Trip Video: Dive Sites of Sogod Bay with Sony HXR-NX80

[Laval]

This is the second of two videos about our diving trip to Sogod Bay in Philippines in August 2019. In this video I was trying to show what you could expect to see at 12 dive sites that we explored during our 10-day dive trip (of 19 dive sites available).

This was my first experience with this camcorder and the housing, resulting in poor quality of some clips, which I decided to include anyway just to demonstrate the marine life of as many sites as possible. I have not mastered this camera yet, and on a few occasions I inadvertently used wrong settings (i.e. the internal ND filter was on on a few dives). Also, playing with different settings and filters resulted in some color inconsistencies between different clips.

The following equipment was used to make this video:
Camera: Sony camcorder HXR-NX80
Housing: Gates AX700 / Z90 with Gates GP34A Wide Angle Port and internal UR Pro Red Filter (on most dives) and UR Pro Pink Filter (on a few dives)
Tripod: Gates Tripod
Diopters: SAGA +5 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens, and SAGA +10 Diopter Achromatic Close-Up Macro Lens
Video Lights: Keldan Video 8X 11,000 Lumen CRI 92 (5400K) with Keldan Ambient Filter M1 (10-20m) for 4X/8X
Camera Settings: 4K, 30 FPS, Picture Profile: BT709. I followed the following article for recommended camera settings: AX700-Z90-Housing-Recommended-Settings-R2.pdf


My first video about this trip is a shorter 'trip' video that you could watch at the following link:

During this trip, we stayed at Sogod Bay Scuba Resort, which is one of the best scuba resorts in the area. You could read my full review about this trip at Scubaboard: Diving at Sogod Bay, Philippines with Sogod Bay Scuba Resort - August 2019

 

[EvilOtter]

Extraordinary video, Laval! The image quality is superb and your filming technique is flawless. Not to mention the incredible host of subjects that you had at your disposal. This gives me something to aspire to in my own work.

A couple of questions: does the NX-80 custom white balance without a filter or do you always need to keep on on? Also, did you use the ambient light filters on all the wide shots? The results are fantastic with pleasing backgrounds and no reddening of the subject.

Finally, your camera rig is basically my dream setup. Feel free to sell it to me at a steep discount when you decide to upgrade .

 

[Laval]

Extraordinary video, Laval! The image quality is superb and your filming technique is flawless. Not to mention the incredible host of subjects that you had at your disposal. This gives me something to aspire to in my own work.

A couple of questions: does the NX-80 custom white balance without a filter or do you always need to keep on on? Also, did you use the ambient light filters on all the wide shots? The results are fantastic with pleasing backgrounds and no reddening of the subject.

Finally, your camera rig is basically my dream setup. Feel free to sell it to me at a steep discount when you decide to upgrade .

Thank you for watching my videos and your nice comments, EvilOtter. I always did manual white balance with or without filter. The only exception was for macro footage, which I shot without filters and set WB to a pre-set value equal to my video lights color (5400K). If video lights are used when a lens filter is used, special ambient (cyan) filters should be used on video lights. You could watch THIS VIDEO about video lights.

 

[EvilOtter]

Thanks for the quick response. I have red several articles from Keldan and others about the red camera / cyan lights combo but have not seen it executed that often. My lights are only 8000 lumen and are probably not powerful enough to benefit from this technique.

 

[Laval]

You could do a lot with 8000 lumen.