Anyone Actually use a Sony HC7 Underwater Yet?

[chuckwill]

Just returned from Cozumel where I used my Sony HC7 for the first time. The controls on my new Amphibico housing crapped out after 3 dives, but besides that I was VERY dissapointed in the video quality of the HC7. A friend has an HC1 and the quality is worlds better. My camera may be defective, or it may have something to do with the fact that you can't control the gain.

I'll post more in a day or two, including links to samples. In the mean time, anyone want to buy a nearly new HC7?

 

[sinistar]

drbill,

not that this is apples to apples here ... I am using the QM-71 batteries in my HC1 when diving. Now right after the charge, the battery life remaining indicator shows well above 200 minutes (something like 220) which is very close to what the manual states.

During (3) recent dive trips with the camera I have never had to pull a battery between dives on any dive day. Cozumel (my most recent trip) was (3) dives per day - each day starting with a full charge of course. I do recall on a few occassions, finishing with a rather low battery though (battery self-indicator showed 1 of 4 dots illuminated). And I believe the time remaining (as displayed on the viewfinder) was well under 30 minutes.

And my camera day sorta fell into this routine. Camera energized just before dive. Camera on during entire dive. HDV footage recorded per dive was about 8-15 minutes per 60 minute dive. With those currents and groups, getting any more footage than that would mean too much separation from the group and a peeved dive buddy. When I'm not seeing any exciting motion, I switch to still mode and snap stills pictures like crazy. And I occassionally bump the zoom in/out a bit to keep the unit from autopowering off and in the ready state to record anything that might come up quickly. Back on the boat I usually wipe the port and snap a few more stills and maybe film 2-3 minutes of antics on the boat. And perhaps once or twice a day I'll rewind the tape to look at it and show others divers or the DM a critter they found out they missed missed (camera still in housing, watching via viewfinder on the boat).

So on one battery I figure I have the camera energized right around 150-180 minutes, recording during 8-15 of those minutes, 5-10 minutes of playback and the rest was a combination of standby, still pictures and bumping the zoom in/out. Definitely not up to par with what the manual states. Then again it states continous recording times and probably assumes no stops, starts, autofocusing, zooming and power cycling.

I'll add this. Had I had this camera for my previous Bonaire trip I would be writing a much different summary. For example, I'd be shore diving with my good friend and critter spotter where we spent as much time we wanted in any location with no groups, DM's or currents to worry about. With all those great macro opporunties I'm sure I would have easily recorded 20+ minutes per dive and all dives were easily passing the 1 hour mark. So for that trip there definitely would have been battery swaps between the two morning dives and 1-2 afternoon dives. And if there were an exceptionally interesting dive I'm guessing there wouldn't be enough to fully film a follow-up dive. The QM-71 just wouldn't be enough and the QM-91's don't quite fit my housing (L&M).

ps. 95% (probably even more) was shot with auto-focus.
pps. Funny, the manual states lesser battery life in SD mode?

 

[drbill]

Thanks, Sinistar. These days I've only been shooting about 10 min of footage per dive since I already have so much stock footage of the common species here. Now that I'm filming in HD, I'm sure I'll be shooting more on each dive since I have to gather new footage on every species.

Hopefully this is a problem with a bad battery and not an indication of false advertising of this battery's capacity. Of course that doesn't necessary say anything bad about the HC-7 itself.

 

[sinistar]

Thanks, Sinistar. These days I've only been shooting about 10 min of footage per dive since I already have so much stock footage of the common species here. Now that I'm filming in HD, I'm sure I'll be shooting more on each dive since I have to gather new footage on every species.

Hopefully this is a problem with a bad battery and not an indication of false advertising of this battery's capacity. Of course that doesn't necessary say anything bad about the HC-7 itself.

Something tells me you'll get more video time with this battery than initially appears to be the case. And i would guess you'll be buying another battery soon so it will be obvious right away if its a individual battery problem versus a class-wide camera power consumption issue.

Actually, I just hope you enjoy getting out there diving with a new toy!!! And will be interesting to hear your review since you have so much experience with SD systems before switching over.

I'm hoping this weekend to get in my first coldwater/drysuit dives while toting a video camera - hopefully it won't be a task overloading nighmare

 

[drbill]

OK, I'm back from the dive park but not with a smile on my face. In part it was due to 10-12 foot visibility, among the worst conditions I've dived in this year. Could barely see the garibaldi!

First, the good news. For those thinking of using the Top Dawg with the HC-7, you actually CAN see the viewfinder through the rear port. However, it needs to be raised about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch to be easily visible. I'm going to mount a tripod quick release on the Top Dawg tray and the other half on the camera since this will elevate enough to make it easy to see through the viewfinder. That's cool... I may not even need the monitor as I assumed I would.

The bad news? The camera does not appear to close focus on objects less than 8-10" from the lens. Not a good thing for me since I film the small stuff much of the time. However, it is possible this has something to do with the housing's front part. I did have trouble close focusing the camera outside the housing so I don't think this is the case.

I will RTFM tonight because I know there is a tele/macro or zoom/macro function which might remedy this. Will report back later.

It was hard to find good clear subjects that were far enough (> 10") away for the camera to focus on and film. The vis was terrible and there were a lot of particulates in the wayer. Not an ideal day for a test. I did film a bat ray as it approached, passed directly over my head and then spooked when it heard my bubbles (it couldn't see through the vis either). Based on what I saw in the viewfinder, this and other segments did look pretty nice.

More tests on the next 6 dives this weekend.

 

[drbill]

I did some additional research on the tele macro function. It has to be set from the touch screen (impossible when underwater in my housing... other housings may allow it). Once set, it shuts off when the lens is returned to wide angle. Looks like this inability to close focus underwater is going to be a real problem at least for me. If you don't shoot closer than a foot, it won't be a problem for you.

Another negative, probably related to any HD camera in a housing. When I viewed the footage on my analog TV, there were a number of tiny "microflares" in the image caused by light hitting tiny particles on the front port. This was a day with high particulate content in the water column. However, this was rarely a problem with my mini-DV camera. I almost always wipe the front port before I start filming to remove particulates, and that worked with the lower res TRV-17. However, the HC-7's resolution apparently picks up even the tiniest of them.

When filming, I also noticed that the record function didn't always kick in quickly. On some segments, I'd press the record button, then look through the viewfinder and discover the camcorder was still in transition from Stand-by to Record. Not a "biggie" but it could cause one to miss the shot of a lifetime IF this is the case with the camera in any housing.

When I viewed the footage on my TV, I was quite impressed with the fine detail captured (it was even evident on the analog system). Colors seemed to be very true despite the poor vis and high absorption of light in the water column.

 

[paulpost]

Dr. Bill
What are your camera settings? You film in full auto or you have some manual settings that you use? From what I've learn from other posts a good way to eliminate the backscatter from the particles in the water is to set focus on manual and rotate the ring so the focus is set to infinite , on my HC1 the symbol is like numeral 8 rotated 90 degrees . I've tested it but not underwater and i can get very close ( matter of inches) without loosing focus, the down side of this is that if you try to zoom in you loose focus .
Try this and let us know how it worked.
Paul

 

[drbill]

Paul... I'll try your suggestion next time I go under (conditions were lousy today so I may not dive tomorrow).

Spoke with another UW videographer who shoots with the HC-3. Apparently it also has the touch-screen activated "tele macro" function. His Light & Motion housing can access this function through the external controls. Same with their housing for the HC-7. So, your ability to do this will depend on the housing you use.

I'm using my old Top Dawgs which can not (at least yet) access the "tele macro" function. If you buy a L & M housing this could be a great camera for you.

 

[sinistar]

I did some additional research on the tele macro function. It has to be set from the touch screen (impossible when underwater in my housing... other housings may allow it). Once set, it shuts off when the lens is returned to wide angle. Looks like this inability to close focus underwater is going to be a real problem at least for me. If you don't shoot closer than a foot, it won't be a problem for you.

...the HC1 does this also. If you press the macro button on outside of the unit it goes into macro mode (and the lens obviously zooms). Then a flower is displayed on the viewfinder/touchscreen. And the instant any zoom is applied the macro mode is ended. This happens whether inside or outside the housing.

When filming, I also noticed that the record function didn't always kick in quickly. On some segments, I'd press the record button, then look through the viewfinder and discover the camcorder was still in transition from Stand-by to Record. Not a "biggie" but it could cause one to miss the shot of a lifetime IF this is the case with the camera in any housing.

...I can confirm the HC1 does this too. IT seems like there's a timeout (perhaps about 5 minutes or so) where the camera must disengage something related to the tape heads/drive. If you press the record button after this has happened it seems like it takes forever (I would guess over 10 seconds, maybe longer). If you are very quite/calm you can even feel/hear the unit drop into this standby mode.

Actually I've gotten in a habit where I casually just bump the zoom in/out button every so often and that seems to prevent the unit from dropping into this standby mode. Perhaps that's not a good thing for the recorder / tape but ir just might prevent that [lost] shot of a lifetime!

 

[drbill]

Had a chance to look at the footage I shot in today's dismal conditions (obviously a factor).

I had some footage that came out very nicely (fortunately two segments I wanted to save, one of a knobby star feeding on a wavy top snail and the other of red rock cleaner shrimp on the head of a moray). Other than all the particulates in the water, the footage was great.

However MOST of the footage, especially on the last two dives where vis was worse, was very green and colors were often very untrue. Of course this could easily be attributed to the issue of no manual white balance. However, I was using the same video light I use with my TRV-17 and it performs very nicely under the same conditions.

Interesting that chuckwill is having problems with colors rendered as well.

Based on results so far, this camcorder is a non starter. However, I still haven't read the entire manual and I'm willing to give it a chance to succeed once I've tried some of the many options on the camera. Maybe the darned thing is just TOO complex for its own good!