Buoyancy while filming

[nuv]

Hi!

I am new to this site. I have just become and underwater videographer in Thailand and will start working soon. My latest videos are here: https://www.facebook.com/nuvideos
Please feel free to like the page as I need all the help I can get to get the site going!

I wanted to talk about buoyancy. I am having some problems with it while filming. I only have around 100 dives and my buoyancy is normally ok, but when i film it goes crazy!

Does anyone have good tips for good buoyancy while filming? Like do's and don'ts?

Thanks

Nuv

 

[Akimbo]

Get a rebreather. Buoyancy/displacement doesn't change as you breathe.

 

[diversteve]

I like my camera/housing to be slightly negative. If it's positive I seem to be continually pulling it down to level which affects my video. Of course if you have to let it go, you might not get it back but that's why I have a Cetacea coil lanyard. Very occasionally I leave it clipped closed - it's attached to a d-ring on the right side of my chest - and pull against it to steady the camera also.

 

[TSandM]

Maintaining buoyancy while task-loaded takes practice, and maintaining it when looking through a viewfinder and task-loaded takes quite a bit of practice. For me, once I got my buoyancy down when heavily task-loaded and stressed (tech training), keeping it while filming wasn't that hard.

 

[Interceptor121]

I don't think your buoyancy goes crazy is that when you film you notice that it wasn't good as you thought in the first place once you look at your shaky footage
It just takes practice

 

[drbill]

I find that I hold my breath, or just keep my air passage partially open when I film. Of course that can be a problem if one is midwater and rising. Much of my film work occurs on the bottom as I film critters rather than people. You may be focused on the latter in your work.

If you film like I do, with my eyes focused directly on my LCD screen, you do not have the standard reference points visually available to judge your movement in the water. Makes it much harder to determine whether you are stable or not.

100 dives is not a lot in terms of establishing good buoyancy (although some get it right away). I've got thousands and still occasionally encounter a few problems. Practice does eventually make perfect. Take your camera on all your dives and work with it.

 

[sharksdelight]

Agree with you Bill. When it comes time to actually shoot the clip, I find that holding my breath can really help. If you are in the open blue water this practice can get you into trouble so having some kind of sightline on your depth gauge would be advised.
Steve

 

[ronscuba]

I like my camera/housing to be slightly negative. If it's positive I seem to be continually pulling it down to level which affects my video. Of course if you have to let it go, you might not get it back but that's why I have a Cetacea coil lanyard. Very occasionally I leave it clipped closed - it's attached to a d-ring on the right side of my chest - and pull against it to steady the camera also.

Me too. Slightly negative, practically neutral.

Systems that are too negative also makes it very difficult to shoot steady.

 

[JamesK]

If you state that your buoyancy was only "ok" normally, then you have your problem. You need to work on your buoyancy without the camera. Are you able to maintain buoyancy and trim when sitting in one place for a long period of time with minimal sculling of the fins, and none with your hands? We're you using your hands at all when you were doing your dives per camera to control your trim and buoyancy? Once you add a handful of gear to your kit, they can no longer be used to control your body, that is why it is important to get all tha down before hand.

I would say give your self a no crap assessment of your diving without the camera and see what you come up with.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Interceptor121]

Agree with Jamesk
An easy exercise is to file the reef while hovering for one minute and then watch it on a large screen
There you really see how good your buoyancy is
I was shocked when I did this myself and since I have to be conscious that I have a camera on my hands and keep more steady