Which camera for UW video? (1400$ budget)

[MB NZ]

reliability seems to be an issue with these and other cheap torches/lights. google will reveal all. that aside, 1400 lumen, even if it proves to be accurate is woefully inadequate for your semi-professional needs.

 

[Duarte]

I looked for reviews and didn't find anything bad about it. Most people are satisfied with the Archon light. There's a guy that says he has done 100 dives with it and it's still working.

 

[MB NZ]

fair enough, give it a go and let us know. i'm always a little suspicious of a product that costs 10% of its well established rivals.

 

[Duarte]

Yeah I'm the same but if the reviewers are happy with it I think I should try since I can't stretch my budget too much.

Thanks for the help!

I think I've decided to go with the Sony RX-100 II, the Ikelite Housing and the 2x D32VR Archon lights, plus tray and arms.

This setup will cost me about 1500$US. But I also need a wet lens for it right? I want to get some wide-angle shoots. Can someone recommend some wet lenses?

By the way I found out the software called Wondershare Converter Ultimate that converts the .MTS files of the Sony camera to .MP4 or .MOV. It costs 60$ but it seems to do the job. Took me about 1 minute to convert 20 clips in a total of 1 GB, so I hope this helps someone that's looking for a solution.

 

[haha49]

But there aren't that many people with 4K monitors yet. I don't have one and I'll be editing the footage at 4K but I would never be seeing it at 4K so I don't know if that's such an advantage.

Also the fact that you can only shoot at 30FPS in 4K is not very good. Sometimes UW shoots need to be slowed down.

But you guys think that there's not much difference between the video quality of the GoPro Hero 4 Black and the Sony Rx-100 II ?

By the way here's a video of the GoPro Hero 4 with a red filter: [video=youtube;d7VqtLSODnA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7VqtLSODnA [/video]

For me it doesn't look good enough, I would even say it looks worst with the red filter in most shoots .

Here's a video of the Sony RX-100 II underwater:

[video=youtube;geNFJVwypfg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geNFJVwypfg[/video]

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When you take 4k footage and shrink it down to 1080p it comes out better then if you shot it in 1080 to start with. I've expermented with it and it does increase the sharpness of the images. For the gopro at least

This is what was used in the following video with a GH4

Panasonic GH4 in Nauticam housing, Panasonic 8mm FE & 7-14mm, Olympus 60mm, Fix 7000, Aquako 4K, Sola lights, Nauticam SMC & Aquako diopters, Xit404 tripod.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.1428575515747px; line-height: 17px;">[video=youtube_share;ZX1oAGWmFh0]http://youtu.be/ZX1oAGWmFh0[/video]

When using a red filter you can color balance it and simply remove some of the red from the shot you also want to lock the white balance so the camera doesn't go searching for it often making it harder to balance as you have to cut it up and adjust over time to get an image that looks the same. So it all depends on what you want the videos you show the red filter unbalanced do that and it looks way better.

---------- Post added November 17th, 2014 at 02:39 PM ----------

The big main difference between a gopro and other cameras is the ability to zoom change lenses and have more features. Other then that there isn't much difference it can be used as a pro camera it all comes down to the editing skill and knowing what the camera is good at getting and not good at getting for the type of shot. So it comes down to the cameraman at the end of the day knowing the gear they're useing. For simple setup and go gopro wins for being able to go from macro to zoom or wide ect then a GH4 is a better choice it comes down to what you need it to do. For diving not fidling with stuff just set it and go is nice and that's the gopro. if you like to tinker and swap settings ect and want a little sharper image (which comes down to lense selection) then pick that. You can spend more then 1400 on glass and you will get a much better shot. Now a Nikon D800 with a nice nikon wide angle lense is amasing but the big draw back is price. 2000 for the body 3000 for the glass your at 5k and you just have a wide angle shot. Bang for the buck GH4 and Gopro would be my 2 choices.

 

[haha49]

Now I made a quick video with 30 minutes to edit and upload it to show what a gopro hero 3+ silver can do with a monopod and red filter (no lights) I even put unedited footage to show what it looked like when it comes out of the camera. Now with editing software you can cheat allot by applying filters and doing tricks to take ok footage and making it usable. The trick isn't so much what you use it's how you edit it. Now a better camera will only give you sharper photos but they can only do so much at a certain point.

[video=youtube_share;aEg_0WYezZQ]http://youtu.be/aEg_0WYezZQ[/video]