Dive Videos with Bluefin Housing, Sony HDR-XR550v Camcorder, Sola1200 Video Light

[Vafinator]

i recently went to utila, Honduras for a few months. i shot a lot of video with the equipment i recently purchased...check out the videos and let me know what u think !!
thx for your time, and enjoy !!

http://youtu.be/FprPj9o-dF4

http://youtu.be/r1Bez8PXs34

 

[RogerAGrimes]

Same rig I have minus the Sola lights. I'm still wrestling with the Sola 1200 versus the upcoming Sola 4000 (when will they ever come out?)

Great, great video. Loved it. Really great shots, well blended. A few of the earlier scenes looked like they needed more post-production color editing, but really...great work.

 

[Marty Cerven]

Great video some awesome shots in there, well put together too.

 

[RogerAGrimes]

What did you do post dive with the video? Which software did you use? Did you manually whitebalance underwater? Did you use a whiteboard? Did you use the lights most of the time, even during the day, or a mix of lights sometimes and natural light with a red filter sometimes?

 

[Vafinator]

i used adobe premiere for the editing, first time using it so still getting used to it....i used WB all the time, with changing depth...i used my white fins to WB...i used the lights,natural light,and red filter....since i had just purchased this setup before heading for my trip, i was experiencing with everything...at depth the lights worked great for close shots, red filter was also good, and shallow water (20 ft and less) used natural light...and WB all the time
still believe it was the best investment i made, and really happy with video quality, now i need to purchase a wide angle lens and keep playing around with everything, all part of the learning curve
thx for your input..

 

[RogerAGrimes]

Regarding the manual whitebalancing, when I use the one-button auto-whitebalancing while focusing on a handheld whiteboard, the camera begins to shift between its six predefined whitebalance categories (e.g. Outdoor, Indoor, etc.), and it then chooses one (usually takes a few seconds). With my setup, it often chooses an option that over-brightens the selection, and if I kept it, my shots would be ruined.

How does yours work?

 

[Vafinator]

i have the WB set up as "one push" on the housing, so i WB often with changing depths, and it's usually pretty good....took me a few tries to set it up that way, and i got some help from light and motion, on their website as to how to do it....if u have problems, contact them and they can help u with setup !!

 

[drbill]

Very nice, especially for the first time you've used the set up. I use the same camcorder and lights in a Stingray G2 housing and have been very pleased with it. The lights cast a very even illumination (as long as they don't accidentally get switched to spot when you place them in tight quarters without the lock on). I film in the green seas of the temperate kelp forests and look forward to my next tropical dive with the rig.

My only comments are that you can detect the shift in using the different lighting methods on some of the subjects. Also close subjects like the first seahorse are not being directly illuminated by the lights which overshoot the subject.

 

[Scuba-dan]

Really nice videos. Not sure about those sharks there.... How deep were at with the light?

 

[Vafinator]

the videos were shot between 20-80 ft with the light being used from 40 ft and deeper...the shark dive was fantastic at 70 ft