Nikolausz

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.

I couldn't wait till 1st April with this joke. Nobody will remember the Hawk Tuah girl next year (I hope)

I’ve heard some rumors from a friend’s neighbor’s uncle that the company, Naughty Cam (don’t confuse with similarly sounding renowned camera housing and accessories manufacturer) is developing a secret compound to be used as anti-fog agent for our diving masks. The development was mainly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on spitting on your mask. They managed to isolate a special peptide from saliva, which is produced in high concentration especially in alcohol-induced young female test targets. Scientists at Naughty Cam managed to sequence the peptide and working on heterologous expression, but so far they failed. Nevertheless, they applied for a patent and working on formulating a product under the brand “Hawk Tuah”. I also heard that it’s perfect for treating dome ports to prevent the formation of any water drops on the port in the case of split shots. I’m very curious of this product and eager to try it. Cheers

Amazing

Sony A6400, AF-C as I remember focus area was center.

I'm relatively new to this, so I don't have that much experience with AF cameras. I currently use a Sony A6400 and my approach depends on the lens. I use AF with wide lenses without problem. I tested SEL 10-18mm F4 and SEL 11mm F1.8 under low light low visibility conditions without any problem. Another lens I used with mixed results is the SEL 30mm f3.5 macro. In AF mode it often shift focus, especially if something appears in the foreground. Another issue is that even when used on a tripod, it applies some micro adjustment, which makes the whole footage bad. I have an example here: So in such case it's better to adjust focus with AF and then switch to MF. Sometimes, with larger high contracts subjects it works well: I have recently tried the 90mm macro lens and I concluded that the AF was quite OK but it's not a lens for hand held videos.

For those sticked to GoPro, I have a good news. Your camera is good enough to shoot a movie to be screened in IMAX theaters, so it will surely be OK for couple of years to post clips filmed with it on your youtube channels Skywalkers is a movie shot on a GoPro and will be screened in an IMAX theater. https://ymcinema.com/2024/06/19/filmed-for-imax-on-a-gopro/

Place your bet. AF or no AF? Meanwhile a film crew used some more advanced action cameras: https://www.slashcam.com/news/single/Mysterious-Sony----camera-seen-on-set-for-Formula--18042.html

DJI Ronin 4D is really great and the lens system they developed is also outstanding. I saw many good stuff about the Osmo Pocket camera and I just found out, that even underwater housings exist: https://garmade.com/en-de/products/for-dji-osmo-pocket-3-brdrc-40m-depth-waterproof-case-diving-housing-coverblack-handle

Maybe a real AF is not needed. It would be enough to have a zone focusing with 3 states (macro, close-up, infinity)

DJI Osmo Pocket 3 is a gimbal with a small camera with good enough sensor. The gimbal is not needed in the action camera (difficult to design an underwater housing for it), so it's enough to use the core (sensor with AF function)

For a while I thought Xiaomi will be this brand. The Yi camera brand was somehow related/owned to/by Xiaomi, and when Yi 4K+ was released, in my opinion, it was a better choice than the actual GoPro for half the price. I still use two of them with modified lens, but the batteries are quite old. Unfortunately Yi was separated from Xiaomi and stopped producing action cameras. I have high hopes for DJI, because they develop cameras and sensors for many platforms. They have everything under the sleeve to come up with an excellent action camera. It would be great if they could implement the 1 inch sensor with AF from DJI Osmo Pocket 3 to their next action camera.

That's the main reason why smartphones started to replace action cameras among beginner underwater videographers.

In my opinion, the implementation of a focus system is necessary for larger sensors to be used in action cameras. Insta360 has a 1 inch sensor module (not the AcePro, it's still 1/1.3") but it was not that successful, mainly due to lack of focusing options. It was not good for vloggers and the image improvement for landscapes was not that huge. I saw only few not that impressive underwater videos.

I switch my lights at the beginning of the dive and decrease the intensity to 3% (or 0). Before approaching the subject I increase the intensity of the lights. Previously I had to reach out to the end of the arms but now, I can control the lamps from the grip. I use a WeeFine system utilising fibre optic remote control. It's actually more useful than I thought before.

I still lived and studied in Hungary when I got a scholarship to the National History Museum, London. It was the year of full eclipse, so it was in 1999. I was lucky to meet at NHM with Linda and Brian Pitkin, very nice people. Brian took me once to a BSoUP event and he was very excited. Martin Edge introduced his new book (2nd edition of the Underwater Photography) and he gave a presentation about ring-flash and blue water macro, as I remember. It was an excellent talk, very inspiring. I came back from this BSoUP meeting with lots of inspirations and a signed book from Martin. I learned a lot from his excellent book and I guess I was the first Hungarian photographer taking blue water macro (it was not that trivial before digital cameras). I feel really sorry. It's a big loss for the underwater image maker community.

I've also considered the Samyang 12mm lens first, but finally decided to go for the 11mm sony lens. I'm still testing it but I don't see that big drop in corner sharpness, although I still have to test it more thoroughly.

I think it's a good strategy. I use a A6400 with SeaFrogs I gen. housing (started with A6000). For wide angle I use E1.8 11mm lens or the E10-18mm f4 OSS lenses. Both work well with the 6’’ dome port. I have no idea about the samyang but I went for the sony 11mm lens. I usually make videos but recently I took some photos (freshwater):

I think the company suggest wide instead of super wide that is still cropped compared to 8:9 format, which is full sensor readout. I'm not surprised that you have vignetting. I also have vignetting at this setup. Just crop your picture

So you define the subject according to your previous post that is nonsense in my opinion (no red fish) . You also try to define the term school of fish vs group of fish, which is odd.

The easiest to see this phenomenon by approaching schools of big eyes (Priacanthus sp.) while taking videos with lamps. The red colour of the fish will pop when we get closer than 1.5 m (independent of the strength or CRI of the lamps).

The Empire strikes back

With this news the Insta360 Ace Pro is getting a better contender: From AOI:"The popular UWL-03 and UCL-03 will soon be available to DJI and Insta360 users too. Special product preview at TDEX 2024 dive show."