Tulamben video with Canon 5D Mark II

[Originally a response to "Little Tulamben Promo" thread in WP]

I happened to stay at Tulamben wreck divers last week with my gf and do a few dives at Liberty myself. Nice low key resort and hassle free diving - and the wreck must be the most mellow and easily accessible wreck dive in the world! They carry your BC and tank to the beach, you strap it on, and virtually fall to the water, exhale and drift to the wreck! Anyways - here is some video I put together during the return flight. I suppose underwater steadycam would come in handy to make that footage more stable!! ;-)

Shot with 5Dmk2 using 24mm and 50mm primes.

Midael, what settings did you use ? ISO, WB, aperture, shutter ? Was the video mostly with the 24mm lens ? I'm guessing 50mm on the fish schools only ?

Sorry for all the questions. I am used to a camcorder for UW work.

Nice colors you got there Mikko. Good work on the WB, especially when inside that wreck. The real off color bits was at 2.15 where it was a bit too magenta.

I also noticed the edges went a bit soft once your focus got closer. I like the illustration of the depth of field, really shows you have to be careful with this camera and lens for wide shots. What port were you using with the 24mm? Were you using a diopter?

Stability isn't as bad an issue if you balance the housing. The biggest issue of a DSLR housing is poor balance. If you use a port that's acrylic, it makes the problem worse because it'll be front light.

There's a little trick many cinematographers use, which is to shoot wider than you think you need, then you can use the outer edges to correct for whatever camera movement there is... well small movement that is. Some people like the organic look of hand held instability. Post stabilization tends to look too unnatural to some. You just have to watch out for too much correction which will soften the already not so great resolution image.

Thought I'd separate your post to your own thread.

what settings did you use ? ISO, WB, aperture, shutter ? Was the video mostly with the 24mm lens ?

Its mostly shot with 24mm (three dives on wreck; two with 24mm). Pink Anemonefish (1:05), snapper (1:40), some jacks (2:43), grouper (3:03), and closeup of garden eels (3:42) are shot with 50mm. Its all manually whitebalanced, with slight corrections in post.

Im sure below is covered in many different forums/threads, but here are some observations how recording video on 5d2 comapres to camcorders. With 5D2 you currently have two modes that you can shoot video in: fully automatic mode where camera controls everything (you can under/over expose, where camera likely uses ISO to compensate) and fully manual mode (M) where you control everything (aperture/shutter/ISO) - with a twist that you can set ISO to auto. I tend to prefer fully automatic in deeper/darker (==less light) waters or when just cruising around, and fully manual in shallower (==more light) waters. In automatic mode camera seems to prefer faster shutter speed over lower aperture (e.g. you end up mostly shooting at lenses maximum aperture, assuming no lights) - which is anyways what you would end up using in manual mode when it gets dark - hence in part choice of using fully automatic in lower light conditions. For shots here with camera on manual I recall using mostly f/8 through f/11 at shutter speeds of 1/125 through 1/250 giving me ISO around 400-1600 - which ought to provide sharp image with [very] acceptable noise levels.

With 5D2 part of the challenge is focusing (and same applies with variations to other current video recording DSLRs as the lenses dont have focusing sensors and cameras cant use the dedicated AF circuitry while the mirror is up to allow main sensor to record the video). There you have few choices - to manually focus, or use one of the three "autofocus" modes. With my prime lenses you have to choose before going UW whether to use manual or AF mode (switch on lens, and setting to AF disables manual focus ring and switch cant be accessed when camera is in housing). I have opted for automatic (or camera assisted as I like to call it) focusing. With camera assisted focusing you have three focusing modes that you can choose from. All share the caveat(?) that unlike real camcorders, they will not follow focus while you shoot, but are fixed to what ever focusing distance and DOF you had when you began recording (you can refocus while shooting, but thats pretty useless and equals stop recording, refocusing and restarting). The "AF" modes with 5d2 are 'quick' and two 'live modes'. In quick mode camera drops the mirror and uses uses the dedicated AF sensors to focus - as the name implyes - this is quick. Live Modes use the video signal to focus, and it's painfully slow at times. For reasons unknow to me - I seem to get way more accurate results with Live modes and have ended up using them (cant recall whats the exact difference between two live modes).

Its too bad that with these two primes I use I cannot put the lens to AF, use camera to focus, and then manually override it while filming using manual focus ring. This would work perfectly with e.g. Canon 24-70mm lens - but it wont fit into my housings port system (Ikelite).

What port were you using with the 24mm? Were you using a diopter? ... Thought I'd separate your post to your own thread.

Thanks Drew! Im using Ikelite 5503 "baby" dome for the 24mm. No diopter (50mm f/1.8 prime does not focus at all on this dome - whether it would with diopter is to be determined). This dome makes the camera (want to) flip upwards, which is not helpful for stability. Nor can you drop it for this reason to the bottom [easily], and swim away to wait for the fishies to come check it out little closer when Im not making bubbles there.

For Ikelite housing Im using I had a pretty good succes in hooking an ankle weight around the dome. This solves the problem of not being able to put the housing on the bottom, but that makes the housing want to turn downwards in midwater and makes it negative too. Well - its really about finding the right weight (and not worrying that the extra weight will dislogdge the dome ;-) ).

I wonder when/if someone eventually comes up with video housings for some of the video shooting DSLRs that would [better] support video usage. Like being neutral and stable so that you can float the housing in front of you pushing it with the tip of your finger. Other goodies would of course include bringing zoom, and manual focus controls to handles so that you would have better chances to use them while shooting without earthquake effect.

What stabilization plugins people use and more importantly find good? I recall trying one and as a result ended up improving my swimming / kicking technique! The results as you pointed out were to my eye somehow artificial and unnatural. But I wouldnt either rule out the possibility that I didnt put enough effort to learn the intricasies of the plugin or that it maybe wasnt the best of the breed for the job.

Thanks for the thorough explanation midael. Looks like for dedicated UW video a camcorder is still the way to go.

Thanks Drew! Im using Ikelite 5503 "baby" dome for the 24mm. No diopter (50mm f/1.8 prime does not focus at all on this dome - whether it would with diopter is to be determined). This dome makes the camera (want to) flip upwards, which is not helpful for stability. Nor can you drop it for this reason to the bottom [easily], and swim away to wait for the fishies to come check it out little closer when Im not making bubbles there.

I remember reading somewhere, someone used the tyre balancing weights stuck to the dome shade to balance out the the front heavy issue. I have not personally tried it, but is hoping to do something about it soon

I have the 8" modular dome, which is really really bouyant.

Btw how did you manual WB? Did you use a slate/grey cloth?