Hello, and thanks for visiting my channel, where I'd like to share some of my diving videos with you. Overseas, I work with Scuba Travel (www.scubatravel.com) escorting wreck diving trips worldwide, but mostly in the Red Sea, and in the UK I dive locally or by booking a space on a charter boat. I've been diving for thirty years and shooting still pictures most of that time, but video is new to me, and I'm using it to tell stories about my diving. Thanks again for joining me.
many thanks for all your hard work, a wonderfully presented snippet of history for those of us lucky enough to visit without knowing as much as we probably would like to
@huwpenson2678 You're right, but after more time with the camera and using different angles of view, I've come back to ultra-wide as my preferred setting. There are a couple of issues with it, but overall, it's the compromise I like best.
@alejandro1904 She certainly is impressive, and when you're the only group on her, she seems to be larger than usual. If you get to night dive her again try to get to the foredeck and either turn your torch off or put the lamp against your chest and swim forward in the darkness for a truly memorable experience!
@SciborLipinski Thank you, technically not up to current action camera standards, but it was an exceptional day with two fantastically memorable dives. Seals are my favourite marine critter!
@@mikeward736 maybe technically not up to modern standards but I really like how you create that movie underwater. Fantastic job. Once again thanks for your job. Greetings from Poland.
@SciborLipinski Thank you again! Camera wise, depends where you dive. For UK waters I like Go Pro, for blue water the Osmo Action 4. Bear in mind I now class myself as a diver who takes video, not a videographer who dives.
@@mikeward736 Due to high water pressure, shutter/record button is disabled automatically. Press Quick Switch button to start or stop recording diving mode How can I disable it?
@danielvilliers612 Agreed, using the wide setting and Rocksteady Plus seems to work best.I'll put another video up in a few weeks with a review of the settings I like best.
@KevMac56 A pair of Archon D11V I got from ebay years ago. They work very well, they aren't quite wide enough beam and lack a bit of oomph for shallow blue-water but are small, lightweight and very reliable.
@71sagittarius The way I think of it is that if you're a diver who shoots video, it's as good as it gets, but if you're a videographer who dives, you'll need to spend lots more
@@mikeward736 Correct exactly what I have said. It is very good, probably the best camera for its class and money range. When I'm saying you... means everyone who wants better footage. This is in 2024. In few years time who knows...
In UK with the lack of sunlight and colours this is the best you can get with action camera. These class cameras are pretty much entry level devices. So, yeah good results, and much better than GoPro.
@Ecovictorian Thanks. There's a small wreck on the opposite side of the Red Sea at Ashrafi that has narrow-gauge track, but as far as I know Thistlegorm's Staniers are unique.
It's the water that reduces colour and contrast, and depends on depth, visibility and water colour. UK waters are greenish, tropical water tends to be blue. Different cameras deal with these issues differently, I'm actually quite impressed with the Action 4, it's surprisingly good, but you have given me a topic for a future video, thanks!
@Paull1337 Agreed, post-processing is important. One of the strengths of the Action 4 is it provides a good starting point for post, for an action camera
@NitrosHELI Thank you, though I honestly think I have a lot to learn! Software is VSDC, which runs well on my less than top spec laptop. Workflow depends on the individual video, the trip videos come out of whatever footage I shoot, the plan videos were much more structured around the story. I'll have a think about a video to answer the query properly.
@@mikeward736 I heard that AOI will release soon an adapter to DJI Osmo Action cameras to attach the UWL-03 wide angle wet lens. I use it on GoPro12 and it corrects the corner problems and brings the closest focus to 4 cm.
I’ve just come back from diving in Thailand with the Action 4 and was very impressed with straight out of camera footage. So much better than my experience with the Go pro.
@jarotwibowo1743 Everything labelled camera footage is unedited, except for trimming the shots, where the footage is post-processed it's labelled as edited. I use VSDC, I like the colour balancing tools, and as it's a very manual piece of software it makes me think about what I'm doing.
Thanks for posting - very informative. Curious particularly for your low light / night shots - were you in pro mode, or no? I'm impressed with how relatively noise-less your footage came out, or at least how minimal the noise appeared to be at 1080. Any information you can share regarding what you used for low light as far as ISO, framerate, in-camera noise reduction, etc. would be super helpful!
I deliberately left the camera defaults as they were, no limiting the ISO, no changes to noise reduction, still shooting in 1080 at 50fps. Like you, I was very impressed with the twilight shots, and also with the way the camera handled the shot of my buddy Neil swimming into a wreck in total darkness. I expected that to be useless mush!
You mentioned the color balance isn't consistent. In your video, there's a close-up and a far-away shot. It's totally normal for the far-away shot to look darker; that's just how cameras work.
If you look at the colour of the hull bottom in the two shots they're clearly different. It's not a big deal, they could be balanced to look the same, but two shots taken seconds apart at the same depth and of the same subject are different.
Thanks for that. It's interesting about the dome, but probably not surprising given the long minimum focus distance driven by that bigger sensor. Log 10 on the next video.
I have found the same, good report, I use "Wide" as I find the distortion at the edges to much. I've tried the Osmo 4 in a Telesin dome housing, all to soft underwater, needs a diopter!. You get get better recoverable deep image quality if you used Log. I use mine for B roll top/shallow work so Standard "10 bit" colour is fine.
@@mikeward736 Yeah, the angle doesn't allow for a lot of information. The smaller end definitely has a flange, the growth would have long ago covered any holes. The small rise at the middle of the large end looks like a PTO. Having said that, if sat upright on the small end, it also looks like a ships toilet; with the rise being the fitting for the flush water pipe.
@billsmith6884 Thanks for that, my dive-buddy Neil is an ex-motor vehicle mechanic who has worked with some exotic machinery and he's the one who pointed out the lack of bolt- holes. Next time out I'll spend some more time with these and see if I can get some measurements and close-ups. FYI there are over sixty of them, which suggests they were needed in numbers, and there seem to be two variants, differing in the end construction.
@@mikeward736 I was in a helicopter hovering over it. Streams of fuel, luggage and other evidence of her humanity floated about. The ship lay on her side w attached lifeboats and the hull clearly visable. Sad.
Helpful video - I just took the Action 4 on a dive trip myself and am curious about some of your shots (which generally look quite good). ISO - I find that the Action 4 seems to use all / most of the ISO sensitivity allowed in the parameters set by the user, prioritizing a faster shutter speed. However using any in-camera noise reduction in conjunction with RockSteady results in a dramatic ghosting effect - perhaps due to the relatively low-contrast, modest light conditions often encountered when diving. This ghosting can apparently be mitigated by turning off RockSteady, but of course that yields a pretty shaky shot even when trying to hold the camera steady - to the point I'd rather deal with a noisier image than a non-stabilized one. Using manual exposure can help by setting a 1/25 shutter speed - but of course that risks over exposing the image by aiming the camera towards the surface while still underwater. Curious what ISO settings you used for some of your shots, and if you did any noise reduction in post? Are you using FCP? I find ISO 1600 results in distinct but tolerable noise, and 1600 can look OK even in relatively low light conditions. I might start capping the camera at ISO 800, 24 FPS unless I know the dive will result in prolonged footage in dark areas. Curious what your approach has been. EDIT: I also took a Hero12 and Action4 diving on the same day (albeit two different sites) as shown in my dive log video on my channel. I opted for the OSMO over the GoPro for a couple reasons. Subjective, but I think I prefer the way sensor noise manifests on the Action 4 vs. the Hero 12, as it's a tad more filmic to me. To me the Hero12 wasn't much better at avoiding the footage color switches - I noticed multiple oscillations between blue looking and green looking footage throughout the course of a single dive where the conditions themselves were essentially static. The second dive on the aforementioned video shows this quite prominently. For me the larger sensor and slightly sharper footage of the OSMO won out, but ultimately it seems much of the differences are pretty slight.
I think you're quite right that there are trade-offs with the Action 4 (And similar cameras) but it's basically a good camera, better in blue water than green. I'll be posting a new video shortly, and then a 'recommended settings' video in a little while, I'm still finalising those.
Awesome guide sir , thank you for the effort you put into creating this excellent work !! A few years ago I saw some photos of Fiat sedans in 1 of the Thistlegorm’s holds . Have you ever seen those cars ? And if so , any chance you have video footage of them ?
Thank you for that. No Fiat cars on Thistlegorm, I'm afraid, they're on the wreck of the Umbria down in Sudan, but you may well have seen a picture captioned 'Fiats on Thistlegorm' because there's a lot of poor information on the Red Sea shipwrecks out there.
Hi, I'd use the default auto colour balance and ISO range, the ultra-wide lens setting and Rocksteady boost, then try not to pan much and shoot a lot of footage so you've plenty to edit from.
14:52 never seen any pics or footage of the starboard locomotive boiler before Mike, do you have more pics/footage of these or the cabs that aren’t it in this or the 8F video? Great stuff as always 😃
I've more starboard boiler footage, and video of what at first sight looked like the starboard cab, but not so sure now, the plate it's made from looks much too thick and the shape doesn't seem quite right even allowing for the blast. Oddly, I've less port boiler footage, despite it being easier to visit, and nothing cab-like at all from that side. I'm intending to re-do the 8F video this year, so will try for more footage of both boilers and search for the cabs, current permitting!
@@mikeward736 thanks so much for the reply Mike, fingers crossed for a forgiving current in that case! I saw a recent video that appears to show the open smokebox door of the starboard locomotive having finally fallen off, so a few changes to document for sure. Will keep tuned to the channel as always! All the best
