Amphibico White Balance Slate?

[lemon]

Is anybody a user of this white balance slate sold by Amphibico?

Does that black "star-burst" design help the camera focus on the slate for lower light white balancing?

 

[Annie Crawley]

That star burst is for manually focusing your camera. I have detailed pdf's and discussions on the white slate on my website in the editing forum. It is really detailed about this. I think you will learn from the article. White balance is one of the most important aspects for filmming underwater. Follow this link to the article: Here is the beginning and click the link to go to the rest. There are a few posts here...

Hi Geoffrey,

Many people do not understand the importance of white balancing underwater. The Amphibico White Balance slate is the best on the market because of the color bars, the spiral and the white (with bluish tint) on the back. I am going to post an article next week on the color bar portion of the slate, but will try and explain it in user terms here.

First of all the spiral on the back is for focus. In professional film cameras and larger systems like the Sony F900 High Def Video Camera they need to be back focused. Also when you are underwater, it is sometimes difficult to know if you are in focus. You can use these lines for this purpose. You can white balance in two different ways under the water. You can either use the same side of the slate with the spirals and fill most of your frame with white to white balance, or you can use the color bar chart and fill the frame with the color bars by zooming all the way in (excluding the black border of the slate) and fill this image with the color bars and white balance off of that. You can also hit record for a few seconds before and after the white balance to see the effect on your image. If you do this, then you can see the importance of white balance. In addition, many of the software packages, Final Cut Pro and Avid, have color bars and you can see how close you are matching to these.

diveintoyourimagination.com - Re:Slate White Balance - DIYI Forum

 

[lemon]

Thanks, Annie. I'm a total newbie to videography. BTW - I already ordered your DVD and am eagerly awaiting its arrival! =)

 

[Annie Crawley]

Great! Who did you order it from? Once you watch it if you have any questions, I am always happy to answer!

 

[lemon]

Thanks, I appreciate the offer. I ordered it through Amazon.

 

[alyafi]

I know this is a very old thread, but if anyone is still reading this and has experience with the amphibico WB slate perhaps you can help:

Are the white circles around the edge of the slate holes? If so how deep are they and what is the diameter.

Thanks

 

[diversteve]

I'm pretty sure Mark's got one...

 

[mobula]

You mean the white spots on the black frame? Yes, they are holes, maybe 5 mm diameter e.g. to attach hand straps