Failure to WB

I don't even think that sentence makes sense underwater because if you move your white slate a tiny bit closer or further, the WB will change. It's going to be blue at some point in the distance.

 

I've just seen too much white-balanced video where you can virtually see the red channel's noise dancing around. It's often pushed way too far!

If you could suck all the water away from a reef/ wreck etc etc at depth and let the sunlight hit it what would it actually look like??? That to me is how it should look. I suppose getting that look is the holy grail and, of course, subject to each shooters perspective.

Dive safe

DeanB

I've just seen too much white-balanced video where you can virtually see the red channel's noise dancing around. It's often pushed way too far!

What do you have against purple/magenta oceans?

You know what is really tough, some places the water actually looks purple/magenta and you need to WB to pull it back. If only mother nature would make everything on earth uniform

If only mother nature would make everything on earth uniform

It probably is however Mother Nature obviously threw in the water column to test our W/B techniques

Dive safe

DeanB

...I find that the Sony CX550V camcorder (with red filter) does really bad things, requiring WB shift of +4 (warmer). This would suggest that I could simply WB on a white slate with no red marker, but that doesn't produce quite the right WB, either.

I've done about 30 dives with my new Sony CX550V in the Bluefin housing with its MWB button and am just now starting to come to grips with the way it handles WB.

It does some weird stuff (compared to previous camcorders I've used). It is very easy to get too much gain on the red channel. Bright red reef looks really unnatural. If I MWB off white fins below 20 meters (clear tropical water) the red channel goes crazy and I get dancing red pixels all over the darker ocean background. Fortunately, with the OLED viewer I can see the problem and solve it before hitting <record>.

I've come to the conclusion that white-balancing off white fins or a white slate is not the best approach with this camcorder. Instead, I seem to get better results doing a MWB off some neutral (e.g. mid brown) part of the reef or, if nothing neutral is around, doing a MWB off the sun. But it is still a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it takes me a couple of attempts to get something that looks OK on the monitor.

On my next set of tropical reef dives, my starting strategy will be to MWB once at about 15 meters and leave it at that setting for all deeper stuff. I wont be using the red filter at all.

Fortunately, if you are fiddling around with the WB and something interesting comes along, one long press on the WB button puts it quickly back to auto-WB. This saved me at least once last weekend when a Mola Mola swam up from the deep just when I was fighting the MWB system. That one-long-press auto-WB is also useful when you get back to the surface and want to cut some surface footage.

From my tests to date, for cave, over-hang, wreck interior, night and CU shots, where the LED lights dominate, auto-WB is still the best way to go.

The OLED monitor on the L&M housing is very handy because, when it comes to color balance it is very close to WYSIWYG. if it looks OK in the monitor, it looks OK in Final Cut.

Regards

Peter

Fortunately, with the OLED viewer I can see the problem and solve it before hitting <record>.

[...]

The OLED monitor on the L&M housing is very handy because, when it comes to color balance it is very close to WYSIWYG.

Sir, Peter, sir, FYI, the LCD screen of the Stingray housing is very good too . But I am glad to hear that the OLED justifies the price delta (since according to L&M that is the main reason of it) .

I am glad (kinda) to hear that you experienced the same red craziness with your CX550V in tropical waters. And the auto WB is indeed decent in most cases I have relied on it (that is when I got tired of bending around trying to focus on my fins and get weirder results each time).

Best,

X.

Sir, Peter, sir, FYI, the LCD screen of the Stingray housing is very good too . But I am glad to hear that the OLED justifies the price delta (since according to L&M that is the main reason of it) .

I am glad (kinda) to hear that you experienced the same red craziness with your CX550V in tropical waters. And the auto WB is indeed decent in most cases I have relied on it (that is when I got tired of bending around trying to focus on my fins and get weirder results each time).

Best,

X.

Can we cut out the "Sir" bit. Last time I checked the Queen had not yet included me in her knighthood list...

I still think that the footage that is optimally white-balanced is better than just leaving it on auto but I haven't yet pinned down the best process for this camcorder.

Regards

Peter

PS. But I thought that I had already explained to you on a different thread that the true delta between the Stingray and the Bluefin is the color. That black housing looks so cool.

Hi Guys:

Just FYI on white balancing. I use 15 W HIDs with a Fathom SWP and a Sony PD-170. I used to use a white slate in natural light. It doesn't work with artificial light and will red shift.

Instead, now, I carry a small white cutting board weighted with a clip. All my video is done on wrecks. I use the lights for "critter approach" lighting. When I get to the bottom, I set the f stop in natural light and focus. Then, I find a dark crevice on the wreck and strike the HIDs. I place the white board in the crevice, back off about 8 FT or less (depending on water clarity), adjust and center aim the lights, zoom in on the illuminated board and MWB. For that depth and lighting conditions I don't touch it again.

Here's what I get now, compared to my older stuff:

[vimeo]12935171[/vimeo]

I did some blue shift in post, but very little. I still need to work on diffusion, the shark was very close, less than one foot from the port.

THANKS...

Andy