RomiK

+1. Too many missed pictures in galapagos right after the drop where I had to remove - clean - put on wwl1... Plus WACP-C is soooo much sharper on long end than WWL... I think where WWL makes sense is video for wide/portrait shots. For photo I havent had much luck with CMC on that 28-60 flat port so I wouldnt say wide/macro would make much sense to justify wwl1.

So I have had Nauticams X5 housing under water in the wild finally. First impression on the boat was - amazing! Sharp as a knife with amazing contrast when viewed on the phone. But then I came home and got it on the big screen. And on Apple Vision Pro. And the problems began to surface. I knew about the stitching and actually in the blue it is not that bad. And they work with Insta (supposedly) to improve it. But something very weird is going on in the optical department and it is consistent from multiple dives multiple days which precludes the camera being wrong positioned inside of the housing if that would be even possible (it is quite tight in it). Long story short - the regions close to stitch line maintain excellent sharpness from near to far, something that has been advertised by Nauticam. But the regions farther from stitch lines - or in between , like in the middle of the 180deg image - are blurry from near to far. Very weird and kinda confirming the something in the optical department is off. So for now cant recommend it to anyone.

Not this nice. There are tools extracting frames from video but many challenges - white balance, loss of detail, unsharp... but you can try and see.

These are exactly my experiences with Shinobi. Clean HDMI out ? Very good tone mapping for HDR preview. And plus for Sony users its waveform shows the levels of log signal, not interpreted (Canon users can display their own camera waveform). Want to make stills and video? Tough life. Unless shooting stills on slog3 profile. Want control monitor on a big screen? Not a chance. Lower status line obscured with housing controls even when I collapse Shinobi menu. So that’s that.

I approve this message 👍. Plus many other benefits beyond ‘well built’ compared to Shinobi/Ninja solution. Take it from a 2 years user of Shinobi in Nauticam.

It went through renovation couple years ago. It’s quite nice now.

😱 good point about disconnect thank you! Another thing to find out for sure. 👍 Yep, WB button exactly where is needed. I am so used to this position from A1 - custom button 3 next to the Menu button.

Wow. Speechless. One thing to live through and another deal with it emotionally in memories later on. Good luck 🍀 On the liveaboard as we speak. In Red Sea. It seems like they forbid use of charging in the cabins in Egypt so much so that our boat C-echo has no plugs in any cabin. Just light switches. Not that fires would not be starting by boat electrical system in engine rooms or elsewhere or in kitchen but a good step nevertheless.

It’s (overexposure) the same thing with Sony Slog3. I expose based on waveforms and often it is 3+ stops to what camera weighted average measures. Almost a butter even in ISO 32000 :-) . What it intriguing to me on C50 package is the housing with extra battery (ZR doesn’t have it) so the camera lasts no matter what. I can’t stress enough how disappointed I was in Norway when at the end of the day after 4 hours in zodiac last epic bait with 4 humpback ending the party and I missed that.

If you like R5C you will love C50 - for video that is. I got real GAS about it a month ago when A1 overheated in hot Malpelo (!!wtf) waters and also was running out of battery when filming 8k. This C50 Nauticam housing checks all the boxes. Lens choice may be personal issue but for me the 20-50 PZ either behind dome or if going wide in combination with WACP-C is just perfect. BUT - sadly for me - no shutter no flash. And as I travel to dive and take both photo and video … But since you look for a video camera it’s perfect. Clog2, cinema OS, canon colors. Will not overheat. Will last whole day. Perfect.

If you haven't had chance to visit and dive this iconic shipwreck now you can. In 2023 I took about 550 pictures of it with the aim to create a panorama. Which I did and it was a painful process in photoshop. And there were major problems with parallaxes of items on superstructure. Fast forward to 2026 and AI powered 3DGS allowed me to reuse these images and look what is the result. So now have to come back (actually coming next week) to take more imagery of the superstructure part which is always in shade. And hope for the best :-). In the meantime enjoy this preview. https://superspl.at/scene/23b971fc

Ok, so this is a platform where we sought CC - constructive criticism :-) right? So please dont hate me :-): OMG THIS IS TERRIBLE DESIGN!! The drag on that thing must be insane! Plus I cant imagine doing angle shots with the buoyancy distribution like this either. So that was the ugly part and now the constructive part :-) A good balanced rig which does not fight should have all major mass elements neutrally buoyuant in all directions if possible. The camera, the monitor, the lights. The Lights - Keldan sells - and it may be possible to make your own - buoyancy collars. I did this for my wife's phone rig but the designs are numerous. Then the camera - and the monitor as these kinds - unlike these in (nauticam) housings which are neutral (or even positive) - they are negative 300-750g - so we need to compensate them as a whole. And so what is the purpose of these rails anyway? To achieve posterior balance during capture to limit up and down wobble which these short body long nose rigs are prone to. To achieve this we dont need to add weights. We need to add neutrally buoyant MASS. It is the velocity of the mass which will make rig stable in that direction. Side to side wobble we manage with handles but up/down? Yes that's what adding mass along longitudal axis will do. The housing with the dome port should be front light - less with glass or more with acrylic. So what is the best way to counter this without adding extra weight? Place your monitor on the port behind the handles axis yes? If you still need balance weight after this which I suppose you do depending on the monitor weight and really want the rails then I recommend to focus on my bracket above and the rail - it is carbon fiber 15mm from the video rigs and they also do aluminium. These weighs next to nothing in the water so if you 3D print (or just use a strong plastic plate) a base plate underneath the camera and attach the rails to that plate underneath your cameta you get the suport structure to which ends you can further add floats or weights as needed and achieve desired longitudinal stability. All that with minimum amount of added weight so you dont have to compensate it with these insane floaties. What could also help to make the body/monitor combo neutral would be a buoyancy plate attached to the monitor as some monitors are very heavy. This one above is weefine which is like -300g but some of them ale like -750g which would be better to address with plate. Because without it the monitor weight up top will fight at angles. I have seen monitors mounted in the back - like Nauticam mount they sell - but I find this problematic as it obscure access to buttons so when changing frame rates of CWB or anything its just not the best. Yet another food for thought is that by using a monopod or handle attached to lens port collar you will get desired stability as the up/down wobble is mainly caused by location of housing handles at the lateral axis of housing and so by spreading the two control points - your hands - longitudinally will eliminate this problem - provided you dont need to operate zoom ring during the shot. Good luck in solving the never ending (for me anyway) buoyancy puzzle :-)

This is a follow up to report above which I am leaving as is for demonstration purposes even though I made mistake. Always read manuals :-). After adjusting 360Studio to recommended settings - which were Dive Case mode OFF (I already had AI stitching ON) I made another look at the test footage. The stitching improved. It is not seamless by far but at least it is almost tolerable. Still Insta360 case Pro stitching is far more invisible mainly in the blue. At the close distance the stitchings are almost on par - simply they are visible. The main problem with Nauticam stitching in the blue is a divide in exposure. This is going to be an issue in confined spaces with only one half of housing facing the lightened area. What's definitely an issue with Nauticam is a nasty flare coming from spot light sources. Basically if you will be in the group with someone with lights on - beware. Here is side by side test footage (adjusted as much as the amount of time I wanted to give it) And some sample screenshots with updated settings

It's going to be nice camera for sure. I would still wait for some reviews for overheating and low light performance before ordering. Especially after being kinda burned by ordering new product from another reputable brand we all like and use 🤣 And for those waiting for 8k here are screenshots from another camera with 1.1 inch sensor (action6 - yes, pixel size 1.2 vs 1.6 microns to be fair) taken in less than perfect light conditions over at Malpelo. The noise is staggering. Switching to 4k and pixel binning enabled low light mode and it was ok-ish but the 8k was unwatchable. 8K samples (just for noise demo) and 4k low light As there is no new breakthrough in sensor development and quad bayer is a quad bayer I would expect new gopro perfomance to be about the same. What's gonna be more important in my opinion is whether they will allow multiple custom video modes to be created (aspect ration, low light, 4k120, 8k30 etc and mode switching available through side button like DJI has. And startup times. In my memory Hero12 sucked in this department.

As this topic is cross platform I am posting link to respective forum also here and please comment in that forum not here: