I dropped my VX-2000 camera in the pool tonight...

I dropped my VX-2000 camera in the pool tonight... fortunately, my underwater housing worked like it was supposed to!

Hi All:

Linked below is about two minutes of RAW video I shot tonight in the local dive shop pool (it's my first underwater video). Lighting is ambient, depth is 3 to 15 FT. I rushed home, uploaded it on my Mac, screwed with it in i-Video and posted it to You Tube (needless to say, I have a lot to learn, LOL!).

I used automatic settings tonight, just to get used to the "feel" of the housing underwater. Tomorrow night I'll start trying manual stuff.

Nick, I still haven't got the pictures of the corrosion yet, I promise I'll get to them.

The port I'm using is the Gates/Fathom SWP35.

THANKS!

Andy

not rhetorical, just curious - why i-video and not the Mac's built in little genius app, iMovie?

Sorry!

I just switched from PC to Mac and I keep forgetting all the "i" application names (old age, undoubtedly!)

It WAS iMovie and what a cool little editing app... I'm enjoying the Mac stuff a whole bunch compared to my "old" stuff using XP.

Thanks...

Sorry!

 

I just switched from PC to Mac and I keep forgetting all the "i" application names (old age, undoubtedly!)

 

It WAS iMovie and what a cool little editing app... I'm enjoying the Mac stuff a whole bunch compared to my "old" stuff using XP.

 

Thanks...

whew! I thought that Apple may have had an unsatisfied customer there, for a second!

Haha, quite arty that.

Your lens looks nice and clean and scratch-free. Any imperfections would certainly show up in those lights.

Not a trace of vignetting either but it looks like you have a couple of rows of black pixels down the right hand side. Not a problem really, and certainly not a problem for underscanned TV delivery. The sensor or something has shifted ever so slightly, or was maybe always like that. My old Panasonics (all 3 of them) had several rows of black pixels down the right, much more noticeable than yours, but I'm the only person that's ever commented on them.

Did you try any zooming? How far can you go?

Is that audio through the housing or have you got a hydrophone?

Have you got the external monitor?

The VX2000 is a great camera and the Gates is a great housing. Good luck with it.

I'm enjoying the Mac stuff a whole bunch compared to my "old" stuff using XP.

Oh god, don't give them any more amunition

Hi Nick:

Yeah, I thought that title would lift some eyebrows!

I really enjoyed doing the video in the pool. I can tell right off it's going to be something I'm really going to like.

I didn't do zooming underwater because I remounted the handles from the original position to put them a little further back. When I did this, I shouldn't have put the monitor support bracket back on because it prevented the zoom control from engaging (kinda dumb on my part). So, I couldn't do zooms underwater.

I tried zooms on land with the Fathom port and I'll need to play with understanding focus a little better. I'm amazed at how close and how far you can see stuff through that port, but I can't use one focus setting through the range of the camera's zoom feature. I'll post a video to demonstrate. I didn't convert the video posted to DivX or a better QuickTime format, so it looks a little rough. It looks a LOT better on my Apple display. Just to try it, I had the camera set in "progressive" mode when shooting that video.

The sound you heard was just off the camera. No external hydrophone.

I posted in another thread about a monitor, based on what you said I'll probably get the gates 2.5". THANKS for the advice.

I also could use a source for the mounting brackets, handles and stuff. I have a flat handle bracket and I think the angled one would probably provide better clearance for the side mounted controls.

I'm diving this Saturday off North Carolina on a wreck called the Normannia in about 110 FT of water. I'm really tempted to take my new system along, even though I haven't tried it in a lake yet. The problem is I don't have a case for it which is something I need to take care of pretty quickly (Pelican 1560 or 1660?).

Anyway, thanks for the advice!

Andy

I posted in another thread about a monitor, based on what you said I'll probably get the gates 2.5". THANKS for the advice.

The 2.5" Gates is fine but if you're buying new I'd splash out and get the larger Gates if you possibly can. I'm not necessarily avoid Amphibico. That was just the one example I know of. but you'd want to be totally sure that it's compatible if you went for one of those.

(Pelican 1560 or 1660?)

The housing comes from Gates in a Pelican 1600. That's what I've got. But it is very tight in there and that case it too big to carry on to flights. I'm anti checking in Pelicans onto flights these days.