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Hello all, I’ve been playing around with the Panasonic Lumix LX10 (LX15 / LX9 in some locales) for underwater video, and finally got around to collecting some of these test shots in a reel. I’m sharing this test footage because there’s not much compact camera based underwater video footage around, and I think it might be of interest to people looking into compact cameras for underwater filming. I added some captions / subs which can be activated for information on shooting depth, light and equipment used, as well as site and conditions. The conditions were far from ideal in most cases (working as an instructor-guide, I can only bring the camera when I'm not leading a dive), too deep, bad viz etc, but I found it interesting to experiment with this compact camera, push it a little to see what could be extracted from the resulting footage. This LX10 test footage was almost exclusively ambient light, in Japan and Palau (Micronesia) where I currently work, mostly with a Keldan Spectrum SF -1.5 filter gel, and an Inon UWL-H100 wide conversion wet lens. I first used a generic wet red filter (Howshot) on the UWL-H100 (not happy with the colour balance) before switching to a far superior (Auto) Magic Filter gel taped directly on the Lumix lens (inside the housing), then finally to a Keldan Spectrum SF -1.5 filter gel, also taped on the lens, which is now my primary filter. Magic Filter and Keldan came really close, but I found the Keldan Spectrum to offer more options for working in post. I would say the main issue I had with the Keldan filter on this camera is the water column blues, which, under certain light / shooting condition, can feel a little too vivid, as in the shallow second-last clip, which would require more desaturation / luma work in post to make it less day-glo... While most of the footage is shot in ambient light (which is my favourite way of shooting), some of the macro footage was shot using artificial lights (2x Archon D11V-II 1000 lumen video lights), with an Inon UCL-165M67 close-up lens (and a homemade quadripod on the nudibranch shots). The camera is housed in a Nauticam NA-LX10 housing, with a Nauticam tray, and float arms to compensate the over -1.5kg negative buoyancy in salt water... The camera is shooting in 4K at 30fps (no zooming in needed to avoid vignetting with the Inon UWL-H100, thanks to the camera’s 36mm crop) , in manual exposure, using backbutton focus (focus peaking for macro), and manually white balancing every 5m or so using a WhiBal white-balance card. The picture profile used is Cinelike D (CineD - there is hack to load and save it in the LX10), with sharpness, noise reduction and saturation at -5, and contrast at 0, and the footage was graded in Final Cut Pro X. I find the footage to be sometimes a little too crisp, despite sharpness being at -5 in the profile. Stabilisation is very average in 4K and autofocus really not the best (but I work with backbutton focus, which solves most of the issues), there is no option to add a monitor, and battery life is good for 1.5 dives on average. But beyond obvious limitations and its age, the LX10 is still a very interesting compact camera for filming underwater, with a good fast lens, and I was quite surprised at how much colour information does make it to the sensor, much deeper than expected. cheers! b

Hi All, A few photos from my recent Palau dive trip. Thanks for looking!!

Shot in vivid mode (VV1 i believe) on the Sony A1 and seems to have worked out well. Anyone else have a favorite mode to shoot with other than SLOG? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Dive High-Energy, Picture Perfect
 Palau, Micronesia
 4 spots available Download our Trip Flyer here! Call 800-359-1295, email us or signup online! Join Optical Ocean Sales’ owner Jack Connick for an amazing photo safari to Palau in Micronesia, April 8 through the 15th, 2018. Our 7 night, 5.5 dive day expedition will be staying on the luxurious liveaboard Rock Islands Aggressor, based out of Koror, Palau.

 We will explore the reefs and waters in and around the limestone rock islands of Palau. Dive sites will include WWII wrecks, German Channel, Ulong Channel, Blue Holes and the famous Blue Corner – Micronesia’s most famous shark dive. The vessel is a spacious, comfortable catamaran. Stretching 106 feet, 31 feet wide and accommodates 18 guests who are pampered by a crew of 8! Deluxe cabins are en-suite with a/c. The Aggressor has large camera table and excellent photo facilities. Diving is conducted from a 30’ hard boat that launches with a power lift system, divers, gear and all! Optical Ocean Sales is working closely with the Aggressor for a special dive trip that will emphasize photo opportunities.

Mantas in German Channel, Giant Napoleon wrasse, turtles, large schools of barracuda, huge tridacna clams and schools of small fish like trevally, triangle butterflyfish, and countless sharks are also on the agenda of critters to view. And the reefs abound with macro subjects, small gobies, nudibranchs, shrimp and crabs are all on view against the soft and hard coral backdrops. 
 You also have an opportunity to step back in time and visit the island of Peleliu, site of one of the fiercest battles in the Pacific during WWII, as well as dive the more southern sites there. 
 Read more on the diving from our trip report from our 2013 Photo Expedition. Included: 6 nights shared deluxe cabins onboard the Palau Aggressor II All meals & beverages onboard - including alcohol! 5.5 days diving - tanks, weights. Nitrox is optional at only $100. 1 night lodging at Palau Royal Resort before and after trip. Transfers included!** The cost for this great Palau liveaboard adventure is only $4295*! (airfare not included). 
 Dive Yap with Manta Ray Bay Resort (optional) Includes 4 nights, 3 days diving at the Manta Ray Bay Resort on Yap, a small island famous for stone money, manta ray and shark diving. It features comfortable lodging with excellent dive and camera facilities. Optional add-on $1100.



Hi there, new here and want to share a glimps of one favorite dive location, namely Palau in Micronesia. Enjoy

Hello Wetpixelers! QUESTION: I will be taking my first-ever liveaboard trip on the Palau Siren in 1 months time. For those of you who have been on this boat, wondering if it's necessary to bring my own soft sided-cooler/rinse tank? We'll be going to New Zealand afterwards, so not too crazy about lugging this thing around, but my camera's well-being comes first over mine...obviously..... Thank you in advance, wondering because I've heard some reports of rinse tank bad-behavior on other liveaboards, (which is to be expected, I suppose), so wanted to see what the rinse-tank to diver ratio might be on this one. -KTDG

Hi all, This is a recent show reel from the 5D3/Magic Lantern Hybrid and whilst it doesn't afford the fastest turn around the results are worth the wait. Enjoy Feedback or discussion on what workflow people find to be the best would be welcomed. Richard Brooks Media Producer-Palau

I've always wanted to try the Canon 5D III with Magic Lantern underwater. In theory I felt shooting in raw would be more beneficial underwater than on land given the issues with accurate white balance and loss of light with every increment of depth. Unfortunately the post workflow is tedious and time consuming. I think once you get the hang of it, it will get faster and to me it was worth it. Below were the results and my workflow in post. Workflow: Canon set to raw module and not MLV (need the speed of CF and not the sound) Clips check and marked in/out thru MLV raw viewer Lightroom/Capture one for correction and enhancements and exported 8-bit tiff Compressor to convert to ProRes 422 FCPX for video editing Motion for text Compressor to convert for upload

In August I went for two weeks to Palau. I mainly wanted to shoot at the Jellyfish, were I spent 4 days. You can find a trip report on my website wild-places-com. I used two different cameras on this trip: a Nikon 1 AW1 with the kit zoom lens and my Nikon D800E in a Seacam underwater housing with the Superdome and the Zeiss 21mm lens and the Sigma 15mm fisheye lens. The images I got from the AW1 were surprisingly good. The dynamic range and high iso performance of the AW1 is (as expected) clearly not as good as the D800E but with enough light the difference between the D800 images and the AW1 images is very small, which says a lot about the quality of this little camera. I will not hesitate to just take the AW1 on some future underwater photography trips, especially if there are some serious constraints regarding size and weight of my equipment. Here are some images from my trip to Palau. C&C welcome. Boris #1 (Nikon D800E, Sigma 15mm FE, f/11): Palau_05_DSC2019 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #2 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_06_DSC1091 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #3 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_07_DSC1196 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #4 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_08_DSC1237 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #5 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_09_DSC1310 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #6 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_10_DSC1322 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #7 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_11_DSC1353 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #8 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @22.6mm, f/5.6): Palau_12_DSC1376 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #9 (Nikon 1 AW1, 11-27.5mm @11mm, f/5.6): Palau_13_DSC1420 by Wild_Places, on Flickr #10 (Nikon D800E, Sigma 15mm FE, f/11): Palau_14_DSC2099 by Wild_Places, on Flickr

Hey Everyone, Just wanted to share a recent showreel I put together from the last year. Diving to me is more than just a sport, it has a much deeper meaning. To me, its about adventure, exploring the unknown, and that sense of freedom I feel every time I sink below the surface. For that brief hour underwater, I'm lost in the moment... my only focus is on the pure beauty and wonder of the underwater world I'm surrounded by. This short film was created to help share those experiences, express my passion for the underwater world, and why I love it so deeply. The filming took place over the past year at several locations including the Bay Islands of Honduras, Palau in Micronesia, and right here at my home in Palm Beach, Florida. Thanks for watching! Lee

Hello All, Rainy Sunday made me look into some of my old footage from dive trip to Palau in Jan 2013. It was pretty rainy then in Palau too I recall. Regardless, diving was really nice and mellow. Some of the better parts below. (4:40): All the footage shot with the GoPRO Hero3 HD black (2.4k, downscaled to 720p for vimeo). Edited and (heavily?) color corrected in Premiere CS6. Got that little thing for this trip to experiment with it. While it's obviously not an alternative to real DSLR / video rig, the size (or lack of it thereof) certainly makes up for some of the shortcomings (and happier non uw photog buddy ). I hope you like it!

Hello fellow Wetpixelers, During the effort to fully catalog over 5 years of underwater filming on an almost daily basis I have been finding some "Hidden Gems" that I had forgotten about due to the pressure to turn things around for the next day. I am only half way through the phenomenal number of tapes but to break up the monotony of viewing, extraction, key-wording etc I have put together a short show reel which uses a minute fraction of what I have found so far. Clips chosen mainly for how they flow into each other. So I thought I would share it with you. Footage shot between Jan 2008 and Jan 2010. Cheers Richard

I just posted the a video from a recent Palau trip: http://www.peterwalker.com/palau.html It is a HD online video (hosted from Vimeo) so you will need a fast internet connection or wait patiently for it to buffer. I do have a couple of other online videos in the pipeline (Caves, Jellyfish Lake) but this is the "mating aggregation" video so I focused on uploading this one first. Thanks to David Cheung of ScubaCam for putting this trip together. Regards Peter Camera: Canon XF100 Housing: BS Kinetics Makla Takan Editing: Final Cut Pro X 10.1

Relax and enjoy some mellow mood music and weird jellies

Here's the second of our short, sweet, 60 second edits. Shot by Simon Enderby on Sony PMW-EX1R in a Gates housing with SWP-44C aspheric port. Feedback welcome as always.

Here is a clip of Bumphead Parrotfish spawning in Palau in February 2013. It's one of those things that very few people will get to witness. It starts out with and aggregation of hundreds (maybe even a thousand) and culminates in an orgy. Unfortunately it was about 6am on an overcast day so the quality leaves a bit to be desired.

I've posted teasers on this before but now I have a good connection I can upload the whole film. Filmed over the course of a year it gives an insight into the migration and light seeking behavior of the Golden Jellyfish that live in this incredible environment. Enjoy! Richard https://vimeo.com/69592467

Hi all, I wanted to share this with you as I wanted some feed back on whether anyone has seen or has footage of this type and subject. It was filmed in the last month or so in Jellyfish Lake and attempts to show the actual physical migration of the millions of Jellyfish during the day. If anyone has seen anything like this anywhere else I'd love to know as the motivation behind it was partially that I didn't think that anyone had done it before. That and it's a beautiful place looked at in a different way and good from an educational viewpoint. https://vimeo.com/49876623 Would really like some feedback on this as Jellyfish Lake is one of the most amazing places I've ever been and deserves more attention. Cheers Richard