Nikon 8400 Problem

We are having problems with white balance on Nikon 8400.

Using in Ikelite housing with substrobe 200, standard lens. Camera seems to make up own mind about whites, even when shooting on full manual. This is happening with 2 different units. In shots containing large amounts of light colouring, ie Sandy bottoms, blue water is a greenish haze. We have used a wide variety of Coolpix and Olympus cameras, but have never come across this before.

Has anyone else had this problem? or shed some light on issue?

Attached are two images taken in sequence, with no mode/setting changes.

Auto white balance often "gets it wrong" underwater. Even small changes can have an effect, as you've seen.

With the Nikon, you have the option to shoot RAW, so that you can set the correct white balance later on your computer, during the RAW conversion. If you shoot JPEG, you can white balance in Levels or Curves by using the white eyedropper and clicking on a white or neutral gray area in the photo. This is not as effective as setting WB in the raw converter, but it works.

Cheers

James

Thanks James, I understand this can be corrected in post production, however we need to shoot it right as production time is limited, and we have no time to convert from RAW files. I have not come across this before in coolpix 990, 5000. We have tried almost everything, setting different white settings, appertures, matrix metering. There must be an answer out there somewhere in the abyss!

However we need to shoot it right as production time is limited, and we have no time to convert from RAW files.  I have not come across this before in coolpix 990, 5000.  We have tried almost everything, setting different white settings, appertures, matrix metering. There must be an answer out there somewhere in the abyss!

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Sorry, but there really is no magic bullet, no matter how far down the abyss you are looking.

You might try this as an option...If you really have no time for postpro then you could take down a grey card/white card and use the camera to take a white balance reading from it at the same depth you are planning on shooting your other shots. If the 8400 doesn't let you set the white balance directly off the card, you can at least take a shot of it in RAW, and provided you shoot all the other shots at the same depth/conditions, you can use this image as the basis for a batch convert in photoshop/Nikon Capture. Simply use the dropper to grab the white balance off the card and use that setting for the rest of the images in the batch.

As far as changing apertures, matrix metering, manual vs auto exposure etc. - none of that is likely to make any difference to the colour cast in your images - provided the exposure value is the same. The only way to change colour cast/white balance is to change... well, to change the white balance! Whether you do it by setting it underwater with a whitecard, or setting it in postpro for a batch of images is up to you, but you really should consider shooting RAW and expecting to do some post production if you want the best results.

I'm sure you have had good results in the past with other cameras, but if you no longer have access to these cameras, then perhaps you will have to think about doing some work in front of the computer to get the best from the 8400.

I haven't noticed this problem. Auto WB seems to work well with the 8400 for me and I shoot Jpegs. Looking at your two images it looks to me as if in the second one your flash didn't fire or at least not a full flash.

I will look at my rejects more carefully in the future and see if I have this problem; though I don't anticipate any good vis shooting for awhile.

Dave Burroughs and Dave Harasti are the most knowledgeable on Coolpix 8400. Harasti has published an analysis on following URL: http://www.daveharasti.com/articles/Coolpi...0underwater.htm