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The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Anyone used hot swap dual V-lock battery plates like the Switronix GPTS V-Mount ?
These allow hot swap but if two batteries are connected will that extend burn time?

From the Gates Deep Red housing if side SSD or HDD mounted on the side there should be enough space for two batteries on the top. Air circulation may be a problem though.

David

With the DEEP EPIC shell extension you can use the Switronix dual v-lock. We have one here and checked for fitment / clearances.

J-
 
Sure like to hear about this....Might save me from having to buy a Canon mount....I had not heard this...but is good news.

With the new fans there are no changes necessary to DEEP EPIC housing. There are two other necessary changes if you have the Optitek mount.

* The gear teeth on the Optitek mount must be chamfered on the rear side over about 25° of travel range to clear the fan body.

* A new adaptive gear from Gates. This newer adaptive gear engages ~60% of the circumference of the Optitek gear, leaving clearance over the fans.

We expect to have this available in September. If you would like Gates to chamfer the Optitek gear, we can oblige.

J-
 
I just tested the Optitek Nikon mount above water, and it seems a little challenging to use. The lens changes a full stop with an 1/8 inch movement of the iris gear. If I'm careful all is well, but I'm thinking about what it will be like in an underwater housing in real life conditions? Any Optitek users have feedback on this?

Also, Have the users of the canon mounts come up with a way to do major up and down tilts during a take , and not see the incremental iris changes?

Thanks again for everyone's feedback. Much appreciated!

Ernie Kovacs
 
Mermaids are real. Shot on Epic.

Mermaids are real. Shot on Epic.

Wanted to share some imaging with you here that I'm still working on. Tweaking the footage but threw this together, doing some vertical footage also. Love shooting vertical. Yes, she's touching the bottom but we were careful to not damage anything. Click on the HD to set it to 1080 viewing.

The Mermaid, Shannon Scott was holding her breath for 4 min. at a time, wish I could do that. A real pro for the commercial we are doing.

Shot 24 project frame rate and 96 fps. Vis wasn't that great but the footage still turned out ok. Can't wait to see it in 4k and REDRAY.
 
Ernie- I use the manual version of the Optitek Nikon Mount and love it. No issues- smooth and quick response... it may just take a little getting used to. There is not much too it.
Frazier -nice sequences... and color.

I have been in Mexico 3 weeks filming Whale Sharks and what seems to be the year of the Mantas. Along the way I have meet Ron and Johnny who were/ are both here respectively.
Great seeing you both on the Island- Johnny and I ended up filming fairly close to each other (within 50 feet ) although most of the time I could not see him as the water was so milky with eggs!

Here are a few Frame grabs of Mr. JF himself at work as well as other images for reference.
There is a ton of work to edit!

Mauricio -
 

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Super stoked! Just received news that two of my films, "Great Hammerheads of Bimini" and "The Epic Deep" will be screened at the Oceans 13 film festival, Sept 22 & 23rd in San Diego. Both shot on RED Epic cameras at 5K including monochrome (hammerheads) I'll post links as soon as I get them up on Vimeo, but still waiting for word on SDUFEX (San Diego Underwater Film Exposition) submission. Fingers crossed...

​
http://www.oceans13mtsieeesandiego.org/index.cfm
&​
https://www.mtsociety.org/home.aspx
 
I just tested the Optitek Nikon mount above water, and it seems a little challenging to use. The lens changes a full stop with an 1/8 inch movement of the iris gear. If I'm careful all is well, but I'm thinking about what it will be like in an underwater housing in real life conditions? Any Optitek users have feedback on this?

Also, Have the users of the canon mounts come up with a way to do major up and down tilts during a take , and not see the incremental iris changes?

Thanks again for everyone's feedback. Much appreciated!

Ernie Kovacs

In practice its fine. But I agree its a small degree of rotation.
 
Hello bubble list..Jim KOZMIK Iatse 667 here from the frozen north ..Canada..Well after years of only renting RED ONEs for occasional commercial in Toronto only in the pool..I finally got a cheAP red ONE MX kit .which I pickup on Wednesday..i have a bt Aquavideo birger mounted housing and would like to hit the ocean in Florida with it in a couple of months.I have shot for years with Sony only and this is new to me,we did 105 tv shows with Sportdiver tv..Undersea Explorer tv and now The Blue Realm on Discovery channel.I have read as much on the site over the years but would appreciate any good solid advice for ocean shooting with lights.types of wide lenses,best camera speeds and settings,harddrives appoused to ssd 64gb cards.ANY good tried and tested advice would be be great thanks..
Jim KOZMIK...kozmikunderwater@gmail.com..thanks already to Frasier.Nivens for all his years of help..
 
Hi Paul,

I have had a dual-mount in the Deep Red for about two years with no issues (the housing since sold). The mount was installed at Hawk-Woods in the UK and effectively gave more than double the capacity (the usable voltage of two batteries running in succession seem to maintain more than 2x longer running time than one). The batteries I used mostly were 140Wh Red Bricks or SWIT clones, but I believe you can fit 160WH if not 190WH Global Media batteries as well. David Cheung voiced some concern about heat buildup, but I've never come across that yet (may have something to do with our frigid waters here in Norway).

I definitely recommend doing this modification, the most important reason for me being able to keep the M-X running to catch the moment rather than turning it off to conserve battery time!

cheers,
Amund

IMG_1228.jpg


Hi Guys,

Does anyone have experience of using the GlobalmediaPro 160 LI batteries inside a Deep Red housing? I am currently using the LI95S but these are only lasting an hour and I'am doing a lot of rebreather dives with the rig and often spend up to 4 or 5 hours in the water and need longer life. Also has anyone mounted 2 of these batteries inside the Deep Red so i might get close to 3 or 4 hours of life out of a 2 battery set up?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul
 
Amund,

Thanks that is exactly what i need !! Just i can't find them on their web site ?? Was it a special order??

Cheers

Paul
 
Question for you gentlemen: Where would you guys say is the best place on earth to film Blue Whales? I guess visibility and access to the whales are the main issues?

Anyone ever filmed the colony near Sri Lanka?
 
From LA, Sea of Cortez is closest, staging out of Loreto is easy and pleasant; on the road at the moment, I'll post some grabs as soon as I get home. Let me know if you're interested in aerials.
 
Tom,

Best place in terms of visibility would be off the coast of California, around the Gulf of Farallones and Cordel Bank, a short boat ride away from San Francisco. There is nice, clean, blue water there, though the krill blooming may turn it to mush frequently. On the other side of the world, such as Sri Lanka, much closer to navigation lanes, the water is dirtier and makes capturing the majesty of the whales difficult since you can't really get much of them in camera. But as you already are there, that's always the shorter trip...Best footage I've seen is when they migrate down from California to Baja, on the oceanic waters during that traverse, but that is not practical to reach from land unless you have a vessel that can follow them.
 
Yes, very difficult to film these creatures reliably, they are always on the move. Best footage I have seen comes from the Baja coast, taken by an Octocopter, the operator in a chase boat, used in a Disney production several years ago. Incredible stuff. I have two sets of footy in my library, one taken from a fishing Panga with some nice shots of massive tail flukes lifting high out of the water, the other from the air, as the whales surfaced to breath.
 
Question for you gentlemen: Where would you guys say is the best place on earth to film Blue Whales? I guess visibility and access to the whales are the main issues?

Anyone ever filmed the colony near Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka, I have a grab of 14 Blue Whales on one shot ! You will have to wait for the show to see that one. Very clear water.
 
Wow that sounds great, Dave. Any more ideas or tips you might be willing to share regarding Sri Lanka?
 
Not Blues, Tom, but the Mount Lavinia in Colombo is probably one of the best colonial hotels I've ever stayed at. Watch the Raki though, had a hangover that would not quit for days after a night with that stuff.

Apropos, has anyone ever actually successfully filmed these enormous creatures under water? How is that done exactly? How do you capture a skyscraper, filmically speaking, moving at 25+ knots through vast stretches of ocean?
 
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