Olympic Cube Swimmers Underwater pictures

Olympic swimming coverage at the Bejing "Cube" is showing interesting photographs from Reuters that show the swimmers shot from the pool bottom straight up with a fish-eye lens during the races. Anybody here knows what is being used to get these and the techniques used to get them. I don't see any divers blowing bubbles or anybody on a rebreather either, maybe a glass bottom pool...LOL?

Just in case anybody wants a link to the photo he's referring to... Reuters Photo Credit: Wolfgang Rattay

They probably built remote video cameras into the pool when they built the venue.

-- Martin

I did watch some coverage of the swimming events where the commentators said that there was a special track built at the bottom of the pool with a video cam and that provided all the underwater shots they screened. Guess it wouldn't be too hard to put a camera down on the same track...

Was it taken during an actual event? Just wondering if maybe it was taken during a practice or something, then maybe the photographer was just free diving. Says taken Aug. 9th, first day maybe during a qualifying round? Does anyone know what kind of equipment is being used on those u/w video tracks?

-W

Sometimes you can see the still cameras sitting on the bottom. I saw a lot of silver housings w/ dome ports in a few shots.

Search out the article about Wolfgang's remote setup - it was posted on Reuters a few months ago:

http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2008/03/26/...-he-shoot-that/

Pretty cool eh?

Cheers

James

Pretty cool eh?

 

Cheers

James

I give that a VERY cool in fact I noticed cameras during the Olympics on the rails moving up and down the pool and some stationary ones it looked like. Found that interesting because a couple of times it caught my eye during races.

James, thanks for the link to the setup. that is indeed very cool, especially the wireless transmission right to his laptop.

Awesome article!

Thanks!

So I was discussing this article w/ Matt a few months ago.

There is a cable coming from the housing - is that for the remote control of the camera?

The Canon WT transmitter is in the flash housing. Does it actually send the wireless signal through the water to Wolfgang's wireless card above the surface? If so, the signal would be going through an aluminum housing, then 3 meters of water. That would be impressive.

Cheers

James

Awesome article!

Thanks!

Thank you James for finding the answers to my questions. Perhaps we can invite Mr. Rattay to explain his set up, especially on the remote control? Anybody here know him? I'm going to check the DIY forum

That's amazing. I wonder what lens that was.

That's amazing. I wonder what lens that was.

The article indicates a 15mm FishEye as the picture distortion confirms.

I was thinking about the image transmission to the laptop. Why would it have to be via WiFi? Why could it not be a parallel USB-linked wire running along the remote control cable and hooked to the laptop topside? Why this seperate housed transmitter? Just keeping it simple makes sense to me.

Bo

pool is approx 15m deep (I think I read somewhere) so I think that looks about right with a 15mm fisheye on a full frame camera.

Bo, that would be one looong USB cable...

Plus, I think the swimmers might find it intrusive. I had found some really nice ones from the NY Times a couple of days ago, now I can't find them. I think all the major news services had some kind of UW set up but not sure if it was the same at the dude from Reuters.

Plus, I think the swimmers might find it intrusive. I had found some really nice ones from the NY Times a couple of days ago, now I can't find them. I think all the major news services had some kind of UW set up but not sure if it was the same at the dude from Reuters.

I took another look at the pictures provided by James' referenced article above how it was done at the European swim meet in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Take a close look and the set up has 2 cables comming out of the housing and then running along the corner of the pool. One cable is black and the other is red. One for remote and another for transmission of the image to laptop? I'm sure that if the big housing dome reflection does not bother the swimmers, the cables should not be a problem either to the swimmers. Besides Reuter's set up at the Olympics, there are also video cams on tracks on the pool bottom to allow NBC coverage. Maybe the chasing of these video cameras underwater is causing the swimmers to swim faster and break all the world records, just like greyhound races where the dogs are chasing the rabbit

Bo

It looks like Wolfgang clarified his remarks:

The Canon transmitter can not be used in wireless mode.

Due to the density of water - no matter if it is just two inch deep – wireless transmission quits working. The unit has to be used in wire-mode in order to work from the pool.

The other big issue to be solved with Canon’s Mark 2 is the firewire signal that comes from the camera. Unfortunately fireware does not travel over more than approx. 1.2m of cable length. Therefore the unit that “translates” firewire into normal “LAN-language” has to stay close to the camera. In my underwater setup a 0.5m long custom-made waterproof firewire cable goes from the camera housing to the second housing that contains Canon’s WFTE-1 transmission unit. The transferred image data is then filed over the second cable - the red one in the picture – to the ftp server. Previously mentioned - it is a specially treated regular CAT-5-LAN cable. Therefore we can view, acquire and edit the images from underwater within seconds after they have been taken.

I was wrong previously about him actually using the transmitter in wireless mode as intended, but it still seems like an over-complicated setup - I don't see why he can't use a Firewire-CAT5 repeater on each end and set the camera up in tethered mode with either Canon's software or similar (C1, etc). All the instant-view capability, no transmitter required (especially since the wireless nature of the transmitter is not utilized!).

Maybe the chasing of these video cameras underwater is causing the swimmers to swim faster and break all the world records, just like greyhound races where the dogs are chasing the rabbit

 

Bo

Here's another cool article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olym...anda/index.html

Cheers

James

I know but good to see more balance coming back to the Nikon / Canon mix at sports events. Sounds like this SI article used Nikon and here's a pic showing a return of some all black cameras in the mix. This can only be good for all of us in the long run with more competition.

Boy, some serious glass there huh?