Color Filter & White balance questions

Hello there,

I just want to get my feet wet with underwater photography, and from reading articles here and elsewhere, it looks like I'll mostly be interested in doing shallow water stuff(5-10m), with ambient light. Occasional deeper stuff (15-30m) close-up with in-camera flash.

The article at http://www.wetpixel.com/module-pagesetter-...-1-pid-31.phtml talks about filters.

Question:

1) Are UR-Pro filters justified by their higher prices?

2) I went to adorma and looke up cc30m and 81ef filters. Do people just 'glue'/attach these filters somwhere on their camera or housing?

3) What is a gel filter? I'm imagining like a tube of toothpaste or something.

4) My CP5200 isn't able to thread any lens, nor does the Nikon housing. How would I attach the filters?

5) White balance - Where do people buy white cards, or gray cards for white balancing? I suppose the back of my writing slate is white, and that'll work, but what about a gray card?

Thank you for any info

I can answer 3.

A gel filter is more like a frame that holds a transparent film. Lots of stage lights

use gels. The gels (rectangles of film) tend to be cheaper than replacing a whole

threaded filter (if you get a scratch) , and with some of them you can stack gels

to get combinations to do custom things (or you can have a set of gels for deeper

or shallower use for lower cost than a bunch fixed filters.)

I guess I should have been specific in that I could answer number 3, not 3 of the

questions.

Dan S

Ahh, Great! Thank you!

Stephen

I would try it first, without any filters, and see what you like.

Filters often come from housing manufacturers, are are made to fit over the port, which the camera lens looks out through.

I personally do not use filters, as I shoot mostly a combo of ambient and strobe, and depend on the strobe to bring out colors.

The CP5200 is fairly limited - without any exposure manual modes, you are unlikely to ever be able to use an external flash.

What housings are you looking at for it? Can't seem to find one at ikelite.

Don

1) The main advantage of UR Pro is they are available in many unique sizes. Their formulations are no different than FL-D's and FL-B's regardless of what they say. If you need a filter that's available in a standard threadon size, save your money.

2) These filters are available in threadon, resin, and gel types. How they mount is a function of the type of filter, but hopefully no one is gluing them on.

3) A gel is a flimsy sheet that usually requires a holder. They are typically used on lights but can be used with lenses. Salt water dissolves them.

4) Hard to say without seeing it. People do amazing things with rubber bands.

5) You can get cards specifically for this that are safe to dive with but I just use a slate. How accurate do you hope to be underwater? If you shoot in RAW mode this is not needed anyway, though some choose to do it since it makes the white balance foolproof.