Which camera for UW video? (1400$ budget)

[MB NZ]

the gopro isn't necessarily fixed at 170 degrees.

wide FOV - 170
medium FOV - 127
narrow FOV - 90

fixed focus isn't always a disadvantage. footage taken with cameras which are constantly searching for focus is disappointing.

i'm not saying that a gopro is the right answer, just that they are more versatile than many people think and unfortunately, most of the underwater gopro footage that appears on youtube is very poor quality due to the users abilities or mounting technique. pole- or even worse, head-mounted cameras cannot be compared to tray-mounted setups with lights.

 

[Duarte]

If you are only doing wide angle stuff then a gopro is fine, the quality is quite nice even compared to say a GH4. That is probably the only housing/camera in your budget that you will be happy with. But why not just use say VLC media player on the sony?
Bill

It's just that it's much more practical to just preview the videos hiting the spacebar on finder. It takes less then a second to know if you want to import that clip to FCPX or not. Opening with VLC takes more time. It's just a workflow thing. Saves me time to just preview the files in Finder instead of opening them.

I find it all depends on were you want to film. In Hawaii no filter with just a gopro hero 3 plus and a red filter (had to color correct it's just turn red down a little) you can get resualts like this [video=youtube_share;FJEEVNNxnDI]http://youtu.be/FJEEVNNxnDI[/video]

Now it all depends on what you want were your shooting and how. This was just a gopro on a mono pod (stick) you can get good results with a simple setup like that and it's cheap. Now if you add handles and 1 or 2 dive lights you have a much better setup. For video point and shoot the gopro seems to do just fine. Get the hero 4 black for best results this is a 3+ silver. Now for editing I did the following color balance turned the red to -29- -32 (each clip was done a custom balance) then for inside the cave I use stablazation software (mercil) to take the rolls out so it's zoomed in allot. Then I also sharpened the videos allot as well to get that result.

Now if you want to zoom in and out then get a Cannon G1X with the Cannon dive houseing you can do everything the camera can with that housing. For most people a gopro hero 3+ black is good enough that video was with a silver at 1080p

The hero 4 black is 499 then handles for a grip are 120 then (i bought I das ones) Filter is 30 bucks for a red filter that fits the case. Then a light 299x2 a mount for the light 80x2. Well within your budget. Or gopro mono pole done.

I already filmed with a GoPro 3 Black Underwater and altough the quality is good, it's not good enough for what I want to achieve. I'll be shooting video for some tour operators in the Caribbean Sea and altough I don't need to make a video look like it's from BBC, I want it to have some nice quality and colors.

So I tought the RX-100 II would be a good option because I've seen some GREAT video made with that camera. All the other cameras I've looked at are either much more expensive or not as good as the Sony RX-100 II.

It's just too bad that Mac OSX isn't fully compatible with the .MTS files...

 

[haha49]

It's just that it's much more practical to just preview the videos hiting the spacebar on finder. It takes less then a second to know if you want to import that clip to FCPX or not. Opening with VLC takes more time. It's just a workflow thing. Saves me time to just preview the files in Finder instead of opening them.



I already filmed with a GoPro 3 Black Underwater and altough the quality is good, it's not good enough for what I want to achieve. I'll be shooting video for some tour operators in the Caribbean Sea and altough I don't need to make a video look like it's from BBC, I want it to have some nice quality and colors.

So I tought the RX-100 II would be a good option because I've seen some GREAT video made with that camera. All the other cameras I've looked at are either much more expensive or not as good as the Sony RX-100 II.

It's just too bad that Mac OSX isn't fully compatible with the .MTS files...

you still got the gopro hero 4 and you can film 4k at 30fps making it useable under water. That or the GH4 is what I would pick. Nothing beats 4k video and you can take snapshots from the video and now you have photos as well. I have a cannon G1X with the dive houseing it does well but the gopro is allot easyier to setup and use.

Don't forget you might want filters and a light and that can eat up your budget as well. It's hard finding filters for certain types of cameras as well as they just don't make them.

now with a gopro hero 4 you can use a Feiyu Tech FY-G3Ultra 3 Axis Handheld Steady Camera Gimbal For Gopro 3

it's nice because you can get stable walking footage on the boat ect.

[video=youtube_share;s_P69RGeLrM]http://youtu.be/s_P69RGeLrM[/video]

 

[Duarte]

you still got the gopro hero 4 and you can film 4k at 30fps making it useable under water. That or the GH4 is what I would pick. Nothing beats 4k video and you can take snapshots from the video and now you have photos as well. I have a cannon G1X with the dive houseing it does well but the gopro is allot easyier to setup and use.

Don't forget you might want filters and a light and that can eat up your budget as well. It's hard finding filters for certain types of cameras as well as they just don't make them.

now with a gopro hero 4 you can use a Feiyu Tech FY-G3Ultra 3 Axis Handheld Steady Camera Gimbal For Gopro 3

it's nice because you can get stable walking footage on the boat ect.

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]

 

[MB NZ]

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 ?

agree about 4K playback, but 4K gives you greater ability to crop video without losing significant quality. however, i prefer 60 fps for smoother slow motion shots.

re: the comparison - see my earlier post. the only way to compare is to have cameras mounted side-by-side.

 

[Duarte]

agree about 4K playback, but 4K gives you greater ability to crop video without losing significant quality. however, i prefer 60 fps for smoother slow motion shots.

re: the comparison - see my earlier post. the only way to compare is to have cameras mounted side-by-side.

I understand because one system is using powerful lights and the other isn't, but I think we all agree the quality of the Rx-100 II is better than the GoPro Hero 4 black

 

[MB NZ]

I understand because one system is using powerful lights and the other isn't, but I think we all agree the quality of the Rx-100 II is better than the GoPro Hero 4 black

genuinely don't know. i'd have to see a side-by-side comparison. i don't own a Hero 4 Black or an RX.

there is an assumption that a "proper" camera produces better video. i think this comes from the point i made earlier and the fact that nobody who has spent $$$$ on a proper camera wants to admit that a toy camera can produce better results.

my now ageing gopro produces better quality video than my olympus m4/3 setup, no doubt.

light is everything. my two video lights were four times the cost of my gopro and worth every penny.

 

[Duarte]

You think 2 Archon D32VR would be good?

 

[MB NZ]

nope!

 

[Duarte]

nope!

Why not?