Amphibico Endeavor with HVR-V1 review and field test

Hi Ron,

Yes I was most impressed with the range of the camera. I felt that it oversaturated the colour a little, especially once above 10m, perhaps I should have MWB'd a bit more often. However it is easier to desaturate in post than to put the colour in!

I got little or no graining in the caves, although it does look blocky on the streamed video. I noticed that the camera on auto increased the shutter speed before it maxed out on the aperture, and therefore I didn't feel that it overexposed even in the bright Red Sea conditions. The lack of ND filters on the Amphibico housing didn't, therefore, worry me.

My next trip is to Manado in Sulawesi at the end of November, and there will be lots of macro. I think I will have to invest in the flat port and a dioptre or two to get the best results. I usually use the lights for really close work as the housing tends to shade the subject.

When are you getting yours wet next - if it is not too personal a question

Cheers

Roger

You should get some great macro in Sulawesi. A flat port and a +2 diopter works well.

I set my auto gain limit to 9. 12 showed a little more noise than I like.

My next trip is to the Caribbean again. It's not the best diving, but from the NY it's convenient. I'll be on a liveaboard in Belize for 7 days the beginning of December.

I plan on experimenting with lighting, silhouettes and my 1st night dives with the FX7.

Nice work Roger and yes, cam looks like it does very well underwater. I was especially impressed by the lack of flare around those windows in the wreck.

Would love to see that up on Stage6 at something like 960x540 size, especially those lovely wide shots of the canyon and the wreck.

For macro in Sulawesi try to get the Century +3.5 achromatic diopter if you can and if the housing will fit it. I got great results with mine. You'll definitely need a tripod though.

Veoh have turned your video into a 540x405 Flash video, which is actually bigger than similar sites I've found, but too bad they've squashed it. Not sure how to control that other than sending them a letterboxed 4:3 video to encode.

It's not the best diving, but from the NY it's convenient. I'll be on a liveaboard in Belize for 7 days

Hi Ron,

Belize is a place I have often looked at in the diving brochures, so if you have any recommendations I would be most interested to hear from you. We have dived a number of Caribbean Islands, and we really like the change. The Red Sea from the UK is the closest Reef system and is only approx 5 hours flying time. It is also quite cheap, although now it is aligned to the Euro our pound doesn't go quite as far as it did in the USD days :glare:

Nick,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions I will see if a Century will fit. Difficult for tripods though, except on the muck dives, there is usually nowhere on the main reef to put a finger let alone a tripod!

Anyone used a Gorilla Pod?

Roger

Anyone used a Gorilla Pod?

Funny you should mention that

This will be my 1st trip to Belize so it will be interesting to see how it compares with other places in the Caribbean.

One thing I've finally realized is good diving and good video diving are not always the same. Currents, reef depths, wall angles, reef direction, bottom composition, etc.. all have a bigger affect on videographer's than regular divers. Plus more dives equals more video opportunities so that has steered me towards liveaboards or places that have good shore dives.

Would love to see that up on Stage6 at something like 960x540 size, especially those lovely wide shots of the canyon and the wreck.

Nick,

I have re-encoded that short sequence into DivX 1250/760 and uploaded it to Stage6 use the link below to view - it looks better in higher res and 16:9

http://stage6.divx.com/user/RogerEve/video...-Endeavour-Demo

Roger

Hey Roger,

Looks great on stage 6, does anyone else have any issues when it gets to the night dive section. It causes Safari and also firefox to crash on both my imac and mac book pro....

Jon

Roger put a 1280/720 wmv and divx file of it on my server.

Roger FX7 WMV Here 113megs

Roger FX7 Divx Here 130 megs

It's crashing Safari for me too as soon as it moves away from the first anemonefish. What I saw up to then was great though. I'm really becoming impressed with the underwater abilities of the FX7/V1.

Cheers, Simon

It's crashing Safari for me too as soon as it moves away from the first anemonefish.

Is it just the Stage 6 version that is crashing? Has anyone tried the mwv on Wagsy's server - long download though

Roger

Roger,

It works great off Wags server, no problems at all. Just took a while to download but looked excellent. The picture does look bloody good from the FX7, very similar in quality to the Z1 (from my untrained eye).

Jon

The picture does look bloody good from the FX7

Pleased it worked. I must say I too was impressed with the camera's performance. Something of a relief after shelling out all that dosh

Roger

Stage 6 works great for me. No crashes.

Has anyone got any downright nasty underwater footage captured on the fx7/v1 that they'd be prepared to share? Everything I've seen so far has been really nice, but there must be a downside surely? It would be helpful to see what the FX7 can't do as well as what it can do!

cheers, Simon

I bet it can't ride a bike or cook a sunday roast...Or type a letter..Or climb Mont Blanc in an hour...

So I wouldn't even entertain the idea of buying one...

Dive safe

DeanB

I bet it can't ride a bike or cook a sunday roast...Or type a letter..Or climb Mont Blanc in an hour...

 

So I wouldn't even entertain the idea of buying one...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Well, I bought a V1 after selling the Z1. The main points were: similar if not better pics quality and tweeking possibilities and the size. I am now looking after which housings would be the best option for me. The footage I have seen so far from colleagues here showed that this little camcorder will be very friendly uw.

Of course, when the big broadcasters will ask me to provide footage to their shows I will think and consider the xd cam ex xxx or others. But until I submit films only for festivals, I think the V1 will make my life easier. For example, the Sealux housing is only 7.5 kilos...

Has anyone got any downright nasty underwater footage captured on the fx7/v1 that they'd be prepared to share? Everything I've seen so far has been really nice, but there must be a downside surely? It would be helpful to see what the FX7 can't do as well as what it can do!

Most of my discarded video in editing is due to the incompetence of the videographer rather than the camera or housing. I definetly got better as the week went on.

The real test will be when I go to Sulawesi. In the past my Sony 330 with no MWB couldn't AWB properly even with a colour correction filter so it will be interesting. The Bunaken side of Manado is a mixture of walls for wide angle and macro and even some muck dives, so it will test the versatility of the camera, and housing and me Hopefully I will take the 94 degree and a flat port with a dioptre, and I shall try the latter in both ports.

Roger

Has anyone got any downright nasty underwater footage captured on the fx7/v1 that they'd be prepared to share? Everything I've seen so far has been really nice, but there must be a downside surely? It would be helpful to see what the FX7 can't do as well as what it can do!

 

cheers, Simon

The only thing that immediately comes to mind, is my footage of a greenish lettuce leaf sea slug had awefull coloring. I tried to color correct in post, but it still looks bad (see Roatan part 2 critters video on stage6)

I don't recall if I did a MWB just prior to the shot or not, but that was the only footage I had where the coloring was just totally off. Hard to say if it was operator error or a camera/cmos weakness. I know there are some HC7 users out there complaining about greenish footage.

Coming from a TRV900, the FX7 is a big step up in all areas. Not having used a FX1 I can't make a direct comparison other than the FX7 and the housings are smaller and lighter. The 4lb positive buoyancy of my Gates housing is also a nice benefit because I can add lights, monitors, lenses, tripods and still not have an overly negative rig.

What impresses me most about the FX7 is how it handles color and lighting range in the same frame and changes while recording.

I agree that the HC7 is downright nasty if you can't MWB as its AWB setting gives you saturated greeness to the extreme, but when you can MWB it actually performs ok, so that's probably more down to the housing and/or operator than a fault with the camera IMO. I personally think the low light performance and the lack of a manual Gain control is the biggest fault with the HC7.

Looks like the FX7 is turning out to be a really nice camera for uw use. It's sure got my grey matter fizzing with envy!

Cheers, Simon