Big decisions..

OK - am i the only one who takes hours and hours (and weeks and weeks in this case) to actually decide to buy anything underwater video wise as it's so expensive? I've finally (finally) placed my order for the gates HC7 housing for my now not-so-new camera. I feel very relieved (of my cash certainly) and like a massive decision is now made and it's now neither here nor there anymore if it was the right one. I might finally be able to concentrate in work again. Maybe.

Anyway - off for a big trip for the first time use - anything i can do once my housing arrives to practice - baring in mind i can't (i would suffer) go in the water here in England, it's too bloody cold. Any tips?

Thanks,

Chrissie

We're landlocked so when I got my housing, I went to my LDS and shot pooltoys in their pool. I also shot my pool cleaner as it crawled around on the bottom. Gave me a sense of both what the limits on the housing/camera were and also some practice in assembling and checking everything before getting it wet prior to my trip later that month.

Aside from sticking it in a creek and testing all the features at home, I didn't have much chance to test it either, but being able to review daily footage on a fairly non-descript TV each night when I got back to the rental really saved the trip.

Pat

Scaper has a good point. I would suggest bringing down a laptop and the AV+firewire cables. Reviewing on the tiny camera LCD is deceiving especially on focus and noise levels. If you do have your laptop, download the native m2t files with the simple Sony utilities and view the footage at high resolutions. Then you'll really see where you might be out focus and other details. I got lazy and didn't do this every nite and found out when I got home I was making the same mistakes over again... If no laptop, connect the camera to a TV/ monitor.

The other tip is to get familiar with the menu setting, decide on what setting you want to preset before the dives. Practice switching the control button on the front from autofocus to lock or manual focus.

And WATCH out for the sleep mode! It takes a few seconds before it'll come out of that sleep mode...

Have a great trip!

I too am about to buy the same housing (just as soon as I get paid!), having also been deliberating over it for months. Where did you get yours, as a matter of interest?, as I'm also in UK.

I've had the camera for a while and used it a fair bit topside and a small amount underwater in an older housing (in the chilly waters of cornwall) and have a trip booked to the Red Sea, so getting quite excited now. I would guess that practicing the manual white balance with the touch screen would be worth doing. And as pakman said, switching between focus modes and doing manual focusing.

If you manage to get it into a pool, it would be interesting to hear about buoyancy and whether you need to weight it much to get it neutral.

Enjoy the housing!

Fergus

The HC7, Gates housing, and my Fathoms WP25 port is almost neutral in the ocean, just slightly negative.

I agree with Fergus, practise as much as you can with the MWB. It's not easy to get it right on the HC7, but if you do then it makes it all worthwhile as the quality of your footage with jump massively.

Also remember that the autofocus is unuseable for WA shots, even with Red Sea vis. Infinity setting works ok, but you do still get unfocused matter passing across the lens which can be distracting. Personally I've not found a setting that I'm happy with for WA shots. Autofocus will work for Macro, but it is better to set it manually as you will still get some hunting. Manual adjustments of Exposure and AE shift are also very handy, although personally I'd get comfortable with the WB and Focus before you play around with those too much.

Hope this helps and enjoy your HC7 underwater!

Cheers, Simon

Edit: Oh yeah and forget about WB shift as it's crap for underwater shooting!

Good tips Simon,

Got a question for you fellow HC7 owners. AE Shift vs Manual Exp. Useful for u/w?

I was reviewing some footage (looking upwards at hammerheads) where I used manual exposure. The control dial which isn't very subtle, can jump when you use the dial. So as I panned across into the sun, the exposure got blown out if I left it unadjusted in manual exposure or you see a sharp jump as I try to adjust the exposure. I am wondering if AE Shift would work better in that situation where I understand the camera will still be auto exposure but setting a negative AE Shift would compensate for the camera's tendency to overexpose u/w initially? So as I transition to a brighter scene, the camera would dial down the exposure automatically?

I too am about to buy the same housing (just as soon as I get paid!), having also been deliberating over it for months. Where did you get yours, as a matter of interest?, as I'm also in UK.

You can get half the price you can in the UK if you head over state side. Sad but true. I went to B&H Photo and i'm sure they are usually very good, but i personally had trouble getting information out of them. Then i went to Marinevisions.com - Very good service, very informative, told me stuff in five minutes i'd been trying to find out for weeks.

Now i'm hanging out for the amount of duty / customs i'll have to pay - but if you're interested i can certainly tell you what those costs were when i get my housing (it's shipping today!). It can't be as much as buying stuff in the UK and if there are any problems with it - i will relish the excuse to fly to the US to find out what's wrong.

Also got my camera from the US - so it's NTSC rather than PAL (well worth the flight!) - AND whatever Sony or whoever will tell you - these days, unless you have a TV / computer made in 1990's it'll work with everything UK-ish.

Chrispie

Here's what I did, being new to U/W photography - from the Backscatter website - there's a guy there that writes excellent articles for beginners. I realize that this technique may not be of much use to many on this site that are really into this stuff in a semi-pro or pro level, but it worked really great for me:

When you get in the water, don't go very deep without setting the focus, so you still have good light and contrast. Set it by putting it on AutoFocus, zoom to full wide, and then focus on something stable about 2 feet or 18 " away. Then use the focus "Lock" function to lock it. From then on just about anything non-macro that you shoot will be in focus (assuming a standard type of lens) and there won't be any hunting done by the camera. Letting the camera do the initial autofocus means it will be sharp because it can do it much better than you can using the LCD. The when you lock it you have focus set for the stuff you shoot thereafter. I did that on my very first trip and all of my footage was good from a focus standpoint (other things were, well, in need of practice but overall I was pretty pleased).

I also did a practice session in a swimming pool where I got used to the MWB process with my camera (I have the SR1 but I think the menus and focus stuff and etc. are very similar) and it really helped. I made a small checkilist of initial settings and went through that each time before I mounted the camera in the housing. I started the list using the settings the housing manufacturer recommended and then made a few modifications to suit personal preferences. As I say, all of the foootage was good and usable - I have to practice on movement, framing, and etc.