L&M Bluefin / Sony CX550 experience

The same except:

 

- AE shift varies depending on ambient light. -2 for normal, -4 for dark.

- WB shift 0. I use the L&M's MWB feature instead.

- Red filter - never use it. Took it out of the housing and using a flip macro instead.

 

The red filter does not actually increase red. It reduces blue and green. So you have less light for the sensor to work with. As the CX550 is already not good at low-light, and it is always low-light underwater, why hamper the camera with even less light...

 

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

I guess it's personal preference, but I find the red filter gives a lot more colour (although sometimes can get artificial, just have to be careful with it). Without the filter it's impossible to get the right colour below 10meters from my testing without lights. It gets too green and yellowish. I don't use lights for wide angle. It doesn't reduce blue in my opinion, in fact if you compare two footage at the same depth, MWB, with and without filter, you'll find that the one with red filter is more blue than the one without. Of course again I'm saying without using light.

I would very much like to know what you learn from Light and Motion on this.

I have only had a couple dives with mine (mostly a lot of table practice) but am heading to Bali later this month and would hate to lose my diopter option. It would be interesting to see who makes a stronger diopter that would work in the flip mount.

Currently optimal positioning of the new Sola lights to eliminate shadows is the biggest tweak.

Would appreciate any info you find out.

Thanks. John

This problem has hopefully been resolved. I sent the housing back to L&M in June but they could not repeat the scratching thus I was charged for a new flip dioptre. I used this but again it was scratching. This time I returned the housing and my camcorder. It was recognised that there was a slght difference in my camera and the one used by L&M and it was pressing against the front of the camera. They have modified the tray which hopefully allows clearence. It would have been tested this weekend but thanks to the great British weather, my planned dive trip has been cancelled. There is always next week!

John Dory

Seok-

Thanks, very similar to Peter's and now that the housing is finally back from repair (for the flip diopter dragging again) I will put it thru it's paces and see what works best.

I did try those settings or very similar and had some mixed results with the WB shift.

I am looking forward to trying the grey card recommended.

Hopefully I will get better color accuracy, since I am almost always using lights I am guessing the WB issue may be the culprit.

We will see. Take care.

John

Hi John,

I reckon that for the CX550, you want that "grey card" to be a pink / white card. I made a slate on a flexible arm for MWB. The slate is just a diver's slate cut to about 20cm x 12cm (close to 16:9). I spray-painted one side matt pink and the other side matt white. The arm is made out of locline about 35cm long. I used a couple of locline corners and a locline nut/blot to mount the card. The photo's attached here a just simple iPhone photos but you can see enough to get the point. To mount on the L&M housing, you'll need a locline "Y" piece on the bottom of one of the lighting mounts. On the boat, the slate folds back above the housing. Underwater, when not used, the slate folds back under the housing.

With the CX550, the white side works down to about 5-8m, depending on conditions and the pink side works best deeper. Use lights partially or fully on the slate to "tone-down" the CX550's problem with the red-fuzzies. When using the slate to MWB, I suggest that don't use the red-filter or any WB shift settings. Just play with the slate, lights and MWB until you get a good colour balance on the monitor.

You can mix white and red paints to get the right shade pink.

Regards

Peter

Thanks Peter. The gray slate seems to be doing the trick shallow but I've yet to try it deep so I'll keep this in mind.

I did try some white laminated cards that I applied red stripes to but it didn't work very well.

Will really try to put in the time practicing with the housing/camera now that it's working properly.

In my case it seems the flip diopter was installed backwards causing it to drag across the camera, when reversed in the mount it works great.

Many thanks to the gang at REEF photo for getting it right for me.

John

Clearly Peter, you need to practice your MWB with the iPhone...

Unless of course your sofa is pink!

Clearly Peter, you need to practice your MWB with the iPhone...

Unless of course your sofa is pink!

The bed cover is white but the room has very warm lighting.

Hi folks, agree that sometimes I get the red fuzzies but sometime I get some really great quality footage from this camera. These quick scenes were shot in Sydney in 10-15 metres without any artificial light.

http://vimeo.com/28493305

http://vimeo.com/28492949

http://vimeo.com/28398714

http://vimeo.com/28396230

Cheers,

Rebecca

Hi folks, agree that sometimes I get the red fuzzies but sometime I get some really great quality footage from this camera. These quick scenes were shot in Sydney in 10-15 metres without any artificial light.

 

Cheers,

Rebecca

Nice stuff. Is it always so clear there?

Port Jackson shark with mouth open is strange. Three possibilities:

1. Shocked to see you.

2. Waiting for cleaner wrasse / shrimp.

3. Mouth broken by "sports" fisherman.

Other ideas?

Regards

Peter

Nice stuff. Is it always so clear there?

 

Port Jackson shark with mouth open is strange. Three possibilities:

 

1. Shocked to see you.

2. Waiting for cleaner wrasse / shrimp.

3. Mouth broken by "sports" fisherman.

 

Other ideas?

 

Regards

Peter

Sydney conditions are often quite good. We frequently get viz upwards of 15 metres, particularly in winter. A few times we had viz over 20 metres in April... Really good stuff. Late spring can get a bit murky with some areas turning into jellyfish soup....

There is a valid reason behind my white balancing upon my white fins. Having a card up to the point, as far out as your arm goes still leaves the card only inches from the port. This method is not pragmatic as your lens is normally quite a bit distance more from the subject and the diffusion of light is certainly different at 2 or 3 feet away than from 3 inches. By WB on my fins, it provides a more realistic WB of how the lens is perceiving the light on the subject. I also, never use the red filter.

Steve