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The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Tom Hamilton said:
All,

Some advice requested please.

On a NetFlix shoot that requires over/under work, my go-to for those shots has always been raw potato rubbed over the dome port to sluice water droplets, got this amazing tip from Mark Thorpe in Bali a while back, works a charm. Not sure though about the DP, getting some pretty raw comments about lugging tatties around on a professional shoot, before I get the 'French Fry' call sign appended to my function on set, does anyone know if a 'pro product' containing professional potato juice exists?

Or some other solution?

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

I think there are a lot of things we do for this purpose...even good ole RainX has worked for me. I use a plexi flat port that i found in a friend's garage....works wonders. "Thanks Cranston"
 
Tom Hamilton said:
All,

Some advice requested please.

On a NetFlix shoot that requires over/under work, my go-to for those shots has always been raw potato rubbed over the dome port to sluice water droplets, got this amazing tip from Mark Thorpe in Bali a while back, works a charm. Not sure though about the DP, getting some pretty raw comments about lugging tatties around on a professional shoot, before I get the 'French Fry' call sign appended to my function on set, does anyone know if a 'pro product' containing professional potato juice exists?

Or some other solution?

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

Baby shampoo or spit after you have eaten potato chips... and as Johnny says Rain X
 
Tom Hamilton said:
All,

Some advice requested please.

On a NetFlix shoot that requires over/under work, my go-to for those shots has always been raw potato rubbed over the dome port to sluice water droplets, got this amazing tip from Mark Thorpe in Bali a while back, works a charm. Not sure though about the DP, getting some pretty raw comments about lugging tatties around on a professional shoot, before I get the 'French Fry' call sign appended to my function on set, does anyone know if a 'pro product' containing professional potato juice exists?

Or some other solution?

Cheers,

Tom
Click to expand...

Just spit in the dry dome and wash with water.
 
Thanks all, good stuff.

Rain X sounds like the way to go, any idea if it damages acrylic?

It is also a hydrophobic silicone polymer according to Wiki, probably not too healthy for our already over-stressed coral reefs.

As a last resort I'll go with the spit method, I'll just tell them it's a tried and true technique first used on the Titanic set by Kate and Leo, that'll stump 'em.

Any chip flavor work better than others Jon? I am partial to mesquite BBQ myself...
 
I have used the Polymer that comes from ScubaCam Ltd out of England and it is by far the best water on port/dome shearing I have found. Don't know whats in it and it cost more to ship to the states than the price of the liquid its self. And don't really know if its plastic friendly for those kind of ports.. But for glass.. it rocks.

Just a note on spit... I have found that if you can spit on the dome or port when its dry lightly rub to cover the area, and let it dry, it will stay on for a while longer than if you do everything when wet. You should avoid spiting on the dome or port to soon after eating also, due to oils in the food can be still in your mouth for hours after eating.
Happy spitting:smiley:
 
Hey Russ,

Sounds like exactly what I need. Do not see the polymer product on the Scubacam website though, is it a special order item?

Interesting spit developments here on the thread, btw, I suppose Tikka Masala is right out then ... :coolgleamA:
 
Hi

Don't use Rain-X on acrylic. It's meant for glass and will damage the acrylic. Also I'm a little uncertain of using it on AR-coated glass (as most glass domes are these days) not entirely convinced it won't damage it. Theres a product called RainCoat-Pro thats designed for plastic (and shouldn't be used on glass) and works really well. Its made in the US so ought to be easy enough to find.

Both Rain-X and RainCoat-Pro are hydrophobic and water beads off. Personally I prefer it if water sheats off (the way it does if you use spit) and the best way I've found to do that - in a way that lasts - is whilst the dome is dry buff in some shower gel. Just squirt a dollop about an inch in diameter and spread it all over the dome. Then polish it back till its dry and optically clear again (use a couple of cloths). Repeat a few times more so you build up the layers. You can do this well ahead of time (even the day before) and it will last some time in the water with out having to reapply anything.

It works on both glass and acrylic without any issues.
 
Thanks Hugh,

I seem to recall a discussion some time ago, dome port manufacturers only use AR coatings on the inside, as salt abrasion tends to wear the coating away quite quickly on the outside. John E likely has the best info on this.

Seems the hydrophobic solution, Rain X etc, where water beads, would be more likely to compromise the image, as opposed to water shearing off the port: your advice with the shower gel method was seconded by another Pro shooter via email to me, although he recommends this product:

https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Jet-Dry-Rinse-Aid-Dishwasher-Rinse-Agent-16-Ounce/dp/B004OB3FP8?th=1
 
there's a rain x for plastic that works just fine on acrylic. I've not experienced an issue with it...but good point by Hugh...about coatings...that is if you have a dome that has a coating on the outside...I'm not sure who is coating outside of domes these days...I think most are only coating the inside....for the vary reason of buffing and jsut the fact that salt water is tough on these coatings....Gates can correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they stopped coating outside of domes a very long time ago and are coating only the inside.

but certainly if i had a coating on the outside of my dome i'd probably never buff anything onto it for fear of removing the coating.

Here's a product i'd used on the Lexan or acrylic flat port of the Gates 3d rig. Bob & I had good luck with this. And when it wasn't around...we just used a very fine wax and soft cotton cloth. https://www.rainx.com/product/plastic-water-repellent/rain-x-plastic-water-repellent/#.WaBjaZOGOL4
 
Johnny Friday said:
there's a rain x for plastic that works just fine on acrylic. I've not experienced an issue with it...but good point by Hugh...about coatings...that is if you have a dome that has a coating on the outside...I'm not sure who is coating outside of domes these days...I think most are only coating the inside....for the vary reason of buffing and jsut the fact that salt water is tough on these coatings....Gates can correct me if i'm wrong, but i think they stopped coating outside of domes a very long time ago and are coating only the inside.

but certainly if i had a coating on the outside of my dome i'd probably never buff anything onto it for fear of removing the coating.

Here's a product i'd used on the Lexan or acrylic flat port of the Gates 3d rig. Bob & I had good luck with this. And when it wasn't around...we just used a very fine wax and soft cotton cloth. https://www.rainx.com/product/plastic-water-repellent/rain-x-plastic-water-repellent/#.WaBjaZOGOL4
Click to expand...


John you made me look and I just bought some "NEW Rain-X For Plastic" at a store yesterday so looks like we've been lagging behind in the UK here regarding Rain-X products! Wished this stuff had been available two years ago in the UK as that RainCoat Pro is expensive and hard to find. But it is totally is worth remembering to buy the right stuff (i.e. Plastic safe/Glass safe) for your dome.

I think is best to check on coatings too, though your likely right on most being inside now, just don't assume. As an AC I worked most of a night once (working in shifts with another AC) to remove an entire coating after a port had been dinged. Repairing the ding successfully put a hole in the coating that looked super obvious on screen so the whole lot had to come off. Not fun. I swore off any coatings after that and have, until last year, only used uncoated acrylic ports. With some reluctance I now have a coated glass dome but if I could have an acrylic version of it I would!
 
Hugh Miller said:
John you made me look and I just bought some "NEW Rain-X For Plastic" at a store yesterday so looks like we've been lagging behind in the UK here regarding Rain-X products! Wished this stuff had been available two years ago in the UK as that RainCoat Pro is expensive and hard to find. But it is totally is worth remembering to buy the right stuff (i.e. Plastic safe/Glass safe) for your dome.

I think is best to check on coatings too, though your likely right on most being inside now, just don't assume. As an AC I worked most of a night once (working in shifts with another AC) to remove an entire coating after a port had been dinged. Repairing the ding successfully put a hole in the coating that looked super obvious on screen so the whole lot had to come off. Not fun. I swore off any coatings after that and have, until last year, only used uncoated acrylic ports. With some reluctance I now have a coated glass dome but if I could have an acrylic version of it I would!
Click to expand...

Hugh,
i can tell you i had some run ins with coatings years ago and flaking off as well....causing all kinds of problems you mention....late nights buffing off the coating from the outside...That said, i'm very careful of cleaning the inside of my coated ports with products....i've had minor issues with coatings coming off on the edges over time. I think it's just a matter of leaving them alone and untouched as long as you can and not using anyhing harsh that might cause chemical bonding break-through issues. But back to any product we are putting on plexi or acrylic....i still just take a small amount of the product and test it on a corner or "other" piece of material before i put it all over my dome....just habbit to be sure the "plastic/acrylic" advertising is what it says...

I think Mark might have it right with potato sluice.
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Hey Russ,

Sounds like exactly what I need. Do not see the polymer product on the Scubacam website though, is it a special order item?

Interesting spit developments here on the thread, btw, I suppose Tikka Masala is right out then ... :coolgleamA:
Click to expand...
I haven't see it on their web site... It usually something you have to email and order... This stuff is magic though. I ended up after years of wondering where it was disappearing to, in the little plastic bottle they send it in over time, to re packing it in to a small glass bottle with a drop applicator. It seems to me that over time it evaporates right through the plastic bottle it comes in.
Contact Paula or Mark Dalton at Scubacam Ltd. sales@scubacam.net for more info on shipping and availability. While your at it see if you can get the ingredients to this special sauce..

And again just a warning and it has been talked about here that you should always check when using some chemicals on your port. Especially if they are coated or made of a plastic plexi or acrylic. I use this product I mentioned only on glass and usually only a basic port that is on a splash bag.
 
Ok on a different note.
Does anyone have a very small almost form fitting, maybe a skin like shell, shallow water housing for the Weapon??? Im talking like a CF skin with a port just big enough to hold a wide ish lens...
I would like to cover my Weapon with about a 1/2 to 1 inch of foam and just wrap it in CF matt and then cut it in half and figure out how to stick it together.
Im in need of a housing that I can jump off in to water from say 5 to 10 feet and maybe shoot in the first 2 to 3 meters under the surface.... Kind of a sport housing that will only be used for speciality shots of jumping in or a brief snorkel or pool stuff but small form enough that you could take in some medium surf...
I know there are lots of surf housing for the RED but those seem like they have a lot of extra volume and seem to be based off of old modified versions of what was used for a long time ago.
I know if its not broke don't fix it. But it seems like with todays tech in composite there could be a smaller housing with maybe even a heatsink built in the wall to help off load the temp inside...
 
Hi Russ,

I guess you've seen the Scubacam unit here:

http://www.scubacam.net/red-epic-family.html

It's a tad pricey for what it does, but may be what you're looking for?

Advice duly noted re chems on the ports, maybe as Johnny says, the potato juice method is still the best and safest way to go. Widely available at your local grocers, and in a bonus pinch, a healthy snack too...

Another topic here, for any takers. Recently participated in an underwater test of the VistaVision behind a 9.25" dome port, we were at Blue Heron Bridge in Florida, subject matter mostly small to macro, the 8K sensor is impossibly wide, edges unacceptably soft. Does anyone have the poop on shooting 8K dome successfully?
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Another topic here, for any takers. Recently participated in an underwater test of the VistaVision behind a 9.25" dome port, we were at Blue Heron Bridge in Florida, subject matter mostly small to macro, the 8K sensor is impossibly wide, edges unacceptably soft. Does anyone have the poop on shooting 8K dome successfully?
Click to expand...

What lens/lenses was/were tested?
 
Considering the sensor is larger than the Canon 11-24mm f/4L lens is designed to cover, I would suspect that you might see some issues in air without a dome. It probably isn't fair to expect a lens that wide to cover a format larger than it is built for (although longer focal lengths often can).

The only FF35 Canon lenses I was able to test were 8-15 f/4L and 16-35 f/4L, neither of which covered 8KFF. I did not have Zeiss 15mm or 11-24.

With the 8K Dragon "VV" sensor, at 7.5k ff you have an image circle that is slightly larger than FF35, and at 7.5k 2:1 slightly smaller. The performance of Canon 11-24 is pretty well proven on higher resolution still imaging systems at this format size behind many commercially available domes. The question then becomes whether or not the resolution compromise is acceptable.

Wide lenses for larger formats aren't extremely well documented, and I haven't seen the kind of "lens test" style postings from Dragon 8K VV owners that we were lucky to see when previous formats were released. My guess is that the lucky few that have these cameras are too busy working.

Zeiss CZ 15-30 was the lens I was most excited about for this format, but the one sample I've used didn't cover 8K VV at 15mm. It did at 16mm, which is pretty wide on this sensor. This would probably be my first choice, and I thought it performed reasonably well from 18mm on.

Celere HS 18.5mm and Cooke S7i 18 would also deserve a look, but I wasn't able to test those.

I'd question what is really being accomplished with Dragon 8K VV in this application, though. You'll have better high ISO performance, better corner sharpness behind domes, and many many many more good lens choices with Helium 8K.
 
Hey Simon,

I am assuming this is on your Helium?
I can dig into this with you if you like. Couple questions I can ask but the easiest thing would be if you would just like to send me an R3D frame from the footage you shot with the newest firmware and then one you shot with after rolling back to the old we can dig into the metadata and see what was going on there. Doesn't matter what it's a frame of, just need to see the metadata. If I had to guess I would think the camera did not properly recognize which OLPF was in there and applied the wrong color science. So maybe it was showing you color for Standard OLPF instead of H2O for instance. I'll do some testing here and trying to replicate that.

If you want to email R3D grabs, you can send to: sean at red dot com

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi Sean,

It's happened again with another firmware update. If i take the green down to 0.6 in post i can get it something like it used to be. Sent you a pm on FB with the r3d grab link. Thanks for any input.
 
Opinions on Nikonos Lens

Opinions on Nikonos Lens

Been reading this thread for the longest time but never posted in it.

So my first post here.

I am considering buying into the RED system for underwater footage. Wondering how shooting a "land lens" through a dome stacks up to shooting through a Nikonos "wet" lens?

I have no horse in this race yet. I dont have a RED, any underwater housing or a Nikonos - so no bias on my part.

I am wondering if the Nikonos is the way to go Vs a housed land lens. How would a RED stack up underwater Vs something like an F23 2/3 sensor using digiprimes/digizooms ?

Apart from size, is there any reason to insist on a RED system vs something like an F65?

Just trying to find the right system to focus on and can think of no better place to get advice on this BEFORE i buy anything.

Thanks
 
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