Cozumel

[stphnmartin]

Stephen,

Awesome video! I am heading to Cozumel later this month and am on the fence about pulling the trigger with a new housing with Backscatter at Beneath the Sea next week. Want to graduate from the GoPro.

Can you talk a little bit about the hardware (camera, lenses, housing) that you used for that video? Was it all 1080p? 30, 60 fps?

And PS: How hard was it to recover the drone from the dive boat?

Once again, inspiring stuff. Thanks for posting.

... or I guess I could just read the credits too ...

Thanks Lawless. I wish I was heading back to Cozumel later this month too! Instead I was diving in 45F water in the rain here today in Seattle!

So, my main camera setup is a Sony CX550 of 2010 vintage. It's an older camera with not a lot of controls. I have it set to record at the highest quality level which is 1920 X 1080/60i. I use it mostly with the standard flat port on a bluefin housing with an internal flip diopter to focus closely on macro subjects. The camera has a 10X optical zoom. That allows for the really close macro shots. I use a tripod to keep the camera steady because at 10X magnification people would throw up from the camera jumping around.

I have a GoPro 4 black mounted on top of the bluefin housing. I have it set to record at 2.7K/60p. I have the backscatter red filters on it. They work okay but are generally dark. With this arrangement I have both wide angle and macro covered each dive.

I also have a fathom wide angle lens for the bluefin housing which I sometimes use with an internal flip red filter.

I'm not so good at wide angle stuff as I don't get to practice it much as the viz were I live averages 10-20 feet.

About the drone, I had them stop the boat while I launched and landed it. I had a buddy release and catch it. I've tried a couple times landing on a moving boat and it's freakin hard with all the wind! Don't recommend that method!

 

[49north]

Great video! I really enjoyed it. It's one of the best I have seen!

 

[zenpash]

Just arrived in Playa Del Carmen and gearing up for some diving. I been driving through Mexico since December diving some Cenotes...if you're around and want to dive Cozumel or anywhere along the Caribbean coast ..drop me a line.