's possible to achieve cinematic quality with action cameras as many footage in big blue chip productions were taken by action cameras. So here is the video I mentioned:

Nice job

I lost my cap for the Nauticam USB-C (see picture below) bulkhead. If you have by chance a faulty USB-C bulkhead connector with the cap and it just collects dust I would buy it for a reasonable price. I live in Germany, so it only makes sense to post it from Europe.

It won't short. I've tested it unintentionally, so it's not just waterproof but also your camera is protected in case of leakage (which is highly unlikely if you screw back the cap properly).

Yes, it's a video light

This is my fully pimped up GoPro with an extra shutter release mechanism from AliExpress. I rarely use it this way but it was OK with gloves

A friend of mine is in Dahab currently and found an interesting colony. Can somebody identify it? I suspect some sponge or colonial ascidia.

I used a previous version of this light. It's the typical cheap Chinese underwater video lamp you can buy on AliExpress around 50-60 Euro. It's not a high CRI light, it's strong but has a typical "blueish" light. I ordered some warm filter for it to upgrade but finally I've never tried. I've checked the homepage you linked and this one looks more interesting: LetonPower Official StoreLetonPower Shark CB 6000 Lumens White/Yellow/Blue/Red Mul...Shark CX Underwater Video Light, 6000 Lumens 5500K, 7 Lighting Modes, CRI 96, 120° Illumination Angle.

I can also recommend Weefine lights

I would sell the DJI and buy an Insta360 X5 if you really needed a 360 degree camera underwater

I'm not talking about macro videography, but a normal scene, or fish videos hugely benefit from a better close focus ability of an action camera. For real macro videography I use a Sony A6400 with appropriate macro lenses (but it's still lots of fiddling around).

Matthias Lebo made a quite extensive comparison of the recent action cameras: I made the following comment: "DJI has really bad corners (otherwise colours look good), iPhone is the most versatile and it has a bit more background separation, Insta clips straight out of the camera are the best, but GoPro is surprisingly good, when there is enough light (but I would use a default -0.5 correction)" My opinion hasn't changed. I can still spot the bad corners of the DJI videos. Another overlooked feature is the close focus ability (or lack of it). Yes, they are fixed focus cameras; therefore, the way the focus is set is very important. Many youtubers complained that even from an arm length their face is not sharp. Underwater, it's very important to move very close to the subject, so actually the smaller sensor of the GoPro is an advantage due to the larger DOF and better close focus ability (especially if we used video lights and marginally better noise is not an issue). This close focus feature can be improved with add on lenses (Inon or AOI). Now, you can use those lenses on Insta360 and DJI cameras, but they were originally designed to GoPros, so I guess they work better with GoPro. I used many action cameras including Yi 4K+, Firefly 8SE, various Insta360 and GoPro cameras (also tried DJI). Currently I use GoPro Hero 12. In my opinion, the difference in video quality among those cameras are not that big and the quality of the light, camera positioning and movement, quality of the water (visibility) have much bigger effects on the final quality. So those are all very capable cameras. My next camera will also be a GoPro, or an action camera with AF or some basic focusing change option.

I considered smart focus, because of the additional blue light and the optical condensor (kind of snoot) you can attache (screw) to the lamp. Honestly, I haven't used that much those functions, so for video I would also suggest solar flare over the smart focus version.

I use 2 WeeFine Smart Focus 7000, which is practically the same with some extras. I also use it for my Sony A6400, but often with GoPro 12. They're good but don't expect them to lit big reef scenes. However, if you around or closer than 1m they will do the job.

I usually use my action camera on the top of my mirrorless housing, but time to time I use action camera alone. As soon as you add lights it's recommended to use a tray and floating arms. It makes the handling and moving the camera without small handshakes, which results better footage. Here, you can see my maxed out GoPro set up.