DEEP ATOM down under

[Joey R.]

Congrats Ross!!

[Tom Hamilton]

Hey Pawel,

Now having a close look at your dome port specs for Epic ops, will pm you when a decision is imminent. In the meantime, primary wide lens is Tokina 11-16, zoom and macro TBD, my over-riding concern is 5K sensor coverage, your input highly valued.

Cheers,

Tom

[KETCH ROSSi]

Big congrats Ross!

Looking forward to some amazing stuff.

The lights on Ketch's 3D rig above are Gates new LED VL24's. Had the chance to use them on a Great Barrier Reef shoot last month, courtesy of John Ellerbrock, with some astonishing results. Will be posting a link to some video of these lights in action shortly, and a detailed report of all the ins, outs, do's and don'ts. Mostly do's though, I'm ordering a set of them along with my deep Epic, as soon as my Epic is delivered.

BTW Ross, next time I'm out your way, yer the man, looking forward to a personally guided tour of the best that underwater Oz can offer.

Ketch, spent three years in Rome, your country is so much fun, it should be illegal!

Tom

Yeah Tom,
lighting must always be priority number, and Gates understand that especially under water, lighting is critical and must not only be a great light, but strong, and with low power consumption.

He he, ROMA is not possible to describe, neither is Italy, for this we are producing the first EVER,. series of DocuFilm, Hearth style, but in 3D!! 12 Blue Ray series... ;)

Any time you are back here shout out loud, I'm here... ;)

Sorry, I was more interested in focal range rather than brand. What is the maximum angle of view you can use on Deep Atom?

First time for me doing this for, so I have really no idea of what Focal I will be happy with till I do extensive tests as soon as we get the rig... ;)

[Pawel Achtel]

Hey Pawel,

Now having a close look at your dome port specs for Epic ops, will pm you when a decision is imminent. In the meantime, primary wide lens is Tokina 11-16, zoom and macro TBD, my over-riding concern is 5K sensor coverage, your input highly valued.

Cheers,

Tom

Tom, Tokina 11-16 will not work with DEEP ATOM - too wide. 11-16mm can only be used with a dome port, which will not work for 3D. However, 11-16 Tokina is a good lens - a bit strong vignetting for my liking, but usable. Pulling focus may be a problem as the focus throw is very short and when shooting through a dome you would be focusing on virtual image - very close to the lens.

I think 35mm - 50mm lenses would work well with DEEP ATOM or any other beam splitter + flat port arrangement.

Ross, let me know when your rig turns up. I have a solution for super wide 3D underwater, which to my knowledge no one else invented yet :) On the other hand I do not have macro/closeup setup for 3D, which your rig would do nicely. Between two of us we should have all angles covered :)

[KETCH ROSSi]

Pawel the Atom clears at 17.5mm, so unless final design of the Deep Atom, keeps the Atom MB far away from the front element, I don't think you are correct on the capacity of the wide end of the Deep Atom... ;)

[Pawel Achtel]

Pawel the Atom clears at 17.5mm, so unless final design of the Deep Atom, keeps the Atom MB far away from the front element, I don't think you are correct on the capacity of the wide end of the Deep Atom... ;)

Ketch, it is not the vignetting of the beam splitter that is the limiting factor, it is the flat glass port that underwater is not suitable for angles wider than ~50 degrees. If you shoot through a flat glass underwater, you get massive chromatic aberrations, image magnification by 30% and pin cussion distortion. Have you ever stuck your nose to an aquarium? :)

There is a short explanation here: http://achtel.com/Optics/

Scroll down to Flat Port.

Yes, you can shoot wide angle through a flat port. No, it won't be usable for anything else other than making people dizzy and do not expect to resolve 100 lines on the edges. Unfortunately, underwater optics is not just preventing normal lenses from getting wet :) There are serious compromises and, to my knowledge, no one has built a 3D wide-angle rig for underwater.

[Ross Isaacs]

A few of the people who are getting the Deep Atom are using the matched set of Optima lenses including me but I will hire in Primes for big jobs or where the director requires primes. I certainly do understand the limitations of using flat ports and the implications but I think I will wait and do my own testing to see what if any limitations this system will have and trust in the good work that the design team has done.

[Pawel Achtel]

...I certainly do understand the limitations of using flat ports and the implications but I think I will wait and do my own testing to see what if any limitations this system will have and trust in the good work that the design team has done.

Ross, the point I'm making is that this is not specific to DEEP ATOM and nothing the design teem can do about. They can't change the physics. You also do not need a $100k 3D rig to test the results. Flat port is a flat port, no matter what. You can test any lens readily with a $100 aquarium whilst keeping dry :)

[Patrick Tresch]

There is a short explanation here: http://achtel.com/Optics/

Very informative! Thanks Pawel.

It seems that 3D and deep water is combining all the existing optical complexity. Only for the brave!



Patrick

[Ross Isaacs]

Pawel I am intrigued to find out what your magic solution is? Please share ;-)