Cocos Island Short Video

[pakman]

Finally got back home from a Cocos Island trip. I've mustered up a quick highlight video (3:30min). Absolutely amazing diving. Definitely a must do dive trip. Hammerheads on nearly everydive, packs of whitetips hunting at night, eagle rays, marble rays, massive schools of jacks, etc... The other panga got a large whale shark... grrr...

I'm a bit disappointed with the output but I wasn't expecting much with the HC7 due to the mediocre viz, constantly overcast skies, and deep dives. I screwed up a number times with not locking focus while I played with manual exposure. Anyways, enjoy

File uses divx codec.


http://stage6.divx.com/user/pakman00/video/1593993/Cocos-Preview

 

[shugar]

jeez pak... that was an AMAZING dive trip!!!

1st couple of shots... ho-hum... his title font sucks... shot of boat... shot of boat from the water...

then the cloud of jacks and i couldn't pick my jaw off the floor till the very end... WOW...

and catching that feeding frenzy of sharks... priceless...

Jag

 

[drbill]

I'll have to look at it on my other Internet computer since I don't have a DivX decoder on this ancient beastie.

Pakman, wonder if you have had the same problem I recently discovered with my HC-7. I was filming the interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau 10 days ago and then musician Roger Connelly jamming, and discovered that even moderate tele sequences were out of focus. Have you had any problem like that with the HC-7 topside? I almost never use zoon down under.

The more I use the HC-7 the less I like it (except under certain controlled underwater filming situations like for my cable TV show). I'm definitely writing the brass at Sony on this one after 5 previous Sonys that all performed well topside and underwater.

 

[vladimir]

Nice video Pakman. I did the Cocos trip in June--it blew away every other dive trip I've ever taken, and I've been to many of the hot spots. I think video is far superior to still photography at Cocos. The whitetip feeding frenzy is guaranteed, any night divers bring their lights to Manuelita inside. In addition to endless hammerhead, silky, and whitetip sharks, we had whalesharks, marlin!, blacktip and Galapagos sharks, dolphins, and a baitball that attracted every predator within miles, complete with silky sharks hurling themselves through the bait and out of the water. For advanced divers only, it is a must do trip. I traveled aboard the Undersea Hunter and highly recommend their operation.

 

[Ben_ca]

Great video... wish I could do that....Can't wait till the full version comes out...

What's next Pak? IMAX?

 

[ScubaSteve]

jeez pak... that was an AMAZING dive trip!!!

1st couple of shots... ho-hum... his title font sucks... shot of boat... shot of boat from the water...

then the cloud of jacks and i couldn't pick my jaw off the floor till the very end... WOW...

and catching that feeding frenzy of sharks... priceless...

Jag

Yeah what he said. The Galapagos is my ultimate diving dream...now even more so. Awesome footage.

 

[NTSilver]

Pakman
Thanks for sharing the video. As Vladimir said, the video is so much better than stills at Cocos. We're going back in Nov for a shark tagging expedition and than again next June. Hopefully I will be able to invest in video by then.

 

[vladimir]

Yeah what he said. The Galapagos is my ultimate diving dream...now even more so. Awesome footage.

Steve, you know Cocos is a long swim from Galapagos right? Without getting out the Google earth, I'm guessing 1000 miles.

 

[pakman]

Nice video Pakman. I did the Cocos trip in June--it blew away every other dive trip I've ever taken, and I've been to many of the hot spots. I think video is far superior to still photography at Cocos. The whitetip feeding frenzy is guaranteed, any night divers bring their lights to Manuelita inside. In addition to endless hammerhead, silky, and whitetip sharks, we had whalesharks, marlin!, blacktip and Galapagos sharks, dolphins, and a baitball that attracted every predator within miles, complete with silky sharks hurling themselves through the bait and out of the water. For advanced divers only, it is a must do trip. I traveled aboard the Undersea Hunter and highly recommend their operation.

Vladimir - lucky @##@%#!! I guess we were in the unlucky panga! The second panga got a nice whale shark encounter at Dos Amigos and a Galapagos Shark. We did get escorted by dolphins on the way out to the Island but they didn't come in close to bow surf. Baitballs and Silky Sharks!!! Gaaah, I would die to see that. We did have one big manta swim close to the boat to feed on the surface when we were moored but it was scoot away anytime we tried to slip into the water to snorkel with it.

But next time, I'll be looking to use one of the Hunter boats... More on that in my trip report...

 

[pakman]

I'll have to look at it on my other Internet computer since I don't have a DivX decoder on this ancient beastie.

Pakman, wonder if you have had the same problem I recently discovered with my HC-7. I was filming the interview with Jean-Michel Cousteau 10 days ago and then musician Roger Connelly jamming, and discovered that even moderate tele sequences were out of focus. Have you had any problem like that with the HC-7 topside? I almost never use zoon down under.

The more I use the HC-7 the less I like it (except under certain controlled underwater filming situations like for my cable TV show). I'm definitely writing the brass at Sony on this one after 5 previous Sonys that all performed well topside and underwater.

DrBill, I don't use the zoom too much u/w except for macro. But in that case, I will refocus and lock the focus (see close up of the white tip face in the video). Only focusing problem I had was due to human error. I thought I had locked the focus but hadn't and the focus was hunting due to the low light, particulates in the water, and the annoying little fish in front. As you can see from the footage, in low light the HC7 is probably no better than good 3 CCD DV camera.