Is it worth it to use the ZS3 as a UW camera?

[rab1412000]

with regards to white balance, i just leave the setting in underwater mode and it will auto adjust accordingly. however,the video can soemtimes get a little too reddish when near the surface or in well lighted conditions as seen in parts of this video.

[video=vimeo;25583524]http://vimeo.com/25583524[/video]

im sure that there isnt any p n s that can take better videos than pannys and i even doubt if there are slr's that can best them. i have compared the zs3 videos to a g9, g10, g11, g12, rebel xi, d90, ep-1 and they all looked horribly compared to the zs3's videos.
the video is so good that smetimes i just take video grabs instead of shooting photos themselves.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Those WB looks awesome, its like straight out of an aquarium. Shooting macro with video must be painstaking, any slight movement gets magnified. Shooting with photo is hard enough and one only has to be at the right spot when the shutter clicks. Maybe a muck stick or monopod is needed? But that make my camera/strobe with the ZS3 attached to the strobe arm via a flexi tripod that much harder to handle.

I will have 2 custom modes, underwater and portrait with manual WB.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Tested UW mode by pointing the camera at some of the pictures that I took which were bluish. Surprising at how well it works, some bluish corals got its natural color again. It can't seem to help much on the pictures of deep wide underwater landscape such as wrecks.

 

[rab1412000]

shooting a macro video is tricky indeed. as you said movement is magnified. the new stabilization features of the newer z models are the only noteworthy addition to his line. but with that being said the zs3 takes gorgeous u/w videos that seem unmatched even by canon/nikon dslr's. you do have to have excellent bouyancy and when current kick in try to hang on to a piece of rock (not coral!).
if those fail, you can try correcting movement thru an nle but results may vary.

 

[rab1412000]

Tested UW mode by pointing the camera at some of the pictures that I took which were bluish. Surprising at how well it works, some bluish corals got its natural color again. It can't seem to help much on the pictures of deep wide underwater landscape such as wrecks.

it does quite well in wrecks. look:

[video=youtube;h-va03pluus]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-va03pluus&list=UUZgMGhZssqp4VOpXBQFANCw&index=11&f eature=plcp[/video]

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

it does quite well in wrecks. look:

I meant those wide/distant shots where much of eveyrthing looks blue. It will not try to WB the blue water into clear water.

The close ups in the wreck looks good.

Pointing at slideshows of my UW pictures, some more blue than others, I noticed that it doesn't change its WB in the middle of a video shoot. Is that a disadvantage when shooting continuous video that varies in subject distance? e.g. pan from a closeup coral to a shark

 

[rab1412000]

I meant those wide/distant shots where much of eveyrthing looks blue. It will not try to WB the blue water into clear water.

The close ups in the wreck looks good.

Pointing at slideshows of my UW pictures, some more blue than others, I noticed that it doesn't change its WB in the middle of a video shoot. Is that a disadvantage when shooting continuous video that varies in subject distance? e.g. pan from a closeup coral to a shark

Actually it does change white balance on the fly which can be annoying at times.
I have it set to change dynamically when the whole scene changes but I believe you can set it to change only when the center area changes as in your example.
But really there is no better video option atm short of getting a good video camera. And with the price of the u/w casing right now it's a no brainer

Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

how is dynamc white balance set for video in underwater mode? I only see AWB blanked out under video mode. As I indicated earlier, starting to shoot video with the camera pointing at one picture to another that is more/less bluer, I did not see the WB change, but as soon as I stop recording, I could see the WB change to reflect the proper WB for the current picture.

I was thinking of something in the path of gopro, but wasn't sure if a $5 camera was going to cut it, especially if I had to shoot blind and had to do some homemade mods, then saw the ZS3 housing for dirt cheap and thought this is the way to go.

 

[rab1412000]

It adjusts automatically as you will see in some of the videos I posted.


Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I did see it change once. Odd, it seem to have changed in the middle of a scene. Must have been a delayed reaction.