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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

Tom Hamilton said:
Thanks for that link William, am in the market for a new drysuit, which one of their suits would you recommend?
Click to expand...

I use a D7-Pro-cordura-iss which is brilliant but it really depends on personal need.
http://www.waterproof.eu/products/drysuits/d7-pro-cordura-iss/

When Göran (Ehlmé) and I were up in northern Norway filming Killer Whales you sit all day long in your dry suit, hopping in and out of the boat. The latest EX2 suit that he was wearing is so much lighter and easier to wear than anything else. It is a little more fragile than my D7 but a completely new concept for drysuits - probably that's the one to go for.

http://www.waterproof.eu/products/drysuits/ex2/
 
This is a short I shot for Sydney filmmaker Simon Williams. I used Red Dragon with Nikonos underwater optics with Pawel Actel DeepX housing for the underwater sequences and Mamiya 645 glass for the land based shots.
I am glad the film has been well received around the world at various festivals as well as winning a couple of cinematography awards including a Gold ACS award.



https://vimeo.com/167079250

Im still never sure how to embed the video into here!!!
 
Absolutely beautiful underwater and topside Lee! Bravo!
 
Thanks guys,

May as well fill in some details for those interested.
My producer and director wanted to do a little freedive film with our friend Josh Oliver and asked me my advice. I didnt want to bother doing anything in sandy, murky water around Sydney so we looked at other options.

We settled on the freshwater cave system in the film. It meant doing some intensive training with the cave divers association and our instructor was a pretty tough ex army frogman who did not mess around. Part of the training and to prove his point about how dangerous cave diving can be, was to drown me! I think I drowned several times during the training and it was a horrible experience. Anyone who assumes drowning is a peaceful way to go is tripping!
I remember one time we were at the bottom of a lake all silted up with zero visibility and he ripped my reg out and mask off, and proceeded to wrap me up in guide line and I had to keep calm and untangle myself. Part of the training is to assume you could run out of air at some point and buddy diving is paramount to survival so you stay close to youf buddy and if you need air you rip his reg out and he finds his backup. I got a couple of breaths from the instructor and then when I realised I was trapped and frustrated and needed to get to the surface he would hold me down! Many of you would already know that having your mask stripped off your face when you arent expecting it, in freezing water is horrible. All your bubbles and water going up your nose and when you are not expecting it, its just awful. Anyway, as I was untangling myself from the line he would suicide clip more on to my kit so you can imagine my frustration thinking i was close to being free and then hit a deadend again. The other trick he liked was to sneak up on me and turn off my air! Thats no fun. On twin tanks you can switch over to the other tank but its awkward at best. As stressful as it was at the time, it sure made me realise there is diving and then there is DIVING and my game was lifted significantly as a result.

Once we were in the caves, we asked my instructor if he would join us as safety and logistics etc and he brought a team of like minded madmen with him to help us out. We went for a dive in this amazing crack in the earth which is essentially a lightening bolt shaped crack that goes deeper and further than anyone had ever been and it was claustrophobic and amazing. There were points where we would have to remove our kits and pass tanks through tight spaces and then follow through and re-rig and keep going. Good fun in retrospect but at the time it was a bit daunting as youre in the dark, freezing cold, 40m deep in the very tight space, where even just keeping track of your air is task loading enough, let along operating cameras and stuff.

The cave we filmed in was amazing and mid way through last century the cave was used as a NASA training facility for zero gravity training. They had set up an underwater enclosed staircase with portholes going down so scientists could monitor astronauts at various depths. Some of the old infrastructure was still in place. Pretty cool.

Josh, our freediver was a busy boy and we wanted him to dive as deep as possible but he wasnt wearing weights as we didnt want to see weights etc. It meant it was hard work to get to the point of freefall. He had to wear a thin suit as to not be too buoyant but the water was literally 8 degrees C.

The way the sun was at the time of year we were there, we had a window of about 1hr in clear skies where that shard of lazer beam light would shine down. It meant I would dive down to about 35m and wait for the signal that the light was about to break and Josh would dive down. It was a series of hand signals and flash light signs to communicate so it was pretty basic. I remember one moment the guys on the surface had decided Josh would break into crucifix pose but I had no idea. He dived down touched the bottom and on his way up he pulls the pose for ages. Because he was still deep he started to sink again and my heart sunk. I thought he has blacked out and my instructor actually went to race over and save him but just at that moment he started to swim again. Hard to put into words that moment and thinking you had pushed it too far. I mean we were up and down a heap of times timing that sun, rehearsing etc over 4 days and Josh was cold and tired, as was I.

Oh maybe I shouldnt admit this but I was doing a tracking shot with Josh going down and I am operating a camera, with two hands and trying to manage my buoyancy to keep up with a freefalling freediver going down into the abyss and I cant equalise without pinching my nose and with all that going on, I ended up forgetting to breathe out my nose a little to relieve mask squeeze and everything went warm and red as my eyes burst and my nose started to flood out blood into my mask. Many of you will know, getting water in your mask feels horrible enough, when you arent expecting it and cant easily clear it and it stings your eyes etc but blood is even worse ha ha not to mention when youre 30m deep and your face decides to bleed like that (and I mean A LOT) its not a nice feeling and yet you cant just race to the surface as you will be bent and youre literally hours away from medical help and especially a decompression chamber! Good lesson that day. Cant risk pushing it too far for a shot (that didnt even make the cut damn it)

The rest of the little film was shot at a farm south of Sydney and the internal, above water cave was a secret place in Sydney that was amazing. Full of bats and a very thankful find.
We didnt want to try and push our shooting techniques to new levels and risk not pulling it off with our zero budget so we kept it as simple as possible. Basic shots but they work for the most part. All those simple things work for a reason and they are kind to the eye, whereas sometime we can get caught up with trying to do too many fancy things and it gets lost.

i am glad you guys enjoyed the shots and I hope this wasnt too boring. I like to know about behind the scenes moments and these were a couple I wanted to share.
 
Sigma Art 18-35 f1.8 uw

Sigma Art 18-35 f1.8 uw

Hi all,

I wonder if some of you own/use the still lens Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8 and if have used it underwater.

1 - What is your satisfaction rate in that kind of use?
2 - What kind of port/extension do you use?
3 - Are you able to control zoom AND focus uw?
4 - In a Weapon Dragon 6K FF, from which zoom position the vignette doesn't show anymore?
5 - How close does it focus uw?
6 - Have you used it with complete success with Foolcontrol?
7 - Do you recommend it based on your percentage of use, or do you think there are better fast glass alternatives.

Thanks!
 
Hi Rui,

I have also been wanting to try this lens in my Amphibico Rouge, but haven't had a chance to yet. Below are some posts I had with Ron Lagerlof. He talks briefly about the 18-35 on page 299 and 301. You need to read all the posts on these pages as he talks about the lens in the middle or end of the paragraphs. He may have some more info for you.

Geoff.

Quote Originally Posted by Geoff Grognet View Post
Hi Ron,
Just a question about the Sigma 18-35. I assume you are using a diopter, if so what power?

No Diopter needed. (And - IMHO - it's a fucking brilliant lens!) You have to work out the port extenders and gears though. I'm not sure how that works with the Rouge. Everything is manual, so Iris, Focus and Zoom all need to be controlled externally.
 
https://vimeo.com/167079250

Thanks for the kind words guys. As much as I enjoy shooting advertising, its always fun to get out and have a swim and shoot a little project like this.
I was blown away when I saw the opportunity to shoot those bubbles. The editor didnt actually use the bits I thought were the best, and it may have been a case of thinking it all looked good so pick a few seconds of whatever but there were some moments where it almost felt 3D coming right at you!
 
OK - since Geoff Grognet brought me into this, yes, I have used the CINEMA version of the Sigma 18-35. It is a brilliant bit of glass, sharp, sharp, sharp. OK, so it's $4000 and not $1000 (plus gears) but you get what you pay for...

Rui - per your questions below:

1. 100% satisfied
2. I use a combination of port extender and the light weight stacking rings so can't really answer. You'll want to work that out for your rig.
3. All manual on the cinema version
4. Very slight - and depending on the subject/framing very useable - out to 18. (I've only used it on the Helium S35 sensor at 8K)
5. Close
6. See #3
7. Recommend? Yes. Better choices? No.

Good luck!
Ron

BTW - if you want wide rectilinear the Sigma 14 is a beast! Perfect edge to edge even behind an 8" dome.

Rui Guerra said:
Hi all,

I wonder if some of you own/use the still lens Sigma Art 18-35mm f1.8 and if have used it underwater.

1 - What is your satisfaction rate in that kind of use?
2 - What kind of port/extension do you use?
3 - Are you able to control zoom AND focus uw?
4 - In a Weapon Dragon 6K FF, from which zoom position the vignette doesn't show anymore?
5 - How close does it focus uw?
6 - Have you used it with complete success with Foolcontrol?
7 - Do you recommend it based on your percentage of use, or do you think there are better fast glass alternatives.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Hi Ron,

Thanks for your answer. Very helpful!
Regarding point 4, what confuses me is that I've heard someone saying that with an Epic-W (S35 8K) he must move the zoom until around 23 mm to get rid of the vignette... The sensor size is very similar to my Weapon Mg... but you say that with your Epic-W S35, you can use it at almost 18mm in FF?!

Cheers,
 
Couple underwater Monstro notes:

I had the pleasure to bring the Panavision DXL2 underwater for it's maiden voyage. Quite an amazing system: https://vimeo.com/253326466

Other than that, a couple months ago I started shooting some tests with Monstro in the RED Weapon with our VV H2O OLPF both in pools and at some of my local dive spots. But I just brought Jarred's Monstro out to Socorro and I'm looking forward to sharing some footage from that trip with you soon...

https://instagram.com/p/BeJ_9mWhZLS/
 
Haha, Johnny you know I'm always working hard. Even when I'm sleeping ;)
Really initial testing was just in my pool and then I took it out to Catalina on a day trip to get some initial first looks at everything.
Socorro was me finally shooting some marine life again which I kept trying to plan the last few months but kept getting too busy with my terrestrial responsibilities. My gills were seriously starting to dry up. I really don't like that feeling.
 
Looking forward to some uw Monstro footy and your lens choices Sean.

Last time at Socorro I counted three boats total, recent reports put that number at six or seven, and apparently growing, did you notice that?
 
Alert for everyone on this season's Antarctica gigs, David Doubilet of NG had all his gear stolen at Buenos Aires airport a few days ago, in advance of a month-long voyage, seems the thieves are well organized, saw him coming.
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Alert for everyone on this season's Antarctica gigs, David Doubilet of NG had all his gear stolen at Buenos Aires airport a few days ago, in advance of a month-long voyage, seems the thieves are well organized, saw him coming.
Click to expand...

That is just horrible. Thanks for that update. My two thefts all occurred in the USA coming back from out of the country....and airlines said i signed their waiver of damage/theft not more than i think a few hundred dollars....but did not stop me from filing a small claims against them which upon filing, they paid me immediately...it helped that i took photos at the airport of luggage coming out of the carousel spilled out and in the open. But theft is so much on the rise everywhere....better have insurance for your gear.

My two bad spots: Orlando, Florida & Atlanta, Georgia....all on my way back from overseas travel and hit at those two major hubs.
 
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