eocean-eu

"Upscaling" is some sort of fancy extrapolation: it creates additional information from existing information but this is radically different than a sensor that would actually capture the missing information. Some people might not notice that because their attention is focused on something/one in the center of the frame but there might be something unusual if one looks at the fine details in the corners or when action is fast. One thing also is that quality of Youtube streams that makes comparison a bit hard but since most people publish their things online on FB, Instagram or YT, sometimes even without the most appropriate encoding parameters, that makes many video look "acceptable". Rendered files before upload would probably useful to watch. I've seen a review between the Insta X5 and Ace Pro 2. 4K X5 is close to the Ace Pro and it's sometimes hard to tell the difference. When the math are done with the same coverage, the Ace Pro is still winning but the gap is small. About geometry, it's possible that something is wrong or there is a step missing in insta360 studio for the new model. The first generations of Gopro before the 3 had dome housings and the resulting quality underwater was extremely bad untill someone started to make housing with flat port. The OSMO360 is terrible underwater because there is no housing and the 360 lens is simply made for air and not water therefore all the optic is messed up. But there is also one thing. It's inherently different watching a video and watching a photo, those cameras are made for action and the brain will focus where the image is sharp and may not notice the corners. There is a comparison between the pro and non-pro housing underwater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS0EI9In7yw. I was a bit disappointed by the near lack of differences on the sharpness in the corner and front. The big benefits is the loss of flares.

I think those housings probably have a magnet in the housing that triggers the dive mode like in some other housing. 360° video and resolution has always been a tricky and confusing story in regards to sharpness and video definition. Most people don't do the math of the number of pixels used for each degree of coverage and this value is actually key to understand sharpness. As you did, if you compare the number of pixels by degree of coverage for a 360 camera and a regular action camera, the sharpness of the 360° is always bad at the same 2D resolution. For reframing/tracking a moving subject, those camera are good with usable results in HD. For 4K work, it's starts to be suboptimal and of course, it won't be usuable for any macro work.

You did what needed to be done. I was probably not clear enough If you increase your color temperature in the white balance settings, the resulting image will go warmer. On the opposite, it will go colder at lower K... This is a bit confusing because this is the opposite of how Kelvin works for light source with lower values meaning warmer color and higher colder ones. But it's all about compensation for the camera which is why this is inverted. I am attaching a picture made with my trusty GH5s in a pool playing with the Kelvin settings for white balance. The external light is the sodium light from the pool and is constant accross my experiment. If you have a "daylight" Kelvin value for your divelight in blue water, your actual kelvin value from the light is actually higher which might results in the camera more in reddish tone. To compensate for this, as you did, lowering the K is the way to go.

Be aware that kelvin value from the light underwater is a starting point to set your camera but not the right value in most case as the light coming straight from the video light will be filtered by the water on its way to the subject and then the reflected portion will be filtered again by the water on its way to camera sensor. So if you are diving in blue water with a daylight kelvin value for your light, shining a subject 1m away, your light actually travels 2m of blue water and will hit your sensor with a bluer tone. You might want to decrease your kelvin value if you can set it on your camera to compensate for the bluish pattern of light.

The website works good on my end. My luggage during my last flight was pretty compressed and I broke the pair of exciter filters I had (Ikelite ones). They are made of a dark blue plastic filter and a dichroic filter made of glass which is expensive and fragile. I haven't found a cheap source for dichroic filters. On the camera end, you need a yellow filter like the Tiffen Yellow 12 to remove the blue cast from the filter or blue/uv lights.

As an early EMWL user, I can definitely tell these disappear with a shade. Those are easily visible with the 100 and 130° lenses.

I think it's an interesting camera but yet not perfect. The lack of button is not necessarily a problem for underwater use. The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera was also very low on buttons as everything was more or less controlled by the touchscreen but yet it had a Nauticam housing. The real interest for me is the big screen and the relatively compact package in comparison to Z8 / Z9. But the most important to me is not the camera itself but the fact Nikon has been making lots of effort recently into video and is bringing here its first video-centric camera even not perfect. This goes as well for the recent Z 24-70 lens F2.8 with internal zoom which is definitely aimed at videographers.

The WED-7 Pro has definitely a flip option that can be assigned to a F button. The comment on the EWML is true when someone is not using the relay but it is also handy to be able to flip the monitor for HDMI cable management. Mine is by flipped but I have to press the function button to flip the screen after power on. WED-5 Pro has a port to upload LUTs. I am trying to find the manual online.

There is a new monitor from Weefine, the WED-5 PRO that has just been released last week. In short, it replaces the small WED-5 with more nits, added functions (peaking, luts, etc...) and a completely new cable that seems heavy duty with a big cable gland. As this cable is connected on the left side of the housing, it might be in the way of the nearest arm on some setup but the cable itself looks very strong I don't have the numbers in memory but it looks slightly heavier than WED-5 both over and underwater and around the size of the WED-5. It runs on a bigger battery. Overal, it feels to be a new nice addition.

I am also a vimeo plus member for probably 10 years. At the moment, the real dealbreaker for me to leave Vimeo would be the inclusiion of ads which I found super annoying on Youtube.

Indeed. The problem with Vimeo is mainly their search engine has been disabled in Europe. You can still access all the features if you have a VPN pointing to the US or it seems to work if you have a direct link to the video. The base link for the search engine outside Europe is vimeo.com/watch with all the things we used to have but in Europe you land at the root of your own page and that's all. To quote them about that change: Q: What specific features are impacted by these changes? A: Vimeo no longer organizes or promotes individual user-uploaded videos on Vimeo.com in the EU or UK. As a result, certain features available in our Free plans are no longer available on Vimeo.com in the EU and UK: Searching Vimeo is now limited to video content within your own Video Library. Channels, Groups, Categories, and other curated video collections, including Staff Picks, are no longer accessible. My Feed is no longer accessible. For Hire is no longer accessible. Although some features are no longer accessible in these regions, you continue to retain full ownership and control of your content. You can still share and embed videos on your websites and social networks. I must say that I could not care less about what the European Film Academy is offering on vimeo especially in regards to underwater video filmmaking. There is simply nothing.

I don't know which housing you are using but Nauticam sells an active cooling system for the NA-R5II housing. It's bascially an expensive set of one or two electric fans and a battery box.

With most camera having now focus assistant like on-screen magnifier or even better peaking options, IMHO fine tuning the focus on your subject manually can make a big difference between an okay and a superb picture. I shoot macro video. I use manual focus most of the time rather than autofocus (the only notable exceptions are for me blackwater and wide angle on wrecks).

Setting your output signal to match the resolution of the monitor is the way to go otherwise you might get a black screen in certain shooting mode or take longer time. There are exchange of list of available/usable resolution between monitor and camera. It's called EDID. Whenever something is set to auto on one end, it takes longer. Yet, it's still not always sufficient on certain camera to properly reduce blackout time.

A Nauticam service center can replace the glass.