Comments

jwcarney wrote on 7/24/2006, 11:40 AM
My Son is using DVX100As and Vegas to create his underwater show. Uses Vegas for just about everything including color correction. Has a calibrated JVC studio monitor too. He only uses available light.

He cranks the DVX way down as far as color, since you start losing color below 30 feet. He readjusts in post. Thats going to be an issue unless you carry powerful underwater lights and shoot close up.
backlit wrote on 7/24/2006, 11:42 AM
I use two cameras underwater. 1) A Cannon Z-80 in an Ikelite housing with Ikelite lights. 2) A Panasonic AG-DVC30 in an Equinox housing with the same Ikelite lights.

I religiously use an underwater color correction filter (reddish orange) anytime I am using ambient light for filming. I could never get color correction in post to look as good as simply using a lens filter. Both of these housings came with a filter. When you pay that much for a housing they throw in the filter.

I suppose a lot can be done with post color correction and secondary correction on underwater footage but I just can't seem to get it right... although I continue to try.
jwcarney wrote on 7/24/2006, 11:45 AM
He practiced enough to get it right, plus he gets footage close to the surface for reference. I don't know if his housing has a filter or not, I know he has to get the glass repolished on a regular basis, just because of the abusive enviroment.

He regularily goes to to 100 feet following other free divers. (He uses SCUBA when shooting).
NickHope wrote on 7/24/2006, 10:16 PM
I'm using a Sony VX2000 in a Gates housing (manual controls).

Most of the time I shoot using available light from the surface but I carry Light and Motion Sunray halogen lights with blue gels over them for under ledges, deep close-up shots and of course night dives.

In the day time I have the housing's UR-PRO colour correction flip-down filter in whenever I'm not using lights and I manually white balance the camera while pointing at white tape stuck to my fin. Manual white balance makes an enormous difference to the quality of underwater footage.

For important projects I apply colour correction in Vegas. Sometimes the color corrector, sometimes masking with the secondary color corrector, sometimes just a bit of colour balance adjustment, sometimes color curves, and in extreme cases I stack colour correctors to get the result I need, say when my lights have reached a subject so it's over-warm but the background is a washed out blueish-green because my red filter wasn't in.

I'm soon switching to a Sony Z1 and I'm looking at housings from Gates, Amphibico and Light & Motion.

Nick