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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 :)

Underwater Bubble Blowers User Group Thread NEW

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Matt Coats said:
rebreathers, 350ft, arctic ice, 3 weeks @ truk lagoon, and stealth... man, and I thought I had an awesome job.

Thank you though for that in depth reply!
Very cool to hear how you guys make it happen.
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Or...

You can go the opposite way, as we do, which is freediving or holding your breath. The most unencumbered way to interact with the ocean and to film its inhabitants. No machinery to malfunction, no drag, no bubbles. But of course, the depth and dive times are a bit more limited than when you have a breathing gas source attached to you :-) Seriously, for shallow water and blue water, you can do quite well freediving, and if you plan your takes and have a safety team supporting you, the short dive times are not a problem. My team have been doing this for years now, and although it is somewhat different in our case since we have some of the best freedivers in the world, and we can, for example, do 4-5 minute bottom times at up to 200 ft, and travelling shots from surface to 300 ft in less than a minute, etc, but a properly trained freediving cameraman can nonetheless do quite well in less demanding conditions. I have been teaching "Freediving Videography" for the past 13 years, and just came back from one such course in fact, where we were shooting with a custom 3D housing for 2 x EX-1 and even a Deep Red, both of which are quite bulky, but we were able to plan and execute some very nice shots.
Of course, for things that require longer bottom times, we do use trimix :-)
 
jim kozmik said:
Thanks Mike..you need a cataloque of product shots....you are saying you and GATES use the raw 22 inch cable punch through the housing with what seals and this is water tight...I just realized after looking at your monitor housing i have a old Aluim betacam housing with monitor external I may be able to cut down in size and it will only fit 5 inch red monitor though....my machine shop dude can reconvert this old baby..give it life again..MIKE can you email me how do you do the bulkhead seals for this monitor..Kozzzzzzzzzz
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My main point with the cables is that the RED monitors have very limited tolerance for cable length or additional connectors (e.g. normal underwater housing connectors) in the line so yes we use the actual RED cables (usually the 6 foot). We have a special size cable seal that just fits the straight lemo through before it is tightened but still tightens down enough to seal against the cable.

But I would prefer not to give away all my secrets, this IS how I try to make a living.:-)
 
Impero Cable

Impero Cable

G'day Mike,
Spoke with VF re 250' Impero-Birger cable, but they seem to think this would not work too well. You guys have obviously done it, so what's your suggestion re having this sort of length made up and how reliable is it likely to be?

best
joe
 
The cables were tested in cold lake water before the Bahamas trip, one of them failed, worked fine back in the shop afterwords. No problems in the Bahamas, surface water temps in the low seventies. There appears to be a temperature sensitivity issue with that length.
 
Tom Hamilton said:
The cables were tested in cold lake water before the Bahamas trip, one of them failed, worked fine back in the shop afterwords. No problems in the Bahamas, surface water temps in the low seventies. There appears to be a temperature sensitivity issue with that length.
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Thanks for the info Tom - we've got a project coming up in Tasmania this winter, so have to deal with cold temperate water (not diving to great depth though). Might just have to give it a go and see. Do you have any idea who can make up this length cable for us?

best
joe
 
The client made the cables themselves Joe, should be an easy enough job to do. Questions about connectors and so forth, Mike H should be able to fill you in on the details.

Not confirmed that temperature was the issue, but likely. Might want to keep the cables coiled in a warm place on the boat when not in the water. (I used to sleep with my aircraft battery in my sleeping bag in the bush on cold nights).
 
Actually one of the two cables did fail - not sure why and since they shot mostly with just the one cabled camera for the final days they didn't attempt to debug it.

Joe:

The cables they used was actually some RGB video cable and they used the four conductors for two of the video lines to make the RS-232 cable and one of the video lines for the SDI. They did this to keep it all on one multi-cable and one penetration but this is not ideal in several ways. First 75 ohm video cable is probably not the best for RS232 and second that cable, although fairly robust, has a higher potential for leak into the housing if the cable gets nicked as their is a lot more open space in the cable and with compression seals that can be an issue. The fact that you are not diving to great depths is a plus for using compression seals.

I have some more robust cable out at SeaConn (who blew it on a deadline which is why they originally switched to the homemade cable) that was specifically purchased for RS232 and need to see about getting it sent back or having the connectors put on that we had originally speced.

Anyway, bottom line is there are multiple ways to get this done, it is just a matter of getting all of the pieces on hand and having time to test it out and get a sense of which cables give us the most robust signal. Pushing RS-232 200 feet is pretty borderline, it wasn't designed for that (USB is a lot worse) but if you need really reliable control at those kind of distances, or more, it may be worth looking into some RS-422 converters - RS-422 is designed for much longer cable lengths which is why you used to see it a lot on video decks where the control station might be hundreds of feet away.

I was going to say you have lots of time if your shoot is this winter but then realized winter is coming soon in your hemisphere! When do you need to start shooting with this cable?
 
Mike,

The cable on that second unit failed the last day I was there. I guess it happened when I was surfacing the Red, at the safety stop beneath the boat. Some wise-guy had just dropped a bait box full of tasty fish guts into the water, for 3D subject matter apparently, I’m guessing the ensuing swirling shark action might have had something to do with it. There were some substantial cable tugs on the housing, felt strangely compelled to count all limbs and fingers several times.

Exciting stuff though, any idea whose idea the bait box was? Mike? :smiley:
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Mike,

The cable on that second unit failed the last day I was there. I guess it happened when I was surfacing the Red, at the safety stop beneath the boat. Some wise-guy had just dropped a bait box full of tasty fish guts into the water, for 3D subject matter apparently, I’m guessing the ensuing swirling shark action might have had something to do with it. There were some substantial cable tugs on the housing, felt strangely compelled to count all limbs and fingers several times.

Exciting stuff though, any idea whose idea the bait box was? Mike? :smiley:
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Are your eyes brown? :-) :smiley:
 
Hello.
My name is Txema and I am a underwater camera operator with own equipment, based in Barcelona and availability of working anywhere.
Since last July has the Gates housing to shoot with Redone.
Ability to use all types of lenses, Ultra Prime, Master prime, Cooke, Angenieux Zoom, Zoom red.
Communication systems with surface and lights.
More information and reel on my website.
www.txemavega.com
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=35281
 
Mike did you get my email to you...Jim Kozmik
 
Rebreathers

Rebreathers

Matt Coats said:
Hi, I was just wondering what type of breathing setups you guys are using?
Closed Circuit, Nitrox, other tech setups?
I've been a dive master for a while and soon to be a Red owner.... with every intention of shooting underwater one day.
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Hi Matt
I just sold my Evo and got a Cave Meg with a Shearwater Predator hard wired into the head. I found the Meg has much less plastic in construction and the polymers that ISC uses are extremely robust. I got a spun down version of the Cave Meg as it is much lighter. The integrated Predator gives me realtime deco info and is also a secondary for PPO2 readings. With the 5lb radial scrubber I can get up to 6 hours down time.
cheers
Ross
 
14mm

14mm

Steve Gibby is selling a Nikon 14mm which is a very nice lens for underwater (and has manual iris as well as manual focus). His price is a little over $1000 about $700 less than new at B&H.

If you don't know already, Gibby is one of the truly good guys in the industry and one of the first REDUSERs.

And his serial number 8 was the first underwater RED.

Edit: forgot to put the thread:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=43541
 
Thanks Michael...I appreciate your posting of this info and the kind words.

I'm reluctantly selling my Nikon 14mm prime. It's a crisp, clean, nice contrast, fast (2.8), and well-built lens. It is Nikon's widest angle rectilinear prime lens. On RED it produces exceptional images.

I'm a chronic "lensaholic" like most of you here! At times I have to make some difficult decisions on my camera kits. I flat out hate to sell this Nikon 14mm. I don't personally shoot deep underwater, but I do shoot action sports on the water surface. This Nikon 14mm does very well topsides, on the water surface, and I'd imagine underwater too.

As Michael mentioned, my RED 0008 was the very first Red camera to shoot underwater (9/12/07) - thanks to Michael's quick design and fabrication of a prototype PVC housing - the very first Red One underwater housing made. Since I'm right at the head of the line to receive Epic and Scarlet, it would be a good bet that my Epic and Scarlet cameras will also be the first to go underwater too :)

Contact me via email if you're interested in my Nikon 14mm prime. Address: steve (at) cut4 (dot) tv
 
I went to the theater last night and saw the new Disney Nature release "Oceans". It featured some superb cinematography, both topsides and underwater. I also thought the script was well written (it wasn't over-scripted), and the narration by Pierce Brosnan was also excellent.

Overall, "Oceans" is a remarkable production...check it out when you get a chance
 
Steve Gibby said:
I went to the theater last night and saw the new Disney Nature release "Oceans". It featured some superb cinematography, both topsides and underwater. I also thought the script was well written (it wasn't over-scripted), and the narration by Pierce Brosnan was also excellent.

Overall, "Oceans" is a remarkable production...check it out when you get a chance
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On the schedule for this weekend!
 
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