Nikolausz

Any suggestion how to watch it from Germany?

When I started underwater image making more than 20 years ago the choice was easy. Equipment to take high quality photos was relatively affordable that time, compared to professional video cameras. I could afford buying the same films used by David Doubilet, and similar quality lenses, but a good digital camera was way beyond my budget. My photos were crap not because of the equipment I used but the potential was there. I had some friends involved in videography but the image quality they produced was just bad and mainly due to technical limitations. Photos from the 80s were good, still keep up today's standard, but if you check some films from that era the quality was really bad (even from big production companies). My hobby was a bit on ice during the digital transition, although I bought a Sony A100 with ikelite housing, due to my growing family I had not that much time for travelling. I wanted to further simplify my system, so I switched to Sony NEX-5 in a cheap housing, when I realized the red button to take videos. First I was not hooked. It actually happened when I got a GoPro as a present and started to use it in local lakes, mainly as camera trap. I think GoPro was very important milestone in underwater videography and it "democratized" underwater filmmaking. Such affordable camera with so much potential. Of course, most of the divers used these cameras completely wrong and tons of crap videos have been produced to torture other dive buddies, but the technology has improved (image stabilization, better WB, additional correction lenses etc.) and now it's easy to make OK small films. These cameras are still used by big TV production companies and many blue chips nature movies include footage from "cheap" action cameras. So today, in my opinion, it's cheaper to buy a capable video camera than a photo camera. Another important technology improvement was the headway of LED technology in video lights, which made those lamps also affordable. Meanwhile the underwater strobes for photography have not improved that much. I think, making good quality videos with story, narration, capturing behaviours etc. is still very challenging, while taking good photos is easier. I see many very good photos but not that many really good videos. Image making for profit is difficult for both photo and video but some say video is more profitable.

I wrote the following under Matthias Lebo's video, and this is my short opinion: "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)", which resonated well with the viewers of the channel. I would add here for more advanced users that due to the accessories and the GP Hero Labs, 10-Bit, and post processing options, GoPro is still a good option, but maybe not the best option. DJI, as a company, has the best potential to grow as the best small camera for content creators but the underwater issues are not properly addressed for advanced users. Somehow AcePro2 handles these issues better (especially the bad corners with underwater mode, compatibility with AOI lens), so if I should choose a new action camera, AcePro2 would be my choice. Currently I use a GP Hero 12 and I don't feel the urge to upgrade, because the pure image quality increase is not that big. I still think that a GPHero 12 with an AOI UWL-03 has way better image quality than any of the new generation cameras without such correction lens. Low light issues I can address with external lights and some post processing. Just for curiosity I tried GP 12 during a night dive (it's usually not recommended) and the results were quite OK (still not comparable to my APS-C camera results):

Yes, I used only the SEL11 for this video. It's a perfect for wide angle videos (on APS-C). Now, I 'm looking for something similarly priced good quality around 20mm.

I had an assignment last year to film freshwater underwater scenes for a nature movie "Ungezähmt - Im Fluss des Lebens". Mainly catfish behaviour, including hunting during the night. The equipment I used was a Sony A6400 with a SEL1018 (10-18 mm f4) lens with 2 video lights (weefine Smart Focus 6000). I managed to shoot enough material and the film was recently shown on DasErste (available on the mediathek from Germany (use VPN) : https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/erlebnis-erde/ungezaehmt-im-fluss-des-lebens/das-erste/Y3JpZDovL21kci5kZS9zZW5kdW5nLzI4MTA2MC8yMDI0MTAyMTIwMTUvZXJsZWJuaXMtZXJkZS0xNTI ) I was not completely happy with the night results and I was thinking about potential improvements and even considered to switch to full-frame (A7S3 or FX3) but the upgrade cost would have been really high. Finally I addressed this with a fast APS-C prime lens (SEL11mm f1.8) and I'm really happy with the results. It works perfectly with my current housing (Seafrogs) with 6 inch port. More than 2 F-stops gain (compared to the F4 zoom), sharp, fast AF and it's only around 500 euro. I'm surprised that it's not really discussed yet on waterpixel forums. You can see some examples on my YT channel: Has anybody else used this lens?

I'm not surprised that the AOI lens is not compatible with the DJI Action 5 camera. Finally it was optimised to GoPro with smaller sensor and different optical system and different FOV. It's still speculation, but I doubt that the colour temperature sensor will work. I'm more surprised that the Insta360 ACE Pro is relatively good

I liked it a lot!!

You may try to search for INON UFL-G140SD, which is very similar to the AOI lens. Some even suggested that AOI copied Inon's optical formula (I don't know). It's more expensive though.

This looks very promising

You need an underwater housing. I considered this option and the only reasonable solution I found was the combination of the following 2 items: https://www.panoceanphoto.com/t-housing-h10-power https://actionpro.de/produkt/adapter-fuer-inon-objektive-t-housing-h10-power/ Another alternative is to buy a DJI Osmo Action 5 pro, that has a much better battery life.

Have you considered the AOI UCL-03? https://www.aoi-uw.com/products/wet-lenses/aoi-ucl-03.html

After a quick search I have 2 problems with this lens: 1. It's probably too large to fit into the standard dive case 2. Based on the examples the image quality is really bad. Only the centre is sharp and the corners are really blurry and it's still not macro.

In addition, it has a colour temperature sensor; which might help in underwater footage

The long battery life sounds really good. I would be happy with 3 hours 4K, so I don't have to think about some extra battery solutions for my GoPro. It seems to be compatible with the Action 4 housing, which means that AOI adapter and lenses are also available for Action 5 Pro

Number one rule for successful underwater youtube channel: you need a good looking snorkelist

A new contender is DJI Action 5 Pro. It looks actually not that bad. I found a review with lots of underwater scenes in it:

Challenge accepted. But it will take time.

It looks great. It would be interesting to try out also with larger sensor cameras.

It looks promising. My problem with the standard UWL-03 is optical issues when shooting toward the sun.

While many of us may hoped 8K resolution from the newly announced action camera that is affordable for most of us, some professionals have already reached 18.7K with a custom made cine camera. https://petapixel.com/2024/08/26/gorgeous-underwater-whale-footage-shot-with-custom-18-7k-cine-camera/ I would like to see a comparison with the new GoPro, but based on the posted videos, I'm not really impressed. Maybe the conditions were not so good or the camera operator was too far from the whales but I can't see the extra resolution (I watched at 4K) What do you think? My opinion is that due to the physical properties of the water it doesn't make sense to go beyond 4K with wide angle. More resolution might be useful for macro.

I will not upgrade. I may buy another GP12. There is not much image quality improvement (if any). The new lenses are interesting but not really useful for underwater use. There is still no housing supporting Max Lens Mod. The incompatibility issues (battery, new lenses) are very annoying.

The Weefine Smart Focus 7000 I use is more similar to a higher specced model, the Hydra 8000 WRGBU https://krakensports.ca/product/hydra-8000-wrgbu/

Fishing net floats are also good and they're cheap

We should not forget that DJI will release the OSMO Action 5Pro soon, so the race is still opened

I currently use 2 Weefine Smart Focus 7000. They are also Chinese products but from the middle class. I can just recommend them. The remote control via optical cable is very convenient and the quality of the light is good in my opinion. I also have 3 cheap basic lamp you can buy below 50 USD (EUR) in the AliExpress (or other portals). The ones I have are under the model name L15 with claimed 20000 - 22800 Lumen, which is a big exaggeration. Comparing to the weefine I would guess they are around 8000 Lumen and the light is colder. I like the fact that they use 18650 batteries. The battery pack of the weefine is quite expensive. I blue light of the cheaper lamps is actually better than of the Weefine for fluorescent videos. I have problems with one unit only. I can switch on the white light, but switching off or changing intensity is PITA. The other switch (coloured lights) is OK. I think these lights are quite OK for beginners. I would prefer 2 of these cheap lights over any, even most expensive filters.