Introduction
The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro offers useful manual controls for underwater video, but automatic settings can shift significantly as depth, water colour, and available light change.
This guide provides a practical baseline to test before your next dive. Treat the values as starting points, then adjust them for depth, lighting, movement, and the firmware installed on your camera.
Table of Contents
- Quick Settings Reference Card
- Colour Profile: D-Log M
- Resolution & Frame Rate
- White Balance
- ISO
- Shutter Speed
- Stabilisation
- Other Settings
- What to Do in Post-Production
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Summary
1. Quick Settings Reference Card
| Setting | Recommended Value |
|---|---|
| Colour Profile | D-Log M |
| Resolution | 4K (3840×2160) |
| Frame Rate | 30fps (standard) or 60fps (slow motion) |
| White Balance | Manual — 5500K |
| ISO | Auto (100–800 range) |
| ISO Min | 100 |
| ISO Max | 800 |
| Shutter Speed | Auto or 1/60 (at 30fps) |
| Stabilisation | RockSteady ON |
| Sharpness | Low |
| Noise Reduction | Low |
| Audio | Off (unless using external mic) |
2. Colour Profile: D-Log M
Use D-Log M. This is the most important setting.
D-Log M is DJI’s flat log colour profile. It records footage with reduced contrast and saturation — which looks flat and grey out of the camera, but preserves significantly more colour data for post-production.
Why this matters underwater: when water absorbs red light, a standard colour profile tries to “process” the remaining data and often makes the green cast worse. D-Log M captures the raw information without processing it, giving you maximum flexibility to restore colours in post.
If D-Log M isn’t available on your model, use “Flat” or the lowest-contrast profile available.
Important: D-Log M footage will look grey and lifeless on the camera screen. This is normal. The colour comes back when you apply a LUT or grade it in post.
3. Resolution & Frame Rate
Shoot 4K at 30fps for most diving situations.
4K gives you 4x the pixel data of 1080p, which means more colour information for grading and headroom for cropping in post.
| Situation | Recommended |
|---|---|
| General reef diving | 4K 30fps |
| Fast-moving marine life (sharks, mantas) | 4K 60fps |
| Slow-motion sequences | 4K 60fps or 1080p 120fps |
| Very deep dives (low light) | 4K 30fps (better low-light performance) |
60fps gives you the option to slow down footage to 50% in a 30fps timeline — useful for smooth slow-motion sequences of turtles, jellyfish, or schooling fish.
4. White Balance
Set to Manual — 5500K.
Auto white balance shifts constantly underwater as light changes, depth changes, or the camera angle changes. This creates inconsistent colour across clips and makes batch grading in post very difficult.
5500K is approximately daylight neutral. It gives your LUT or manual grading a consistent starting point.
If you’re diving in extremely blue water (open ocean Maldives, deep walls), try 6000K. If the water is very green (temperate, murky), try 5000K. But 5500K works for 90% of situations.
5. ISO
Set ISO range to 100–800. Let the camera auto-select within this range.
Lower ISO = less noise. Underwater footage is typically darker than surface footage, so the camera will push ISO higher. Capping it at 800 prevents the grainy, noisy footage that makes colour grading difficult.
If you’re diving in very bright shallow water, you can lower the max to 400. If you’re deep or in low visibility, you may need to extend to 1600 — but expect more noise.
6. Shutter Speed
Use the 180-degree rule: shutter speed = 2x frame rate.
| Frame Rate | Shutter Speed |
|---|---|
| 30fps | 1/60 |
| 60fps | 1/120 |
This produces natural-looking motion blur. If the water is very bright (shallow, sunny), you may need an ND filter to keep the shutter speed correct.
If you’re shooting 60fps for slow motion, 1/120 is ideal. In low light, you can drop to 1/60 at 60fps — the motion blur is acceptable for underwater.
7. Stabilisation
RockSteady ON.
RockSteady is DJI’s electronic stabilisation. It crops the frame slightly but dramatically smooths out the shaky footage that’s common underwater (surge, current, buoyancy shifts).
If you need the full field of view (wide-angle reef shots), turn stabilisation off and stabilise in post using DaVinci Resolve’s stabiliser or Premiere Pro’s Warp Stabilizer.
8. Other Settings
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | Low | Over-sharpening amplifies underwater particulate and noise |
| Noise Reduction | Low | Heavy NR smears detail — better to handle noise in post |
| Audio | Off | Underwater audio is unusable unless you have an external hydrophone |
| Screen Auto-Off | 3 min | Saves battery underwater |
| Dive Case | Required below 10m | The Action 5 Pro is rated to 20m without a case, but a dive case extends to 60m |
9. What to Do in Post-Production
With these settings, your footage will come out of the camera flat and grey (because of D-Log M). Here’s how to bring it to life:
Option 1: Apply a DiveVerge DJI Ocean Pack LUT
- Import .cube files into your editor.
- Drop the LUT onto your clip.
- Choose Shallow or Deep variant based on your dive depth.
- Adjust intensity to 80–100%.
- Applied quickly, with final review and refinement based on the clip.
Option 2: Manual Grade
Follow the steps in How to Remove the Green Cast from Underwater Video.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use standard colour mode instead of D-Log M?
Yes, and DiveVerge includes LUT variants for standard colour mode. But D-Log M captures more colour data, which means better results in post. If you’re a beginner who doesn’t want to edit, standard mode is acceptable.
Do I need an underwater housing for the Action 5 Pro?
DJI rates the Action 5 Pro to 20 metres without a case and 60 metres with its Waterproof Case. DJI also recommends the case for long-duration underwater recording or higher water-impact pressure. Inspect and close every seal before use.
Should I use a red filter with the Action 5 Pro?
A red filter can be useful in blue ambient-light conditions at an appropriate depth, but it reduces light and can create incorrect colour in shallow water, green water, or when video lights are used. Treat filters and LUTs as different tools: a filter changes the light captured, while a LUT transforms recorded colour data.
What SD card should I use?
Use a card from DJI’s current recommended microSD list. DJI specifies supported cards up to 1 TB; select capacity based on resolution, frame rate, and planned recording duration.
Summary
- Shoot D-Log M for maximum colour data.
- 4K 30fps for most diving; 60fps for slow motion.
- Manual white balance at 5500K.
- ISO capped at 800.
- RockSteady ON for stabilisation.
- Low sharpness and noise reduction.
- Grade in post with a DJI-specific LUT or manual correction.