Phenom Manual White Balance

I know this is very late in the thread but may I suggest that you go to www.kenstone.net which is a Final Cut Pro editing site. There you will find my recent review of the Vortex Media's Warm Cards. These are inexpensive and absolutely do a great job with UW manual white balancing. I highly recommend them.-Steve

Hi Steve

The slate that comes with the Amphibico's Phenon is tinted blue but using a slate does not give you what you are after most of the time. I have sat there balancing on a blue tinted slate then looked at the color and it's not what I want many times.

If one is shooting for day dive customers, one does not want to be messing around with slates and then it may not give you the rich colours you are after. I mean, shoot, rewind, dump it to a DVD or VHS tape with a music track and bingo it''s made. Hey I can make green water look blue, using a slate won't do that.

WB on the sunlight, coral, sand or whatever till one is happy with the colour is best and using the EWB does not let you do this but the MWB way does on the Phenom. Hey I can remember times chasing Whale Sharks that swam from blue to green drity water and I WB on my fin/leg/snorkler in open water to get a different balance.

On a average dive I might WB 20-40 times as each shot, depth, direction, zoom and subject is different and you may want to mix is some lights. I sometimes do the same with my Nikon Digital SLR camera down there as well. Changing the colours on the computer is not the same as nailing it on the cameras individual CCD photsites (pixel) I recond.

Nice link though.

Wags

The standard white for White Balance is 100IRE. A true white balance is standardized. I simple attached my warm card 1 to a slate which is mounted to my housing. When I don't need to wb I simple move it out of the way. It looks like a 3rd light arm. I never have to fumble with it and wbalancing has become as simple, quick and easy as can be. I am using the Sony A1U and Gates housing and have set the assignable button to white balance. Its a one step procedure. On the other hand, if chasing down a whale shark from blue to green water, I would imagine that re wbalancing would be a pain to do.

Steve

Hi Steve! Very happy to find someone using a1 underwater. How are your impressions of use? How footage in low light conditions? I'm very curious about A1 results underwater. A lot of peolpe speack about A1 in this forum but is very difficult to find some interesting point of view from dives using this camera underwater. Any clips to see?

Thank you

ERIK

Hi Erik,

Due to a back surgery I haven't garnered enough footage and use yet but the cam's resolution and color saturation is excellent. Remember that the A1U is the big brother to the HC1 so the images will be of the same high quality. The A1U was the cam to get for me because I always manually white balance and the A1U has the assignable button which becomes a one step procedure for me with the Gates housing. (Which, by the way, I hardily endorse)

I have stacked the A1s footage next to the same shot by a Sony X1 and had to really stretch to see any difference. Since I always use lights the low light capabilities are just fine for me. Even in wide angle mode where lights are useless, I have not noticed any problems. Go for it.-

Steve

Thank you Steve! :-)

So when you write Sony x1 you speak about FX1 i think. My big dilemma infact is this one: for the moment i have a TRV950 housed with Bluefin L&M and i would like to pass to HD maybe A1. I'm also considering the FX1 and his L&M housing, very bigh, but great! Differently also A1 with Bluefin is good, now differences: Fx1 is very big but will give better footage? Some people said yes... I would like to knows more about: i would like to go me too with A1 if for real footage diferences are not so big....Differently i could go with Fx1 and use a Big housing if really footage is better. I used an Fx1 for a little spot, not underwater, and images was very good! I don't know A1, maybe Wagsy couls help me also :-). Wagsy use an FX1 UW ....i don't know if is using also the A1 UW.

I'm looking to HDVclips maked by Wagsy on web! Great! Fabulous! How you make it! With Fx1 and diopter? +2? Very impressive...the king of footage i would like to do....do you think really possible also with an A1 ora only with the big monster? (FX1)

Thank you guys

ERIK

Erik,

The Sony FX1 and its big brother , the Z1U, will produce somewhat better footage than the A1U but not enough, in my mind, to make them my choice. For one thing, the housings for them are massive and somewhat cumbersome out of the water. The airlines are going nuts lately allowing for less weight so be prepared for some major extra weight charges. Email me at;

steve-sharksdelight@cox.net and I will try to help you some more if I can. Have to skiddo now

Steve

Hi guys

The other day I did some quick side by side tests with my FX1 and A1 uptop. I have no housings for the A1 yet. Anyone want to send me one to test.....

Quick look is the FX1 has a lot wider/higher FOV and abit beter in low light. Still to do some sharpness and landscape shots and will zoom both cameras in to the same frame/distance size to compare, but the little camera is not bad. It also takes abit more effort to focus, being so small I suppose and with the XLR, big bat and mic ontop is about the same weight as the FX1.

FX1-A1 test

These are big pics so may take abit to load.

Wags

Good Wags, very interesting. First, the wide angle seems very different, the Fx1 have bigger wa when a1. The first picure seems demostrate that in low lights the Fx1 works better. How are your impression? Steve say to me that at the end it prefere A1 for UW shoots, this due to big housing for Fx1, do you travel with your Phenom or just make videos in AU? Ningaloo is a mervelous place, we will make next month a trip in your country.

Thank you

ERIK

Hi erik

Here I am sucking video into my computer while at the same time as I surf the net on the same computer....

Yes the FOV is very different between the two and the FX is better in low light as you can see. The A1 zooms in abit more as well.

Tomorrow I will zoom both cameras in to the same frame size and compare outdoors. I predict the FX will be abit better in sharpness and colour satuation...more soon..I will have them on auto except focus and WB.

Have done no traveling yet with the Phenom, just filming as much as I can around here as I'm always selling my DV archive around the place and I'm sure I will with the HDV stuff Im getting. We plan to make and publish some childrens educational books and stuff abit later on so all this material will be used for that.

The bigger housing is very good to keep steady underwater, more so with my HID battery packs underneath making it abit more negitive. Not sure how it will go shooting the Whale Sharks this year with it but Im sure I will get some cool shots....will leave the day DVD's to the Navigator 900 though I think.

Yes Ningaloo is a nice place thats for sure, but only for a few months of the year, the rest of the tme you are fighting the wind/swells/dirty water for diving. Don't believe the brochures.

If you get over here let us know, take you out for a dive on my rib.

Great! you will be very important to help me to choose A1 or Fx1 :-)

For our travel in Australia: it was a pleasure to meet you, thank you :-)

ERIK

Yes Ningaloo is a nice place thats for sure, but only for a few months of the year, the rest of the tme you are fighting the wind/swells/dirty water for diving. Don't believe the brochures.

Paul, you should try the Oosterschelde in Netherlands or the Northsea. Big tides, extreme current and low vis. And all year long, not just a couple of months. Did I mention freezing temperatures in winter. Come over, we'll take you out on a rib.

Peter

Sounds very nice PCdiver...where do I book a trip.

How do I say that Oosterschelde ...ooo...stir...shield....

What kind of Rib have you got

You pronounciation was almost right. I don't own a rib but we used this guy

http://www.noordzeeduiken.be

have read with interest all the points made RE: EWB v. MWB.... therefore went the MWB route and asked Amphibico to fit their little alternative to the ND flip over in Montreal before shipping.

BUT - the MWB button seems to be suffering greatly under pressure and is dpressing itslef without any help from the user.

The end result is that I now have a Phenom seeking of its own accord upon reaching approximately 17m depth. Of course, once the MWB button is pressed (and stays pressed due to pressure) I now lose accesiblity to the other 3 manual buttons. (iris, gain and shutter speed)...

Have tried moving the pin out a little - so far in fact that it only just makes contact with the MWB button on the camera on the surface, the result of this move is that I have now added approx 3m to my usable depth and am still going "ARGH!!!" when I hit 20m or so... Upon ascending to 16-odd metres, the problems go away and my dive continues hunky-dory, safe in the knowledge that I am at a nice safe shallow depth and should the eagle ray pass at 30m then I won't be getting the shot I hope for!

Has anyone had similar beefs with their MWB fitting and do you have any fixes, please? Like I say, I can't move the pin out any further without losing contact with the MWB button on the camera...

Thanks wetpixelers for any help that you can offer...

Sorry to hear that Chris...

Hmm, i haven't had an issue with mine at all.. down to 30m with it..

Hopefully someone can chime in something

Hi Chris

Sorry to hear that. Mine worked no problems as well.

You many have to file the pin down a bit as it's a fine fit in there and each setup may be a tiny bit different.

Let us know how you go.

Chris - I too have had some minor issues with my MWB bracket at depths. Mine seems to only stick when I go 135ft and below. Mine's not too bad though when it happens - I can actually pull out the knob with my fingers and it seems to release with no other side effects, while still allowing the other controls to work.

This problem is also intermittent and doesn't happen everytime?????

As Wags said, somehow all the setups are different. I also had to saw a bit off the knob on the mwb bracket down as it was pushing in too far and engaging the button all the time - even in the shallows. You may want to snip some of the inside bracket off.

On another note - for those having troubles getting the colors at depth - On a clear day, I can mwb at around 40feet here and keep it on, going down the wall to 135ft+. Instead of resetting the wb at depth, I leave it from 40ft and the color looks pretty darn good at 40m. Then, if I try to reset the wb, electronically at 40m, it goes back to the blown out greeny color.

The wagsy bracket is just incredible though for me! I'm loving the blues I can get with it. Spent two hours with around 100 spinner dolphins the other day and without the mwb, the footage would'nt have been nearly as good (I prefer to not mess with the colors in post) - Thanks again, for that Wags!

Bryce

Thanks for the replies guys,

Have been using the same remedy up to now (pulling out the button when it is being pushed in by the pressure). Seems to be a slightly weak lever, as on one housing pulling out the button rectifies the situation, whereas on the second housing the button pops back in immediately - implying that it has no strength behind it.

I think I will open up the assembly today and have a fiddle with the "pressure-proof" levers inside to check how "springy" they are on land. Will keep this post updated as to any progress made...

cheers again for the answers....

chris

Chris, it's anoying but I'm sure you will be able to just trim or file abit off the pin to make it a fraction shorter.

We know a guy who brought a $100,000 Merc this year and guess what.... problems with the fancy gear box Just saying that even some of the the worlds best manufacturers of products can have hicups.

Hey Bryce, cool to hear you got some spinner action. Post a clip if you can.

I also CC at depth like that as well.

I have made a few very thin WB thingys to flip up to WB the camera on but so far not perfect yet, but if I can nail it then we can have the CC filter on the camera all the time, Macro +2 on the flip arm and this very thin second WB thingy all with the shaved port on as well.