The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

[Michael Hastings]

Exactly! I started using this design back a decade ago with my HDCAM housing. Now, both 3Deep and DeepX have option of longer rails extending about 10mm past the lens.



Do you mean posts like this?



or quotes like this?

"...just did my first job today with deepX no. 10.
Got to say it was a dream to use.
Shot an Olympic high board diver for a big projection job, 120 fps 5K w/s and it knocked the socks off all who watched the rushes.
I was actually able to shoot the u/w stuff more easily than the topside set-ups.
Unheard of!...
....I have never seen such detail in an UW
shot." [Philip Barthropp (DOP), UK]

or maybe one like this?

http://achtel.com/News/DeepX PR 21.06.2012X.pdf

All people skeptical about DeepX and 3Deep seemed to:
a) not have seen one,
b) own a different housing,
c) all of the above and are called Mike Hastings :beer:

I have seen one and had hands on - very pretty and nicely engineered for what it is. But that's the problem - it still has all of the flaws/shortcomings mentioned previously - and which I anticipated when I first proposed using Nikonos lenses on the RED cameras to the bubble blowers back in 2007.

 

[Michael Maes]

Michael and Everyone,

Our film is about mating, dating, dancing and romancing underwater. The more spectacular and the more bizarre, the better. Whether it is a shark, whale or a shrimp goby, it must attract the audiences coming to a giant screen theatre and expecting to be amazed, totally blown away and entertained.

If you think there is something that may fit this criteria, we are eager to hear more about it.

We are always keen to work with people with local knowledge and good skills.

I have shot mating hamlets and courting trumpets, coral spawning and "practicing" hogfish, a friend saw a stingray giving birth... all this is very cute and interesting but it are not some shots you can plan. It's not like the Cayman nurse sharks go shagging every evening on the same spot .... alas ;-)
Off the record: I even shot a solitary dolphin trying to mate with me... I kid you not :-/

 

[Mark_Thorpe]

Gates. Well, I don't own a Deep Epic, I do own a Deep Red upon which I have bestowed in excess of 200 dives already and 8 intercontinental flights. And before me, it was owned by Howard Hall, whom must have put that very housing through more than anybody on this thread has ever put a housing through. Never a loose cog, rod, actuator or wheel. and neither has it happened with my EX-1 housing, which has seen over 1000 dives and over 30 flights. Or with any of the other 9 Gates housings I've owned, although those were pre-Ellerbrock designs. I have had acrylic plates crack on those old housings but their controls have never failed me, so have I been lucky or is the Deep Epic design prone to such failures? Nothing is perfect and Gates' certainly has a few points where, I PERSONALLY, wish for different solutions, but mechanical failure has NEVER been one of those...I'm a bit mystified.

Amphibico. Again, I owned two of the "magnificent flooders of death", the F900 housing, which were prone to leaking through the electrical controls on the handles, but if I remember the Rouge design correctly, iris and focus are merely controlled by motors that are then actuated by wheels, simple stuff pretty fail safe as it comes given the reliability of those motors. So I don't think the controls described by Tom are the much maligned Amphibico controls Pawel is blasting, or am I wrong?

Pawel. Do tell please. Given that you use a lens, or lenses, with external controls, a solution whose elegance and reliability can be debated, but which in any case, was not of your doing but rather of the nikon engineers you have borrowed from; how would you solve the problem of through-the-housing controls in a better waay than either Gates or Amphibico? You are about to really get very lucky, BECAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT ALTHOUGH NOT RED, ANOTHER COMPANY WILL INTRODUCE A FULL FRAME SENSOR 4K CAMERA THIS YEAR, which will finally make those Nikonos lenses worth something to most people, but until then, it is a proven fact, as stated by most users on this thread, that the ability to have wider FOV than that provided by your 15mm lens will outweigh any of its advantages and people will need to keep using land lens/dome port combinations. So again, how would you deal with internal controls in that case?

I'll back that build confidence up. As a videographer prior to RED working in Yap, Palau and previously Tenerife, I've made in excess of 10,000 dives with Gates products. Have yet to have any issues with gearing or manual controls. Was a delight to fly Deep Red in Palau with Johnny et al on the Great Migrations shoot where again Gates performed spectacularly.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Greg F]

I'll back that build confidence up. As a videographer prior to RED working in Yap, Palau and previously Tenerife, I've made in excess of 10,000 dives with Gates products. Have yet to gave any issues with gearing or manual controls. Was a delight to fly Deep Red in Palau with Johnny et al on the Great Migrations shoot where again Gates performed spectacularly.

Cheers,
Mark.

I think mine is related to PEBKAC

 

[Ron Lagerlof]

This forum is not about free ram-it-down-yer-throat advertising, it's about the exchange of useful information. So spare us the 'dunnunda' angst, and go chase down some of those gorgeous Oz free-diving shark ladies, edge-to-edge, bum-to-tit detail, if you please.

And for God's sake, post the pics here! :coolgleamA:

Yes, this has begun to digress into the realm of the previous thread. This should be more about information sharing, work and work-flow sharing, and generally a more helpful forum to allow all 10 or 12 of us here to achieve the best results shooting in a *relatively* hostile environment underwater...

and for Crissakes, Tom, we all know you would be just as happy shooting and looking at underwater porn... Give it a rest already...

Ron

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Guilty as charged

Thread direction change, anyone wanting to know if a White shark is in your neighborhood, very interesting site here; http://sharks-ocearch.verite.com/

Ron, R3D snaps of you being 'menaced' by multiple hammerheads on the way to you next couple of days.

 

[Frazier Nivens]

Photo to share, behind the scenes of Hammerhead filming

Photo to share, behind the scenes of Hammerhead filming

Lawson Wood, a UW stills photographer just sent me this photo of some of us, Andy Brandy Casagrande and I filming during one of the dives. Just loved the black and white image and how each person in the shot is layout in relation to the shark.

NOT shot on RED, just wanted to share. High resolution image coming soon.

 

[Greg F]

and generally a more helpful forum to allow all 10 or 12 of us here to achieve the best results shooting in a *relatively* hostile environment underwater...

I am always learning something new and its more amazing than anything I have ever done... Ok its either amazing or stupid I cant tell the difference

Sharks of Molokai, They say HI.

Note: Photo was shot with my DLSR, I have only caught their shadows thus far this year on my RED

 

[James Killion]

Almost time to step away from this group...

 

[greg huglin]

Guys,
I've been reading this underwater thread for awhile and I really appreciate the info freely shared. Please don't let a few individuals who bitch at each other to ruin this thread, again. I personally don't care who thinks their housing is the best available. I remember pro still guys arguing about Canon vs. Nikon and IMHO it doesn't matter, it's all about what you put on the screen, not 'who has the better gear to sell us'.
Thanks.
Greg Huglin

 

[Michael Maes]

Guys,
I've been reading this underwater thread for awhile and I really appreciate the info freely shared. Please don't let a few individuals who bitch at each other to ruin this thread, again. I personally don't care who thinks their housing is the best available. I remember pro still guys arguing about Canon vs. Nikon and IMHO it doesn't matter, it's all about what you put on the screen, not 'who has the better gear to sell us'.
Thanks.
Greg Huglin

Very well put Greg, I second that!
Keep up the good work guys

 

[Greg F]

Figured I should share some rough footage that I shot. It was my first real time down there with the RED.

27m, mild surge from a 6ft swell (ok maybe not so mild) and ringing the galapagos dinner bell Lots of shots were shaky as I have to turn around and watch behind me excessively as they like to sneak up behind you. Welcome to the shark cleaning stations and Molokai Hawaii I hope to be able to show you more neat stuff I am doing out here. And not to aggrivate flame bait anymore than has been please dont.. This was the day I had my gears decide to come loose and unable to control much so it wasn't bad I dont think for having minimal control.

No Bait, No bubbles, No idea what the hell I am doing LOL

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Today I was shooting deep coral reefs in 3D. 3Deep was performing perfectly at those depths.

20000 lm of light shooting at f/4 (not much ambient light here despite shooting on a sunny day at mid-day). Sorry for highly compressed jpeg.
I'm on a sat phone. I will try to put 5k frame grabs on our website later. Preping for another attempt tomorrow.

 

[John J Ellerbrock]

To all:

A customer asked me today about the meaningful differences between EPIC and Scarlet cameras w/respect to underwater imaging. What say you?

J-

 

[Michael Hastings]

Guys,
I've been reading this underwater thread for awhile and I really appreciate the info freely shared. Please don't let a few individuals who bitch at each other to ruin this thread, again. I personally don't care who thinks their housing is the best available. I remember pro still guys arguing about Canon vs. Nikon and IMHO it doesn't matter, it's all about what you put on the screen, not 'who has the better gear to sell us'.
Thanks.
Greg Huglin

Greg:

I apologize for any part I have in what you are referring to - it is part of the reason I don't view the thread as often anymore. I tried to make my last response post as benign as possible, but it is hard to completely ignore it when one is called out by name - tacking a smiley on the end doesn't really offset the disrespect shown to myself or the readers of the thread/forum as a whole.

PS I'll be interested to hear how the "poor man's REDMOTE case" I suggested works out for you.

 

[Michael Maes]

To all:

A customer asked me today about the meaningful differences between EPIC and Scarlet cameras w/respect to underwater imaging. What say you?

J-

Hi John,

I think, apart from the obvious 4K vs 5K (and "soon" 6K), the higher frame rates is the most important.
Additionally I believe the Scarlet's datarate has been tightened down but I'm not sure.
Scarlet doesn't qualify (anymore) for the upgrade-path to Dragon.
have a great weekend!

 

[James Killion]

Hammerheads

Hammerheads

if only we could see it in 4K. . .

 

[Ron Lagerlof]

To all:

A customer asked me today about the meaningful differences between EPIC and Scarlet cameras w/respect to underwater imaging. What say you?

J-

John, all I can say is slomo, slomo and mo slow... The underwater realm is perfect for a more "liquid" motion (pun intended) with recording rates in the 36, 48, 96 and even 120. It just begs to be shot at a higher rate and played back at 24...

 

[Ross Isaacs]

if only we could see it in 4K. . .

Hi James thanks for sharing those gorgeous images Extraordinary!!! SHARP edge to edge spectacular!! Which lens did you use?

 

[Pawel Achtel]

SHARP edge to edge spectacular!!

Ross, I always assess the sharpness of my images by watching a low resolution, compressed video on Vimeo or Youtube. :thumbsup:

Nice footage, BTW, James. Thanks for sharing. Yes, it would be nice to see a 4k or 5k frame grab.