SwiftFF5

@Davide DB Thanks for the video, but since the automatic function in Pinnacle Studio has been working so well, I haven't been using a white card for a while now (even though I specifically bought white fins to use for that purpose). I just got lazy, I guess. I can't count on having a good white spot to grab from with the eyedropper, so until I start photographing my fins again, I won't be able to use that technique, even though that is probably the best way to go. @Rich W I did see that button, and tried it - and you're right, it does not work anywhere near as well as the function in Pinnacle Studio. In fact, it sometimes makes it worse. @gstrek Thanks, I will give that technique a try.

I bought the Wolfbox MF200 for my recent trip to Roatan, and really liked using it. Thanks @Chris Ross and the rest of you for that suggestion.

That would be heaven to me, I usually come up with way too much air. Lol...

I just bought a similar battery powered electric blower (the one that @Chris Ross suggested) for this recent dive trip, and really like it. I feel as if it does a good job helping keep the salt water out of the controls, and made the cleanup at the end of the trip much easier.

Hi all, I have been using Pinnacle Studio editing software for the entire time that I have been doing underwater videos. It was recommended to me early on for ease of use, and once I got used to it, it was hard to change to anything else with a new learning curve. However, I am now using Studio 26 and apparently it is "end of the line", that is, it has been sold and is unlikely to be updated. So, I have started trying to learn DaVinci Resolve since so many here seem to like it. One really, really nice feature in recent versions of Pinnacle Studio is the "Auto White Balance" and "Auto Tone" check boxes in their color correction menu. They work surprisingly well to get very close to right for most, but not all, of my clips. They make it very fast and easy to do a quick color correction on my clips, so that I can decide which ones to keep and spend more time trimming, and cleaning up, etc. I can't find anything like that in Resolve. I see the color bar sliders, and wheels, etc but nothing "automatic". If I have to manually correct each clip, it will take me forever to edit my most recent trip, since I have 250 video clips to go through. Does anyone have some good cheats for this, or possibly some good training links that will help me out? Thanks!

Cool, thanks. That will also probably add to the bouyancy and reduce the added weight in water - although perhaps that might not be a good thing for a tripod where a bit of negative bouyancy might be useful. I will play with that a bit, thanks, I appreciate the help. I am learning so much here.

What I am trying this time is to increase the infill % to 55% and changing the infill pattern to gyroid. I don't have much room left on the plate to change orientation, I'm afraid.

That's exactly what I decided to try this time - except that I am using M8 bolts. Nothing like overkill, eh?

Well, it was a failure, The ball mounts were too weak, despite my reinforcing fillet, so I am currently redesigning it. Mk-II prototype coming up soon.

With my GH-5 housing, I used to do that, but with my new GH-7 housing, it was too large to fit in the same space, so I had to rearrange my packing system and was able to leave the handles on now.

Well, that design was a failure. Once the arms were attached, the torque was too much and two of the balls snapped off. Once I get home, I will need to re-design that area of the tripod and get some additional strength there.

I have printed a camera tray with three ball mounts to use as a tripod with strobe arms. I will be testing it next week in Roatan, and if it works out, I will post it here.

Shoot me a message when you go down to Lake Phoenix, and I'll see if I can make it. I am between Richmond, VA and Charlottesville, VA. I haven't been down to Lake Phoenix in a while, so it is time for another trip there.

Thanks @Dave_Hicks I have used a harder Bambu Labs TPU for AMS, I didn't realize that they made this softer version as well. I will look into it.

I am curious about the 68 shore TPU - who makes it, and is it AMS compatible (I'm guessing that it is not)?

@Davide DB Thanks for that video. At this time, I can't really say. I wasn't really able to give it a fair test with the conditions as they were. I actually used AFS-C for most of my shots due to the current. I will update after my trip to Roatan in March, though.

Welllll, it was probably the worst dive trip that I have been on. We were originally promised three dives per day (I prefer 4 or 5 dives a day, but OK), but when we got there, we were told that in fact, we were only going to get two dives per day. Then, we got high winds out of the north, which caused small craft warnings and the harbor was closed, so we lost three of the five days of diving. We were able to convince them to dive on Friday, since our plane left late on Saturday. So, we eventually got a total of six dives. Cozumel, for me, is not terribly interesting diving since I love macro shooting and with the currents and drift dives, macro is hard. Then, coming back we had to re-route our flights due to the snow storms in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they managed to lose all of our luggage in the process. It has finally arrived, though, and everything was intact. That said, I mostly upgraded from the GH5 to the GH7 for the improved autofocus, and so far I must say that I am impressed. It really does appear to be significantly improved. I will be going to Roatan in March, where I will be able to test it on macro subjects and really give it a work out, but for now I am impressed. Thanks for asking!

FWIW, I just got back from a trip to Cozumel. We flew directly from Charlotte, NC into Cozumel and no one batted an eye at my camera gear or even mentioned it.

I love my dual flip holder.

My question is how you would use this? The cameras that I have used simply have a white balance button, and I simply reference off my white fins if I use it. Are you thinking of taking a shot of the card at the beginning of a clip and then using your post processing software on that clip? Perhaps I misunderstand your question or how you would use such a card, and I apologize if so.

Well, I went back through every setting again, and changed the HDMI output from Auto to 1080p as well as removing and re-inserting the cable - and now the monitor is working. I am not sure which change made the difference, but for now, I don't really care. I just hope that it turns on again in the morning for my next dive. Thanks again for all your help.

Thanks @Davide DB that is basically the same information that I just received from Reef Photo as well. I am strongly suspicious that I may have received a defective HDMI cable or bulkhead. Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of resources to test these until I get back home again. Thanks again for all your help.

HI @Davide DB Yes, I did check to see that the HDMI out was enabled. I tried playing around with the output resolution from 1080p to 1080i to 4K, and also "auto" with no change. The monitor worked great with my GH5 for many years, but now that I have upgraded to the GH7, it doesn't seem to recognize it. From some of the google searches that I have done, Panasonic may have removed that ability starting with the GH6

Unfortunately, it appears that my new Panasonic GH7 has a fatal flaw that I never even considered. I am Cozumel now, setting my gear up, and discovered that the GH7 doesn't do HDMI out while recording. In fact, I can't seem to get it to give an HDMI feed to my SmallHD-502 monitor at all. Perhaps there is a setting that I have missed, but all I can get is a "No HDMI Signal" error message on the monitor. If I can't use an external monitor with this camera, it will really cripple my macro shooting (not that I expect to get much macro shooting done here, with the current). Has anyone else run into this, and possibly have a solution that I am missing? Thanks

@Dave_Hicks is probably much better at designing things like this than I am, but if he gets too busy, I would be willing to play around and see if I can come up with something.