Videographers Out there?

[PnL]

As far as reasonably priced housings check out Ocean Images and Undersea Video Housings. Most have LANC controls on the handles. I ended up with an Ocean Images housing which I love - I have full control over the camcorder via the controls on the handle, which are right where my thumb is. Great service as well.

 

[lwronk]

My buddy and I just started underwater video. We have tried some video last week end. Not sure how to post it on the Internet just yet.

 

[MarkH]

I have a Japanese sony CCD-TR900 Hi-8 camcorder that I picked up from a thrift store for $30. Learning what the buttons were for was through trial and error (everything on the camcorder is in Japanese and there's no english manual). I put a SLR fisheye adapter that I had on it (the thread happened to be the same). I made a housing out of PVC sewer pipe (luckily not used) and a dome port out of an old marine compass acrylic dome. There are no controls on the housing. I turn on the camera, seal it up and edit it later. This works out great as there are some moments that would be missed if I had to fumble with an on switch when that sealion swoops down and grabs a fish. I put a 10 dollar video light in another home-made PVC housing and ended up with a underwater video system for about 60 dollars Canadian (except for the batteries. Even my cheap self can't find used camcorder batteries that still work). I use it in manual focus, otherwise the camera would always be "hunting" because of particles in the water. I don't have the guts to try manual exposure yet.

 

[ronrosa]

I use a Sony 900 and a Gates housing. Been shooting underwater video for a little over 2 years while on vacations.

I have some of my videos on my website. I welcome any comments or suggestions on how to improve. Or would be more than happy to answer any questions that I could possibly answer.

My webiste address is:

http://www.ronrosa.com/ron/scuba.htm

 

[elbers_e]

Dancing was funny. What were the circle edges from? Added effect or your lens?

The Vingetting is the result of using a wide angle lens inside of the video case that recommends not using a wide angle lens. I generally don't worry about those edges because they are cropped on a TV which is where I usually show my movies.

Of course I saw the icediving one at DDN already - great but cold to watch.

I've been doing digital stills ( http://tortuga-web.com ) for a couple-three years now and thought I'd give video a try. Just got a Sony pc 330 delivered 2 days ago and an Ocean Images house is on the UPS truck now.

The learning curve is steeper or I'm a bit dumber than I thought. I played with the cam yesterday and put it into my 'puter just using windows movie maker. It was easier to use than the Ulead Video 5 that was bundled with the camera. I hope to get the Adobe video suite someday but $$ is short.

I don't know any of the windows programs but I generally find PC programs more difficult to use (of course I am a mac bigot). The other
learning curve you will find is that shooting underwater can be quite tricky (at least to get a good shot) being a three dimensional "steady-cam" takes alot of getting used to! My general rule of thumb is to shoot alot and then take the best few seconds for the video.

Lots of good UW video advice at Digitaldiver.net forum in the moving pixels section.

thanks for the tip!

Hopefully, I'll have some video to share soon.[/QUOTE]
Excellent!

 

[elbers_e]

Hi. I think there's little point in worrying about not having a three-chip camera for underwater work - the three chips give you better color saturation and a little better sharpness, advantages which are pretty much eliminated by photographing underwater, while a single chip camera gives you better low light performance, more important in my opinion.

Yeah, I grew up idolizing Cousteau (see my thread about the Calypso below) and went into documentary filming professionally, although most of it topside. I use Final Cut Pro and think it's kind of a pain - harder than it needs to be. That said, the editing software is a very small part of the puzzle. Most of my time is spent logging, planning, writing and conceptualizing, and I really haven't found a shortcut there! If your stuff is simple don't be afraid to use iMovie.

Nice Clip!

Thanks for the 3ccd vrs 1ccd advice... I didn't realize the 3ccd's didn't handle low-light so well that is great! I have heard it said that the 1ccd's cannot produce "Broadcast Quality" video, my video's have been strickly for "home" use so this hasn't been an issue, but ya never know!

I am interested to here more about your planning process and how you would apply that to underwater shooting. I generally don't do alot of planning since my "actors" are quite unpredictable and refuse mostly to follow stage direction! I generally like FCP better than iMovie because of the logging control and the batch capture capability. The thing that takes a long time is making editing decisions more than stuggling with the interface I think.

 

[elbers_e]

I have been doing video underwater for about the last year. I use a Canon Optura 200MC with an Equinox housing.

For editing I use Vegas Video and DVD Architect.

The link below is a little video I hacked out after doing a bit of ice diving last weekend. It's a mix of video and still since I prefer still above water and video underwater.

ice diving

JoelW

I liked your Ice video particularly the flow of the video to still. The Vis is really impressive, I have never been ice diving but I have assumed it would be much lower light! I am also adverse to shooting video above water, I need the "otherworldlyness" of the underwater environment to make my sequences interesting (at least to me, no guarantees that other people find it interesting ;-)

 

[nathanf]

Sorry to say, I don't. BUT, I have some friends that video. I'll forward this link to them, hoping that they might be able to help you.

I do have a Sony TRV510e, I'm just missing the housing. Anybody got one flying around that they don't need?

Aloha, Lisa

PS, Cute dance video, the umbrella thing is cute

I have a gates housing for a trv310-it might fit a 510, u could ck with gates. I'm upgrading to a pc110