Sony DSC-RX100

Thanks again for the info. I just met my RX100 today so I'll get familiar with it then decide whether and how to house it.

 

I'm not working on the Mermaid or any other boat at the moment. I worked on the Santana liveaboard for a few years from Phuket, then later for half a year on Nai'a in Fiji and Tonga.

Nick

I would appreciate if you would contribute to my blog once you get to grips with the rx100 with your comments

my video with RX100...

i find the WA video is soft at the corner when finning foward...

i used the Sony AVC for this video....

actually i tried the Vegas Pro->DNxHD->HandBrake workflow, but Vimeo cannot detect the HD after uploaded.... not sure why...

and to improve the video quality, i think i will try reduce the sharpness and contrast next time.

please give comment and suggestion... thanks....

Equipment:

Sony DSC-RX100 + Patima housing...

Wide – Inon UWL-100 28M67 + FIT red filter, manual custom white balance

Macro – Subsee + 10 and Inon UCL-165M67, I-Torch video pro 4 X 1

Edited by Vegas....

http://vimeo.com/57727944

Veery nice Sfen, I hope I get as good results when I finally get my RX100/Nauticam underwater (in the sea).

A couple of comments/questions:

- I don't think you need to reduce contrast.

- What were you setting manual WB on, a card? or just dialing in the colour teperature option (eg 6500Kelvin)

- Did you set WB multiple times? The deeper water (I assume) shots of bat fish have that overly reddish tinge that seems to come with shallower water WB settings.

- I love the cuttlefish and octopus shots, in fact all your close up stuff is nice. Is that using the camera's onboard optical zoom, or did you use a dioper (if so what strength)?

- What lamps were you using?

I'm still playing around in our swimming pool and pretty happy using SunRay (L&M) lamps with the RX100 at night (what am I coming to doing 'night dives' in a pool!?). I'm blown away by the AVCHD quality vs my old FX1 HDV.

Doh! just saw you posted the diopter info. Still interested in how you were setting WB...

- I was setting manual WB on a white book cover. NOT dialing in the colour teperature option (eg 6500Kelvin).

- I set WB multiple times (everytime i start shooting). sometimes the RX100 give WB error, i believe it would happen when it is too dark to make the custom WB so the RX100 used the previous color temp.

- Subsee + 10 or Inon UCL165 and the camera able to focus with max zoom (3.6X) with Subsee +10

- I Torch video pro 4

the original clips look sharper, i am struggling to render to the best quality...

I had exactly the same problem with trying to set WB with my old FX1 in deeper water on a white board. Is there any reason you don't like to use the WB Kelvin settings easily accessible from the RX100? I admit that I've not had the opportunity to try these settings in the field, but I am keen to try them and not need to be continually trying to get a fix on a white/grey/pink board.

On other forum postings here there have been recommendations for 6500kelvin for shallow to mid depth colour correction, and 8000-9000k for deeper waters. The RX100 has so many options for tweaking WB (even using the miniature colour bias charts under the WB menu settings) and seeing the results immediately on screen it just seems to me that white boarding may be deemed 'old fashioned' in the future. I am of course speaking theoretically but I intend to try all this out offshore soon.

I believe white balance on a slate is the way to go with the RX100 especially as you can tune it later anyway setting custom white balance is a pain in video hence the ideas on colour temperature, personally nothing can beat a slate+fine tuning so that is my way

Onto the footage a few things based on my experience with the RX100, I shot with filters for most of Raja Ampat trip now I think I should not have taken away that 1+1/3 f-stop away from the camera and used it to close aperture and increase depth of field

Not sure how you shot your wide angle but it looks like you were operating at wide aperture if you had video stabiliser in active mode that means the camera had shutter speed of 1/100 or 1/125 depending on PAL or NTSC this most likely means your aperture was f/1.8 which does not give sharp corners with the RX100

When I look at your close ups they look excellent and the colour balance is always correct so I think next time leave the filter at home and try to close the aperture a bit to increased depth of field. Taking the filter off will already be beneficial and the camera does well at ISO 200 so you could be shooting at f/4.0 next time and the clips will be sharper

Lens wise you have the best lenses there are no other alternatives unless you have a dome

I have an adapter to mount the Inon UFL165AD and I have to say it is much more sharp when you have a fisheye