1st impressions of an HD videography newbie

Well, considering I had no experience whatsoever, let alone time to read and read read the manual, I have now been baptized by fire into the world of HiDef underwater video. It was a trial by ordeal, lol.

First impressions:

1.White balancing makes a HUGE difference as I discovered halfway through my Puerto Galera Philippines dive trip once my task loading was low enough to actually start thinking about the videocam underwater.

2.Never take $15k worth of under water video equipment with you whilst dealing with an intermittently badly leaking mouthpiece and counterlung/scrubber that wants to flood. (all resolved by the 2nd day.

3.The flip filters want to sag downwards a tad, requiring you check and occassionally make sure they are up against the stop. Yes, you do need to zoom in 10% or so you dont' see vignetting on the camera monitor and the computer monitor, who knows what will happen on a flat panel plasma if not zoomed in 10%.

4.The macro on the 2nd flip filter worked well after I used a fine diamond wheel grinder on the outer diameter of the macro lens AND after mounting on the arm, the slight edge thickness that protruded rearwards from the flip arm. Essentially what I did was thin out the very outer edge thickness of the glass, reducing the chance of rubbing against the front of the aluminum rectangular shade mount on the lens end of the FX1.

5. Amphibico's 35-50 watts HID lights really make a difference, but lights only work out to about 3-4 feet away.

6. Due to my failure to white balance and sometimes have the color correction filter in place when I got so excited seeing REALLY cool bizarre critters, I will be forced to attempt to fix it all using Apple's Final Cut Express HD's color correction tools.

7.It is important to switch arms carrying the Phenom so one arm doesn't get disproportionately buff.

8. Atlantis Dive Resort in Puerto Galera has dive guides who will carrying your Phenom back and forth so you do not have to resort to tip #7 above.

9.Forget about having the needed handle AND the monitor on the back if you have middle aged eyes.

10. Just a regular braided mountaineering rope section with snap bolts on each ends works great, no fancy lanyard/tether needed.

11. I successfully did not scratch my dome port based upon the ample warnings here.

12. An underwater tripod is a MUST when macro videotaping 1.5mm long commensal sea urchin shrimp lest land based footage viewers get motion sick on the stationery couch.

13. Big cuttlefish get big by not letting you get closer than 4' with your videocam, whereas I got close enough to small cuttlefish I was able to gently hold them in Puerto Galera.

14. I got attacked by a big pissed Titan triggerfish, but more importantly-in true videographer style, got it all on tape from a 1st person perpective AND made his teeth miss my beloved Phenom port.

A huge thanks to all for answering all my lame newbie questions,(plenty more to come!)...your help allowed me to stumble my way through my first tropical dive with a HD videocam and get enough usable footage that made it all completely worthwhile so now I am encouraged so am plotting, er, I mean planning my next tropical dive video trip. (Lembeh Straights/Bunaken area in Sulawesi Indonesia)

Oh, and staying with/diving with Atlantis Resort in Puerto Galera and all their remarkable biodiversity that is all within a 10 minute boat ride to all the sights was an incredible experience-I can't wait to go back there.

Below is a frame capture from the video footage.

great stuff dave, i must have just missed you, i was there about 2-3 weeks ago...

Glad you had a good time with the diving and the camera.. great review!

Oh, and make sure you always carry it with two hands by the side handles.... the top handle can slip.....

Yeh Dave, great to hear from you and thanks for posting your thoughts.

I'm messing around with some after market filters to see if we can get both flip arms going with the new vignetting free lens thats coming. I think it's important to have both full zoom through macro and filter options on a dive.

For Macro put the wobble thingy on hard.

For full wide put it on soft. You can do this in the menu thingy while underwater.

Shooting Whale Sharks I'm leaving the WB on auto as I'm all over the place, sometimes on the surface/split shots, sometimes under or over the shark so colour is constantly changing.

Yes check the grab handle grub screw is tight before use. The housing is very good to snorkel with filming the Whale Sharks & Mantas, even Kelly finds it very easy. It's balanced perfectly.

Looking forward to seeing some footage you shot.

Wags

Thanks guys,

I did notice that the handle is held in place by only one Allen set screw......I would have liked to have seen 2, after all, it is just a stainless steel screw impinging into softer aluminum.

After buying 3 different manufacturers macro diopters, I did notice that the Hoyas have the best diameter for the flip arms. But if I REALLY had lotrs of time to fritter, the actual top to bottom or thickness dimension also impacts whether the diopter rubs against the rear of the color correction filter or not.

I have a really fine diamond grinding wheel on a Darex professional drill sharpener that I carefully reduced the circumference and edge thickness of just using freehand grinding, then removed the 3 locking tabs designed to hold the lens in place but cause the arm thickness to be increased, then used a little bit of cyanoacrylate medium to thick bodied "superglue" around the perimeter to retain the lens to the arm...worked great.

I didn't really use the front flat viewing port, as the rear one seems to work fine for me. I think it was really slick Amphibico made the rear eyepiece focus adjustable for so it was adjusted for my needed magnifcation. I should give the top port more of a try.....I think I am going to return the unused Amphibico flat panel external monitor I didn't even take with and keep an eye out for when they come out shortly with the HiDef wide aspect external monitor.

By the way, I got a genuine Sony NP-F970, the latest/largest longest lasting Sony InfoLithium battery new and in a factory sealed packaged for $40 USD off of E-bay which is about 1/3rd what they sell for mail order.

I now notice even more how regular non-photo divers seem to travel greater distance underwater and miss so muich of the macro stuff....I was always playing catch-up.....

Mike, they told me at Atlantis that I had just missed you....it was fun watching all the dive guides there shake their heads watching me lug TheBeast to and from the camera room...

Wags, you're spot on, the thing underwater balances fine once I adjust the light arms as they affect balance quite a bit.

I just had issues with white balancing when there wasn't any light colored sand around....

Hey, my partner Bruce and I are leaving for Atlantis this Wednesday...So glad to hear you had a great trip....never been to the Philippines...how was the visibility? We were concerned that the recent eruption might have dropped vis way down. Any special marine lifte that you witnessed?

Steve B)

The typhoon reduced the visibility a tad, but from the beginning of the trip to the end, visibility was on the upswing. Average was 40-50 feet, but there was so much macro that visibility wasn't a concern.

Water temp was 84-85 degrees F. As to interesting marine life, I made HD vids of cuttlefish, crinoids up the wazoo, amboinensis shrimp, cleaner shrimp, banded coral shrimp, boxfish, the little yellow ones with black polka dots, red flourescent anemones, tons of clownsfish, large frogfish at Sabang wrecks, ornate robust pipefish, banded pipefish, emperor angels, moorish ideols, false moorish idols (off the top of my head that would be Heniochus Acuminatas), commensal urchin shrimp, blue flourescent tunicates, sea moths, anthias by the zillions, interesting dark green coral, tons of waving hands, lots of barrel sponges, 2 poisonous sea snakes, stargazer and napoleon snake eels, 2 large sea turles, etc...

Even just shore diving right in the bay in front of the hotel rocks for macro oddball stuff.

The staff was great, the dive guides were helpful and knew what they were doing, the internet and camera room was perfect, even the food was good although 2 weeks ago they were starting an all new remodel by expanding the restaurant. Massages were $10-$13 an hour, town restaurants were good, no transportation needed.

I've been to Fiji and Micronesia, they were great, but visiting the same place twice is not my cup of tea, and Atlantis and Puerto Galera would be an exception as I definately want to go there back again.

Much thanks for the info....I hope I have the same great experience....were there many mosquitoes? Is bug repellent necessary?-Steve B)

Steve,

I never actually saw the mosquitoes, but each bite drives you nuts for 4 days.....they have really small OFF bug spray repellant in the little shops along the walkway for about $1. Use it religiously in the early eve and re-apply a time or two.....it is mainly the legs that they get....lots in our group had bites, some quite a bit. I had about 20 or so in a week but no new ones the last 2 days whern I got spray. If you wear long pants, your legs won't be affected, but you will be the only one on the entire island wearing pants, lol.

Take the $35 additional trip to Verde Island, well worth it.

And of course, when you get back, do post your impressions.

Below is another HD frame capture compressed and made smaller.