Hi I shot a few snorkelling videos, and I noticed on at least 2 of them that the white balance suddenly (or progressively) changes between a greenish look and more natural colors, making it pretty much unusable as a unique video, I'd have to cut it and color-correct some parts of it.
I don't seem to be able to upload a video which is 2 seconds long and 11 MB big, so here are 2 screenshots from that video; separated by just a few frames:





I know there is a color sensor in the front that is supposed to help with white balance underwater, and I wondered if maybe I covered it while shooting the video but I don't think it is realistic the way I hold the camera. So I'm assuming either the sensor hardware is faulty, or the camera software is buggy for this feature.

I have the latest firmware, v01.04.0710.

Has anyone ever experienced it or heard about it ? Is the Osmo team interested in getting the video files for review ?

I didn't find anything about it here, but I googled it and I did find somebody mentioning a "neon green" effect underwater which looks like the same issue. I don't think I'm allowed to post a link with an external url here?

Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

We apologize for the inconvenience. To assist you further, could you please provide a video sample of the issue? You may send it through shareable links such as Google Drive or Dropbox, allowing me to examine it more closely.

Looking forward to your response. Thank you.

As mentioned e. g. in the thread ‚Scuba diving with the OA4‘, just don’t use AWB underwater. I use 5500K which is the temperature of the lamp I am using. I use the same temperature if the lamp is off and fix it in post.

Reiner. Posted at 7-21 20:39
As mentioned e. g. in the thread ‚Scuba diving with the OA4‘, just don’t use AWB underwater. I use 5500K which is the temperature of the lamp I am using. I use the same temperature if the lamp is off and fix it in post.

Hi, what "thread" are you referring to ?

I just found out about the issue so I may give it a try, but that would be a terrible workaround, I don't want to have to think about setting the WB before diving and resetting it afterwards, or having to do it in the water. And I assume it will change depending on the depth that you dive to, and also come out wrong as soon as you film above water. Also, in the forum post https://scubaboard.com/community/threads/dji-action-4.636817/post-10082288 that I found while googling, they said that it would not solve it:

"The remaining beef I have with the camera is that footage will sometimes come out waaaaayyy greener than it appeared in the water. Like neon highligher green. I've had this issue with both a fixed value for WB and AWB. Sometimes the color temperature will noticably hop / oscillate between neon green and not neon green."

DJI Diana Posted at 7-21 20:07
Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

Hi, here are 2 examples:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vx8W82mk8kxyg4iH3Ht_9zYQjmXHCKhC?usp=sharing

Reiner. Posted at 7-21 20:39
As mentioned e. g. in the thread ‚Scuba diving with the OA4‘, just don’t use AWB underwater. I use 5500K which is the temperature of the lamp I am using. I use the same temperature if the lamp is off and fix it in post.

EDIT: I just realized you quoted the title of the thread, my bad.
Also I don't use a lamp, so your workaround is probably not applicable to me.

That is an odd issue certainly. I expected to see it go from greenish to blue, while it corrected colour balance. But in your first video it starts correctly and quickly changes to Green!

Personally, I would stick with auto, because there are pretty strong colour temp changes underwater as you move deeper or if you move from a shaded area to a sun filled area. If you have a strong lamp, then fixing the temp 'might' work better. Trouble is, anything not in lamp light will be wrong.....

It’s almost like the camera is turning a red filter on and off and the camera is on the cusp of whether it needs a red filter or not!! I wonder whether the lighting is changing just slightly to get a stronger red into the video via auto? If so, there is something wrong because it’s very fast. It should go slowly.

I’m guessing you’re not holding the actual camera and shading/convering the temp control monitor on the front?

The auto white balance seems to be very different from manual because of that sensor on the front. If auto reports a colour temp of say, 55k, if you manually set 55k, it looks very different, so I think that the sensor does quite a lot and improves white balance in auto over manual. I tried it on my camera and the difference is quite large, but I can’t see why it would suddenly shift like that

Iancraig10 Posted at 7-22 04:03
That is an odd issue certainly. I expected to see it go from greenish to blue, while it corrected colour balance. But in your first video it starts correctly and quickly changes to Green!

Personally, I would stick with auto, because there are pretty strong colour temp changes underwater as you move deeper or if you move from a shaded area to a sun filled area. If you have a strong lamp, then fixing the temp 'might' work better. Trouble is, anything not in lamp light will be wrong.....

Yes, auto seems the way to go, manual WB would be a nightmare I think but I'll give it a try next time to confirm.

I don't think I was interfering with the WB sensor in the front, but I will definitely be even more cautious about it the next time, too.

I have yet to review all my underwater shots, I only noticed it on those 2 while browsing random clips, I'll check them all and see if I have other occurrences.

Let's wait for some feedback from DJI team, to see if they are aware of this issue and if this is software or hardware.

In the meantime, if other people experienced it, please say so.

DJI Diana Posted at 7-21 20:07
Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

Hi Diana, were you able to download and review the videos ?

Also I noticed there's a typo in my title thread (underwwater with 2 'w's) but I don't see how I can fix it, can you do it ? So that people using the search feature in forum can find this topic [EDIT: found it, I don't think I had the option to edit my first post the other day for some reason]

Thanks

sebchang Posted at 7-29 12:04
Hi Diana, were you able to download and review the videos ?

Also I noticed there's a typo in my title thread (underwwater with 2 'w's) but I don't see how I can fix it, can you do it ? So that people using the search feature in forum can find this topic [EDIT: found it, I don't think I had the option to edit my first post the other day for some reason]

Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

We apologize for the delayed response. May we confirm if this situation happened during nighttime? if yes, we recommend manually setting the white balance. To do this, go to Adjust Parameters > Pro > White Balance > M and manually adjust the value based on current light conditions (for example, to 6000 k).

Should you have any other questions, kindly message us for assistance. Thank you.

DJI Diana Posted at 8-1 02:39
Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

Hi no it was during daytime, and only 1-2 meters deep.
Have you been able to watch my videos ?
Have you talked to dev team or product owner ?

I think I will request a replacement for my camera while it's still under warranty

sebchang Posted at 8-1 04:41
Hi no it was during daytime, and only 1-2 meters deep.
Have you been able to watch my videos ?
Have you talked to dev team or product owner ?

That’s probably a good idea. I took mine out last week and the white balance remained constant, so it sounds like you have a fault.

sebchang Posted at 8-1 04:41
Hi no it was during daytime, and only 1-2 meters deep.
Have you been able to watch my videos ?
Have you talked to dev team or product owner ?

I dived again yesterday, and most of my videos have the same shifting hue.

I'm very disappointed, I stopped buying gopros due to multiple stability issues to give it a try at DJI, and even though it looked good initially, this issue is a vibe-killer.

I'll contact my dealer for a replacement, but I'd still like to hear back from DJI teams about it.

DJI Diana Posted at 8-1 02:39
Hi there,
thank you for reaching out.

Hi Diana, what do you mean "message your for assistance" ?

Hey all, I have it as well. The video is three weeks old, so I'm not sure if there is any firmware update for it. I bought the camera a month ago.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jy9TwU_PU19HZOfHOxClKv6LSYJeeojb/view?usp=sharing

maleric Posted at 9-4 08:50
Hey all, I have it as well. The video is three weeks old, so I'm not sure if there is any firmware update for it. I bought the camera a month ago.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jy9TwU_PU19HZOfHOxClKv6LSYJeeojb/view?usp=sharing

Just for interest sake, what do you expect from a firmware upgrade? That the automatic white balance does not automatically adjust the white balance while recording?  There are a lot of small things (sediment, organism) in the water and the camera is not that stable as above water, all can influence the AWB.

Reiner. Posted at 9-4 23:09
Just for interest sake, what do you expect from a firmware upgrade? That the automatic white balance does not automatically adjust the white balance while recording?  There are a lot of small things (sediment, organism) in the water and the camera is not that stable as above water, all can influence the AWB.

I'm not sure. Maybe to ease the colour change differently. It just happens too often. I didn't think of it as that big of an issue, but comparing the results from my older GoPro, it gets annoying for the colour to change that much in some clips.

Reiner. Posted at 9-4 23:09
Just for interest sake, what do you expect from a firmware upgrade? That the automatic white balance does not automatically adjust the white balance while recording?  There are a lot of small things (sediment, organism) in the water and the camera is not that stable as above water, all can influence the AWB.

Well they advertise this camera as having a built in sensor that allows better White Balance underwater, and in some clips, it is clearly in action, you have some reds/blues, it looks good. Then all of a sudden, with almost no movement of the camera, or objects etc coming into the frame, it goes to a neon green tint, making it look like the White Balance was reset.

So what I'm expecting is consistency. Unless there is a major change (going back to the surface, or diving deeper, or turning on a light, it should stay with the good white balance, possibly with small variations, but not like what I'm seeing. Not sure if this could come from a firmware update, or that my camera is faulty, but it's not behaving properly.