Hi-Def Trip Report - Catalina 08/04/2007 aboard Sundiver

[ScubaBob92651]

Date: 8/4/2007
Dive Location: Catalina
Dive Sites: Isthmus Reef, Big Geiger
Viz: 20-30'
Water Temp: 66-68 surface, 63 avg., 61 at 80'
Bottom times: 56/60/46


Joined buddies Rob & Traci C. for a day aboard Sundiver. BCSC was chartering the boat, but I was a paying customer this time, no DM duties! (Lori did a splended job in that department - including keeping the crazy PB'ers away at Isthmus. I don't know what it is about dive flags that just seem to attract speeding boats...)


The crossing was calm and uneventful, until the first blow from a Blue Whale was spotted. That's right, Blue Whale! And not one, but at least six!! Two whales sounded before we could get too close, but a juvenile and mother allowed us to get within 100 yards or so before mom showed us her fluke (which, of course, I missed with my video camera!) and disappeared into the abyss.


Our first dive site was Isthmus Reef. Scuba Cat was anchored off Bird Rock, so we found our anchor in a little closer to the Isthmus Reef marker. Conditions were decent, and the kelp was still super thick. Boat traffic was a little hectic, so we moved on to Geiger for dives 2 and 3. Viz was a bit better but of course the surge was stronger for these shallow dives. Of course, I brought along the HC7 and ended up using the W/A port all day (so not much macro action.) No unusal sightings (except seeing Frisbee with a different horn shark in his hand each time we saw him..) but all in all a great day of diving! Thanks to the Sundiver crew!

Pics and video:

Flash Video (38MB)
Hi-Def 720p Video (160MB)

 

[robint]

really nice!! I love the scorpionfish, kelp snail, and the kelp swaying sequences especially. Didn't care for the dude grabbing the horn shark though.

I have been anxious to see some real HD results, especially in water other than clear caribbean, to see how the HC-7 performs..... so now I gotta ask some questions. What housing? What settings for WB? Filters? Lights? In some parts of the video I thought you were using external lights and in others I thought maybe it was just sunlight, either way the colors were crisp and clean and realistic. (I know Dr Bill was saying he had some funky color issues with shadows but I didn't see any in yours).

robin
2 days til I'm there myself!

 

[ScubaBob92651]

really nice!! I love the scorpionfish, kelp snail, and the kelp swaying sequences especially. Didn't care for the dude grabbing the horn shark though.

I have been anxious to see some real HD results, especially in water other than clear caribbean, to see how the HC-7 performs..... so now I gotta ask some questions. What housing? What settings for WB? Filters? Lights? In some parts of the video I thought you were using external lights and in others I thought maybe it was just sunlight, either way the colors were crisp and clean and realistic. (I know Dr Bill was saying he had some funky color issues with shadows but I didn't see any in yours).

robin
2 days til I'm there myself!

Thanks Robin. Yeah, I agree on the horn shark. I don't like to disturb anything when I'm diving, and I generally don't like seeing others doing it. I'd rather capture animals in their natural environment. I questioned including that shot, but included it because I didn't have any other horn shark shots (no bottom scratching on these dives).

Regarding the video; I'm using the Gates HC7 housing, with manual white balace option. I white balance often, often before each shot. What I find with white balancing is, you can't do it too much (and often I don't, and do not realize it till I'm editing the footage on a large monitor). All of this footage is shot using the red filter. I think I flipped the filter away a few times but found it sort of hard to use with the HID lights with the W/A port (Fathom WP25). It was scaring away the goby's and I couldn't get as close without worrying about crashing into the rocks with the port. The lights I have is the NiteRider HID Pro 20 system. I really like the lights and they work well with the flat port, but I need some more practice with the W/A. I've seen the same problems (ugly green in unlit areas) as Dr. BIll when I use my HID lights. As long as I keep the frame filled with light though, it's not an issue.

Some lessons learned from this weekend: I was running the camera in auto-exposure mode. Normally this is ok, unless I'm really deep (e.g. grainy bat ray shot). Unfortanetly though, I locked down the AE shift to -4, which caused much of the footage to be underexposed.

 

[robint]

thanks for all the info. I am coming out this weekend and will be shooting video with my dinky little HC-42, no lights. Can't complain though, I really love shooting video much more than I ever enjoyed still photos. So for now this rig will have to do.
I really like your HD video though - it makes me think about moving up.

thanks!
robint