HDR-FX1 control settings 4 underwater videography

Gang,

Ok, I am playing around with my new HDR-FX1, and watching the Elite Video DVD discs on using the FX1, and I was wondering if you all use just the standard auto settings or under what circumstances do you change the settings around and to what?

Dave,

I find that on Auto the FX1 does a pretty nice job. I am not sure if you are referring to the PMenu settings or the manual button options in your questions. Regarding the manaul buttons I frequently make adjustments depending upon lighting, depth, use of lights and type of shot. I alway manual white balance and frequently. I use the Iris in bright conditions and the shutter/iris on night dives. I step down gain sometimes when the cam overexposes (not often). I use ND filters frequently near the surface to eliminate glare/haze.

These are basic answers. Are you asking for something more specific like cimatone, etc?

shawn

Oh ya, I set my Assign 1 button to turn off image stabilization (always do this for underwater).

You're right on the money.....but why would you turn off image stabilization for underwater?

Hi Dave

Image stabilization is good and I leave it on normal and switch it to hard when on macro.

The camera will leave things abit hot most times so it's good to go to manual and close it down abit. I think due to the 16.9 footprint as it has more light/width area to make it's mind up.

0 db is best but if you go to a higher gain boost you will be best to go to manual aperture. I'll use gain boost sometimes to help increase my depth of field in darker areas.

Manual WB is best for controlling the colour /look you are after..

50 shutter is best for the 50i and 60 shutter for the 60i. For bright surface shots I just spin the shutter up. 100/150/200 etc

Cinematone will make the picture more grainy and you will loose a fstop or more.

You might have to go on auto all (db,shutter,expose) to get a WB at depth sometimes then back to manual.

Have you got your housings yet? There is some good news in the lens department coming soon that should make a few people happy.

Wags..interesting you use image stabilization. I found my vignetting significantly worse (and moving) when the cam had it on in the Phenom. Others have seen this as well. What is your special trick?

Shawn

I have my HDR-FX1 in hand now, and tomorrow I pick up the Phenom housing, Amphibico's dual 35-50 HID lights and their external monitor.

I am a total and complete newbie to any type of image capture, so it ought to be interesting all this task loading.

I like the wide angle shots to show the dive experience and to provide a frame of reference, but I really like the macro critters, so I hear I should be using the lights regularly to keep color good.

My problem is I am leaving in 2 weeks for the Phillipines with as of yet no clue....I wish I had a truckload of video dives under my belt.....I do have the Elite Video series on how top use the FX1, so between that and everyone here's advice....i am saoking this stuff up liek a sponge.

As soon as I get the housing tomorrow, I have to go get a + 2 diopter for the 2nd flip down lever and get it to fit, work and not interfere. I hope that is the right diopter strength for tiny shrimp, etc.

Dave,

First thing I would do if I were you is get ahold of Wag's modified adapter for the housing to access the Manual WB...very important. Second thing I would do is read all the posts on WetPixel about WB techniques. There are numerouse methods...try them all in many situations and find what works for you.

Third, if you are serious about macro, invest in a med cost tripod for UW usage. It will be more to haul underwater but it is very hard to avoid continuous camera movement in your macro shots otherwise. HD cam shaking is very noticable and you wind up throwing away 90% of your otherwise great shots.

Other:

CC filter: when not using lights, always use color correction filter (my preference) and white balance frequently.

Using Lights: as far out as possible and lower is better to avoid burnout on your images and backscatter.

Sunlight: whenever possible (except silhouettes) have the sun at your back (see http://www.uwimaging.com/news/video_seminar2.htm)

Dome: that dome scratches very easily. don't touch it, keep it away from anything, cover it up with the lens cover, and watch out for that staghorn. You will scratch it (and when you do it is very obvious in the picture) so try to go as long as possible before that happens.

Monitor: the view to the high res 16:9 cam lcd is your best friend. this will tell you if you are in focus and white balanced correctly. the low res amphibico monitor will not tell you this (the res is too low to ensure focus and the RCA link is not HD...dif colors)

Movement: slow deliberate movement is critical. Really focus on the stable shot. Limit zooming to only relevant situations. Zoom out (not in) for best results (eg. start with the eye and end with the whole body). Reserve zoom for close up stuff mostely. Panning: again limit this. Try to pan with a subject you are filming to maintain clean motion. Let the subject enter the shot, pan with it and then let it leave.

Proximity: for the most part, closer is better. In great vis, you can afford to be further out from the subject.

Composition: really think about the composition of the shot..not just the subject. Think balanced framing, forground, background (is there a diver to add to the shot), where is the subject coming from, where is it going, is it doing something interesting. Avoid "fish tail shots" which is common when you are always chasing the subject. Let come to you, interact and leave.

WB: Again...read up on this.

Finally, there is so much to learn and I am learning something new every dive. Just when you think you have it figured out, you see what someone else is doing and it's back to the drawing board. But learning is half the fun.

Shawn

I am definately taking notes here.......

Me too...that is why i am on wetpixel. I have learned (and still learn) so much from the folks here.

All great advice but Dave if you try to do everything that Wags does on your first video dives you will go totally crazy and most stuff you're trying to shoot will have exited stage left by the time you actually hit record.

If I were you I would run pretty much on full auto for the first few dives (except for manual white balance of course) and see how the results are.

Start your manual experimentation with stuff that's hardly moving, like nudibranchs, where you have time to mess about.

Don't forget, camera steadiness is the single biggest thing that will make your footage look pro.

Nick

Yes Dave, just take the housing and play with it on your first trip, if you try to mess around with settings the fish will be gone.

I have found by putting the anti wobby thing on hard setting for macro helps allot.

Yes watch the dome easy to damage.

Shawn I zoom in to get rid of the vignetting. Still may get abit now and then if I don't zoom in enough and it does help when zoomed in tight on things. I'm on normal wobble mode. I have turned it off sometimes to try, but find it just helps you keep things still abit more. Cannot seem to see any quality loss by having it on.

#2 dipoter will be fine to start with, then a heavier one if you are game but things get very close to that dome after #2.

Take in what James and Nick have said, keep the image as smooth and still as you can, think abit like you are taking a pic. If you are out of focus a tiny bit, HDV really shows it up later.

The EWB does work but you will get better control of colour using the MWB method.

I suppose the hardest thing to master is bouyancy and being at one in the water.

Nick, has that DVD rocked up yet?? Did not check the mail today our end.

Bouyancy with rebreathers is more of a pain in the rear compared to open circuit, no matter how much fibbing the purveyors of rebreathers tell you....we lose our ability to adjust lung volume as a means of fine tuning bouyancy.

I planned on using everything on auto initially.....with CCR's we have a little bit more to keep track of than open circuit. But I just HAVE to get some good HiDef closeups of some Phillipine macro critters the end of the month.

I agree with the steady part, just holding the thing in my hand produces all sorts of shakes. I also noticed when I pan the camera across fixed still objects, the image doesn't stay sharp, it doesn't seem to handle movement well.

I have to figure out a compact way to hold and flip out a white balance card...i think a small dive slate with that matte white finish ought to work....too bad someone doesn'tmake something that attaches to something and flips forward.....oh, but that would be another excuse to buy something, lol.

Yes it will be harder with a rebreather...you have all the toys....

HDV is compressed down to 25mbps so when the image is still it will give a better picture than paning as it cannot collect all that data/info/res and compress it at 25mbps so it drops the quailty abit to keep up. Keep your shots slow and steady and you will be fine. If you are filming fast moving things you won't pick it up as much, only when you move from a static shot to panning.

A true HD camera is like around 140mbps but I aint got a couple hundred thousand US to buy one with a housing.

Just take your WB card down there and WB on it once and you should be fine.

I had beter do some work now.

Bouyancy with rebreathers is more of a pain in the rear compared to open circuit, no matter how much fibbing the purveyors of rebreathers tell you....we lose our ability to adjust lung volume as a means of fine tuning bouyancy.

I know what you mean. I switched to an Inspiration rebreather a year ago (still a newby) and it shows in my footage. I find shallow shots and shots where you go up or down extremely difficult. And I need more time to prepare for macro shots.

The good thing is, you have much more time on a rebreather. We have a deep wreck trip coming up in July (Croatia). That will be interesting: rebreather, two 11 liter stages (80?), big light setup (4 Greenforce HID100), a dry suite and the Phenom. I think I'm going to need a dive assistant.

Peter

Lol Peter......

I upgraded to the Vision electronics so in addition to the scrubber monitor, I would have the heads up display so need need to look frequently at the handsets.....I like the automatic switching of po2 setpoints on the fly too...between all that and the ADV, it really reduces task loading.....so now to reup my task loading I go and get "The beast" lol....

Wags, I know the grass is always greener over the hill, but I think I would trade my toys to have your dive area as my backyard.....besides, having a divechick counts as the greatest toy, so don't count that out.

Lol Peter......

 

I upgraded to the Vision electronics so in addition to the scrubber monitor, I would have the heads up display so need need to look frequently at the handsets.....I like the automatic switching of po2 setpoints on the fly too...between all that and the ADV, it really reduces task loading.....so now to reup my task loading I go and get "The beast" lol....

 

Wags, I know the grass is always greener over the hill, but I think I would trade my toys to have your dive area as my backyard.....besides, having a divechick counts as the greastest  toy, so don't count that out.

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Dave, I love the HUD. It makes diving so much easier. It also saved my butt a couple of times when the primary started rebooting and intjecting O2 every time. I currently dive with a Hammerhead,but I find the two consoles too bulky. I ordered the Vision upgrade a couple of weeks ago. How was your experience so far with the Vision?

Wags, I have a divechick as well, but I dare not to call her a "toy".

Vision electronics have been rock steady, not a problem at all....I have heard to keep the lcd display out of sunlight as it can damage it....but then again, I have never had a cell failure in 4 years either....I agree with the Hammerhead consoles being too bulky...the4 best computeer/controller I have seen is the Open Project rebreather wrist computer-best ergonomics ever. Now that Cis-Lunar and Billl Stone are back in biz, it will be really interesting to see what they come up with. The MkVP was awesome.

I just got a set of house brand diopters today from Hooper Camera, I need to grind off the aluminum carrier and try to mount the glass in the flip down arm.

Oh, and I have it on good authority that in spite of years and years of man hating feminist propaganda indoctrination, intelligent women are still thrilled when they are also considered eye candy.