Davide DB

IMHO this is the best for divers in the Med. But as i wrote it's in Italian only. https://www.nhbs.com/atlante-di-flora-fauna-del-mediterraneo-atlas-of-flora-fauna-of-the-mediterranean-book

I own that but it's really an outdated book with drawings and no pictures. I have a long list of latest books for Mediterranean species. All the collection from Egidio Trainito is exceptional with one or more photos for each species. But they are only in Italian so i would not add them to this list.

I have been following this user for quite some time. He tries compact cameras and action cams in everyday scenes so you get a good idea. He has posted many videos of the Insta 360 ace pro. I was intrigued by this one where he tests additional standard 52 mm macro lenses and in the comments explains that Insta makes an adapter that mounts directly to the camera body. There is an underwater housing and possibly AOI has a specific adapter to mount their lens on the housing. The AOI site has all the separate pieces but figuring out what is needed is not easy.

Free wet lens for everyone 😄 Let me think about it

First of all, what's your camera/housing?

Do you mean Kraken's list? That is a photographic tecnique list. Maybe it worths a list on the id section. Know your species...

I love this photo. What's wrong with it? Beautiful sponge and sea surface seems marble. Was it raining?

For sure, blennies are among the most loved and photographed underwater subjects, perhaps second only to nudibranchs! I recommend this book by marine biologist Francesco Tiralongo, published in 2020 and published in English and Italian. The book is specific to the Mediterranean but many species are far more widespread. A book that cannot be missed in the library of a diver with a passion for macro photography. With the author's permission, I post some photos of the book here.

The classic straw that breaks the camel's back!

We look forward to read a report from you (full of BTS photos) 🙂

Being the first time, I would go with the default lens and port. I don't know which critters you can spot there but on your LX-10 you have a 24-72mm zoom. Quite enough IMHO. I would use 1080@50p even if it's only 28 Mbps. Topaz or Resolve superscale makes miracles but you can switch your camera to 4K@30p in a blink. 30p can be slowed down to 80% easily. If the critter isn't moving fast you can break the 180° rule filming at the same FPS number. Nobody will scream 🙂

Well, could we call it Blackwater? I wouldn't watch it before a night dive 👻

Bertrand Loyer's film was shot in 2015 on an ocean buoy between France and Corsica. It was the first time it was filmed alive (and not dying or dead) in its environment. they encountered several Giant oarfish. Some had their tails cut off after the anal slit, while others, more complete, measured up to 9 m! The footage is exceptional. The sounds and music, based on the wind instrument Duduk, impart a very spooky note to the images. Giant oarfish apart, there is a shot of a white shark in the Mediterranean Sea. I never figured out if it is stock footage or was taken while diving under the buoy. French, English, Spanish language with tons of subtitles, enjoy your viewing

I have watched all the videos and also the tutorials. You can also interrogate me. 👮🏼‍♂️ What I got out of it: Blackwater video seems to be more difficult than photography. It is important to be a diver with good skills. Keeping the critters in focus is really a challenge: MF with focus peaking or latest PDAF tech. Exposure challenge: Zebra stripes help me! If I think back to my difficulty in shooting small animals in the current in the daytime blue, I think I would not be able to do better than the videos I have seen. But I can still say in no uncertain terms that, Aquatilis aside and maybe one other, they are all terrible. They are all burned out or out of focus and ruined by backscatter. For many of them it is not possible to trace the cameras used. The video tutorial seems to contradict the article linked above. It says to use lights between 4K and 10K lumens. Basically really bright lights while didn't understand what it says about focus light placement. Then looking at the tutorial example video brings to mind the saying "do as I say but don't do as I do" 🙂 It made a lot more sense to me to not use too strong lights because you lose the reflected luminescence of many organisms and then the distances are short. It seems to me that the recommendations of macro shots and not wide angle shots apply more. With fairly concentrated lights only around the subject you avoid illuminating the entire portion of water between the lens and the subject limiting backscatter. A low power medium wide focus light would help to not lose the critter into the dark. I read that many divers use a handheld torch to scout critters. Of course I am thinking out loud: until you try it in the water it is hard to know the truth. I am waiting for the tests of @bghazzal 😜

Yes, Puccio says it in his video and he swaps the lens on the two mounting systems.

How do you check the correction applied by the variable filter underwater? Through the GoPro display? 🧐 BTW i see that the variable filter is marked EOL on Inon site

Hi Elias, It's there. Tap or click on the three vertical dots on the right near the author. Let me know

On the tutorial section there's a thread on DIY receipts

Hello Isaac! Welcome!

I stumbled upon this film, short, commercial. I don't know what to call it. Essentially a Sony commercial for its latest cinema camera. The Sony Burano. The director and director of photography is Emmanuel Lubezki (three-time Oscar winner for cinematography). The photography is very documentary. All very nice but the underwater shots left me a bit puzzled. Surely it was a stylistic choice to leave the images absolutely without contrast? Sony, in the comments, says that the whales were raising a lot of sablefish and the water was murky. Mah. There is also a behind the scenes. for us divers, the video operator is Marcelo Johan Ogata AKA BugDreamer. Nauticam housing seems to be the latest universal housing.. BTS

In anticipation of completing filming this winter and (perhaps) capturing the elusive spawning behavior of these increasingly rare Mediterranean trout (Salmo [trutta] macrostigma), my buddy assembled a small video with some of the footage taken last year. Actually we have hours of footage with trouts being trouts 😄 All the footage and interviews will be used to produce a documentary on the population of these trout in the Fibreno, a river south of Rome, Italy. We are not the BBC natural history Unit, so all the underwater trout clips are a mix of GoPro 5 and 11. As you can see, in these conditions there's no difference between a Gopro 5 and a Gopro 11. Only The final shot of the fry is taken with a GH5 and a Leica 45mm.

hahahah what a figure! Despite of the smaller FOV I see really bad corners there... But... wait! It's RX100M5 😄

Terrific video and trip report, thanks! I see they offer trips in different period of the season. What's the best? Ciao

There would actually be an action cam that on paper was intended for "professionals". But it was ruined by Sony itself who never believed in it. The first version cost 1,000 euros and was worse than a Gopro. With the second version they added features but they are still behind even though they have come down to milder advice with the price. but it still costs more than a GoPro. I never had a chance to try it out. From the specs it is interesting that it has a small FOV (24 mm) and linear lens and even Autofocus. Accessories cost like a child in college 😄 https://www.sony-asia.com/electronics/cyber-shot-compact-cameras/dsc-rx0m2

I recall perfectly that Laurent Ballesta was using the EMWL on his Seacam housing in one of his documentaries.