Just sharing some stuff I've shot on a Sony HC7 in Seatool's tiny housing, to which i had attached a pair of 15w Niterider halogens and an Inon Dome lens. I'm new to underwater video, this trip was my first time diving with a camera, however I have been shooting stuff topside on and off professionally for a few years.
http://www.stage6.com/user/aquaticvideo
A few questions arose from seeing my results:
Has anyone had any experience with the Auto Magic filter made by Alex Mustard? It is not possible to manual white balance with my seatool housing, so I'm assuming the standard Magic filter would not help me as much. With the niterider lighting setup I could use the Seatool's built-in red filter and have the lights on and still achieve acceptable color casts in all the depths I tried. I was wondering if this would also be the case using the auto magic filter to replace the red filter. Also, what would be the effect of this filter on the color casts if I replace the halogens with HID lights?
I was thinking of getting a pair of UK cannon HID lights (the niteriders were borrowed). Due to my other diving gear, I have huge weight issues when travelling and the possibility of packing the lights without batteries and 'buying in the field' would save me some of the large fees airports charge me. My worry is once underwater, would having the centre of gravity shifted higher on such a tiny housing make the setup unwieldy? Having the niterider's battery under the camera made it feel just right.
My housing takes Inon attachment lenses, I was looking at getting the Inon 165AD close up lens or the equivelent. How would a set of tiffen or B&W close up lenses stand up to the task of being underwater, or are the optics in the Inon better than tiffen? The housing allows water to enter between the lens and filter, so would I be correct in thinking that the increasing pressure wouldn't effect the close up lens?
Thanks and any constructive critism will be appreciated.
