Canon 7d - Under the Ice

My brother and I just managed to sneak a final couple of dives in at the Lighthouse point in Tobermory, Ontario before complete ice-out.

This short video was shot using a Canon 7d in an Aquatica housing, Tokina 10-17 and L&M HID lights all on an XIT404 tripod backet. The topside shots were from a Canon XF300. The HID's are going to be repaced by 3 SOLA 1200's or a pair of 4000's when they are introduced later in the year.

Enjoy!

Alan

I really enjoyed that, thanks for sharing. How do you find your 7D rig handles for video?

I really enjoyed that, thanks for sharing. How do you find your 7D rig handles for video?

Thanks for the feedback, photovan!

The naked 7D in Aquatica housing with the Tokina 10-17 and a 6 inch dome is a treat to manage underwater. I used it recently in this configuration in the warm waters off the Mayan Riviera and it makes for a great travel rig - if not a bit light for my liking.

Add the XIT404 baseplate, tripod legs, NIHM battery pods, HID lights and cabling and drop the water temps to 1 degree Celsius and it takes a bit more advanced planning to get good results. On this ice dive I knew we wouldn't be going deeper than about 35 feet so I just preset a camera user setting that I had used before in similar conditions so that all I had to worry about on the dive was composition, aperture and focus (made easier with the Tokina set predominantly on 10mm). ISO remained at 100 throughout and WB was around 4000K. The less my numbed brain had to deal with, the better .. This setup resulted in very little post work as well.

The negative bouyancy was not a big issue and added to the overall stability, however, I am looking forward to shedding the HIDs, battery pods and cables in exchange for some self contained LEDs (SOLA 1200 or 4000's) I think that would make for a very user friendly setup and the additional illumination would definitely help.

This is the current rig from the front, side and back. Tripod legs are splayed out as they don't support the weight of the rig securely on land:

Alan

The negative bouyancy was not a big issue and added to the overall stability, however, I am looking forward to shedding the HIDs, battery pods and cables in exchange for some self contained LEDs (SOLA 1200 or 4000's) I think that would make for a very user friendly setup and the additional illumination would definitely help.

I use the solas in the same housing (for a 5d2) and find that with the three lights atop and an 8" dome, the housing is a bit top heavy. It's not a big issue, but probably needs a bit of weight underneath.

I really liked you film. My friend does this high up in the mountains of Spain. They start their dive with a chainsaw to cut through the ice!

Alan, nice work (I especially liked the composition @ 3.30) but that's when I confirmed that a few of the scenes had a weird distortion that bounced around. Did you use image stabilization in post? Seems like it's the distortion of the fisheye lens confusing either the compression or IS software. It'd be good to know which software caused that and the possible fixes.

Alan, nice work (I especially liked the composition @ 3.30) but that's when I confirmed that a few of the scenes had a weird distortion that bounced around. Did you use image stabilization in post? Seems like it's the distortion of the fisheye lens confusing either the compression or IS software. It'd be good to know which software caused that and the possible fixes.

Thanks very much for the feedback, Drew.

You're absolutely correct, a few of the clips had the SmoothCam filter applied to them in FCP Studio using the default settings (Autoscale 1, Translation Smooth 2.5, Rotation Smooth 2.5 Scale Smooth 0, Mix 100). It not only introduced the jelloing effect as you mentioned but also a couple of hesitation points as well. I don't rely on IS in post much and therefore I haven't experimented with configuring the SmoothCam settings at all - and in this case just applying the default may have done more harm than good. I think to complicate matters, it wasn't a completely solid ice overhead and there was some ice movement which, I'm guessing, would make it even more difficult for the IS to sort out.

Perhaps it's time to dust off the FCP manual .....

Alan

I use the solas in the same housing (for a 5d2) and find that with the three lights atop and an 8" dome, the housing is a bit top heavy. It's not a big issue, but probably needs a bit of weight underneath.

 

 

I really liked you film. My friend does this high up in the mountains of Spain. They start their dive with a chainsaw to cut through the ice!

How do you find the light coverage of the three Sola 1200's with a 15mm on the 5DII. That would be similar to the 10mm side of the Tokina 10-17 on the 7D and I'm wondering if I would get good even coverage on wide close wreck details.

Would you happen to have any examples that I could view?

Thanks in advance,

Alan

Very much enjoyed the film and am thinking of moving to a similar rig. I would suggest that instead of using FCPs Smooth Cam, you purchase Core Melt's Lock and Load X. It does a better job, has a separate setting for the rolling shutter issue and doesn't create the large files that SC makes for you. Plus, it is cheap.

Steve

Very much enjoyed the film and am thinking of moving to a similar rig. I would suggest that instead of using FCPs Smooth Cam, you purchase Core Melt's Lock and Load X. It does a better job, has a separate setting for the rolling shutter issue and doesn't create the large files that SC makes for you. Plus, it is cheap.

Steve

Thanks for the feedback, Steve.

I have downloaded the trial version of Lock and Load X and will compare it against SmoothCam, which I am currently trying to manipulate more to my liking.

I very much enjoy using this rig, but as I mentioned previously I need to upgrade the lights and I'm still on the fence as to whether to purchase 3 SOLA 1200's now or wait for a few months and see what the 4000's have to offer.

Alan

I really don't know my DSLRs as I have always shot video not stills but I am thinking of soon going this route. With the 7D what would be the difference between using an 8" and a 4" port and where did you get the baseplate for the lights? Was it difficult to assemble?

Steve

How do you find the light coverage of the three Sola 1200's with a 15mm on the 5DII. That would be similar to the 10mm side of the Tokina 10-17 on the 7D and I'm wondering if I would get good even coverage on wide close wreck details.

 

Would you happen to have any examples that I could view?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Alan

I use the 600s, I mainly shoot in caves and low light areas, but always have the lights on the #1 (lowest) setting. I find that anything higher picks out water particles and the backscatter is unbearable.

Three just about covers the field of view, but there is inevitably some vignetting in pitch black areas. You can see this at about 2:43

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