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Underwater videography using GH2
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  • @Rambo: I was using 14mm F2.5 lens and the shots were taken at the surface, I am not sure about the iso used but it shouldn't be too high.

    @kkfok, it still looked fairly dark and murky even at f2.5 so ISO might have been up a bit but yeah not 800+. Maybe something to do with the green hammering the white balance of the camera causing the colour banding. Needs SWCY filter maybe on lens??

  • @Rambo: No SWCY was used on those shots. I usually use red filter only from 10 metre to 25 metre. The color banding only occurs in certain situations.

    For example : It was very visible at 5:18 but then it was less visible at 5:29.

  • My latest effort underwater.

    The Steam Ship was built and launched as ROSOLINO ORLANDO in 1919 by the "Società Esercizio Bacini of Riva Trigoso" for the "Industrie Navali Società Anonima" (INSA) of Genoa. In 1923 she was renamed VALSAVOIA. She was 5.733 tsl with a length x breadth of 117.60 x 15.70 m. The SS VALSAVOIA, was torpedoed and sunk by HMS SAFARI on February 2nd 1943, while traveling from Naples to Palermo,10 miles West of Capri island near Positano.

    The wreck lies under 85m/ 278ft of water in upward position.


    Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 7-14mm loaded with Lee Powell’s Flow Motion 2.02 settings; Nauticam Housing, 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights and 2x 50W HID Yellow Diving.

    Music: Dandi + Mattanza + Bologna from the soundtrack of "Romanzo Criminale" by Paolo Buonvino.

  • Fantastic document @LongJohnSilver irrespective of hack.

  • @driftwood thanks :)

    Of course

    @vitaliy_kiselev

    Would be possible transforming this thread in "underwater" without hack type or having a section for underwater video?

    Thanks

  • @LongJohnSilver: When I try to watch your video on vimeo, I only get a static picture of vertical color stripes (in-browser replay is not supported on my operating system).

    image

    Any idea what's wrong? (The other video you posted below works fine.)

  • I've just updated it and Vimeo is converting it. I guess it needs few minutes.

    Bye

  • @Karl it should be ok now

    Byeeee

  • @LongJohnSilver: Ah, got it now. The wreck looks more beautiful in your clip than the ship looked when it was still above the water ;-)

    One question: There didn't seem to be significant current, but you all brought scooters, anyway. What did you use them for?

  • @Karl,

    • A wreck like that is over 100m long. In such dive we spent 35 minutes on the bottom. It's impossible to dive the entire wreck on your fin.
    • It's not healty for joints swimming at such depth.
    • With the scooter your gas consumption is quite lower.

    In the end a scooter is a funny security measure :)

    having your camera on a scooter gives you increased stability on your shots.

    image

  • Hello.

    Im very interested in adquiring diving equipment for videography. But i see here very maybe too pro equipment for starters. Or this is the common price on it. Also would like to know wich thing must be bought for basic GH2 diving videography.

    Thanks!

  • @endotoxic I'll try to explain here some concepts hoping that other uw shooter could elaborate some of them.

    Basic videography concepts (shutter/aperture) apply underwater as well.

    Focus is another story...

    We have to differentiate wide shots from macro shots. First of all, shallow DOF undewater is 99% of the times very ugly underwater and it's considered a flaw. Hence the trick is to try to stay in the hyper-focal range as much as possible. Moreover it's very difficult to evaluate focus through the camera housing even with an external display (Nauticam has a wonderful and expensive DP4 housing) For this reason the AF lock function is very useful underwater. For wide shots, you could set the focus maybe at about 1 meter and leave it fixed for all the dive or just fix the focus hyper-focal prior the shot. Macro shots are a completely different story and they require specific knowledge and attitude. Macro lens has a very shallow DOF (sometimes few millimeters) so a tripod and correct lighting is king as well a good display. Depending on where you shoot: tropical shallow waters or deep/murky waters a good lighting is one of the most important factors underwater. Even in gin clear tropical waters colors are adsorbed by water (most noticeably the red). In shallow water a good filter and manual wb is compulsory, deeper a couple of strong lights. I have a couple of 3500 Lumen led light with a fov of 120 degree and sometimes they are simply not enough.

    Regarding equipment/gear...

    VidDSRL changed completely the game of underwater video. At the same price you normally get a huge improvement in video quality respect a camcorder, but there are several drawback that can be reduced with shooting ability and creativity.

    • Stability & panning. A camcorder uw housing has a shape and balance very difficult to achieve with a DSRL housing. It's easier to get steady shots.

    • Controls. Most of the DSLR housing have controls designed for photography. The most important thing to remember is that you cannot zoom underwater while filming with a DSLR while it's a default feature of normal camcorder (small sensor) having everything is focus while zooming). All camcorders are capable to shoot completely auto. A DSRL Not. I missed several shots because the subject disappeared while I was just trying to set the correct exposure. With a plain camcorder i would have just pressed "rec".

    • Forget all discussions here about best cheap lenses, adapters and so on. A uw housing is like a glove and it's designed to work with a specific camera model and standard lenses. Without going too far, on a GHx housing you can mount only Lumix/leica/Oly lenses. There is a specific port nearly for every lens.

    • While you have a lot of universal camcorder housings in the low price segment (they use different control method like LANC etc...), for DSRL you have one specific houfing for every camera. It's a sad story. As your camera become obsolete you'll throw away your housing...

    99% of the DSRL uw housing market is aimed to Canon & Nikon. Lately Nauticam and few other far East manufacturers started producing housings for mirrorless camera. Right now Nauticam probably has the best quality and offering. Their commercial offer for mirrorless camera lacks only of glass ports. Nauticam announced a GH3 housing for April. lately they took advantage of their strong experience on DSRL housing starting producing housings for pro cinema camcorders. At NAB they presented a RED housing (10K euro SIC).

    At a lower price you can get a 10Bar housing but you get what you pay for.

    I hope I answered your curiosity :)

    Bye

    Davide

  • @kkfok

    "Yes the banding exists in the original footage. I was using FlowMotion setting."

    I was also very disappointed with the color banding in mid-water with the GH2. It would happen with any hack...if AVCHD was used. It is a problem of 8-bit and the crappy AVCHD implementation in the GH2.

    Banding is horrific in the blue mid-water @ 4:45. After the first expedition I was determined to find a solution.

    After trial and error I found that shooting using MJPEG (also 8-bit...but an older and less convoluted codec) resulted in almost no banding under the same mid-water conditions (and cleaner colors). File size is very much bigger, but no problem for me. Worth the improvement for underwater work over AVCHD. For the next two expeditions to West Papua last year there was virtually no banding in any uw material.

    So far (and I haven't used it underwater yet) my GH3 doesn't show any obvious banding.

  • My last effort with GH2 underwater and... a bit of 5DmkII for land shots.

    Interview and underwater shots filmed on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 8mm + Yashica 50mm ML loaded with Flow Motion 2.02 settings; Nauticam Housing; 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights and 2x 50W HID Yellow Diving. Land shots filmed with a Canon 5DmkII + Canon 24-105mm + Yashica 80-200mm ML

  • @LongJohnSilver: Nice video!

    BTW: Nauticam now also offers a GH3 housing.

    But I sure won't throw away my GH2 + housing... apart from being expensive, I still like the smaller form factor of the GH2 better.

  • I'm definitely getting better or better footage with the GH2 every time I go out (which unfortunately is not enough lately) - do not see myself growing tired of it for some time to come. Here's my latest effort..

  • @Scubabob

    Nice shots, which setup do you have?

    I read you had a camera lockup in a previous video. Which hack do you use? I use FM 2.02 never had a problem.

  • Just for fun, last year I included some underwater sequences in a music video I shot with the GH2. I've linked below to the specific segment. This was shot in a swimming pool in Queens, using a Dicapac with GH2 and Nokton set wide open. Focus was done by getting the right distance from the subject. My 1st AC was wearing weights and SCUBA gear.

  • @LongJohnSilver

    Thanks! I also use FM 2.02. When I had the lockup I was using the sandisk 45mb/s card. I made several dives after that lock-up without incident, however I have recently switched the 95mb/s 64gb card and no nock-ups with that card either..

    I'm using the GH2 in the Nauticam housing. I have the Panny 7-14mm lens which I've used in several of the videos I've posted on Vimeo. For the last few months, and on the video linked above, I've been using the Oly 12-50mm lens in the port with the special macro trigger. Loving the versatility of this lens!

  • @Scubabob I hav the same setup: Nauticam + Lumix 7-14mm + Lumix 8mm. I use the 7-14mm mostly. Which port do you use for the Oly 12-50mm? Can you switch to macro underwater? Interesting.

    @ahbleza nice photography and good work with fixed focus indeed.

  • How much deep can go your gH2? :)

    105 m / 345 ft

    Usually I would have trow away those crappy shots but it doesn't happen every day to find the ship's bell :)

  • @LongJohnSilver - Yes, you can switch to the macro mode underwater but only with the Nauticam port designed for that lens (which includes the macro and zoom gear). Of the three modes of the lens, manual zoom, electronic zoom and macro mode, only manual zoom mode is not available (though electronic zoom is preferable for video IMO anyway). Macro mode switches to 43mm (no change is allowed) - but I find this to be fairly decent for most underwater (not super) macro. I need to do some more experimentation with ETC mode mixed with the macro mode for super macro..

  • The Zi Costante shoal is located by the island of Giannutri, less than a mile out of Punta Secca. While it was a well known spot to local fishermen, it is a completely new discovery for scuba divers. The shoal is formed by large rocky reefs spaced out by sand and extends along several hundred meters. Only a small part of it has been explored underwater. The shallow points lie at about 55 m / 180 ft. Several cliffs slope to 90 m / 300 ft. Due to its depth, the shoal is within reach of technical divers.

    The shoal is rich of a great biodiversity and it appears to be in healthy conditions compared to other reefs of the island. We dove the North cliff which hosts, starting from 70 m / 230 ft a rather large colony of black coral (Antipathes subpinnata). We encountered 4 specimen of John Dory (Zeus Faber) in the one dive, which speaks for itself about the reef's condition.

    Currently, Argentario Divers argentariodivers.com is the only diving facility offering this dive.


    Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 7-14mm loaded with Lee Powell’s Flow Motion 2.02 settings; Nauticam Housing, 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights and 2x 50W HID Yellow Diving.

    Music: Calma empatia by Paolo Buonvino (paolobuonvino.com)

  • This time I changed setting to @driftwood moon T7. Great! Unfortunately water not so clear.

    Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 7-14mm; Nauticam Housing, 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights and 2x 50W HID Yellow Diving.

    Out there, a few hundreds of meters apart from mooring buoys, nearby walls, reefs and wrecks there is a unknown world waiting to be (re) discovered.

    Technical diving changed our perception of scuba diving, moving out of common contexts to deep unexplored wrecks and caves.

    Surprisingly, we can observe this in crowded recreational dive sites, where technical diving has changed or redesigned the map of dive sites.

    Trimix, scooters and rebreathers allow to regularly dive these sites at depths well beyond recreational limits, sometimes diving two or more spots at once. These tools allowed the discovery of new dive trails and sites which have become common knowledge. Often these explorations involve long scooter rides on the lunar-like seabed, possibly holding unexpected surprises.

  • A wonderful weekend between the Gulf of Naples and Sorrento with the sight of the Mount Vesuvius above us.

    Filmed on three dives: - Scoglio del Vervece, Massa Lubrense, Naples; - Isca and Palluscello di Isca, Nerano, Naples.

    Unfortunately underwater viz was bad with a annoying current and particles. I couldn't avoid a lot of backscatter but, who cares! I had a great time diving, filming and.. editing.

    Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 7-14mm loaded with Nick Driftwood's MOON T7 settings; Nauticam Housing, 2x Keldan Luna 8 CRI lights on camera and 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights on model.

    Music track: "The Time To Run" by Dexter Britain, licensed through The Music Bed: goo.gl/2QHRKt

    Enjoy