Blackmagic Camera App for underwater | Every setting explained!

[@Romeo-4]

Great video, Matthias! I'd like to add 2 things into this video: 1. You may find EV comp slider more useful in the situations when you DONT WANT to mess with your focus and exposure by tapping. EV comp slider adjusts your shutter speed and ISO to achieve darker or brighter image. 2. Display LUTs - I found a way to actually see what I'm recording underwater by creating extra LUTs based on original Apple ProRes conversion LUT. This can be done in Davinci Resolve by creating 2 nodes and deploying conversion LUT onto second one. Onto FIRST node (BEFORE conversion) use RGB mixer tool and add RED. Create LUTs with values of between 1.05 to 1.25 (more RED for deeper videos). Generate LUTs and import them into LUT folder on your iPhone. Enabling LUT on the surface will make everything very RED, but when you go underwater you will actually be able to see what kind of image you're going to get when you press Record button. You will also be able to have better control over you WB and Tint and set them more precisely, because changes are gonna be more visible. Highlights (skies) will obviously be reddish in that scenario, but I suppose we can fix it by creating another LUT that addresses that issue, by removing red from highlights. Its cheap and easy trick that you may use for another video. You're welcome :)

[@BlueandSong]

Thank you for this video. The Blackmagic camera app was recommended and I’ve used it a bit but finding documentation on all the different settings and functions wasn’t accomplished. This will help tremendously.

[@MatthiasLebo]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you find the video helpful. 😊

[@BlueandSong]

@@MatthiasLebodo you use any specific app for taking still shots such as Halide?

[@MatthiasLebo]

I don't really do much photography underwater. But if I do, I usually use the Abode Lightroom app.

[@BlueandSong]

@@MatthiasLebo thank you

[@karlkwok4386]

Long awaited video!! Thank you for sharing all the insights. ❤

[@MatthiasLebo]

No worries mate, you're welcome 👍🏻

[@Chaotic133]

Auf das Video habe ich gewartet, sehr schön 🤩 Vielen Dank für die Mühe ❤

[@MatthiasLebo]

Sehr gerne 😊

[@ferdicorreia]

Hello Matthias thanks for sharing this nice video

[@MatthiasLebo]

@@ferdicorreia my pleasure. Glad you found it useful. 😊

[@fishytales794]

Thank you for this very useful guide to the BM app. Thoroughly and painstakingly done I appreciate your dedication!

[@MatthiasLebo]

Glad it was helpful mate. 😊

[@cglVideo]

Thank you for this video, greatly appreciated as I am starting with this setup.

[@MatthiasLebo]

You're very welcome ☺️

[@stevemathieson6224]

Thanks Matthias! Underwater Video novice just had Divevolk Seatouch 4 delivered gonna take it for first outing Swanage UK at the weekend :)

[@MatthiasLebo]

You're welcome buddy. I hope the first test went well?

[@BeaGarcia35]

Thank you so much Matthias! So helpful!

[@MatthiasLebo]

Thank you for the feedback and you're very welcome.

[@BlueandSong]

Thanks!

[@MatthiasLebo]

Thank you so much for your support buddy 🙏😊

[@bjarkerollmann8544]

Hi Matthias, great video. Just bought the Divevolk Seatouch 4 Mac. I will be using an IPhone 15 (non-pro). Will your LUT work with the 15?

[@MatthiasLebo]

Yes, absolutely. The color science hasn’t changed much in between the recent iPhones. In fact, I’ve just used the LUTs on some footage from the iPhone 16 Pro Max and it worked just fine.

[@Capt_Tuch]

Great video thanks. It would be best to be more concrete regarding WB without red filter according depths, even if it’s an average estimate. So the camera is ready for a usual sunny day at 15m for example, and underwater you can correct slightly when needed. And for exemple to make 2 preset with and without red filter. What would you recommend ?

[@MatthiasLebo]

You can definitely do that, but it depends a lot on the camera model and the color profile you're using, the clarity of the water and other environmental conditions. Giving general recommendations here is very difficult. Maybe use this as a general rule: Right at the surface, on a partially sunny day, you're looking at around 5600 Kelvin, the deeper down you go, the more you should be increasing the Kelvin number. Depending on the environment you will reach the maximum of (depending on your camera) around 9500 Kelvin somewhere between 15 - 25 meters. Hope this helps?

[@rebeccadarling5894]

So helpful!! Drilling into ISO, is there a way to set a min/max of Auto? I’d like to be able to cap it at say 200… yes, I’m a GoPro girl 😅

[@MatthiasLebo]

Hey Rebecca, As far as I know this is not possible, unfortunately. 😕 if you want that kind of control you’ll have to go to full manual. But honestly, keeping a low ISO is not so critical on a modern smartphone as it is on a GoPro. 😉

[@rebeccadarling5894]

@@MatthiasLebothat makes sense, no need to fix a problem the iPhone doesn’t have

[@Capt_Tuch]

Also I am thinking to buy a smartphone cheap housing and from my days of research I understood that not many housing would allow you the touch screen for the BM App… are the hard housing with 4/5 buttons allow you as much ? Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@MatthiasLebo]

No, you will need a housing that allows you to use the touch screen of the housing to be able to use the Blackmagic Camera App. At the moment the only viable option is the Seatouch 4 Max (bit.ly/3nVqDaS).

[@alanheinrich132]

thank you Matthias! one question...how do you have over 20 hrs of record time?????? mine shows only 40 mins!

[@MatthiasLebo]

Hey Alain, This could have different reasons. First, what size memory does your iPhone have? I have the model with the largest memory available (1TB). Second how much of your original memory is still available and how much has already been used up by apps, photos, videos, etc.? And third, what codec have you set your video recording to? If you choose Apple ProRes 422 it will need much more space then when choosing HEVC, and therefore result in a shorter available record time. Does that help?

[@alanheinrich132]

@@MatthiasLebo ahhh yes...I found this out that the phone has 1TB. Mine only has 256gb. So that is the difference. Thank you for the response...and all of your help on this channel!

[@MatthiasLebo]

@alanheinrich132 you’re very welcome ☺️

[@raadalkhaldi]

My phone is iPhone 13 pro and I couldn’t find Apple Log - HDR in the Color Space settings … could you help please!

[@MatthiasLebo]

Apple LOG was introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro. If you have an older model Apple LOG will not be available for you unfortunately.

[@aymanalhabash1990]

I have a question please if you allow me.. if I filmed raw underwater with arri or red ..should I need to use filters !?

[@MatthiasLebo]

Depends a lot on the situation and the environment your filming in (deep water/shallow water/ambient light only/artificial light source/ect.). But generally speaking a filter won't do much harm other than reducing the amount of light entering through the lens onto your sensor. So yes, generally speaking I would use one.

[@aymanalhabash1990]

@@MatthiasLebo well thank you so much for your response..