Anyone have Sea & Sea UW colour filter?

[squidguy]

Hi,

Just came back from Coz and noticed losta blues and aquas with my MX10 with flash. Some foreground closeup stuff at shallower depths in bright sunlight seemed to have no flash effect. I have the wide angle lens and think I might get the colour filter for it - anyone have first hand experience?? Previous posts talk about an orange filter but the Sea & Sea looks pink.... wonder if it is didymium glass?? ALso using this filter - would the flash affected area look natural or have a colour tinge???

Thanks! (Mo' money to be spent.... aaack!)

 

[Dee]

squidguy once bubbled...
Hi,

Just came back from Coz and noticed losta blues and aquas with my MX10 with flash. Some foreground closeup stuff at shallower depths in bright sunlight seemed to have no flash effect. I have the wide angle lens and think I might get the colour filter for it - anyone have first hand experience?? Previous posts talk about an orange filter but the Sea & Sea looks pink.... wonder if it is didymium glass?? ALso using this filter - would the flash affected area look natural or have a colour tinge???

Thanks! (Mo' money to be spent.... aaack!)

Can you post any of your pictures? First thing I think of is you were too far away from your subject for your strobe to be effective. No matter how strong it is, no strobe will extend past 3-4ft. at the most. I started with a MX-10, moved to a MIIex and now use a digital...and I have never felt the need for a filter. Your strobe will provide all the light you need to highlight and show the colors underwater.

In shallow water with bright sunlight, if you can't see the strobe effect then the sun was probably bright enough to overcome it...depends on how shallow you were. If you are using the 20mm WA lens, you have a close focusing depth of about 14" which is well within your strobe's ability. Be sure to use the diffuser to help get the width of coverage needed. Again...anything past 3-4 ft isn't going to receive any strobe light.

The results that were posted using an orange filter were way beyond strange looking to me! Not anywhere close to natural. If you are determined to use a filter to try to replace some of the lost color spectrum, I'd stay with pink and reds. Remember you'll probably have to adjust your settings at accomodate the filter.

 

[squidguy]

Thanks for the advice Dee,

I have a clue into my problem when I scanned some negs into mu Nikon Coolscan 4000... much more natural. The store I got my prints developed from has a digital developer and I asked for compensation figuring they would give me the best print possible... well whoever did the printing put lotsa blue/green/agua into the prints... some to the point where I could barely see the fish... I gotta bring the developer underwater...:bonk: ...for a reality check!

Anyways here is a scanned sample from the Nikon... found it amongst the coral at the La Ceiba airplane site Cozumel.... couldn't find the darn moray that was supposed to reside under the wings somewhere!

 

[ScubyDoo]

squidguy once bubbled...
The store I got my prints developed from has a digital developer and I asked for compensation figuring they would give me the best print possible... well whoever did the printing put lotsa blue/green/agua into the prints... some to the point where I could barely see the fish... I gotta bring the developer underwater...:bonk: ...for a reality check!

You may want to try Kodak Sea Processing. This service is specifically for u/w photography. The developers know what the colors are supposed to look like. You can learn more about it at the Sea & Sea website. I believe theres an Icon in the upper right hand corner.

www.seaandsea.com