Understanding video choices

Thanks, I understand a bit more after reading those threads, but I sure have one hell of a headache.

Thanks, I understand a bit more after reading those threads, but I sure have one hell of a headache.

I hear that, sort of like the photo tech discusssions about diopters, extensions and the rest, but at more frames per second

Do you attend the NY Underwater photo society meetings ? They meet in Manhattan once a month.

Nope .. but thanks very much for that! I'll definitely look into it.

Ask Mark, I'll stick to my Rum and Coke, twist of lime, some chips, a gal if my wife is not around and something for my back since it is killing me to work on the computer all day long.

Steve B)

a gal if my wife is not around long.

Hope she does not read these boards, otherwise, well it has been nice knowing you Steve..

I'll stick to my Rum and Coke, twist of lime, some chips

I really feel sorry for you lot having to drink those cold "Knats p**" beers and fancy cocktails. Mine is a luvvly pint of English "Arundel" Real Ale, carefully managed, hand pumped and, yes, at room temperature

Aaaah.....

XXXX is for people other than me.

Amstel is my poison.

Ha ha...internet is so cool....

Still on the boat here.......talk about luxury......booze and food all free and living like a king here........and getting paid to film whale sharks:)

Ha ha...internet is so cool....

Still on the boat here.......talk about luxury......booze and food all free and living like a king here........and getting paid to film whale sharks:)

you suck....

need an assistant?

Or two - I could hold Mikes camera while he falls over......

Paul C

Well I would luv someone to swim the Phenom over to me in the water to film the Sharks.

I'll post a couple pics when I get back.

We have one of those Critter cams we are going to try and put on a floppy shark.

Yep filming is so much harder than taking pics. hic hic...

Yea - tough life I can see.

We went for a dive myself yesterday water was 12C (not bad) but the vis was nearly 100mm (not good). No natural light at all by 30m and dark at 40m.

So enjoy all that gin clear water.

Paul C

Hey Wags, where do I pick it up, I'll swim it over...have a R & C waiting please.

Steve B)

I'm sitting here (a little merry on Absolut vodka and coke ... er, is that a girls' drink? ) in Bangkok for a week of R&R on my way to do 6.5 months of Josh Jensen's old gig on Nai'a in Fiji and Tonga (Mike Boom is doing 3 months of it right now). Underwater video is definitely no way to travel light. I flew from Phuket to Bangkok with 87kg and got away with 1000 baht excess. Once I've ditched my fancy Bangkok clobber I'm looking at an absolute pared-down minimum of 77kg all-in to get the job done, and I'm sure the Qantas and Air Pacific check-in staff are going to have a field day with my Visa card.

Alex, as I see it there are 4 big issues/decisions.

The first one is Mac vs PC for your post production. I'm not even going to go there and you probably know what you like already.

The second one is SD (DV) versus high def (HDV or DVCPRO whatever). With your experience I really can't see you being happy with standard definition (DV) but I still maintain that my (DV) VX1000 takes nicer video than my (HDV) Z1 in just about every aspect except the definition. But in some ways the aspect ratio is just as important an issue as the definition. Pretty much everyone wants widescreen 16:9 these days, and there are very few standard definition cameras that will shoot that natively (PDX10 is one example). So the problem with using most SD cameras these days is that it's shooting the "wrong" old 4:3 aspect ratio.

The third one is whether the rig is manually-white-balanceable-underwater or not. This is really an important watershed between "fun" and "serious" cameras. A rig that can be manually white balanced underwater usually goes hand-in-hand with it being 3-chip. And that level of housing tends to allow access to exposure controls... again something I'm sure you'd want.

The fourth big issue is manual versus electronic control, where (in extremely simple terms) you're pitching the reliability of manual controls against the positioning and ease-of-use of electronic controls.

Thanks Nick. Useful information. Most appreciated.

Alex

Alex, you shouldn't play with big toys then ask to play with little toys. That's like learning to drive in a Mclaren F1 and then drive a Pinto or in your part of the world, a Skoda.

Scoonsie's 750 has 2/3" sensors, gamma controls/curves and a plethora of stuff that many little 1/3" and 1/2" cameras will never have. Why don't you give us a budget and we'll see what fits under it?

If you are shooting for broadcast, check with the producer/director's requirements for content. Most natural history docos have that 15-25% rule regarding HDV/SD etc uprezzed to HDCAM. If it's predominantly an UW production, you can hire Scoonsie and boss him around.

Shooters for the Beeb and like worry about gamma curves for exposure and color balance, they don't worry as much about white balance because the post guys can handle it once they are done. The 3:1:1 signal of HDCAM OR 4:2:2/4:4:4 of HDCAM SR carries enough latitude to pull back a lot compared the the 4:2:0 signal of lower end HD codecs.

Still if you want a highly user controllable picture, the Canon XH/XL series is great for HDV and the Sony EX1/3 for XDCAM EX. The Panasonic loses on resolution but the P2/4:2:2 codec is awesome in its own right. The new Panasonic HPX170 is the tapeless version of the HVX200. It's slight smaller and lighter.

Whats he saying

Dive safe

Dean (layman)B

Alex, Or you can wait to buy the new Red Scarlet which will shoot in 3k due to come out this fall. Price should be a resonable 3-4,000 Of course, you will have to wait for the manufacturers to come out with the housing for it. If you don't want to wait you can buy a Red One, a few lens' for it and maybe a Gates housing which should sell for between 20-25k without the ports. Don't expect to be able to pay off your mortgage though, or your lawyer who will defend you in the divorce settlement or your alimony after the divorce is final. You may, however, still be able to buy a marker to write "Will do anything for food' on the cardboard you will be carrying on the street corner.

Steve B)

I'm sitting here (a little merry on Absolut vodka and coke ... er, is that a girls' drink? ) in Bangkok for a week of R&R on my way to do 6.5 months of Josh Jensen's old gig on Nai'a in Fiji and Tonga (Mike Boom is doing 3 months of it right now).

Hey Nick,

Say hi to Jamie for me! Sshe's the new cruise director heading over there on the Naia. She's just spent the last few weeks here in Bali with me. Tell ya what, she's the best party buddy ever and she can't half take her drink well, watch out for her liquid crack though!

Alex,

Once you've seen what Scoonesy does it's hard to think about anything without all those cool controls. I've tried shooting with a small video. It was for the recent controversial NG nudi article. I was asked if I could get some footage of the nudi's that David shot here in Bali. I basically had to set the thing up manually and keep going downd and trying again and again. Anyway, the tape went west and it never got to the NG office in time for them to do anything with it. I think what they've done with the stills and David's narration is way better than what they could have done with my footage anyway!