Newbie Shutterbug Nikon W300

[irie1029]

Took about 800 pics while on holiday some stellar most bad. White balance is the biggest problem. Is there a good trick to adjust the white balance. I know the W300 is not up to par with a lot of cameras but for me it was most logical option. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[kelemvor]

The best way to do it is with a filter. I think you can use a filter adapter on the W300 and then get 40.5mm filters.

Amazon.com : Nikon UR-E23 Adapter Ring, Attach 40.5mm Filters to the CoolPIX AW100 Camera. : Flash Adapter Rings : Camera & Photo Filter Adapter
Amazon.com : Tiffen 405R25 40.5mm 25 Filter (Red) : Camera Lens Effects Filters : Camera & Photo Red Filter

Use a red filter for Ocean/Blue water
and a purple filter for Fresh/Green water (also works pretty good in gulf of mexico)

Alternatively, the camera supports manual white balance.. get a "grey card" https://www.amazon.com/Foto-Tech-Waterproof-Photography-Calibration/dp/B07MYCM15W/

Once you get to depth, set the camera to adjust white balance and take a pic of the card. Or if it supports RAW mode, you can adjust white balance after the fact on your PC.

Unfortunately, w300 doesn't have a hotshoe for external flash connections and Nikon doesn't sell an adapter to mount an optical flash receiver in front of the built-in flash. If you're handy with a 3d printer, you could probably make one very easy and then add a nice external flash. This would yield the best results, but an external flash will cost as much as the whole camera did.

 

[irie1029]

Holy cow great reply! Thanks so much Kelemvor!

 

[kelemvor]

I did a little more reading. Unfortunately, that filter adapter won't fit w300, only nikon aw100. Sorry. Try the next method, manual white balance with a grey card. It should work well as long as you remember to do your white balance shot once you get to depth.

 

[irie1029]

Yes I was reading up and discovered such. BUT I was leaning toward the cards. A few shots I did I used the Parrot fish poop (white sand) and did help. but really varied by depth. Does the distance you hold the white card from the lens matter? Again thanks so much for your insight.

 

[Chris Ross]

Manual white balance works to an extent, but once you get deep enough and run out of red light, the photos will be blue/green regardless, not much you can do apart from add light with a strobe. A red filter will help get you deeper, but eventually it too runs into trouble. Shooting RAW is always a good idea as you have the most flexibility to adjust colour in processing.

Nikon makes an adapter to allow you use an external strobe: NikonSR-CP10A Underwater Fiber-Optic Cable Adapter for COOLPIX AW130

which would be the best solution. But recognize you need to be really close to the subject, preferably 300-600mm away.