Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

  • 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 Blowin' Users Group

I've always thought about producing a book collection of crazy assed stories such as these for that perfect surface interval read. If I ever do I know where to come for the prologues!

Fun times. Me? I've been tracked by a group of three Grey Reef Sharks during a solo dive on Yap. I ended up in a coral head with them circling, stayed around for about ten minutes...almost had a nip from a silvertip but thats about it.....worst one was a damn tiger moray that swam into my BCD in Tenerife.....scared the bejeezus outta me.
 
Yeah, well none of us knew about it until he slipped out on to the floor of my mates Zodiac! With those teeth flashing around the boat we made sure we got him back in the water, unceremoniously, pretty darn quick.

(for those who don't know a Zodiac is an inflatable boat and moray eels have incredibly sharp teeth)
 
ND filter

ND filter

From my understanding one of the reasons you have to use ND so much on the HVX200 and Sony Z1, etc. is that you can only stop down to about f11 before diffraction effects severely reduce the sharpness - so the camera won't let you it go smaller. I think this is partly due to the very small sensor size and also just the lower quality of the cheaper lenses.

I need some confirmation on this from one of the optical geniuses, but if I understand it correctly this should be much less of an issue with RED because of the larger sensor size and better lenses that are sharper at smaller f stops. Therefore we have more range to work with.


Is there anyway to get around a screw on ND filter? With lens and glass port placment issues...is there anyway to have the nd filter on an attachment that you can manually flip up and down? Or is there an issue of distance from lens to glass port that will not allow this?
I'm assuming that each lens has its optimum f stop range and having a permanent nd filter might affect it. So it is on the hvx 200. And I use a flip down nd from time to time as well as the internal nd. But the f stop range is finicky so i'm adding and removing nd's all the time in order to stay within the optimum f stop range.
....does this make sense only to me? I have no idea if i said was understandable. I just use the danged thing. what do you think ken?
 
so true Mike. I think 9.6 is about it before the image begins to be noticeably affected---OH---on the hvx that is. There's a small sweet spot on that camera that I always catch myself fudging with when caught up in a shot. Then I'll go back and do it again with a different exposure setting...or wait for a cloud to pass or something. I haven't had to use any of my external nd filters in housing on the hvx....or RARELY.

so from what I'm hearing we'll have to do some guess work on the nd's based on water conditions and depth---and hopefully not overshoot with to dark an nd and same for the other side. Sounds to me in reality there will be a bit of bouncing up and down to find a rhythm....since i'm not as bright as others in this forum---half the time i have no idea what's being said---I'll have to keep a notebook and log for exposure settings and nd filters to use based on depth/conditions. I think we'll have to get by that way since it does not sound as though a flip down ND is a possibility.
:excl:
 
hehehe, and you think I've got brains?? NOT.....my eventual housing will be covered in slates with all previously noted sweet spots, scenarios and settings....I'll be like a swimming chalkboard!
 
"It can't be characterized as film and it can't be characterized as video." Ted quoted on Apple red page - love this video:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/?movie=red

Remember we are recording RAW with 11 stops of latitude - in English exposed properly and in focus you can create amazing looks in Redcine, RedAlert, FCP 6, and of course Scratch.

BTW - I have mentioned ND2 for 125 ISO - this is video nomeneclature. Film ND's are .3 increments so ask for a 77mm screw on ND at Sammy's or B&H with this in mind for the Canon 10-22 lens.
 
Hey guys,
Just finished my latest short. "The Majesty of Muck" is basically a showcase of all things super macro (stacked achromatic diopters) from Lembeh Straits. It will be sent on Monday (FedEx) to Antibes, pre-selection process for this years festival. Fingers crossed.

Q: Each .3 increment is equal to how many stops?

Cheers,
Mark.
 
"

Remember we are recording RAW with 11 stops of latitude - in English exposed properly and in focus you can create amazing looks in Redcine, RedAlert, FCP 6, and of course Scratch.


....yeah, what he said! uhh? not meant to be critical by the way KC. you're talking techno talk to me....i look; i see; i adjust; i record.

....some of that is joking, but as i understand it's first expose properly (within the proper f stop range). So that means a stop or two under so that we can manually adjust exposure. I only worry about being underexposed with too much ND...and then having to dial up my exposure setting and then being out of the proper fstop settings.

....So, all things being equal (if i understand correctly) we can't just fix it all in post. We have to nail exposure/focus and worry about white balance/color correction later. --- BY THE WAY, that's how i work now with the HVX---FORGET white balance, it's a waste of time with a digital setup nowadays. NOR do i worry about black balance on the HVX. I just carry an underwater white balance slate on one side and color/gray scale marker on the other--throw it in front of the camera when recording and adjust ALL in post later. By the way, one of those slates is on my fins---I guess that's the hands free method.

...but i do worry about being underexposed and then adjusting fstop way to far down ---out of range of the so called "sweet spot"
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jannard
Actually, we are getting very good results at ISO 1000 and think that it is a very useable rating for the camera. Whether or not you choose 320 or 500 as the "rated" ISO completely depends on the subject matter.
Jim



at 1000 can you imagine the possibilities for underwater night images? I can already see some amazing images that will soon be captured.
Humboldt Squid
Spawning worms
Salps
etc........
 
Expose to the right should mean overexposure?

Expose to the right should mean overexposure?

....some of that is joking, but as i understand it's first expose properly (within the proper f stop range). So that means a stop or two under so that we can manually adjust exposure. I only worry about being underexposed with too much ND...and then having to dial up my exposure setting and then being out of the proper fstop settings.

From what I have been reading in the other thread from Graeme Nattress we would actually want to overexpose a little bit - or as they call it "expose to the right" (of the histogram) because there are many more of the code values devoted to the highlights than the shadows so to avoid posterizing the shadows you overexpose a bit.

Quote from Graeme:
"Yes, but I'd say it's more like exposing to ensure that the maximum number of code values are used for significant image tones. And normally, that means exposing to the right....."

he references a good article about this in discussion with Thomas Knoll the original photoshop author:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Also, Evin has posted a nice thread about filters:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?p=74392#post74392

BTW has anybody ever tried polarizers underwater? Any advantage?

Suffice it to say that once we get raw figured out we are going to have some awesome capability - like what the DSLR U/W guys have had for years. As almost exclusively a video guy, keeping track of white balance and limited exposure latitude has been a pain in my *ss for the last 25 years.
 
i guess if that's what orders from the top are...then so be it. That goes AGAINST THE GRAIN as WAS in the past...or should I say soon to be past. i think that will take some getting used to....I think I remember in a thread a long time ago from Jarred when he said something about wathch the highlights--- I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS REFERING TO--- UNTIL NOW...but, will we be able to monitor the highlights on LCD or EVF via some kind of ZEBRA pattern???? How will we WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS without a waveform monitor? ....don't work under the water column?? So can you all shed light on how we do this with no referance? OR AM I MISSING SOMETHING....and we will have a referance to monitor the highlights.....oh....yeah the u/w light meter---but still to monitor highlights---sounds like you have to be on the cutting edge no?
 
the camera provides a histogram

the camera provides a histogram

That goes AGAINST THE GRAIN as WAS in the past...or should I say soon to be past. i think that will take some getting used to....I think I remember in a thread a long time ago from Jarred when he said something about wathch the highlights--- I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS REFERING TO--- UNTIL NOW...but, will we be able to monitor the highlights on LCD or EVF via some kind of ZEBRA pattern???? How will we WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS without a waveform monitor?

the camera provides a histogram, I believe in the VF output and I think can be overlaid on the LCD output as well. I know that it goes against the grain of what we have been used to but if you read the explanation of how the cmos chips work and how the samples get divided up it then makes a lot of sense.
 
as long as there's a tool to monitor then no problem. I sure hate the idea of guessing....That's how it sounded when reading some of the former posts---albeit those shooting topside and montitors with histograms/wavforms adn the like....with that overlay---sounds lovely.
 
You guys are going to theorize yourselves into a frenzy - geez :-)

Johnny, you can simply buy the How To Shoot Underwater Red Digital Cinema (URDC) DVD, available in blu-ray only, for $49.95 when I release it the week after shooting in Mexico with you. Or maybe we'll swap boat charter fees for some in water how to lessons?

Either way what are friends for:tongue:
 
You guys are going to theorize yourselves into a frenzy - geez :-)

Johnny, you can simply buy the How To Shoot Underwater Red Digital Cinema (URDC) DVD, available in blu-ray only, for $49.95 when I release it the week after shooting in Mexico with you. Or maybe we'll swap boat charter fees for some in water how to lessons?

Either way what are friends for:tongue:

Now that's a good one. By the way...did you do a market study? I am betting on at least 9 sales the first quarter....what next? How about the making of? that might get a few laughs as well as a profit to pay for a week on the boat with a case of ice cold MEXICAN COCA COLA!! now that's what i'm talkin bout.

But don't forget you asked.....and you received---ideas, questions, thoughts??? there they is.....
 
You guys are going to theorize yourselves into a frenzy - geez :-)

Johnny, you can simply buy the How To Shoot Underwater Red Digital Cinema (URDC) DVD, available in blu-ray only, for $49.95 when I release it the week after shooting in Mexico with you. Or maybe we'll swap boat charter fees for some in water how to lessons?

Either way what are friends for:tongue:

Now that's a good one. By the way...did you do a market study? I am betting on at least 9 sales the first quarter....what next? How about the making of? that might get a few laughs as well as a profit to pay for a week on the boat with a case of ice cold MEXICAN COCA COLA!! now that's what i'm talkin bout. :bleh:

But don't forget you asked.....and you received---ideas, questions, thoughts??? there they is.....
 
Back
Top