Magic filters - any good?

[siltmonkey]

Hi

Has anyone tried 'magic filters'? Here is the website : M A G I C - F I L T E R S although obviously if you know about them that will be of no use to you whatsoever!

Are they any good? Or a gimmick? Can we really expect much for 30 of our hard-earned pounds?

cheers

:-)

r

[Sakara Drinker]

Haven't used these particular ones but I have used a UR Pro filter from cameras underwater. It makes a big difference to the image but the same can be done with Photoshop later.

[triplefin]

I came across these some time ago but then forgot to follow it up so I shall be very interested to see the answers to your post. Particualrly if anyone has used these for uk photography.

[Okeanos]

They are expensive for what they are, you can buy Kood glass filters a lot cheaper, all you need is a threaded mount.

Filters are always good for a basis. What you will need to do is use a different filter for different depths and conditions. Magenta for green water, amber for blue water. It all depends on the depth and colour of the water, in the UK we get many shades of green. If you have a custom white balance on your camera (Fuji F10 has), the same effect can be made by resetting the white balance underwater, no filter needed.

White balance can be reset underwater for whatever depth and colour, filters are always the same colour, if you need to take some surface shots they will be tinted by the filter. A combination of filter and white balance has been recommended to me, I have yet to try it. I presume that as the filter is doing most of the colour changing the camera has less work to do, and gives a better overall balance, but as I said, I have yet to try it.

[yellowduke]

I have used the UR Pro filter in the Red Sea and had excellent results. So much easier than post processing! Got the filter for my video setup as well which will be hetting wet very soon, I hope!

Jim

[Sakara Drinker]

Thats why I use it. I am too bloody lazy.

[RonProwse]

I use the UR Pro filters but i would guess that magic filters will do the same thing, the only thing i can see is wrong with them is the fact that they go inside the housing and that means you cant take them off when using the camera on the surface, well not unless you want Red weighted shots.

UR pro filters are not cheap but they are worth the money in the long run.


Ron

[Lee B]

I bought the magic filters 2 weeks ago after having them recomended. I am off to the southern red Sea at the end of aug so will have a good try of them there.

Still toying with getting a strobe though an the filters are only for ambient light and manual white balance shooting so they may be an expensive waste.

[yellowduke]

In good vis you can get decent shots with ambient light surprisingly deep. A lot of my Red Sea wreck shots are ambient light with the filter at more than 20m.

Jim

[Sakara Drinker]

I use the filter and the strobe. Works well for me.