Belize Videos Parts 1 through 5

[ronscuba]

I decided to make a separate Belize playlist on youtube.

Here is the link. There are 5 parts.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=499E1AB5C89781CB

All comments welcome. Even criticisms on my musical tastes

 

[pudsgirl]

Just wondering if you was using video lights on the belize videos

 

[Nesher]

Excellent Video.

I was really quite amazed w/ your production skills. Really good....

I've got about another 100 dives before I'll put a camera in my hands, but, it's good to see what can be done with one.

Good work, keep it coming.

 

[ronscuba]

I had a mixture of shots, some without lights, some with lights, but mostly without lights. If you have a particular scene in question, I can tell you if my lights were on or off. I generally use lights for macro, night dives and late afternoon dives.

Thanks Nesher. I'm very fast on the computer, so it's fairly easy for me to revise and/or try different things until it looks right. Once you learn the basics of your editing s/w, you would be surprised how fast you can turn a video out.

 

[robint]

I agree with everyone, your videos are fantastic. The night dive in particular struck me as 'professional'. I love night diving but don't take my video rig as I don't have lights yet. Your video is making me rethink upgrading for now and just getting lights.

BTW, the squid were freakin' amazing!!!!! We had a school of squid actually come to us in Bonaire, hang with us for 10 minutes or so and several of them actually followed us out of the water (they stopped in the water about 1' deep). It was one of the most amazing dives of my life, hanging there, interacting with them, watching them communicate with each other, obviously chatting about us.

 

[ronscuba]

Thanks Robin. Always nice to hear positive feedback especially from a fellow UW videographer.

You don't have to go crazy and get a multi thousand dollar light setup like many people suggest. You can if you want, but I am very happy with my $500 halogen light system.

The squid ? Filming it was hypnotic. One of my all time favorite shots. But it had nothing to do with skill. Sometimes you get lucky and you are in the right place at the right time.

 

[drbill]

Ron, I agree that less expensive halogen lights can give very good results... I shot all my SD footage with them and people like it. When I started shooting HD, I found the poor low light response of the camcorder "demanded" HID though, at least here in our "murky" waters. Look forward to taking my rig to the tropics to see what I get there.

Just switched to my other computer to watch your videos. They certainly brought back a lot of fond memories of the two months I spent down there in 2005. Nice!

 

[ronscuba]

Doc, curious to see how your system does in the clear tropical waters. Scubabob and Pakman have both shown good stuff from their HC7 in a Gates housing & port.

The costs of HID has always kept me away, plus the fact you can't instantly turn them on/off. I can easily switch the bulbs on my halogens and go with a single 50 watt for night or up to twin 100 watt for daytime. I find twin 50 watts gives me everything I need both day and night, but that might have something to do with my camcorder's low light capabilities.

 

[robint]

Doc, curious to see how your system does in the clear tropical waters. Scubabob and Pakman have both shown good stuff from their HC7 in a Gates housing & port.

The costs of HID has always kept me away, plus the fact you can't instantly turn them on/off. I can easily switch the bulbs on my halogens and go with a single 50 watt for night or up to twin 100 watt for daytime. I find twin 50 watts gives me everything I need both day and night, but that might have something to do with my camcorder's low light capabilities.

which lights do you have? I am going to have to do some research on them!

 

[ronscuba]

I have a halogen canister light with NIMH battery, wet connector, "test tube" lamp and video reflector. I wear the battery canister on my hip looped through my BC waist strap. Before my current bc, I wore the canister on a weight belt.

The video reflector covers approximately 100 degrees. Sartek sells these items, but lists them separately because they mainly sell HID and LED systems. I would recommend going with a single lamp and 4.5 AH battery canister with wet connector. If you want dual lamps, you can get 2 separate 4.5 AH battery canisters or a single larger 9 AH battery and a "Y" cable. I think 2 separate canisters offers better flexibility and a lower initial cost since you can get the 2nd canister in the future.

The 4.5 AH canister is 2.3" x 10.5" and fit very snuggly on your hip under your arm. The 9 AH canister is 3.75" x 7.5". They are 1 lb and 2 lb negative respectively.

Burn times for a 50 watt halogen bulb on a 4.5 AH NIMH battery is approximately 1 hour. While that may sound short, the beauty of halogen lights is you can turn them on/off instantly. For video use, that easily lasts me a full 75+ minute night dive or 3-4 day dives with lights for macro shots. Night dives I use a standard flashlight for spotting and only turn on the lights when recording.

I buy my halogen bulbs from bulbconnection. The 50 watt Osram HLX 6410 bulbs cost $2.50.

So, in a nutshell, halogen lamp, video reflector, 4 AH NIMH battery canister with wet connector, NIMH battery charger and a couple of Osram 50 watt bulbs, for under $600.