Some notes from my previous discussion with Marco:
Seeing Better (Quality/Resolution)
EDIT: There’s some extra context provided in the ‘cameras’ section of this post
This is only relevant if you’re planning to use the camera quite a bit outside the water. Water absorbs IR light practically instantly, so adding an IR filter just slightly reduces the light that can enter through other wavelengths, without the normal in-air benefit of slightly better colour quality/correctness.
If you’re after colour accuracy/visibility enhancement underwater then you’ll need to look into cameras or processing that are specifically made for that. As a few potential avenues that have been mentioned on the forum, there’s
| Forum Link | Camera? | AI-capable? | Algorithm included? | Sold By | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| real-time colour-correction | 1080p30 | Yes | Yes | DeepWaterExploration | |
| simple visibility enhancement | No | No | Yes | open source | |
| the OAK-D-Lite | 4K60/13MP | Yes | No | Luxonis (2022) | Includes stereo vision |
| OAK-1 | 4K60/12MP | Yes | No | Luxonis | no stereo, better low-light performance than OAK-D-Lite |
| video enhancement solution | any | Yes | Yes | EyeROV | post-processing only |
| the camera mentioned here | 1080p60 | No | No | Mission Robotics | apparently 4x low-light sensitivity of BR one, but not sure what camera it is |
| External Camera | 1080p50 / 4k25 | No | No | SpotX-UV | low light sensors, zoomable lens or wide angle fixed-focus, 300m rated housing |
| Z Cam E2 pod | 4k120 | No | No | MarineSee | Cinema quality, 10-bit colour, multi-lens support, can view live in Oculus 2 VR headset |
| GoPro Hero7 Black (and others) | 4K60 | No | No | GoPro | non-centred lens, may be controllable via API |
| Premiere Pro editor color correction | No | No | No | Adobe | post-processing only |
Seeing More (Angles/Directions)
Note that those are all focused on improving the quality of the image, not the viewing angle. If you want/need to see more around you you’ll need to look into
- wider angle lenses (as you mentioned),
- greater manoeuvrability (e.g. via a multi-axis gimbal), or
- adding one or more extra cameras (see here for Companion and general information - BlueOS supports multiple camera streams by default, so it just requires receiving them at the topside).