URPro SWCY or Hoya FL-D ?

Hi

I just have read Alex Mustads on Unterwater Photography Web Magazine

Test of the new UR Pro Shallow Water CY Filter, SWCY.

Its seams that this filter is Perfect for me (I take Photos between 0 - 8 meters)

Now I own a Hoya FL-D nad the question is if I need the filter.

I hope Alex will read this topic becauce I know that he have experince with all the filters.

One more question.

When I have, for the first time, attach the Inon Dome lens unit to the UWL-100.

I have attach the shades off the domelens so that they are vertical.

Later when I have put the Hoya FL-D Filter I see that the shades are not vertical any more. Thats becauce the filter have not a complete thread alignment.

So I have re-align the shades. The Problem is that not every filter have a

Complet alighment so this will continue to be a problem and realign again & again is not a solution ... one day i will flood my Lens :-(

They told me that the beter way is to pop the filter element out of the ring and drop it in the housing. This will be also a better solution optically.

But how I stabilizate the filter inside the Olympus PT15 Housing??

Regards Lambis

That is where you are wrong Lambis! I have never used an FL-D.

I have actually re-written this review in a bit more detail for Wetpixel and sent it to Eric a few days ago. So I hope it will be up here soon.

To answer your question the URPRO SWCY does sound like an ideal filter for you. But as I said in the review if you already own a filter that works then I am not sure that the SWCY is worth buying as well.

If you didn't already own a filter I would say get the SWCY. But because you are going away soon (and I am not sure if the SWCY is available yet) I would suggest sticking with your FL-D. Then when you get back you find that the FL-D is too strong at shallow depths then buy a SWCY.

When I have used the Inon WAL I found it was not really that much of a hassle to realign the lens shades for using a filter. It only took a second. I have not flooded the lens myself but I have "fixed" a flooded one and it is not a big job. Afterall you can use the lens without the port anyway.

Alex

Thanks Alex

I have newer used the FL-D in Waters like in Egypt. I have used FL-D Only in Green Water. I will shoot a freediving record event, Blue Hole -Dahab and I hope that the Hoya FL-D will be enough but on the other hand I think that soon or later I will need this filter becauce, like you know, I shoot only i Available light.

URPro webpage say that...."The URPRO SWCY filters are also designed for use with natural sunlight at depths slightly below the surface, to a maximum of 25 feet/4 meters"???

I think 25 feet is ca 8 meters and not 4

Alex, how deep have you test the filter?

Alex -- I've just posted the review. Thank you!

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/ur-pro-shal...-filter-review/

URPro webpage say that...."The URPRO SWCY filters are also designed for use with natural sunlight at depths slightly below the surface, to a maximum of 25 feet/4 meters"???

I think 25 feet is ca 8 meters and not 4

Alex, how deep have you test the filter?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd trust what UR PRO say in terms of feet!

In the user guide that comes with the filter they say 0-8m. Which is what I said in my Wetpixel review "UR Pro’s justification for the SW-CY is to provide a filter suited to work between the surface at 8m (25ft), the standard CY filter is designed for an overlapping but deeper range of 3-20m (10-60ft). The two filters look identical, but have quite distinct filtration characteristics."

I did not test the filter deeper than the manufacturer's recommended depth range. I had to give the filter back after testing. But I hope to get my hands on another one to take to the Red Sea next month.

Alex

Alex

I have orderd the Filter. Kirk from UrPro was a big help and soon I will recieve one!!

I am happy to test it in Red Sea.

The Hoya FL-D is a great filter to but it is for green waters

As soon As I come back from Egypt I will post some pictures

Excellent. I really look forward to seeing them and I am sure that other people do too. Make sure that you post them in this thread then people can benefit from reading the discussion and then seeing the pictures.

Have a great trip.

Alex

Alex

I will do my best to test the filter in Red Sea. The last 6 months I have read mutch about filters, settings & tips & tricks.

I will try to put all this info under a 2 weeks test. "weeks of thest and learning.

Off course I know that i will have problems with my Olympus 5050 & RAW

Very slow in writing RAW

I will test autosettings & autobalance but I will test custom white balance with a grey card.

Dont forget that i am a freediver and I dont take mutch photos of fishes and corals

but I am sure that in Red Sea i will:- )

Any tips and suggestions are welcome. I will do my best.

This is probably a dumb question as I have never used a filter. Alex I see how you attached it, love the bandaid, but how would you do this with the Nikon 10.5mm?

Also, in September we are going to do the Guadalupe Shark dive, which I know Eric has done. Would this filter work there? Is there anyway you would use it with a strobe, maybe at low power for close ups?

Thanks...

Good question. That is the problem with the glass sandwich filters like the URPro and the FL-D. They can only go on lenses with filter threads on the front.

While I do hear rumours of UR Pro working on a filter that is compatible with a fisheye I'm not holding my breath.

For these lenses it is better to use Gel filters and cut them and mount them on the back of the lens. Unfortunately you can't get specialist UW filters (like the UR Pro) in a gel. Although both Colour Compensating (CC) and Colour Temperature filters can be very effective underwater.

All these filters work best in available light - and you wouldn't normally use a strobe. They would work well with the sharks. I would shoot flash to begin with and when you are happy you have got all your shots with flash switch over an experiment with filters. The UR Pro CY would be good there on a 12-24mm.

Alex

Alex, from your experience, How much you fill the different between this filter and the Gel filters you tried before.

I ask this since it quit expensive filter, especially if I need it to more then one lens or I want the 2 filters.

It seems that with the Gel filters I can modified combinations of color and size in a fraction of the cost.

Filters with threads, like my Hoya FL-D, have maybe one more problem, at least in my opinion. Normaly I put my filter between camera housing and UWL100 lens.

When I take of the lens I see that it leaves a round mark on the filter. Has anyone else noticed that? Is it anything that can cause problem to my lens Or filter

??

Hi Arnon,

Wratten gels can't be used in the water. They don't react well to seawater. So for compacts where you screw the filter on the outside then UR Pro is the way to go. Also I strongly believe that UR Pro filters work much better with Auto White balance than CC filters. If you shoot RAW this is not really a problem - but if you have an Auto-Everything JPG compact then definitely go for a UR Pro or similar.

The fact that on any camera that a UR Pro produces better colours on Auto WB than a CC filter suggests to me that the camera is doing less processing of the image and that has to be good for the final image quality.

I know a lot of people who swear by UR Pro colours. Although as I tried to show with this picture gels and UR Pro all produced acceptable colours after white balancing:

a) UR PRO SWCY

B) UR PRO CY

c) CC40R

I find that before the SWCY I used to use gels in the top 4 metres and then UR Pro CY between 4 and 10/12 m. I think I will get a SWCY at some point and will probably use that in the shallows when I am not shooting fisheye.

It is possible to get something pretty close to a UR Pro filter by combining gels. But it may take some trial and error. To some people this is a lot of the fun of underwater photography!

But remember that gels are not very hard wearing and they get scratched up pretty quickly. In the end they will probably cost as much as a UR Pro!

Alex

Back from the Red Sea

I didn't have too much time to try the filter since I took the chanse to become not only a freediver but also a scubadiver, and took both open water and advanced open water within a week....My freediver buddys keep telling me that I swiched to the dark side. :-)

I havent time to get trough all my photos but her are some. All with URPro filter.The only thing I've done is to open them in ACW and put white balance settings to auto. I think the filter works great in shallow water but worked fine in deeper water as well. The photo of my dive instructor is at 15 meters. The problem I had with the filter is that it seals so good that sometimes air get traped between the filter and the camera housing. One more thing...not concerning the filter but my setup is that I'm fed up with it...I missed so many excellent shots due to the shutter lag and the very very slow raw writing time. The filter i a great investment, skin coulors are phenomenal (not very important shooting scubadivers, but it would be great on bikini models...) The lesson learnt in my speartime between scuba diving training is that filters are good to have, but more important is a fast camera.

Lambis