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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Consider it done Rudi, your daughter's T-shirt is on the way, no charge for u/w red guys. :beer:

How old is she?
 
And for anyone who wants a totally waaay cool T-shirt, be the envy of the dive boat, here is my wife modeling our latest design (21 bucks :yesnod:)

Edited to add, all proceeds donated to Mark Thorpe's project, 'The Sharks of the Forgotten Islands'.
Cheers for all the kind words and the Tee, much appreciated. Here's to getting this whole crazy caper off the ground. Some new crew updates to be announced when nailed down. Hope you're ready to sweat it out Tom!

Best,
Mark.
 
Mark,

Awesome news and cheers to you on your Gates Sponsorship! Lets go shoot some sharks!
 
Cheers for all the kind words and the Tee, much appreciated. Here's to getting this whole crazy caper off the ground. Some new crew updates to be announced when nailed down. Hope you're ready to sweat it out Tom!

Best,
Mark.

Electronic aerial stab mount for Epic nearly done mate, in southern Arizona right now after a very long travel day, the aircraft is now prepped, flying down the Baja coastline tomorrow at low level, starting out at the crack of dawn. Attached is a prototype version of the unit, test vid results delivered to your inbox in a week or so. Hoping to get breaching whales and massive dolphin pods from the air, not unusual sightings in these parts.

I will be ready for the project, count on it.

On another note, sent an Email to John E last night, thanking him for his extreme generosity in donating a pair of Deep Epics to the cause. His response was, in typical Ellerbrock fashion, you have to support the people who are making a difference. I agree.

That happens to be you mate, take a bow.
 
Due to popular demand I'm pleased to announce rental of underwater and cinematography equipment.

More information and daily rates are available here: http://achtel.com/rental.htm

For longer rentals, please contact us as we have great discounts, in particular if the bookings are made well in advance.

Best Fishes!
 
For those who choose to use land lenses behind dome ports what are your preferred choices. How do you find the Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye compares to the newer Canon 8-15mm fisheye. In the rectilinear range how does the Canon 10-22mm compare to the Sigma 8-16mm I know that the Tokina 11-16mm is a favorate but this is not a possibility for me. I am especially interested to know if anyone has had success with the Sigma 8-16mm as I hope to shoot a Scarlet at 3K @48FPS for a upcoming shoot and this lens still gives me about 14mm with the 3K crop. P.S. I will be using a 9 inch dome
Thanks
 
How do you find the Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye compares to the newer Canon 8-15mm fisheye. In the rectilinear range how does the Canon 10-22mm compare to the Sigma 8-16mm I know that the Tokina 11-16mm is a favorate but this is not a possibility for me. I am especially interested to know if anyone has had success with the Sigma 8-16mm as I hope to shoot a Scarlet at 3K @48FPS for a upcoming shoot and this lens still gives me about 14mm with the 3K crop.

Mark, my go-to favorite lens is the 10-17. I shot a couple of days with the Canon 8-15, but I liked the look of the Tokina better. For rectilinear, I would shoot the Nikon 17-35 at 5K, or 4KHD and see where that gets you if you crop in to 3K. (Sorry, just noticed you want to shoot 3K on Scarlet, never mind....) You'll have to make sure you get the proper port extender and diopters for the Sigma if you go that route.
 
Hi Tom,

I just wanted to say congrats on getting the gates hardware, this is fantastic. I wish you the best of luck in what you are doing.
 
For those who choose to use land lenses behind dome ports what are your preferred choices. How do you find the Tokina 10-17mm Fisheye compares to the newer Canon 8-15mm fisheye. In the rectilinear range how does the Canon 10-22mm compare to the Sigma 8-16mm I know that the Tokina 11-16mm is a favorate but this is not a possibility for me. I am especially interested to know if anyone has had success with the Sigma 8-16mm as I hope to shoot a Scarlet at 3K @48FPS for a upcoming shoot and this lens still gives me about 14mm with the 3K crop. P.S. I will be using a 9 inch dome
Thanks

Hi Mark and welcome to the Bubble Blower's thread.

Regarding rectilinear lenses with a 9" dome:

Shooting cropped 3K will give you significantly less image plane curvature than 5k.

The optimum angle of view when shooting through a dome is about 90 degrees diagonal. I haven't done the calculations, but I think it will correspond to something like 6 - 8 mm focal length on a 3k crop.

I think your best option would be either a 2/3" ENG lens with a PL adapter or possibly an S16 lens between 6 - 8mm focal length to cover 3k.

Make sure that the geometrical centre of the dome is perfectly aligned with the entrance pupil of the lens.

Chose the lens with the shortest minimal focusing distance. You may need to increase back focal distance to bring it to focus on the virtual image created by the dome.

Other than this I can't see much of a problem with such setup.

Regarding fisheye:

Most fisheye lenses perform well behind a dome port underwater. For 3k I would try the Canon at 8mm.

Again, lens alignment is very important.

Hope it helps.

Let us know how you go.
 
Hi Tom,

I just wanted to say congrats on getting the gates hardware, this is fantastic. I wish you the best of luck in what you are doing.

Thanks Greg, but congrats go to Mark Thorpe, he is the guy behind this whole project, I will pass it on to him.
 
All,

The Hilton Hotel chain apparently serves shark fin soup at its hotel restaurants in the Far East, here is a petition gathering signatures to stop that practice, if you are so inclined to sign. They are about 1/3 the way to the required 5000 at the moment.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/tell-hilton-hotels-to-stop-selling-shark-fin-soup/

I smell a rat with this Petition Tom...i'd love to sign it, but it requires me to donate before submitting my petition.
 
Yep, if you click submit, the donation page comes up, and i deleted after this...but they give you no option for NOT donating...i always find these type things suspicious. i assumed my sig was not collected. but it is now, but no nothing about this petition nor its makers...Urgh.
 
Hi all,

Survey: We are always designing new features into housings, and our next target is convenience changing from under to over water. The objective is to easily remove camera/battery from the housing and mount directly to a tripod.

The key question: what tripod mount compatibility is preferred? What is most in use? Sachtler? Arri? Something else?

J-
 
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