Sony a7s II underwater use -- All parameters

Here is the A7R II different WB modes test video at 20m depth, ambient light.

 

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="https://youtu.be/--4pRdwSNYQ"frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

https://youtu.be/--4pRdwSNYQ

 

Not sure how to embed a YouTube video

I think it's fair to say none of the white balance settings you tested do much to restore the warmer colors (including Underwater Auto White Balance) in the foreground subject (though it's a bit hard to tell -- ideally need to test with something in the foreground that's red/yellow under torches). This accords to my own testing. I'm not really surprised -- Sony's white balance system caps out at 9900k, and to execute an accurate white balance (e.i. to make a white/grey object record equal levels across the red, green and blue channels) you'd need something closer to 20000-50k at that depth, plus a strong magneta push.

If you have lights and the ambient light isn't too powerful, the best approach obviously is to just set the white balance to something that gives you nice blues in the water column (4300k-4800kl usually works quite well) and use the lights to illuminate the foreground once you're below 10 meters. You can use some warming gels on your lights if the light they produce is significantly cooler than 5000k.

But if you need to work with ambient light for some reason, the obvious solution is to add a orange/magneta filter to the lens to supplement the camera's custom white balance abilities. It's more inconvenient because you have to commit to using it for the whole dive. The results may also not be to everyone's taste. Here's some screen grabs from test footage shot at 15m and 18m with an orange magic filter, both with UAWB and with a custom white balance done off my palm:

http://www.andreiv.com/A7RII-Orange-Magic-Filter/n-WRgsbH/

Unfortunately, I don't have any footage shot at the same locations without the magic filter to compare, but you can look at the test footage Ammar shared from 20m to see how much of a difference the orange filter makes.

Note that the SLOG2 images are actually graded (just to boost the contrast so they don't look quite as flat).

I think it's interesting to note that the UAWB algorithm does not really push the reds as much as a CWB does. This has the advantage of preserving a nice blue water column, but the foreground reef and sand isn't quite as vibrant and remains a bit too greenish for my taste. On the other hand, with the custom white balance, I feel like the reds are pushed to the point where it's unnatural, and the water column becomes muddy, with a hint of magenta.

I can't say I really like either result.

Magic filter give you 2000K more and M7 more.

I would like to download this test and study it with the vectorscope. At this depth I will go with lights no doubt.

I like the 9900K, but I would touch de BIAS somthing like A5 M4 or A6 M5...

Will try next week at red sea Magic filter is AWB ans UAWB mode to see....

Hmm.. you might want to be careful with pushing the bias towards magenta to that extent to counteract the cooler ambient light, especially when shooting with video lights. It may result in the illuminated subjects being a bit too purple. For example, at 3:24 in your Similans film, the fan coral and the water color strike me as a bit too purple (though it's subtle). It does render the sand and rocky reef a nice color, though.

Unfortunately, the A7RII (and other Sony cameras) do seem to have a tendency to push towards green a bit too much, especially in UAWB mode. The white balance bias is one method to try to correct that. I wonder though if we couldn't achieve a better result by shooting in a custom picture profile (could be based on Gamma ITU709 & Color Mode ITU709) with a negative Color Depth for green/yellow or by changing the Color Phase. So many things to experiment with -- this would obviously best be tested using an waterproof color chart.

As I said my Simila clip is not color corrected. Is easy to correct an excess of magenta by vectorcospe. Is better to have a litte more of red or magenta in raw file and take it off in post than trying to put in...

The picture profile option is also good BUT is a lot of work to be done and you will need diferent profiles for any diferent water.

Magic filter give you 2000K more and M7 more.

How did you quantify that? The results definitely feel like more than a bump from 9900k to 11900k with a tilt toward magenta.

As a quick and dirty (but rather unscientific) test, I just did a custom white balance off a white piece of paper in indoor light, with and without the orange magic filter.

Without the filter, I get a CWB of 5900k, M3.

With the filter, I get a CWB of 2900k, G2

That's a 3000k shift, plus a 5 point shift from green towards magenta. But even that's misleading, as I don't think the effect of the kelvin white balance scale is linear. If I was trying to white balance under light strongly skewed towards blue/cyan such that a proper white balance might require a setting of 30000k, I suspect adding the orange filter would knock that down more towards 10000k or 12000k. Otherwise you wouldn't be seeing such pronounced differences when adding the orange filter.

For thoroughness, I did the same test with a orange UR/PRO filter, and got almost identical results: 2900K, G3. So just a touch more magneta push.

Coustom WB ons 15% gray slate.... 5500k.

Coustom WB on slate with Magic filter 72mm screw model... 3500K M7.

EXPORTING:

I will finish up editing my first little video of Raja Ampat in a couple of days. I decided to make a film of one dive site, that we visited twice. It is a seamount, frequented by Oceanic manta rays, called "Magic Mountain." I filmed there twice, and am therefore making a film about the dive site.

I brought my camera on about 20 dives, so there is much to go through.

Now for the question. I have very complex video files, as we all do. Not only 4K, but many tiny fish shimmering and swimming to and fro. Do any of you have recommendations for export settings on Premiere Pro? I have been doing the "two pass" technique, and am wondering what else I need to consider.

 

Thanks George for your feedback. Yes Misool resort is one of the best and Fiabacet reef is a spectacular one. Looking forward to seeing your videos.

Hi Ammar:

On your liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat, did you go to any of the dive sites near Misool Ecoresort? Did you visit Magic Mountain? If so which sites did you visit?

Thanks,

GLP

EXPORTING:

 

I will finish up editing my first little video of Raja Ampat in a couple of days. I decided to make a film of one dive site, that we visited twice. It is a seamount, frequented by Oceanic manta rays, called "Magic Mountain." I filmed there twice, and am therefore making a film about the dive site.

 

I brought my camera on about 20 dives, so there is much to go through.

 

Now for the question. I have very complex video files, as we all do. Not only 4K, but many tiny fish shimmering and swimming to and fro. Do any of you have recommendations for export settings on Premiere Pro? I have been doing the "two pass" technique, and am wondering what else I need to consider.

If you like the quality of my video, these were my Premiere Pro export settings:

Format: H.264

Preset: YouTube 1080p HD, or 2160p 4K if you wish to post a 4K video. I believe the same settings will do also if posting on Vimeo

Basic video settings: I did not change anything here

Render at Maximum Depth: Checked

Bitrate settings: 1 pass, Target 25, Maximum 50

Use Maximum Render Quality: Checked

Audio settings: As is but changed Bitrate setting to 256 kbps

 

Hi Ammar:

 

On your liveaboard trip to Raja Ampat, did you go to any of the dive sites near Misool Ecoresort? Did you visit Magic Mountain? If so which sites did you visit?

 

Thanks,

 

GLP

These were the sites I dove in Misool area:

Gus's Rigge: schools of Barracudas, Jackfish and Batfish

Boo's Rock: Nothing of significance here, according to my logbook

* Magic Mountain: Oceanic Manta, Reefshark, and diverse marine life

Boo West: Schools of diverse small reef fish

Grouper Net: Hard corals and schools of fusiler

There were other major sites but we couldn't dive them as the weather and currents were really bad.

This is another short video for my USAT Liberty wreck dive in Bali.

https://youtu.be/prR1iNP48nU?list=PL52BA3958DF7A6D08

I think you need to underexpose -0.7ev or -1.0ev....

I think you need to underexpose -0.7ev or -1.0ev....

I will try your settings next time for sure. I'm still shooting video with the brain of still photographer thinking that in post I can adjust exposure as easily as it is for RAW still photos. Learned the lesson now, that it is not the same thing at all

I will also use my other FIX Aquavolt 7000 lights and underexposing -1 EV for sure.

Thank you my friend.

 

If you like the quality of my video, these were my Premiere Pro export settings:

 

Format: H.264

Preset: YouTube 1080p HD, or 2160p 4K if you wish to post a 4K video. I believe the same settings will do also if posting on Vimeo

Basic video settings: I did not change anything here

Render at Maximum Depth: Checked

Bitrate settings: 1 pass, Target 25, Maximum 50

Use Maximum Render Quality: Checked

Audio settings: As is but changed Bitrate setting to 256 kbps

Thanks Ammar. I think the bitrate settings are the most confusing to me. I appreciate your taking the time to do this.

I will read up on this, and in the meantime do a couple of exports of one or two clips, rather than exporting the current draft of the first film, which is about 5 minutes long.

 

This is another short video for my USAT Liberty wreck dive in Bali.

 

https://youtu.be/prR1iNP48nU?list=PL52BA3958DF7A6D08

 

Settings: Shutter priority at 50/s, Auto ISO, Auto WB

Lens: Sony 16-35 f4

Lights: 2 FIX Aquavolt 3500

 

Nice colours in this one. No purple water.

EXPORT QUALITY TEST: I have some good footage from a dive site in Raja Ampat, close to the Misool EcoResort, named "Magic Mountain." I am putting together a film that tells the story of diving there. I am doing tests to ensure that I don't accidentally degrade the quality of the footage in the film.

From my initial understanding of editing Sony 4K in Adobe Premiere Pro, one needs to ensure that the setting in one's sequence are correct, particularly the pixel dimensions. Adobe has not done a good job making this easy. Next, one must take care to export with the highest quality. Ammar gave good advice on this yesterday, and I basically did what he said, but changed the bitrates to 30 and 60 from his 20 and 40. I don't understand things well enough to know what the difference is, but Vimeo export recommendations indicate 30 and 60.

I uploaded my first test to Vimeo this morning:

https://vimeo.com/191976013

If you want to watch this purportedly in 4K, please choose that resolution and let things load a little. Then it might also help if you watched it full screen. My monitor is not 4K but I might be investing in that soon.

Best,

GLP

I think you should switch to Edius Pro 8...

... or Final Cut Pro X.

Colors look pretty good. We dove Magic Mountain in Feb. as well. A lot of the Manta shots in my Raja Ampat Clip are from there. Great dive site.

... or Final Cut Pro X.

 

Colors look pretty good. We dove Magic Mountain in Feb. as well. A lot of the Manta shots in my Raja Ampat Clip are from there. Great dive site.

ok, I'm not getting into infighting with the Windows boys here :-))