I need tips

[Rig Magician]

OK, in 11 days I leave for Bonaire and my first trip with a underwater camcorder. So I am asking for some tips to get everything setup and working right. I have a L&M stinray HD housing with a Sony HC5 camcorder.
I read somewhere about heating the inside before you install everything with a blow dryer, Is this right? I know the camera I have says to install the camera in a cool dry area to avoid moisture or fogging.
Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Mark

 

[Crimson Ghost]

I use moisture sticks (they suck it up and prevent fogging). the only time I fogged was in the quarry (90 degree day, quarry water...need I say more?) in the islands, I never had a fog issue.

As far as filming - I am still learning it myself. I have filmed maybe 9 dives - from my incredibly limited experiance: film slowly and zoom in and out slowly. Use the rinse bucket to check for leaks and check again in the water. turn the camera to the sky to get air bubbles off the lens. that's about all I can tell you....other than to have fun !

 

[diversteve]

Just a few things I've managed to screw up in the past...

First of all, I wouldn't go anywhere near my housing with a blowdryer. I usually try to load my camera in the room in the A/C pre-dive. You want dry air but not necessarily hot air. Especially with a metal housing. And be really, really diligent (anal) about checking the back seal for any junk, hair etc before sealing it.

When you get on a boat, put it in the rinse tank and watch it a few seconds to make sure the bubbles are all from the outside. Most photographers also get a little tense when they see your 7.6 lb. housing dropping down near/on their $1500 dome ports so be aware of that.

Then either leave it in there till you dive or take it out and put it covered in a shady spot. I've heard both ways, mine rides in the rinse tank and I've never had a problem.

On a boat always have the crew hand your camera down if possible. I have on occasion jumped with mine but it's always a tense moment. If you have a water alarm, turn on the housing before you leave the boat.

You do have some sort of good lanyard right? I have this one, it clips to my upper d-ring so the camera is held high for shore entries yet easily deployable. I slipped a locking carabinier through the other end that fits conveniently in a hole in my housing handle.

I power up the camera on the boat and get it ready while descending, I've twice been able to film something interesting coming by to take a look at the new guy under the boat. (Barracuda and free-swimming remora)

For shorediving, mine rode wrapped in a towel at my feet. During a week of filming on Bonaire I never had any fogging. And I don't use any sort of dessicant. It's been my observation that only people with poly/plastic housings need to worry about that, ymmv.

Everything CG posted. One bubble will ruin your whole day of shooting. (spoken from experience)

Generally stay in the wide angle range and get closer. Most people can't hold their housings steady enough when zoomed in on some object 20-30' away and it's nauseating to watch later.

You'll also be surprised how having the camera messes with your bouyancy. It's easy to crash into things while you're distracted during filming. They're really going to frown on that in Bonaire....

Other stupid things I've done:

Forgot to plug the camera in.
Forgot to remove/open the lenscap - twice.
Hit the nightshot switch during loading and later watched everything go bright white as soon as I tried filming. You can't turn it off electronically so that was a good dive but no video.

hth,

 

[Hallmac]

The most important tip I can give you from experience..............

Don't leave it at home on the bed...... :bonk:

 

[Rig Magician]

Thanks, everyone and keep them coming. I don't have a lanyard yet but I do want to get one. I am trying to fine out some info on some weights for my housing. Right now it is slightly positive and I would like to get it closer to neutral.
Well am getting ready to start my 2 day journey home from work and will try to check in from the air ports. Again thanks for the help.

 

[bfisher]

If you can't learn to zoom slowly then stop recording, zoom, then start recording again. Maybe several times.

Better yet, cruise in slowly on your subject.

Don't be panning all over the place. When you do, do so slowly.

I've been to Bonaire a lot. Watch your bouyancy. Stay off the reef. Look for little stuff

When possible shoot level or up and try to keep the sun behind you. Anything below 25' use your red filter unless the sun is really blasting and the water is crystal clear (it won't be). It's easier to filter out some red tint than it is to add red that isn't there.

Once you find a good subject stay there and do several minutes of video if possible.
You can always edit out the worst stuff.

Every time you open the housing you need to remove the O-ring. Clean it and the groove. I use Q-tips for the groove. The slightest piece of sand or even a hair can cause a leak. Be ever so careful with this.

Oh yeah, make sure that when you ae not recording that the camcorder is not in the record mode. There's nothing like forgetting to turn it off and looking at 10 minutes of VERTIGO.

Realize that it's going to take at least 5 hours of video to make a decent 45 minute DVD.

 

[TheNitroxinator]

I had some fogging issues in Bonaire; I wound up getting some moisture munchers at Fisheye? (the shop at Bari's reef, it's been two years now), that cleared me up. I had brought moisture munchers with me, but they had turned pink by the time I had gotten to Bonaire. If you bring the munchers with you, make sure they're really well sealed. Generally I've had good luck with packing in an air conditioned room with no moisture muncher, but I've found that's not always sufficient. The worst cases have been in SC where I've had to open the housng to fix an issue at the site.

Incidentally, ask the diveshops about where to locate stuff - my buddy and I found three seahorses based on the advice given by the dive/photo shops. Unfortunately we didn't find the frogfish.

For the record, I only posted a night dive video of Bonaire on video.google.com, inspite of making an hour long DVD out of about 5 hours of video that was shot. You can take anything I say based on what you think of that video or others that I have there (taking into account that the compression on video.google.com really destroys the video quality). The newer Roatan video is better, but that figures I've had a lot more practice.

Since you're talking Bonaire - my opinions are to bogart the salt pier from one of the adjacent sites (as long as there isn't a ship at the pier), you MUST pay for the town pier on a night dive because its worth it, and do a lot of dives on the north side (Karpata, Thousand Steps, Old Blue, Jeff Davis, and Oil Slick). And do Bari's reef, that's my longest dive ever at 1:30 minutes, lots of stuff to see.

One last personal opinion. If you're going through Puerto Rico to get to Bonaire and have the time, leave the airport and go out to the downtown during your layover and get y'self a dish of Mufongo (spellings vary, its a dish made by grinding up fried plaintains and garlic). DELICIOUS!

 

[Crimson Ghost]

2 day journey ? and I thought my 1.5 hour commute sucked.

Get very familiar with your housing, practice filming at home. I know we have all said swimming up on things for zoom -- but....zomming is much better if you can master the speed and your bouancy. As you swim up on things you run the risk of two things: one, getting to close and hitting something and two the pressure from your movement can be felt many feet in front of you and your mobile objects may scurry away / hide. When you do swim up to an object, swim gently and keep the video at the same distance from your body (if you become over eager and push your arms out 9 times out of 10 your subject is gone even when you are still 4 feet away)

I have the HD HC7 and I use an Amphibico Dive Buddy - I am not familiar with your housing, but I looked it up. I read that you have a Double-Tap Variable Zoom Control, sounds like something you want to become familiar with. It also said you have a neutral density filter - you might want a blue water filter (others here will now about Bonaire filming, sadly I do not...yet ! )

 

[Crimson Ghost]

Oh...one more thing - the best learning is from experiance. With that in mind, make sure you bring your Sony TV patch cables so you can watch your video at the end of the day on your trip. You will be able to learn on the spot and make corrections the next day.

 

[robint]

I have a few tips for you....

1... Before each dive shoot a little bit topside, like the name of dive site (yellow rock ) or people on boat, etc. This will give you a point break between dives so when you review you know where it was shot. Also, it lets you know if the camcorder is working before you get in the water. (From experience, i have jumped into the water with things not right and had to carry a useless camcorder around for a whole dive!)

2... Every night, review the days shooting from start to finish. Take your jack to plug it into the tv at hotel if you can. Learn from what you shot - what worked, and more importantly what didn't.

3... Keep your camcorder in standby most of the time and only shoot when you see something worthy of shooting. You can stay there for minutes shooting but don't waste tape with a comstantly running camcorder. (Also, when it comes to editing this will help sooooo much!) If you do an hour dive and get 10-15 minutes of tape you are doing great.

Have fun in Bonaire --- it has got to be the BEST place on Earth to learn videography and photography. The freedom of diving means you don't have to follow around a DM, go looking for subjects where you want. And enjoy!!!!!!


robin