What's the best way to set manual white balance for UW photos

[spoolin01]

LOL, my C5050 takes only 512MB CF card.

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Are you sure about this? I always used small cards in mine, but I've read that the C5050 will take up to 2GB CF, maybe 1 or 2 GB xD (hate the xD...)

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

If you can do it with photoshop, shouldn't it also be true that the camera can do it, itself? Camera white balance is just a firmware photoshopping isn't it? Maybe the cam can't be as discriminating about it.

It should be even better, because it processes that information uncompressed so you can save it in jpeg format.

Possibly related question - if you take a picture of a grey card underwater in RAW, can you do a quick white balance in PS by just adjusting to the card?

I remember somebody doing that on a wall dive. I thought what is he doing? The strobe gives off enough white light that it should not be needed.

Anyway, It is hard to use a gray card to set white balance since a subject 5 ft away will have a different white color than one that is 20ft away.

That why when I go down, at roughly 30 ft from the bottom, I will use the sandy bottom as a reference for white (not quite white, but that's as white as it gets). That is good for scenic shots of distant subjects.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Are you sure about this? I always used small cards in mine, but I've read that the C5050 will take up to 2GB CF, maybe 1 or 2 GB xD (hate the xD...)

Yeah, 512MB for the CF. I got 2GB CF for DSLR, but it won't work. I think the xD could take larger size, but back then, being 2x the price, I never bothered buying it. Maybe it is cheap enough now.

 

[spoolin01]

I just read old posts from guys here who said they used 1 and 2 GB CF in their 5050s.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Maybe, but back in the days, 1GB didn't exist except maybe for microdrives. So I just unloaded the picture from the camera after every trip and kept it that way.

I did put in a 2GB CF and it did not recognize it, maybe it had to be reformatted.

 

[SEMO Scuba]

Try reformatting your card. I use 1GB and 2GB CF cards in my 5050 and both work. I am going to try a 4GB soon. I think it will work but only use up to 2GB of the card space.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

yeah, i might try that, just have to unload the photos from the 2GB.

 

[SEMO Scuba]

Update! 4GB will not work. I inserted the 4GB card, the camera showed 'Format Card' or 'Turn Off Camera' as the only options. I formatted the card, and all the camera will do is show 'Card Full' on the rear screen.

2GB does work.

 

[spoolin01]

I just tried 1 and 2 GB cards in the 5050 and they both worked - the cards had been used in a Canon S70 but didn't require formatting for the Olympus. The 4 GB card didn't work - it requested formatting, but then shows the card is full, though also no pictures when in review mode!

 

[davetowz]

after playing with white balance this weekend, I just painted a big white square on one of my fins with krylon plastic paint, I will test and see how it works.