Hello everyone,
Things went well at the pool today, by that I mean I didn’t flood my housing and my camera made it home safely. I tried to run some tests to demonstrate some of the questions I thought the community might have. I categorized them in three main groups. Top Dawg Housing, HC3 video camera and rear monitor system.
Housing
To start with, the housing worked flawlessly and was a pleasure to handle. It remained about 1 pound positively buoyant down to 13 ft. I really like not having to horse it around while trying to film. Controls were easy to find with no need to visually see them to find them. Everything I needed was right at my finger tips and easy to operate. I am very happy with my decision to purchase the Top Dawg II.
HC3 Video Camera
Let me start by saying OMG! Even a novice can take beautiful videos with this thing. I used the factory defaults and started filming. Setup was: auto focus, no red filter, no light system and did not white balance. Video was crisp, clean and very detailed when filming within 6 feet of subject. Picture quality was very good but not as crisp when shooting out to 15 feet. Colors were bright and vivid and true to natural tones. Even in the hands of a novice I feel confident, that with a bit more practice I can shoot some stunning footage. Well at least in the pool I can. @ DR Bill – Run, don’t walk and get one of these cameras and move into HD! These are great cameras.
Rear Monitor System
Again I left everything as default, so the monitor displayed in 4:3 ratio. I had no problem with seeing what I was filming and never clipped into hidden divers left or right of the subject. I’m not sure how I would like filming with the HC3 if I didn’t have the rear monitor since the HC3 has a fixed eye piece. Screen was bright and clear with beautiful color. I had expressed concerns last night, with not knowing what mode I was in. I over came this problem by just shutting off the camera when done filming a segment. This did two things for me. Every time I shut the camera off and turned it back on, it white balanced itself and saves battery life by not using standby mode. So when I turn the camera back on it’s ready to start filming. I’ll take some time tomorrow and see if I can change the monitor setting to display in 16:9 ration.
I’m sure I’ve missed something but that’s all I got tonight. I bought a new HDMI cable and will pull the video off the camera and try posting it tomorrow. It’s a boring movie but it might be useful to someone. I head to Florida the end of this month so if there’s something someone wants me to test, just let me know.
Stay Wet!
Wilbkr1
Things went well at the pool today, by that I mean I didn’t flood my housing and my camera made it home safely. I tried to run some tests to demonstrate some of the questions I thought the community might have. I categorized them in three main groups. Top Dawg Housing, HC3 video camera and rear monitor system.
Housing
To start with, the housing worked flawlessly and was a pleasure to handle. It remained about 1 pound positively buoyant down to 13 ft. I really like not having to horse it around while trying to film. Controls were easy to find with no need to visually see them to find them. Everything I needed was right at my finger tips and easy to operate. I am very happy with my decision to purchase the Top Dawg II.
HC3 Video Camera
Let me start by saying OMG! Even a novice can take beautiful videos with this thing. I used the factory defaults and started filming. Setup was: auto focus, no red filter, no light system and did not white balance. Video was crisp, clean and very detailed when filming within 6 feet of subject. Picture quality was very good but not as crisp when shooting out to 15 feet. Colors were bright and vivid and true to natural tones. Even in the hands of a novice I feel confident, that with a bit more practice I can shoot some stunning footage. Well at least in the pool I can. @ DR Bill – Run, don’t walk and get one of these cameras and move into HD! These are great cameras.
Rear Monitor System
Again I left everything as default, so the monitor displayed in 4:3 ratio. I had no problem with seeing what I was filming and never clipped into hidden divers left or right of the subject. I’m not sure how I would like filming with the HC3 if I didn’t have the rear monitor since the HC3 has a fixed eye piece. Screen was bright and clear with beautiful color. I had expressed concerns last night, with not knowing what mode I was in. I over came this problem by just shutting off the camera when done filming a segment. This did two things for me. Every time I shut the camera off and turned it back on, it white balanced itself and saves battery life by not using standby mode. So when I turn the camera back on it’s ready to start filming. I’ll take some time tomorrow and see if I can change the monitor setting to display in 16:9 ration.
I’m sure I’ve missed something but that’s all I got tonight. I bought a new HDMI cable and will pull the video off the camera and try posting it tomorrow. It’s a boring movie but it might be useful to someone. I head to Florida the end of this month so if there’s something someone wants me to test, just let me know.
Stay Wet!
Wilbkr1
