Gates HC-7 Housing: Field Report

Hope you get well soon Steve.

I already know how the single CMOS performs on night dives compared to the 3 CCD FX1.

Just interested to see what others recon

I was pretty impressed with the HC7 on night dives to be honest. I was using 2xUK Light Canons with 2 diffusers in each light head which gives a broad beam with no hot spots at the expense of more intensity. On night dives it was more than adequate, but not useable during the day, even at depth.

The footage itself was very nice, good colour and little if any problems with exposure. I keep saying it, but I really will post some screenshots or some footage soon including the good, bad and the down right ugly! I've only just got my new Mac so I'm wading through 20hours of HDV footage at the moment which takes some time

Cheers, Simon

So I finally got a chance to introduce my HC7/Gates setup to the cold surgy low viz waters of So Cal. I almost forgot why I don't usually shoot video on Laguna shore dives, but remembered quickly as I was trying to steady myself for my first nudi shot of the day. Surge sucks!

 

Initial thoughts on shooting with the HC7 in less the ideal conditions is pretty optimistic. Most shots were a little over exposed, focus was much harder, white balance was definately much harder and dealing with the surge was, as always, a big pain. I haven't found a way to reorder the items in the "Dial-Set" menu (don't think it is possible), which I think would be a big help to make exposure changes and then be able to manually focus. Anyway, I've attached a ~2 minute video of some of the dive highlights below. Only the last two nudi shots were done using my HID lights, the rest were all shot using ambient light.

 

Dive info:

Location: Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach, California, USA

Date: 06/09/2007

Time in: 1pm

Dive Time: 66 minutes

Water temp: 64-66f

Viz: 5-10'

Surge: Of course

 

720p Video (70MB)

520p Video (42MB)

I Bob, great macro video! Did you maked it with Gates Flat port + diopters or just the port?

Many thanks, very curious to know your hosing and HC7 setup.

For those that may be interested.

The Gates HC7 housing is also compatible with the new Sony HDR-HC9.

Too bad Sony doesn't keep the same form factor with some of the bigger cameras.

I Bob, great macro video! Did you maked it with Gates Flat port + diopters or just the port?

Many thanks, very curious to know your hosing and HC7 setup.

Thanks Erik - That video was made before I had compatable diopters for the HC7. I've since purchased +1, +2, +4 and +10 diopters. I have posted several other videos here. (You will have to use the arrows at the bottom of the page to scroll through the postings.)