Sony DSC-RX100

[Nick Hope 151]

I just ordered one, initially for topside use.

 

Anyone had one underwater? What housing? How was it?

 

I've just seen Eunjae's sample with the Nauticam.

[Interceptor121 707]

Check this http://interceptor121.wordpress.com for tips

And my youtube channel for few underwater videos with the RX100 http://www.youtube.com/interceptor121

 

Sample wide angle

 

http://youtu.be/DuCMkUyYiDE

 

 

Night dives

 

http://youtu.be/HN6t4c7JfDU

Edited December 11, 2012 by Interceptor121

[Ferg42 13]

Nice. Pretty amazing what some of these tiny cameras can do these days.

[Interceptor121 707]

Nice. Pretty amazing what some of these tiny cameras can do these days.

 

With the advent of large sensor compact and SLR in video I envisage the death of underwater video with camcorders with small sensors pretty much now...

[Nick Hope 151]

Thanks very much Interceptor121. I have been watching your videos and reading your blog with great interest. Lots of information to take in, especially as I don't have the camera in my hands yet.

 

I did notice occasional vignetting (e.g. top left at 3:50) and occasional soft corners in your first video. Also quite a lot of blown-out highlights in the macro shots. On the other hand some nice magnification on the nudi at 4:41 and the pygmy seahorse 4:50. Which diopter combination did you use for that? And which lens caused the vignetting?

[Interceptor121 707]

The vignetting is given by the red filter I am using a lens not designed for 28mm which works well without filter but once I added the filter on I had sometime some issues in pushing it in correctly. So it is not systematic but more user error. I have changed the rubber ring on the lens to allow the filter to sit deeper. The soft corners are a depth of field issue, I have seen videos of other people with the 'recommended' lens and still they have soft corners. To me this is because visibility was poor and I had to choose if I was closing the aperture and raising the ISO or leaving a wide aperture and keep noise low. I chose to keep noise low so it is not the lens is the camera.

For the Pygmy I used one or two diopters with 6 or 12 power.

Can you tell me where you see the blown highlights? Are you referring to the night dive?

 

The lenses I use are in the details of each video they are all Inon

 

This is the clip of the second part of the trip by then I had worked out what to do with the filter :-)

 

Edited December 12, 2012 by Interceptor121

[Nick Hope 151]

Thanks Interceptor121. The blown out highlights I referred to were mostly in the night dive video, for example the hermit crab shall at 0:42, the crab at 1:45, or the reef surrounding the ghost pipefishes at 4:20. In the first video I noticed it in the pygmy seahorse's head at 6:00. I realise some of this is unavoidable if you want to see detail in the dark areas, but the handling of it seemed very harsh and "high-contrast". Maybe it's partly a lighting issue. Dimmer lights may help?

 

Anyway I have now found all those RX100 threads in the Consumer Digicams/Housings forum so I will work my way through them and probably take further discussion over there.

[Interceptor121 707]

The super macro parts can't be avoided. Consider that no video rig will ever shoot with that level of magnification to balance the image you need to step back and have it smaller

 

For the night dive I use the camera program mode usually in spot metering as my main concern is the subject not the surroundings. As the RX100 lacks depth of field I need to pump up the lights until I get F8 or smaller aperture. This creates issues with the surroundings and with objects that are white especially when part of the subject is dark (black fish on white sand) again in some cases these could be fixed with manual exposure however considering the shutter speed and the ISO are pretty much fixed once you reach F11 you are pretty much done and sometimes this is not sufficient either

[scaper 2]

The last clip was very nice, and most of us would probably agree that a love song expresses how we feel about these environments.

[Nick Hope 151]

Re. the exposure, I understand Interceptor. I think I would try and go for a lower ISO in some of those situations, then have more chance of retrieving highlight detail in post, while pumping up the midtones/shadows. What do you mean by "pretty much fixed"?

 

Re. soft corners, am I right in thinking that there is currently no known wide adaptor that gives sharp corners with the Nauticam?

[Interceptor121 707]

Re. the exposure, I understand Interceptor. I think I would try and go for a lower ISO in some of those situations, then have more chance of retrieving highlight detail in post, while pumping up the midtones/shadows. What do you mean by "pretty much fixed"?

 

Re. soft corners, am I right in thinking that there is currently no known wide adaptor that gives sharp corners with the Nauticam?

 

The lowest ISO for the Rx100 in video is 125. I had a Sanyo before with lowest ISO of 50. So all you can do is to close aperture

Re wide lens that is a good question would love to make some tests. Lenses with domes with fisheye view seem to perform best. Flat lenses need testing unfortunately I can't buy 2-3 lenses just to try out. Just today am going to out the rx100 in the bathtub and try some shots with slates to see what is actually happening however in still mode the lens is 28mm whilst in video is 33 due to cropping for stabilisation so I will have vignetting in still or I will have to zoom which is not really the same in terms of chromatic aberration and sharpness

I will keep you posted

[Nick Hope 151]

The lowest ISO for the Rx100 in video is 125. I had a Sanyo before with lowest ISO of 50. So all you can do is to close aperture

 

Damn that large sensor! A faster shutter is not the end of the world on a lot of macro, especially fairly static stuff like nudibranchs. Can look too stuttery with something like a fast swimming juvenile clownfish though.

 

I will keep you posted

 

Thanks!

[Interceptor121 707]

Nick. I have done some tests in the bathtub so the story is pretty much like this

Soft corners: if I fill the lens with a slate the image is sharp from f4 and smaller, regardless of what lens I have. This is because of sensor size. I guess a video camera with a 1/3" like yours will always be sharper at lower apertures. However the Sony really has very low level of noise so it compensates with image quality and higher equivalent ISO. This is just a wide angle issue when you have subject in focus at a certain distance and corners much closer or further away

Chromatic aberration: I have dome other checks and there is a little bit of fringing in corners however you need to super zoom to actually see it

 

All in all not bad for a compact camera. I have also tried with a fisheye lens the corners are sharper however things look to tiny and I can't use a filter so no go

[Interceptor121 707]

lens tests http://wp.me/p2QoIB-2O

[Interceptor121 707]

Nick I looked into the original files and the harsh highlights on the hermit crab are because I shot it in Program mode. I think if I had done it in aperture priority there would have been less issues. Camera set the ISO to the minimum

[Nick Hope 151]

Thanks for all that Interceptor. I read your blog. I am getting a little bit lost with all these different Inon numbers, so I need to take some time to familiarise myself with them all. If you were buying from scratch for the Nauticam housing, would you recommend another wide adaptor over the Inon UWL-H100 for someone who doesn't need super-wide? (I think 100 degrees would be enough for me)

[Interceptor121 707]

Nick your video is superb and I would never suggest the RX100 can get exactly there however if you want to have a play with it underwater starting from scratch I would get the LD bayonet adaptor and an Inon UWLH-100 28LD. I would not recommend the M67 screw type because the RX100 also need a diopter for macro (Inon UCL165LD) and you would find difficult to screw and unscrew a lens that is 320 grams in water

 

For what concerns angle of coverage 100 diagonal that is around 90 horizontal is good otherwise things look too tiny. I am only planning to use the fisheye for photos not for video as I don't have lights to cover such angle, actually they don't exist!

 

The inon gives you the additional advantage to add a dome later should you wish so, but I doubt for video a dome is really needed except whales and similar

Edited December 16, 2012 by Interceptor121

[Nick Hope 151]

I wasn't really thinking this would be my longterm primary rig but something to supplement it.

 

Good point about getting a bayonet instead of screwing the UWLH-100 in. I'm wondering about a way to have a UWLH-100 with blue water CC filter interchangeable with a Subsee +10 underwater. I see there is the Saga Dive Dual Flip that I suppose could hold the Subsee and the CC filter, but that doesn't really help if one wants to use the wide lens and the CC filter together. Any ideas?

[Interceptor121 707]

The Inon is 326 grams in water and needs to be really close to the port, a flip holder will not work with a wide angle lens as it will give soft corners and plenty of chromatic aberration

 

Take also into account that a +10 diopter is only good for super-super macro so you may want to consider a +5 or +6 (there is a post about macro on my blog with more details)

 

The solution I adopt is to get a push on filter for the wide angle lens (deeproof makes one for the UWLH-100 and you can also try an ikelite with a lanyard) and use a bayonet diopter that can be stacked. With Inon diopters you can get an UCL165LD that is +6 and add another +3 or +6 on top adding another diopter with M67 mount.

With a bayonet caddy placed on an arm you can then switch lenses safely in water

 

Are you working on the mermaid?

[Nick Hope 151]

Thanks again for the info. I just met my RX100 today so I'll get familiar with it then decide whether and how to house it.

 

I'm not working on the Mermaid or any other boat at the moment. I worked on the Santana liveaboard for a few years from Phuket, then later for half a year on Nai'a in Fiji and Tonga.

[Interceptor121 707]

Thanks again for the info. I just met my RX100 today so I'll get familiar with it then decide whether and how to house it.

 

I'm not working on the Mermaid or any other boat at the moment. I worked on the Santana liveaboard for a few years from Phuket, then later for half a year on Nai'a in Fiji and Tonga.

Nick

I would appreciate if you would contribute to my blog once you get to grips with the rx100 with your comments

[Sfen 0]

my video with RX100...

 

i find the WA video is soft at the corner when finning foward...

 

i used the Sony AVC for this video....

 

actually i tried the Vegas Pro->DNxHD->HandBrake workflow, but Vimeo cannot detect the HD after uploaded.... not sure why...

 

and to improve the video quality, i think i will try reduce the sharpness and contrast next time.

 

please give comment and suggestion... thanks....

 

Equipment:

Sony DSC-RX100 + Patima housing...

Wide – Inon UWL-100 28M67 + FIT red filter, manual custom white balance

Macro – Subsee + 10 and Inon UCL-165M67, I-Torch video pro 4 X 1

Edited by Vegas....

 

 

http://vimeo.com/57727944

[NickJ 2]

Veery nice Sfen, I hope I get as good results when I finally get my RX100/Nauticam underwater (in the sea).

 

A couple of comments/questions:

 

- I don't think you need to reduce contrast.

- What were you setting manual WB on, a card? or just dialing in the colour teperature option (eg 6500Kelvin)

- Did you set WB multiple times? The deeper water (I assume) shots of bat fish have that overly reddish tinge that seems to come with shallower water WB settings.

- I love the cuttlefish and octopus shots, in fact all your close up stuff is nice. Is that using the camera's onboard optical zoom, or did you use a dioper (if so what strength)?

- What lamps were you using?

 

I'm still playing around in our swimming pool and pretty happy using SunRay (L&M) lamps with the RX100 at night (what am I coming to doing 'night dives' in a pool!?). I'm blown away by the AVCHD quality vs my old FX1 HDV.

[NickJ 2]

Doh! just saw you posted the diopter info. Still interested in how you were setting WB...

[Sfen 0]

- I was setting manual WB on a white book cover. NOT dialing in the colour teperature option (eg 6500Kelvin).

 

- I set WB multiple times (everytime i start shooting). sometimes the RX100 give WB error, i believe it would happen when it is too dark to make the custom WB so the RX100 used the previous color temp.

 

- Subsee + 10 or Inon UCL165 and the camera able to focus with max zoom (3.6X) with Subsee +10

 

- I Torch video pro 4

 

the original clips look sharper, i am struggling to render to the best quality...

Edited January 21, 2013 by Sfen