Magic Filter at 100 feet?

[Dive&Ski]

Hi everyone! I'm headed down to Pensacola to dive the Oriskany next month. I'm going to use my Canon A570IS with the Canon housing to get some pictures. I was thinking about buying the Magic Filter. The website says it works best down to 15m or 50 ft., then the performance drops off the deeper you go. I'm just curious if anyone has any experience using them at about 80-100 ft. Most of the pics I see myself shooting are going to be wide angle shots at about that depth. I just want to add some color to my pics and I'm definitely open to suggestions.

 

[ce4jesus]

I would just set your white balance at depth and use what natural light you have. The best WA wreck shots I see aren't really colorful anyway and often look better in B&W. I don't think a filter is going to help very much with WA at that depth.

 

[Gilligan]

No on the filter at that depth. Just accept the fact you won't see much color. You may even prefer a B&W photo after processing your photos.

As previously stated use manual white balance and calibrate it at the wreck depth. You may also have to up your ISO to 200, or higher if needed. The higher ISO will likely result in more digital noise so try and stay with 200 or lower if possible. Keep your shutter speed no slower than 1/60 or anything moving near the wreck will blur in the photo. If no moving fish then lower shutter speeds may be ok if you have "image stabilization" so you don't cause the blur.
Post processing with a noise filter program will greatly help. Try the free version of Helicon Filter found at: Helicon Soft: Products
The free version is stand-alone so you have to post process your photos in your editing program separately. The pay version of Helicon has a PS plug-in. I get great results with Helicon. It will soften your photo so you have to sharpen it when done.

I have an example here using the Helicon noise filter:
Digital Noise Filter