Short Catalina Is. video using LED lights

Heres a new short little video taken at Catalina Island, California USA.

http://www.vimeo.com/3044090

Shot using a little Sony HDR-HC7, L&M Sunray 1000 LED lights, Gates Housing. No CC done in post.

Excellent.... for a tiny setup like that.

Digital HDV video is doing what digital stills did to film....it's easy for everyone now to go out and shoot good underwater video.

That could mean less GIGS for me

Excellent.... for a tiny setup like that.

 

Digital HDV video is doing what digital stills did to film....it's easy for everyone now to go out and shoot good underwater video.

 

That could mean less GIGS for me

Thank you for the kind words. I actually have learned quite a bit from your posts on this website, and appreciate your sharing your knowledge.

No worries.

It's hard to keep those small housings steady but you did a pretty good job.

Looks like the WB was on the warm side giving nice results. Did you manually WB it or was it on auto?

Some shots abit hot but HDV camera's tend to shoot abit hot, you can knock the AE to-1 in the menu settings if you can which helps if shooting on AUTO with lights.

Were you using a external monitor on the housing.

Lights work well.

Good job though.....

No worries.

 

It's hard to keep those small housings steady but you did a pretty good job.

Looks like the WB was on the warm side giving nice results. Did you manually WB it or was it on auto?

Some shots abit hot but HDV camera's tend to shoot abit hot, you can knock the AE to-1 in the menu settings if you can which helps if shooting on AUTO with lights.

Were you using a external monitor on the housing.

Lights work well.

 

Good job though.....

Thanks...

I set WB to a white slate, but I did not reset it as often as I should have. Sometimes I'd set it for a subject a bit further away.. then forgot to reset it when subject are closer. Perhaps another reason sometimes a bit warmer on the closer up stuff. Definetly WB was not set on auto.

Holding it steady, is indeed a really tough task. Many times I wish I had a larger, more massive housing, just for that very reason. I try to "set" it on the bottom, or lean against something.. you know the drill. Fortunately So. Cal marine bottoms are a bit more forgiving than a coral reef environment in those respects. I mainly purchased this little rig for two reasons: 1) Cost considerations. Total budget for the camera, housing, lights, ports, and all support equipment was under $6500 USD. and 2) I can get everything, including the camera, broken down and it fits into one international legal sized carry on bag.

No external monitor was used. The housing allows me to view the camera's little side monitor flipped out while underwater. I have access to setting manual WB on this touch screen. I also can manually set focus and exposure, and shutter. However it is a little awkward to do compared to a pro rig, but its dooable. No gain control however. Heres what my little rig looks like. http://www.gateshousings.com/HC7.html

I think that I need to work a bit more on forcing myself to shoot more often using manual exposure and monitor the zebra indicator.

Thanks atain for the great tips!

O yes now I know the one you were using.

I think it a great idea to be able to see the camera's LCD through the housing.

Nice and small to travel with is important now days to.

There really is no point messing around fine tuning controls, you may miss the shot..... fix it up later on the puter.

My Video setup comes in at 30 KGS all packed up.

So far I have not had to pay any excess flying around AUS with it.

Very nice work Mike. I also have the HC-7 and Gates housing. I tend to get blown highlights at times (shooting up toward breaking waves or toward light-colored coral). I usually keep the AE at -1, as Wagsy suggested, when I know that I'll be running into those situations. If I "have the time", I'll adjust exposure manually. Maybe this is an obvious technique that you already use, but I found that I can steady the housing by pushing on the left handle, pulling on the right and "locking my arms in place". It's not a comfortable maneuver, but seems to help.

I'm getting the Fathom SWP25b today, and hope to be able to test it in the next several weeks. Your earlier reports on the WP25 contributed to my decision to try one of the best ports.

Cheers,

Pat

Very nice work Mike. I also have the HC-7 and Gates housing. I tend to get blown highlights at times (shooting up toward breaking waves or toward light-colored coral). I usually keep the AE at -1, as Wagsy suggested, when I know that I'll be running into those situations. If I "have the time", I'll adjust exposure manually. Maybe this is an obvious technique that you already use, but I found that I can steady the housing by pushing on the left handle, pulling on the right and "locking my arms in place". It's not a comfortable maneuver, but seems to help.

 

I'm getting the Fathom SWP25b today, and hope to be able to test it in the next several weeks. Your earlier reports on the WP25 contributed to my decision to try one of the best ports.

 

Cheers,

 

Pat

Thanks for the AE-1 setting suggestion, I will give that a try.

If you get a chance, post some video taken with the SWP25b,.. that would be interesting to see.

Thanks for the AE-1 setting suggestion, I will give that a try.

If you get a chance, post some video taken with the SWP25b,.. that would be interesting to see.

I have the same setup. I most often shoot in AE with AE shift at -1 to -3 as well. The zebra stripes help too, but set at the higher setting (100 vs 70 I think). For my last trip (wakatobi) with my HC7 I shot in 1/60 with manual exposure and got some pretty decent results (IMO). I don't know why the HC7 tends to overexpose in AE - I guess every camera is just a little different - it's good that we have ways to work around it though.

Nice Catalina footage!