SimonSpear

Although I spent a few months in N.Sulawesi a couple of years ago I never actually managed to get to Bangka.  I loved Lembeh and could have stayed there a lot, lot longer but I was extremely disappointed with Bunaken and agree with most of the comments above - ie fairly pretty reefs with not a lot else happening.  Sure you get the odd turtle or even a shark now and then, but there is nothing really to write home about and the environmental situation is complicated to say the least.  It is possibly a great example of how a marine protected area can sustain a population while not being totally destroyed, but that does not necessarily make it a great diving location.  In its pristine state it could be spectacular with huge shoals of fish and pelagics, but that's just not the case and I'll definitely be trying Bangka next time as my break from muck!

Cheers, Simon

James Miller is a very talented guy.  No guarantee that our footage would look like that!!

Cheers, Simon

Shitter Graveyard - hehe at least that put a smile on my face Peter!    In addition to the 7D's I've also got a PMW200 which is working out amazingly well, so its not all Sony cameras that are affected.  It's not just the single chip ones either as the NX5 was also badly hit by all accounts, although very few people actually got one of those underwater.  So right now it looks like the whole NXCAM range is pretty much useless for underwater shooting.

The CX550 was a great compact camera, but quite frankly you'd expect a whole load more from the FS100.  I use the FS100 extensively topside and it is my favourtie camera which just makes this all the more frustrating.  Still you made a good choice with the XF100 - I've seen quite a bit of underwater footage from it and I was very impressed.

Drew I've attached a screen grab of FCP scopes which is what I think you are looking for.  I don't have Resolve installed at the moment, but I'm very happy to make some files available for you or anyone else to play around with if you think you can find a work around?  Whenever I've colour corrected in FCP I just get the halos appearing and the more red you add the worse they get.

Cheers, Simon

Ok I've put a couple of examples together and compared them to footage shot on a 7D during the same dive.  I've listed a detailed breakdown below.

This is a short video to quickly demonstrate a couple of the image quality issues discovered when using a Sony FS100 underwater.  I have included the 7D footage as a comparison and to give an indication of the results that the FS100 should have been able to produce.  In summary these are the issues currently found when using the FS100 underwater.

- An Orange/Red/Magenta 'halo' effect on most images when the camera is manual white balanced underwater.  This becomes more pronounced the deeper you go or the darker the conditions.

-  Very poor results from MWB with some very, very strange results when used below 10m.

-  Very poor results when using the preset K settings for white balance with the colours shifted towards Green/Cyan.

-  The images at depth appear to have had their saturation boosted even if you reduce your saturation with picture profiles.

-  A lack of Dynamic Range

-  Digital Noise on highlights/blown out areas (which is not helped at all by the lack of DR).

-  While the FS100 shines topside in low light underwater it tends to fall apart.  It is quite acceptable to shoot up to 18db Gain topside, but anything other than 0db Gain underwater shows lots of noise.  What looks organic, even filmic topside looks downright nasty underwater.

-  Impossible to colour correct / colour grade in post due to technical issues with the footage.  Basically as soon as you try to colour correct and move the images towards Orange/Red/Magenta the halos start to appear even if they were not visible before.

All the footage used in this video was shot at Yolanda Reef, Ras Mohammed Marine Park, Egypt on the same dive.  Light penetration in the Red Sea is excellent and it generally makes cameras look better than they actually are.

No filters were used on either camera.

Example 1:
Canon 7D, 160 ISO, Tokina 10-17mm.
Apart from the scratch on the dome port I was very happy with this footage.  The colours look great which is to be expected from the 7D and although the resolution is lower than ideal it is a trade off I'd happily make.  Remember this is straight out of the camera with no correction in post.

Example 2
Sony FS100, 0db Gain, Sony E 16mm
What can I say.  The same depth on the same dive and what different results.  The reason I posted this example specifically was to show the lack of DR that the FS100 shows when used underwater and the awful digital noise that can be seen on the white toilet.  The Iris was closed down to assist the highlights, but the toilet still appears to be blown out.  This clip also shows the unsatisfactory colour reproduction with a clear bias towards cyan/green.  This shot was manual white balanced off of the sand around the Yolanda Wreck, but I have attempted many other methods all with similar or far worse results.

Example 3
Sony FS100, 0db Gain, Sony E 16mm
This is the same clip as the previous example, but an attempt has been made to colour correct.  The results are an improvement, but quite frankly the image still looks awful.  The digital noise is still shown on the toilet and although the toilet now looks white the cyan colour cast in the rest of the image has been replaced with Magenta.  Due to the colour correction the halos have become visible.

I have shot nicer footage than this on the FS100, but this gives a good example of the challenges faced when using this camera underwater.  I genuinely believe that 90% of the footage I've shot is a waste of hard disk space purely due to technical flaws.

Cheers, Simon
 

I'm with Getty and despite its flaws I wouldn't change, however others may have a completely contradictory opinion!  To be honest I just don't have a couple of months spare to change over (which it would almost certainly take me) and there is truth to the saying that the grass is always greener...

Cheers, Simon