First set up for Film Documentary "Free to Dive"

[JulienGranierFilms]

Hi Guys,

My name is Julien. I'm a young scubadiver and freediver. I've got the Padi Advanced Level in Scuba and the level 1 SSI in Freediving (equivalent to level 2 AIDA).
I decide to join your community cause I'm planning to make a film about "Freediving". I will go to Philippines on April 2016 for a month to film 4 begginers learning freediving and discovering the joy of being free underwater. We will mainly stay around 0m to 15-20m depth.
The concept is to show the freediving basics to the world, how close we are to the water environement and how easy and natural it is finally to freedive. Our main character is waterphobic and it will be intereting to follow her during her evolution.

For that I plan to film them underwater during their courses and their underwater explorations. Philippino flora and fauna are amazing and I need to get nice shots to seduce the public and make this movie professional.

I've got a Panasonic GH4 that I planned to use to shoot underwater. My only experience filming underwater was with a Gopro Camera.

Now I would need you to give me advices about my first real underwater set up.

The project from now is mainly auto financed ($3000-$4000).
So I need differents set up for different budgets in case I find financial partners.

HOUSING

The main 4 underwater housings are :

- Ikelite $1600 (http://www.backscatt...e-6860.03.lasso)
- Aquatica $1995 (http://www.backscatt...33000-opt.lasso)
- Isotta $2150 (http://www.divephoto...asonic-gh4.html)
- Nauticam $2250 (http://www.backscatt.../na-17709.lasso)

I would prefer the Nauticam which seems better quality and really reliable.

What about the other ones? Can they do the job for a month recording underwater.

LENS

I owned the Sigma 18-35 1.8 with Metabones Speedbooster & the Tokina 11-16 2.8.

I plan to buy the Panasonic 12-35 2.8 which seems the best choice underwater (zoom, stabilisation, wide angle, large aperture).

Do you think it's better to use my existing lenses or buying the panasonic one ?

DOME

I heard the Dome Zen 170mm $999 (http://www.backscatt...p-170-n85.lasso) will do the job.

LIGHT

I read this great guide which helps me a lot to understand what I needed.(http://thewirecutter...er-photography/)

I understood that I should buy 2 strobes cause of my video's needs.



What else to get a full package ready to film ?

Do you think it's better to invest in something smaller as a compact (Sony RX100) ?

I'm available if you need more informations and thanks in advance for your advices.

To be updated about the project (which will be in French and English), please like the Facebook page "Free to Dive" (more informations and official website soon).

 

[Storker]

This is going to be a generic answer, since I do a lot more still photography than videography, but I'll give you my 0.02 bar:

HOUSING

Ikelite is acrylic and cheaper than the Al housings. They seem to work, but IMO they're not as bulletproff or as ergonomic as good Al housings
Nauticam is nearly bulletproof and have great housings. They also have a decent assortment of ports (see below).
I can't talk about the other brands.

LENS

Generally underwater, the closer the better and the wider the better. Less backscatter, less loss of contrast, better colors. Better overall. Unless you're shooting macro, of course, then you get so close that you want longer focal lengths to avoid sticking your port into your subject. I wouldn't have chosen an 18-35 on an m43 sensor. It's neither WA nor close focus/macro. For an m43 system, I'd seriously consider other, wider alternatives.

DOME/PORT

The port MUST fit the lens. Wrong port = fuzzy corners and/or vignetting. Decide on the lens, then find the port that fits. Nauticam has a nifty port chart showing which port is appropriate for which lens(es).

LIGHT

For video, you don't want strobes. Strobes are for stills. You want video lights. Good, strong video lights are expensive, and for distance shots of divers you'll need a lot of light; we're talking lumen numbers in four figures. They should be mounted on long arms; ideally the distance from camera to arm should ~equal the distance from camera to subject. At a minimum, it should be half of that, i.e. light-light distance ~camera-subject distance. And since lights don't have much reach underwater, you need to get close to get any effect from your lights. Or lots and lots of lumens. And then you'll lose some of the reds anyway.

Finally, to get stable video you'll need a good tray and overall a heavy rig with lots of mass. Consider this, too. To see how it shouldn't be, look at UW GopPro footage shot with the GoPro on a stick or just handheld; it'll make you seasick.

 

[tamas970]

Regarding lens: the Nauticam WWL-1 is a viable option, read somewhere that it gives better results than the 7-14 behind a dome.

 

[JulienGranierFilms]

I tried to know what's the Nauticam WWL-1 but is it a proper lens ? or what's the difference with a dome ?

 

[tamas970]

I tried to know what's the Nauticam WWL-1 but is it a proper lens ? or what's the difference with a dome ?

It is a wet mount lens, you put on top of a flat port. You need a 28mm lens on the camera and a flat port, being "as tight as possible" (practically the port recommended in the port chart of the manufacturer).

Nauticam WWL-1 Wet Wide Angle Lens Review | Interceptor121 Underwater Photo & Video Blog

Domes produce a curved image, where the curvature is proportional to the curvature of the dome itself (=the larger the dome, the flatter/better the image is). This becomes an issue rather quickly, practically it is impossible to get sharp corners at f/5.6 on m4/3 even with the largest superdomes. The wwl-1 and the inon h100 are specifically designed corrective optics to provide a flat+wide image. The WWL-1 is of better optical quality, f/5.6 is possible with it, which is at least 1 stop better than any dome option.

 

[JulienGranierFilms]

Thanks guys for all your experienced advices. Finally the whole equipments is a bit over my budget. So I decided to "hire" someone in the project with a scuba-dive gear and all his video equipments.

I invite you to visit the official website : Free to Dive and follow us on Free to Dive

Scuba-dive & Freediving are sharing the same underwater love. So it would interest you and may even make you want to try if it's not done already !

A friend talked quiet well about her discover : From tec diver to freediver - part 1 — Chloe Wessling-Discussions on diving

Thanks again for your support !

Julien