Intova Sport Pro

[Pedroinspain]

I was intending to use my new Sport Pro only for fish ID when recently on a trip to Marsa Alam in the Red sea. When my wife saw the quality of some of the footage she was as amazed as I was. I have now been instructed to produce an edited video sequence (good thing winter is upon us). The camera worked like a charm from the word 'go'. Why only "some of the footage"? .... here are a few of the things that I had to get used to and (depending) compensate for:

# Getting too close. This is a fixed-focus simple gizmo and getting closer than about 30cm is a waste of time. I wonder if a close-up lens is in the offing. This might go some way to compensate for what I see as the biggest draw-back of the Sport Pro. Macro will never be an option.

# Moving the camera about too much. The ultra-wideangle accentuated all movements, so I needed to learn to be slow and deliberate with all panning. The closer one is to the subject, the worse it gets. Snorkelling over shallow reefs with the camera pointing down was a disaster. For similar reasons, shooting (when snorkelling) in choppy water gave a result which was annoying if not nauseating.

# The buttons become easier to depress with time, but it is worthwhile checking that the red 'record' icon is off, or, as was my case on various occasions, you get lengthy footages of sand and the end of your fins. If in doubt (not wearing optically corrected mask lenses), switch the camera off and on again.

# I found that the red filter was already an improvement even at depths as shallow as 10 metres. One day I inadvertently left the red filter on and then went snorkelling. Yikes!! Armageddon fire world.

# I lost the lens cap on day 2 :-( ......... Buy a €2 Euro cap lanyard and save yourself the pain of vacation depression.

# Unlike me, learn to use the white-balance, and experiment with the environment settings before your final day.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Pedro, they have a macro lens now.

 

[undrwater]

Pedro, they have a macro lens now.

All I could find on their site is the "Air Lens". Is this what you are talking about?

---------- Post added December 3rd, 2012 at 04:43 PM ----------

Shoulder is tough. We have a new facemask mount that might beinteresting for you though. Also a strap head mount.

Regards,
Joe

Thanks, I'll look at both. Can you address the macro lens availability?

 

[Insta-Gator]

IntovaJoe posted on another thread that they have the macro lens now.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/intova/437947-file-error-my-35-minutes-recoding.html#post6566444

Perhaps a PM to Joe would answer your macro questions.

 

[JamesK]

I shot this just after Thanksgiving with my Intova. Lighting is twin SOLA 1200's and a Light Monkey 35w HID with video reflector. It is at Ichetucknee Springs State Park diving Blue Hole aka Jug Hole. I had tried to shoot with my GoPro 2 that day as well, but the file got corrupted somehow. I wanted to make a side by side video. Gonna have to wait a week or two now.

A day of cave diving Blue (Jug) Hole - YouTube

Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Insta-Gator]

James that was really nice. Watched full screen on my computer in 720HD. Clarity and detail were excellent. I need to get some lights for my SP. I'm assuming since you were in fresh water and using lights you did not require any type of filter.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[JamesK]

James that was really nice. Watched full screen on my computer in 720HD. Clarity and detail were excellent. I need to get some lights for my SP. I'm assuming since you were in fresh water and using lights you did not require any type of filter.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Lights make a HUGE difference. You are correct that no filter was used. I have found that they only rob light when I am cave diving, so I stay away from them in that environment.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

James...you really lit that cave up! I have ben awaiting on your video and was very satistied. Very good work. Did you use the normal settings? Also, care to share you light configerations? i.e. Sola's on your helmet and the 35 on you wrist? Sola's pointing to the left and right sides and the 35 pointing to distal deep cave areas. Enjoyed the music as well. Anyway, I still need the OMS Profile before I can get into those restrictions. We should be heading down in Jan. Thanks, Tony

 

[JamesK]

Thanks Tony! I had it set on 720, with everything set on auto or standard. Metering was on center.

As for lighting, this is one of my current setups.

This is what I just designed to take the place of my old setup. The above video was shot on a goodman handle next to the 35w HID, with the SOLA's on a goodman handle on my other hand. I have decided to keep all lights away from the camera now due to backscatter. Hopefully this new setup will work great. I am also keeping the SOLA goodman setup for use by divers in front of me. It all depends on the cave size as to what I will use. Although I am also planning on getting more lights very soon so every diver with me will have a nice powerful video light.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Can't remember if you saw the "fun dive up Peanut" I posted. Exactly what I was thinking as well as setting it to 720. Let me guess, you went with the 720 settings because it gets more detail? I thought about shooting at 480 because of the same reason but it is at 60 fps which assist in preventing jumping around. When we videoed the Peanut tunnel there was too much of the peripheral area that was not lit up. So I thought that the primary lights needed to be pointing down the cave while secondary lights would lit up the peripheral areas. question: In the picture...where does the camera mount? Thanks again.