HC7, What was wrong?

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paulpost

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Hi, I've got back after one week vacation in Coz and for the first time I've used my new HC7 camcorder in my old Sony MPK housing. As I have no control of MWB I've set it to outdoor setting and I've used a red blue water filter. Shutter speed was set to 125 (all this settings according to an old book by late Jim Church)
All my footage is big time over exposed and the color is kind of greenish.
Please help, I know I shouldn't follow the settings of Hi8 era, but how about living everything on auto?
Thanks
Paul
 
how deep were you?

I am not sure what is going on with the over exposure but I suspect the green to be the auto WB struggling. I've found that even with manual WB, if I was too deep 25m+ and there was not enough light to get a proper WB fix, I would get a greenish scene with my HC7.

Can you try adjusting the color in your editing software?
 
How'd it look in the viewfinder (I know - hard to tell...)

Maybe capture and post 30secs. in a WMV file so we can take a look. I think you can store short clips in the Photo Gallery here.
 
The green color cast seems to be a common problem with the HC-7, especially if the lighting is uneven when using artificial lights. I gather you shot your footage without them. Some have pointed to WB as the primary cause, whole a few have suggested Sony's proprietary x.v.color space is the culprit. Personally I think the new imaging sensor may be a large part of the problem since this is the first of six Sony camcorders I've used that has had this problem.
 
paulpost:
Hi, I've got back after one week vacation in Coz and for the first time I've used my new HC7 camcorder in my old Sony MPK housing. As I have no control of MWB I've set it to outdoor setting and I've used a red blue water filter. Shutter speed was set to 125 (all this settings according to an old book by late Jim Church)
All my footage is big time over exposed and the color is kind of greenish.
Please help, I know I shouldn't follow the settings of Hi8 era, but how about living everything on auto?
Thanks
Paul
Click to expand...

That's the HC7 AWB for ya. I had the same issues, even in Brac when I forgot to set to MWB.

Example here. The video on the bottom of the page is from Catalina. I forgot to set the camera into MWB, so only my close-up shots had good color. Notice wherever there is no HID light, it's all green.

Close-ups with HIDs are fine, but anything else, f'get about it. Can't say enough for how the camera performs with MWB though. Ok, this broken record will quit skipping now. Quit skipping now.
 
ScubaBob92651:
That's the HC7 AWB for ya. I had the same issues, even in Brac when I forgot to set to MWB.

Example here. The video on the bottom of the page is from Catalina. I forgot to set the camera into MWB, so only my close-up shots had good color. Notice wherever there is no HID light, it's all green.

Close-ups with HIDs are fine, but anything else, f'get about it. Can't say enough for how the camera performs with MWB though. Ok, this broken record will quit skipping now. Quit skipping now.
Click to expand...


Thank you for all the replies. From my point looks I've messed too much with the settings of the camcorder, from the clip of scubabob "back in Brak" on wetpixel forum the quality of the picture is way better than what I got in Coz but compering older clips of the same dive sites taken with a Sony trv 38 in full auto and no lights just blue water filter I can see that HD is there. Sharper picture and better definition .
Scubabob, do you remember what where your settings, except MWB, like shutter speed and focus for the clip in Back in Brack?
Thank you,
Paul
 
paulpost:
Thank you for all the replies. From my point looks I've messed too much with the settings of the camcorder, from the clip of scubabob "back in Brak" on wetpixel forum the quality of the picture is way better than what I got in Coz but compering older clips of the same dive sites taken with a Sony trv 38 in full auto and no lights just blue water filter I can see that HD is there. Sharper picture and better definition .
Scubabob, do you remember what where your settings, except MWB, like shutter speed and focus for the clip in Back in Brack?
Thank you,
Paul
Click to expand...

I think I had the HC7 in full auto for exposure for the entire Cayman trip. I was very, very new to the camera/housing when I was on that trip (actually purchased the housing the day I of my flight and purchased the camera at circuit city on the way.) I wish I had known more about the features of the camera, as I probably would have gotten some much better footage then I did (which I was pretty happy with it.) When I have the opportunity to shoot in blue water again (which looks like it will be Wakatobi in Sep 2008 - unless I run into some more money between now and then :) )I will probably switch to manual exposure, or at least shutter priority.

I find that the camera likes to overexpose the footage, if left in auto mode. For my So Cal footage, I've been stopping down the AE using the AE shift. I usually have it set to anywhere between -2 and -4, depending on the ambient light. I use the zebra stripes (set at 100) to see how much of the frame is being overexposed. One thing I've noticed on the manual exposure (if it's truly manual?) is that you can see what the shutter speed is (e.g. 1/125) but the display doesn't show what the f-stop is (only a dot on sliding bar?) I think this is my next thing to learn with this camera, how to shoot in complete manual, without losing my dive buddy or letting my subject swim away....
 
Interesting that you would find the HC-7 over exposes footage. My impression, at least with mine, is that it underexposes with most subjects I film (although some are slightly over-exposed).
 
drbill:
Interesting that you would find the HC-7 over exposes footage. My impression, at least with mine, is that it underexposes with most subjects I film (although some are slightly over-exposed).
Click to expand...

That is interesting. It seems that you tend to shoot at deeper depths than I do, I wonder if that is causing the difference? What's the latest on your L&M housing deal?
 
Hi,
I've meet exactly the same problems with a Sony HC3 in L&M Bluefin housing this summer.
Some shots recorded with bright sun between 30 and 45 ft are perfect (plenty of colors, great sharpness, high level of details, terrific HD effects), other are overexposed (between surface and -30feet), most are hawfully "greeny" (reef at +60 ft, but it's ok in the blue at the same depth).
I also meet big focus problems, especially with grey sharks, as they show the same colors as the background !!!
Before this equipment, i used a Sony PC120 in L&M Mako housing. It was really better for colors in low light conditions, but the DV resolution is now no more acceptable for Plasma panel...
I think the CMOS sensor of the HC3 has very poor low light performances...
I probably jumped to quickly to HDV, but HC7, even with its 2lux sensi. seems to show the same poor perf.
I think we need a 3 CMOS or 3 CCD small HD cam, that doesn't exist yet on Sony catalog...

PhD
 
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