Best low-light performance?
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mobula
Contributor
I sold the HC7 because of its very poor white balance performance. The HC9 is not very different to it. I absolutely agree with ronscuba. This is why I bought the FX7 (and now The EX1). The combination of good lowlight behavoiur and manual white balance helps to avoid quality reducing and time consuming color editing.
A friend of mine has the XR520 in a Light & Motion housing and a 110° Fathom port. He is in Galapagos at the moment. There it is really challenging for the camera. I am curious about his results. Maybe I know more in a week or two and I can post something here.
I don't know how big your budget is but I would advise you to buy a bigger camera. You will have
- steady shots because of the bigger size
- better lowlight
- easy access to the manual white balance and other controls.
- white balance presets which is helpful if you don't have enough light to set the wb (maybe 30 m) but still have the preset from 20 m so you simply use the one you have.
The FX7 was relounged with a lower price recently and is affordable. The FX1000 or the XL A1s would be the next step.
A friend of mine has the XR520 in a Light & Motion housing and a 110° Fathom port. He is in Galapagos at the moment. There it is really challenging for the camera. I am curious about his results. Maybe I know more in a week or two and I can post something here.
I don't know how big your budget is but I would advise you to buy a bigger camera. You will have
- steady shots because of the bigger size
- better lowlight
- easy access to the manual white balance and other controls.
- white balance presets which is helpful if you don't have enough light to set the wb (maybe 30 m) but still have the preset from 20 m so you simply use the one you have.
The FX7 was relounged with a lower price recently and is affordable. The FX1000 or the XL A1s would be the next step.
Galapagos will be a very good test.
The bigger cameras have all the advantages you mention, plus 3 chips which really helps with colors. However, the size and weight is a big pain in the neck for traveling. So much so that I now have 2 UW systems. The FX7 for dedicated dive drips and a Canon HV10 with Ikelite housing for casual shooting on mixed activity vacations.
I'm sure many people can't afford 2 systems or may not be as picky about quality as you and I. The decision to automatically go bigger is not so simple.
The bigger cameras have all the advantages you mention, plus 3 chips which really helps with colors. However, the size and weight is a big pain in the neck for traveling. So much so that I now have 2 UW systems. The FX7 for dedicated dive drips and a Canon HV10 with Ikelite housing for casual shooting on mixed activity vacations.
I'm sure many people can't afford 2 systems or may not be as picky about quality as you and I. The decision to automatically go bigger is not so simple.
OP
lemon
Guest
would love to see your friends galapagos footage with the sony 520! this is the kind of video shooting that I love - pelagics! headed to cocos and galapagos later this year..
mobula
Contributor
Ron, your FX7 will provide you with nice shots. The conditions in Galapagos and Malpelo are quite similar. The Malpelo video shows the performance. I think you know it already. Hopefully, all the whalesharks want to meet you. Eric from wetpixel had a whaleshark counter on echeng.com a couple of years ago. They saw around 45 times ws around Wolf and Darwin within 3 days.
lemon: pelagics? you don't have to wait ;-) Check out these clips:
Malpelo
Socorro
On the site there are more clips for this interest. Checkout the videos from "Steuermann" and "Michael". Michael has one video shot with EX1 (seals). Steuermann has a Cocos video in preparation. I know that they had some incredible days there.
It is really a pitty that I have to make the first dives with the EX1 in a German lake or in the baltic sea. I have to watch all your stuff to do some "dry diving" at the moment ;-)
lemon: pelagics? you don't have to wait ;-) Check out these clips:
Malpelo
Socorro
On the site there are more clips for this interest. Checkout the videos from "Steuermann" and "Michael". Michael has one video shot with EX1 (seals). Steuermann has a Cocos video in preparation. I know that they had some incredible days there.
It is really a pitty that I have to make the first dives with the EX1 in a German lake or in the baltic sea. I have to watch all your stuff to do some "dry diving" at the moment ;-)
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