Search the Community

Hi there. This question is for those using custom white balance for video on Canon g7x mark iii (firmware 1.2 and same on new one 1.3). I am trying to do custom white balance in video mode. The flow for that requires taking a picture and use it for white balance reference by going in the menu, loading the picture in the respective setting. Since I am using it for underwater video, I'd like to do it the most efficient way, therefore with minimum camera manipulation. It appears to me that I need to switch from video to a photo shooting mode first in order to take the white balance reference picture ( I didn 't find a way to take stills in video mode), then back to video mode to do the custom white balance by going in the menu and load it to the specific setting. Since this is to be done quite often, it is a bit annoying. Any advice for a better custom white balance flow ? Did you find a way to take picture in video mode with this camera, so at least I do not have to switch modes? Thank you!

Does anyone know what Wratten number cyan gel I might try over daylight video lights? I have been playing with my Keldan Luna 8s fitted with cyan heads and they are really useful in getting natural-looking footage as deep as 20m or so. I white balance to a combination of the cyan light and ambient, and it gives you a natural looking background, while objects that are close don't go all red. I'd like to find some gels to tape over my Sola 2000s to approximate the same effect as a more compact option. Something that would work well with a GoPro, for instance. It will cost around 2-3 stops of light, but I think it'd be a useful option, nonetheless. Thanks - Jim

Im looking for advice of recommended white balance strategies for filming using video lights. Im primarily a photographer so have a good grasp of the theory there but obviously video is different (less light, no RAW etc). I currently have a V6K (12000 lumen) single video light and primarily testing wide angle subjects, diving in the tropics. What is the best option for getting a sensible white balance with this type of setup? I did experiment setting the colour temperature of my lights as a white balance but havent found the results there great - far too green and washed out. Is this simply because the light isnt powerful enough ? Im getting far better results on auto and the deeper i go, the better it is (i guess due to less ambient light getting in the way,again, is this just a lack of power)? Is there any merit in trying to take a manual white balance via a grey card or slate with the light on and using that? Last time i tried that i had some very odd colour shift and results so maybe its my technique? Im aware for wide angle i really need 2 lights for coverage and 12,000 isn't overly powerful which wont help but basically im looking for advice on the right technique to get a decent white balance on the video.

My freind Sultan was playing with a little old full HD camera that offers progressive 60 fps. This amazing camera can perfectly white balances at 100 feet depth in ambient light without red filter. where we live, Dubai UAE, the water visibility is bad because of the thermocline and the large amount of particles in the water. I can easily say our 100 feet depth has much less ambient light that 150 feet in clearer waters. We have tried before the Sony EX1, GH5 and the GH5s but the little camera beats them all. check it out please and let me know what do you think:

Hello videographers, During my upcoming trip to Raja Ampat, I am planning to do a 'white balance' testing with the Sony camcorder NXR-NX80, and I am looking for help in putting together a 'White Balance Testing' Protocol. The equipment and camera settings that I will be using are listed below. If anyone wanted me to test any specific camera settings or their own preferred settings, please let me know. My intention is to do the following tests at various depths (say about 6m, 10m and 15m) at a patch of corals. 1. No Slate, just with WB to a Scene. Please note that this ARTICLE advises that "the use of a white balance slate is unnecessary [with this camera]. Accurate (or reasonably so) white balance is established by WB SET with any given scene" From my communications with Gates, and my recent experience in Philippines, it appears that if a scene has enough white (or green) subjects, the camcorder could do a quite accurate white balance with a press of just one button - WB SET. 2. Grey Slate 3. White Slate MY EQUIPMENT and SETTINGS: Camera: Sony camcorder HXR-NX80 Housing: Gates AX700 / Z90 with Gates GP34A Wide Angle Port and internal URPro Pink Filter (for green water) Video Lights: Keldan Video 8X 11,000 Lumen CRI 92 (5400K) with Keldan Ambient Filter 6BG for 4X/8X (This filter is recommended for blue-green water within a depth range between 4-12 meters) Camera Settings: 4K, 30 FPS, Picture Profile: BT709. I follow the following article for recommended camera settings: AX700-Z90-Housing-Recommended-Settings-R2.pdf Thank you for your feedback. Val Please check my YouTube Channel

I found the time to do a little write up on underwater white balance that includes some of the techniques I use Hopefully this is useful to most people out there. I have focussed on GH5 picture profile but I guess other camera won't be much different https://interceptor121.com/2019/09/24/the-importance-of-underwater-white-balance-with-the-panasonic-gh5/

Hello, I am not able to set custom white balance on my Sony a7Rii with Ikelite housing with 8 inch dome underwater. It works fine above water with the same setup, but not underwater. Could anyone share their experience and hopefully advise? Many thanks.

I am new to underwater cinematography, and have purchased a Sony a7s II and am getting familiar with it before an important trip to Raja Ampat in October. I have many questions, and wonder if there are others in the community that are shooting with this camera that I can learn from, and compare notes with. 1. Picture Profile? Any thoughts on the advisable "picture profile" for shooting? sLog 2, sLog 3, Cine4? 2. Grading and LUTS? If one shoots with a flat picture profile, how does one properly grade or color correct? I have been doing as much internet research as I can, and this remains a bit of a mystery. I want to start collecting great clips in the proper picture profile. 3. White balance issues? On my first trip with this camera, to Cozumel, I believe that I properly manually white balanced the camera, at a fairly deep depth, but nevertheless experienced a strong magenta cast. Is anyone else having white balance issues with this camera? Is the camera known to be poor in that area, or acceptable, or does it have known challenges that require a work around? It would be great to possess the state of the art knowledge in this area so I can improve my results. I have posted my first "tests" with the camera, and the results are quite primitive, but they can be reviewed in this Vimeo clip. Anyone that wants to see some raw 4K footage of the first tests, to help me diagnose what is happening, can send me their email address and I will give them access to some raw footage. Many thanks for your help. George L. Paul

Hello again, I'd like to conduct an informal poll on the White Balance settings you folks like to use underwater with your Sonys. I did a lot of underwater photography back in the days of film, but have not yet shot any digital underwater, and figuring out white balance settings is a major concern for me right now. I'm headed to Mexico next week with my a6300, but I think all the Sony Full Frame and Mirrorless bodies from the last couple of years are fairly similar in terms of their white balance characteristics. I've read so many posts on this WB topic recently that my brain is just fried. Some say you should take a custom white balance every 10-15 feet, some say if you do this the Sonys throw an error because the reading will be outside the 9900k color temp limit, some say just set the WB manually to 9900k and add a +7 M tint, some say Underwater Auto White Balance works well enough, some say just Auto White Balance is fine, one guy posted PDFs of A4 size color swatches he made that simulate UW color cast, and that you can print those out and take a custom WB reading from them in daylight. Wow, so many freaking choices! Last time I took photos underwater the only 'White Balance' options were either Kodachrome or Fuji . I'll be shooting video as well as stills, using Sony's 10-18mm wide angle zoom. I'll be diving on the Pacific side of Mexico. I expect visibility of only about 30-40 feet. For video I have a Kraken Hydra 2000 lumen video light mounted on the cold shoe of my Nauticam housing on a 4 inch flexi arm. My plan was to use Sony's Underwater White Balance for video, because I'm afraid if I set a custom White Balance for the ambient light, anything illuminated by the light will be too red. Is this a valid concern? But I've read that Auto WB can change the color cast of your video abruptly and is best avoided. I think I'm going to shoot XACV-S in 4k, but I'd rather not have to do any color grading in post. What settings do you folks like to use for WB for UW video with a light? For stills I'll have two Sea & Sea YS-D2 strobes with diffusers. My plan for stills is to use Sony's Flash White Balance setting. That should give me good color for whatever is illuminated by the flash, but I'm not sure how the background water column is going to look. I will be shooting RAW, so I'm thinking I'll have enough latitude to adjust the background water to a color that is pleasing if need be. Does this sound like a good plan? What WB setting do you like to use on your Sony for Wide Angle stills with strobes? One other quick question - do you think I'll need to kill the video light prior to shooting a still? I'm concerned it could cast unwanted shadows or add a color cast, but maybe the strobe will be so much brighter it won't matter. Thanks for all your help guys and gals!

Does anyone have experience with the new Canon Powershot G7 X Mark II ? I see that Nauticam has a new housing for it. I am considering this camera as a compact solution for ambient light photography. Canon has superior white balance to my new Sony mirrorless, and this camera allows a custom white balance with one operation, rather than the 4 my Sony necessitates. Anyone out there with experience? Many thanks. George Paul

Quite a few DSLR, SLR and compact cameras get really good quality footage. In fact there are experienced videographers who buy them with no intention of taking a single still picture. These cameras can perform a manual WB at almost any depth, on ambient light, without need any red filter. In the other hand almost any advanced user camcorder housing comes with its built-in flipping filter. Proper MWB is supposed to be achieved from a certain depth (light is heavily filtered) by using the red filter.... Could anyone explain me this paradox???? Do the sensors of all the manufacturers of sill cameras have something in common that make them so different to the ones in the camcorders? Maybe is a mistake no using red filters in still cameras if you want the best results? Or maybe the flipping filter is an item inherited from past needs that are beginning to loose their point since the new camcorders can achieve MWB with on red filters?... can they?

I would really need some help here, please guys. I've been using for a while an old sony HC9 in a Bluefin housing. It's time to move on. Mainly because I've never been happy of its performance in low light environments (noisy) and of its poor WB capabilities. I never quite liked the Idea of filming with a DSLR because I believed that image quality is not the only thing that matters and a photography camera is developed with the idea of taking pictures and a video camera is developed with the idea of filming video. But, due to the great reviews on the GH4 and due to the fact that a friend videographer got the panasonic recently (in a Nauticam housing) I've had the chance to try it for a couple of days. Mainly I can say I'm pretty happy with the testing, although there are a few issues I didn't like much and I think they might be quite important to bare in mind before making the decision. Let me explain it by making a pro & cons list and let's seen if you agree. PROS. - Professional results In a relatively small size and weight. - Image quality (4K, image options, 96fps in Full HD, costum presets, etc) - Footage suitable for nice color grading. - Great WB performance. I just LOVE IT.... no red filters needed!!!!. Fast and accurate... first thing I did was going down to -30 an WB on a white towel... amazing!!! (Ok, maybe I'm overacting a little but keep in mind that my HC9 wasn't able to white balance under -15m, -7 without red filter!!!) - A lot of lenses opions with really good quality. - Stabilized lenses. - Nauticam housing is really well done and gives you all the options for your lens choice. - Focus. Manual focusing is easy, fast and the peaking helper is a pretty good option. CONS - I think you can't buy the GH4 and all the port and lenses and film without an external monitor!!!!! (add more money, more room and weight in your luggage). The viewfinder is useless and the screen is small with no tilt options. I can't imagine myself shooting macro at grond level trying to see anything in that screen!!!!. Would a 45° viewfinder magnifier be the solution? - AF has a bunch of great options.... for photography. In my testing I realized that all of them are designed for photography and in Motion Picture mode once you press "record" you will have a continuos autofocus with a lot chance of focus hunting....and YOU DON'T HAVE AF LOCK options to use once your subject has stop. - No AE Lock option while shooting either. Shooting with aperture priority is a good choice in specific situations if you can lock the expossure when needed. - Versatility. You won't have the angle range of a built-in lens video gear. I missed a little more zoom range when following a little parrot fish with the 12-35mm. (that's a maximum of 70mm 35mm equiv.) Keeping in mind my criteria and keeping in mind that I need a light gear to avoid hearts attacks at the line of the boarding gate. Can you suggest any alternative to GH4?????. I don't really need 4K, Full HD would be OK. Thanks PD: Sorry about my english.

I have an OMD EM5 with Nauticam housing. only problem is there is enough light I cant white balance. which makes its super hard to get good video. It simply comes up with a screen that says something like, "cannot white balance." My question is, are all M4/3 cameras like this? does anyone have experience with the GH4 that they can share? Also, are DSLRS like the 5dMKIII any better? or can anyone recommend a camera that has this dialled?

Hello everyone, I wanted to share a short video of the famous "Betty Bomber" plane wreck in Truk. It is a fun and photogenic wreck in Truk that is not to be missed. This was shot with the new 16-35mm F4L canon lens on the full frame 5d. It also used an 8" dome. I found the sharpness excellent in comparison to the 17-40mm. Let me know what you think. Enjoy! Dustin OR Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMjH_NJMPfY

For sale are a couple of unused Amphibico underwater aluminium lightweight Color (Colour) and White balance charts, completely new and unused, never been in the water. Won them at a raffle and never had the chance to use them. Amphibico part number ACWB7011, new price $150 on the web. http://www.amphibico.com/store/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=48 Asking $99 obo for each chart. Actual photos of the charts for sale attached! Thanks - message or email yeang underscore chng at hotmail with any questions! Yeang

I recently purchased the Amphibico Genesis housing for my Sony FS100, and I have really enjoyed filming with it so far. The light sensitivity of the camera coupled with easy access to all of the controls seems to make it a great choice. I have not been very succesful in finding a good method for white balancing at depth however. Manual white balance in shallow water works fine, but below about 15 meters, the camera just seems to choose a color temperature randomly and won't set to anything near what I consider a proper look. I've tried the custom preset function, but the highest temperature that will allow is 15,000k. Every manual setting I've ended up with (in shallow water) has been >15,000, so the custom setting isn't helping. I've tried on a white slate, grey slate, pointed at the sand, pointed at the reef, pointed at the sun, with lights, without lights, with color correction filters, and without filters, but I can't seem to find the right combination. Most of the footage that I've seen posted with this rig so far looks great shallow, but also washed out blue at depth, so I guess others must be having the same issue. Besides major color correction in post, is there anyone using this camera underwater who has found a good solution?

I've just been playing with Magic Filters on my S95 but come across a strange problem (im sure its not filter related). Taking a photo, ambient light, manually white balanced, shooting in RAW+JPG mode. The JPG has much more red and less colour cast substantially than the RAW file. BUT when i load into LR5.2 or CS6 RAW editor it initially displays as the jpg (as its reading the embedded preview) but once its rendered properly the colour goes substantially green or blue. I'm unable to process the RAW to look anything like the JPG - the white balance tint is already at the max of 150 and the image is still very green or blue. As the slider appears maxed out already i cant remove this. The result is a JPG off the camera looks fine (if i load this into LR or PS i can do a lot of editing the colours so plenty of room to spare) but a RAW file that appears maxed out. Example below (crap picture due to low light and algae but it gets the point across):- The first is the JPG straight off the camera (sliders on LR are neutral/middle FWIW) and the second is the same RAW file which comes with the tint at +150 maxed out already so no further correction possible. Any idea what/how i can sort this problem out? Its odd i have a lot more potential for JPG editing than i do RAW or is it likely to be an ACR bug in handling the S95 files? FWIW i've tried using DPP and the RAW file displays properly and can be white balanced adjusted in there, it just seems to be adobe RAW handling thats different. For anyone interested in playing themselves i've uploaded the original right off the camera JPG and RAW files here:- Index of /files/2013/wb/originals I know the photo etc is technically useless - it was grabbed on a guided dive purely to prove the point above with no attempt at getting settings or anything correct. WB was set manually with a slate at the same angle/depth a few seconds previously. Depth roughly 17m in fairly dark green water.

Hello, I am heading to the Galapagos in a month, and I have been thinking about how I going to white balance given the conditions and terrain. I use a Canon 5d mark ii. And normally WB off the sand or my hand. Given, that there might not be white sand at wolf/ darwin, and considering the currents, I will be wearing gloves. What are the suggestions out there? A white slate can be a little harsh and not to mention a bit hard to deal with in that kind of current. I have heard people talk about turning the WB to Daylight, and not worrying about it, and just set the right exposure and I am off. I am uneasy about this, as I am not an accomplished post production guy. However, I am willing to listen to options that give me the best chance of success. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Dustin

I just took possesion of my new RX100 and Nauticam housing. Boy, incredible the engineering advances in the last couple of years while I was looking the other way! Question: although I can adjust (and set) White Balance for stills on the RX100, I can't find anything about video WB. Certainly not in the menus or web searches. Has anyone found a way to set WB for video - or does it keep the still settings? Should I get a red filter for video (when not using lamps), or if I set WB (assuming it is possible) on a white/pink board will that suffice?

http://wp.me/p2QoIB-2O Inside: Wide angle and filter The dreaded White Balance Error 9900 Inon AD lenses test and adapters

I hope you find this useful http://interceptor121.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/sony-rx100-tips-for-uw-video-part-3-setting-custom-white-balance/