I'm a scuba diver who bought the Action 4 primarily for diving, and have thus far been pretty bummed by the results. Crazy ghosting, looks like Predator vision. Maybe I've got the wrong settings. All I know is that so far, I haven't been able to make any underwater footage that looks as good as my Hero 8.

So I want to share here some of the footage as an example to get tips, and I'd like to include the settings I used as well. But I've since fiddled with the settings and am not sure which I used for earlier recordings. Is there an easy way for me to see the settings used for a particular video?

I am more than happy with the Action 4 for scuba diving. My settings and link to video here.

Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. You may upload your video via Google Drive or Youtube then send the link here so we can check it further and provide you with some suggestions. In addition, you may also want to check the Scuba Diving mode. You may press and hold the shutter button for 5 seconds to enter then press the Quick Switch button to start or stop recording. If the camera is already underwater and the water depth reaches a certain level, the shutter/record button will not be working due to high water pressure, and the camera will automatically enter Scuba Diving mode (with the touchscreen prompting: Due to high water pressure, shutter/record button is disabled automatically. Press Quick Switch button to start or stop recording.). Thank you.

Reiner. Posted at 9-23 22:57
I am more than happy with the Action 4 for scuba diving. My settings and link to video here.

Nice footage for sure. A couple questions ....

Did you film in sharpness -1 since you planned to add sharpness in post? Or is there another benefit to the footage using this setting?

-0.3 EV - I see this used a lot, I'm frankly not sure why. This just darkens / underexposes the footage slightly, correct?

Since I film in darker environments, I was thinking of trying next 24 FPS, ISO 100-3200, shutter 1/24 - 1/8000. I'm guessing that the crazy effects in my older footage (links now in the thread) are due to a combination of image stabalization and noise reduction. So I'll keep rocksteady but put noise reduction to -2. Since my goal is to get the best possible footage without much post production, I'll keep sharpness at 1.

DJI Paladin Posted at 9-23 23:02
Hi there. Thank you for reaching out. You may upload your video via Google Drive or Youtube then send the link here so we can check it further and provide you with some suggestions. In addition, you may also want to check the Scuba Diving mode. You may press and hold the shutter button for 5 seconds to enter then press the Quick Switch button to start or stop recording. If the camera is already underwater and the water depth reaches a certain level, the shutter/record button will not be working due to high water pressure, and the camera will automatically enter Scuba Diving mode (with the touchscreen prompting: Due to high water pressure, shutter/record button is disabled automatically. Press Quick Switch button to start or stop recording.). Thank you.

Here are the links, using a few different settings combinations. The resolution on the videos is low because I simply did a screen video recording of the Quicktime playback from the SD card (I don't have a video editor yet). So the actual footage from the camera is slightly sharper, but the ghosting effects are plainly visible when moving the camera.
DJI Forum not allowing me to save the links in my post for some reason, so the actual video addresses are listed below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tno7GEiXe9M


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ptFYFMyWt8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V38h08IGm8

MasterDiver Posted at 9-24 02:53
Did you film in sharpness -1 since you planned to add sharpness in post? Or is there another benefit to the footage using this setting?

Yes, sharpness -1 due to post processing. And EV -0.3 because I have seen that in another Youtube video, but would leave it at EV 0 next time.

I had a look at your examples and find it difficult to identify a problem - beside the very dark and greenish conditions. Recording in D Log-M, post processing and a lamp with a wider light angle could help.

Reiner. Posted at 9-24 05:41
Yes, sharpness -1 due to post processing. And EV -0.3 because I have seen that in another Youtube video, but would leave it at EV 0 next time.

I had a look at your examples and find it difficult to identify a problem - beside the very dark and greenish conditions. Recording in D Log-M, post processing and a lamp with a wider light angle could help.

In the first example, at the 5 second mark the entire foreground duplicates / blurs / jumps, like the algorithm was struggling with something.

In the second example, take a look at the rope at about 2 seconds. A lot of ghosting.

The third example is similar to the first, albeit not as pronounced.

These are examples I just snipped off hand, but when watching the footage uninterrupted it would happen frequently.

I just did a dive in medium light conditions, and turned down the noise reduction. I haven't gone through everything but so far it seems it could be better.

MasterDiver Posted at 9-24 02:56
Here are the links, using a few different settings combinations. The resolution on the videos is low because I simply did a screen video recording of the Quicktime playback from the SD card (I don't have a video editor yet). So the actual footage from the camera is slightly sharper, but the ghosting effects are plainly visible when moving the camera.
DJI Forum not allowing me to save the links in my post for some reason, so the actual video addresses are listed below.

Thank you for your response. Have you tried enabling the Horizonsteady feature and see if there's any changes?

DJI Paladin Posted at 9-26 01:53
Thank you for your response. Have you tried enabling the Horizonsteady feature and see if there's any changes?

I haven't used Horizonsteady, but when reviewing recent footage with the noise reduction turned all the way down to -2, it seems the ghosting effect has been resolved. It appears as though the noise reduction feature was just struggling a bit in low-contrast environments.

The last issue I've got with the camera is the tendency for underwater footage to come out far too green - like neon highlighter green. Sometimes in the same shot it'll suddenly turn bright green for a bit, then turn back. I've had this issue with a fixed WB and AWB. This has happened even when the water itself wasn't especially green.

I do NOT dive or anything like that.   I strongly believe you would get better non-ghosting results with Horizonsteady off with the lens set to Wide.   You would then use a free tool like Gyroflow to stabilize it for great results.   I get ghosting at night whenever I use any of the 3 Horizon steady options.

MasterDiver Posted at 9-26 05:11
I haven't used Horizonsteady, but when reviewing recent footage with the noise reduction turned all the way down to -2, it seems the ghosting effect has been resolved. It appears as though the noise reduction feature was just struggling a bit in low-contrast environments.

The last issue I've got with the camera is the tendency for underwater footage to come out far too green - like neon highlighter green. Sometimes in the same shot it'll suddenly turn bright green for a bit, then turn back. I've had this issue with a fixed WB and AWB. This has happened even when the water itself wasn't especially green.

Thank you for your response. We're glad that you managed to figure it out. Hope that you could also get the best recommendation from our fellow DJI members here. Thank you for your valued support.