What is this mystery black?

I keep getting this mystery floating black spot on the corner of one side of my footage every time I do this same dive. I've gone all over the world since, but two years in a row and I am plagued with this black smudge...

reposted, at y'all's request...try and ignore the homo (sapien) in the shot.

Any ideas? Last year, after viewing the footage, I assumed it was that I had moronically got the lens cap string caught in front of the lens. This year, though, I was going sans lens cap and it STILL HAPPENED. It's not nearly as pronounced as it was in last year's footage, but still.

Why is it only happening under these curcumstances?

It's vignetting, probably because you turned on the OIS and misaligned the camera in the housing.

PS: Tell your buddy to lay off the sharks. Interaction without touching is much more interesting. Use that whole mucous membrane stuff.

Yep - minor vignetting - most likely due to the way the camera was sitting on the mounting tray for the housing. Good idea to tighten it down a bit more, but that randomly happens with my PD170 setup as well on the seldom occassion - sorry to say it has nothing to do with the Blue's.

It's vignetting, probably because you turned on the OIS and misaligned the camera in the housing.

OIS? Are you talking about image stabilization?

PS: Tell your buddy to lay off the sharks. Interaction without touching is much more interesting. Use that whole mucous membrane stuff.

He was just an overzealous dude on the boat. I don't advocate anyone touching anything while diving, but you'd have to include me in the list of people who did that day. The sharks were very aggressive and on several occaisons I had to physically push them away.

You're right, those kinds of shots generally do nothing for a segment to say nothing of the fact that it's not healthy for either party. I only included those shots as examples of the footage. I'll take the link down now that a few of you have seen it to avoid further excommunication. Didn't mean to bum you guys out - sorry about that, folks. Unintentional but still a foul, I know...

I will definitely be careful about tightening down the camera to the tray in Australia next month. ANy other words of advice for this?

Dog

Image Stabilization shifts the pic around so that's why sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. I'd just leave it off since it occasionally goes nuts in a busy background, although I must say I experienced the jumping frame behavior with the VX1k and have left it off ever since. I'm sure OIS has improved in the last 10 years, but better safe than a shifting pic.

PS : I'm not bummed out and didn't mean for you to pull it down. I'm just saying that grabbing a shark like that is neither smart for the diver nor good for the shark. I assume you chummed for the blues? That is probably why they became aggressive, they sensed food but saw none. And you were the only viable food source in the vicinity. I'm thinking of heading out to SD for them as well, unchummed of course.

Thanks for being cool - I may repost the video without the goofy townie guy grabbing the shark, but I should probably leave it down because I knw there's probably shooters not nearly as cool as you that ill tear me a new one. Seriusly - thanks for giving me a heads-up. I had a whole different set of eyes on when I cut that segment for the board!

peacedog.. you crack me up... please stop calling Drew cool or he will continue to use the word Dude..

please stop calling Drew cool or he will continue to use the word Dude..

Drew just knows that my real name is Jeffrey Lebowski and I prefer to be called Dude. "Or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing..."

Seriously, Drew (and Mike, obviously!) must know I'm being a funny guy because EVERYONE on here is cool. I have been overjoyed by finding this board and my shooting has definitely improved as a result of the information I got here from all of you.

Having said that, I'm going to repost the video later this afternoon so that other folks who might be having a similar problem can identify it and learn from it like I have. Ignore the goofy guy trying to cop an elasmobranch feel.

You guys rock.

Aaron, The problem seems to me that the vignetting was caused by the extended port which may have been slightly turned on the housing. What cam was this filmed on and where. Here in San Diego we used to have lots of blues and makos and I was a bit surprised to see that the water was off color. I am wondering if that was because of the cam or the conditions.

Steve B)

Aaron, The problem seems to me that the vignetting was caused by the extended port which may have been slightly turned on the housing. What cam was this filmed on and where. Here in San Diego we used to have lots of blues and makos and I was a bit surprised to see that the water was off color. I am wondering if that was because of the cam or the conditions.

Steve B)

Steve,

To be sure, there's a minor bit of color correction that will need to be done, but the green you're seeing is actually fairly true to the conditions we had 30 miles off the coast of Rhode Island the other week. Normally out that far it's a deepr shade of blue, but wind conditions and storms during the week meant that the Gulf Stream waters couldn't be appreciated fully.

I shot that with the LMI Stingray II and TRV950 with the wide-angle made for that housing. One of the major drawbacks to the Stingray series, as you know, is no access to WB. The more I shoot with high-end cameras and housings, the more I feel hog-tied by the Stingray. Although it's only a matter of months until it becomes a backup/emergency rig...

Again, I shoot with that housing a lot, and the only two times I have had this issue have been at this site on this particular dive. Weird.

-Aaron