TG-7 Video Quality

[justinthedeeps]

If you can only get one, the TG is better all around for underwater.

The custom white balance function (including underwater 'one touch' calibration on a grey tank, white fin etc) will address white balance concerns.

Turn down the exposure compensation to -1.0 or thereabouts

 

[rosasintheocean]

I shoot macro photos exclusively with a TG-6. Video quality is very good, but video runs the battery down pretty quickly and needs a good light or a red filter. My wife has a GoPro 12, with a ridiculously expensive AOI GoPro housing and wide angle lens and a super strong Sola video light (900-16,000 lumens) and a red filter. That GoPro setup takes ridiculously good video, that I attribute to the AOI lens and wide angle attachment. All in, with AOI handles, the wide angle, Sola video light and floats is about $2400, but the housing has a magnificent 5 inch LCD screen and the battery lasts about 2 60 min dives. The Sola will go all day at 900 lumens. Yes, it’s an expensive rig for a GoPro, but for video, it is truly excellent. So if you are doing 80% video, maybe you should spring for a killer GoPro rig and pull stills from the video. You can get a macro lens for it from Backscatter and take killer macro video. Everything is a compromise, I suppose. Superb macro photos (TG-7) but short battery life for video, or superb video, but not in the same league for photos. (GoPro 12).

Super helpful info, thank you

 

[justinthedeeps]

With equal lighting and appropriate settings, the TG series should outperform a GoPro in terms of image fidelity, zoom and focus ranges, etc. GoPros are toys compared to the TG, which is almost a fully proper camera

You definitely don't need color filters on a TG, and you definitely do need to be aware of how to use the built-in white balance calibration function if you are recording scenes with ambient lighting. It's in the manual!

TL;DR: go to target depth(s), engage the white balance capture on anything white or gray (even your buddy's SCUBA tank often works) to assign near perfect white balance color correction for your scene in up to four different slots.

I have gotten quite usable ambient video down to ~40 metres deep with a TG in Hawaii filming a humpback whale and dolphin swim-bys, and very nice shallow ambient stuff too.

When light is limited, the GoPro footage is going to be grainy and subpar as well, just like any camera trying to resolve too many pixels on a very compact sensor.

The main (and perhaps only?) real advantage of the GoPros is the collection of gyro data for onboard and/or post-stabilization (GyroFlow). But that can be pretty important when most of your clips are on the fly and swimming around etc

 

[BoltSnap]

With equal lighting and appropriate settings, the TG series should outperform a GoPro in terms of image fidelity, zoom and focus ranges, etc. GoPros are toys compared to the TG, which is almost a fully proper camera

You definitely don't need color filters on a TG, and you definitely do need to be aware of how to use the built-in white balance calibration function if you are recording scenes with ambient lighting. It's in the manual!

TL;DR: go to target depth(s), engage the white balance capture on anything white or gray (even your buddy's SCUBA tank often works) to assign near perfect white balance color correction for your scene in up to four different slots.

I have gotten quite usable ambient video down to ~40 metres deep with a TG in Hawaii filming a humpback whale and dolphin swim-bys, and very nice shallow ambient stuff too.

When light is limited, the GoPro footage is going to be grainy and subpar as well, just like any camera trying to resolve too many pixels on a very compact sensor.

The main (and perhaps only?) real advantage of the GoPros is the collection of gyro data for onboard and/or post-stabilization (GyroFlow). But that can be pretty important when most of your clips are on the fly and swimming around etc

You are saying that TG is at the same level, or better, than the latest version of GoPro in videography?