HC3 Underwater

Managed to have a good look at the Sea & Sea for the tiny HC3 camera.

On/Off, record, photo and zoom in/out, thats about it.

Has a flip screen and the image it electronically flipped.

Internal wide angle.

External URPRO filter.

Looked at uptop and underwater footage from it.

Does it compete with a FX1/Z1 underwater......NOPE

But a great little basic setup for those that film for fun or are just starting out.

Cannot believe how small that HDV HC3 camera is though

Looked at uptop and underwater footage from it.

Does it compete with a FX1/Z1 underwater......NOPE smile.gif

Hey Wags, I am curious about your comment. I have seen many clips from the FX1 and the HC3. While I think the FX1 has the ability/features to capture footage that the HC3 does not, I haven't seen a huge difference in HDV quality of the same subject(s). That being said, I have yet to view FX1 footage on a large HD screen. I am not trying to say the HC3 is a FX1 equivalent. Please expound on your comments.

Thanks,

Ryan

Hi Ryan

I suppose it could come down to the operator as well but these little cameras just do not stack up against the FX1/Z1, and if they did then no one would buy the larger cameras and the $10,000 AUD manual controllable housings with the beautifull wide angle ports.

Even diving with the larger Sony A1 against the FX1 side by side without lights the FX1 image is infront sharpness wise. The singe CMOS do put out a kind of different blue to the water in nice conditions and close up with bright lights the single CMOS A1 is very good but still the larger 3CCD stands out on very close inspection.

Watching the images once inside the computer side by side on a high res screen you can easlier see the difference and one can pick out whats what just by looking even on zoomed in tight shots with lights.

Dont' get me wrong, the smaller setups are great for the average diver or if you are running around boats shooting day DVD,s but if you are going for top quality nothing beats a 3CCD manual setup with a good port.

I'll see if I can get my hands on some of that HC3 footage to post.

if u think that S&S housing is tiny, you should see the Seatool HC3 and HC7 housings... Could almost stuff it in a BCD pocket... (slight exaggeration...)

Yes that Seatool is tiny tiny.

No problems getting that on a plane.

Still have not got my hands on that HC3 footage but I rendered out this 100meg 1280/720 wmv file of some single CMOS footage from the Sony A1 in the EVO.

Specs.

As shot, no touchups on the Puter.

Depth 12/14 metres

White balanced on whatever with the Urpro filter in till we were happy with the colour.

Shutter locked at 50 (PAL)

Focus locked on infinity and zoom is full wide.

Exposure on auto but AE knocked back to -2 in the menu.

It's of a couple kids we taught to dive, the wobbly shots are Kelly's

These little setups are great for doing this kind of stuff.

CLIP HERE

Thanks for the footage. I am on a slow speed connection this week, so I will have to either start the download and go to bed or wait until this weekend

I wonder how much difference there is between the S&S, etc and something like the gates/L&M which have higher end optics?

As I mentioned, I was not trying to say the HC3 is a replacement, etc. but the footage I saw between the two on the same dive, same compupter, same everthing was not enough to make me say 'wow, so that is what you get for another $5k-$6k'. I agree, there was some noticeable differences in sharpness and contrast, and I thought there was less color bleed on the FX1.

Ever since I bought an HC3 last year, I have always wondered if I made the right choice. I was leaning towards purchasing the FX1, but the main drawbacks for me was the size and price, in that priority. When I finally got the chance to see side by side footage, I was not overly impressed. We also had an HC1 to compare and we all agreed the HC3 looked better than the HC1.

So I guess my point is/was do you (or anyone else out there) really feel there is twice the difference between the HCx and FX1? I use the term twice as that is about the size and price delta between the two.

Ryan

My first time out with my Seatool HC3 DX:

Seatool Test Run

(sorry that Google's encoding sucks so bad - I uploaded a nice-looking Sorenson 3)