Northwest Dive Club

After more than a year, I finally figured out how to get good color video from my Canon GX7 II camera. Here is 85 seconds of clips from a Friday dive at Edmonds. I couldn't believe how many kelp crabs were crawling on wreckage of the Triumph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5bsQFTC-Y&t=6s

Here was the trick:

Short answer: I used a picture of sand, from a previous dive, to set a custom white balance.

Long answer: The problem is that MP4 (video) bakes in the white balance. [This is not an issue for stills that I record raw.] So, you must set a reasonable white balance. The GX7 II offers a "underwater" white balance, but as far as I can tell, no one uses it. It also offers a custom white balance, where you take a picture of something white (or grey) underwater and then tell it to use that picture to set the WB. The problem is that for the GX7 II, setting a custom WB takes about 10 steps, too many for me underwater. (I understand the 1st GX7 is one step.) So, I used a picture of sand from a previous dive to set the custom WB before the dive. My other settings are TV with a 1/125 sec shutter. Everything else is auto. (For stills, I also LOVE slow-speed contiguous burst.)

- Carl

Very cool. Odd you can't set white balance in post, but I don't know video. I'm sure others will comment.

White balance will depend on the depth and the viz for the day, so maybe have a few pics around?

I was also concentrating on stills. Here are some of them (including the 1st sea lion we've seen under the Puget Sound!). - Carl
"Keep your friends close and your anemones closer."

Nice report! I love that huge seastar!!

Oh man that looks like it was fun. Edmonds with good vis is awesome! Nice shots and video