Show me your best dive video

[meekal]

This is the first underwater video I shot with Mini DV as opposed to the QuickTime movies my digital camera takes.

schweeet! love the 'fly-bys' you flying by structure, sheepshead flying by you, and OMG... the seals, well just plain flying..... were amazing.... but i will say, the most dramatic shot was when you framed the diver in the kelp..... vellie vellie nice.

 

[Taxgeek]

Here's some more bandwidth for Southern California and for still cameras shooting video.

This is my music video-esque video of diving the Channel Islands this summer. As you'll see, I kinda have a thing for nudibranchs. :05:

As another poster said, 1500 speed on mpegnation is iffy; 700 is best, even on my T3 connection.

http://video.mpegnation.com/a001131853488102305120718510.html

Edited to say: it's 10 min long - if you only want to watch part, watch the stuff toward the end, it's better. ;-) It's playing really choppy for me right now - hope it works better for you all. What can you ask for for $4.99 (total) hosting fee I guess?

Thanks!
Taxgeek

 

[TRIG]

Played at 700k on cable modem, worked great, Thank You !

__

 

[ronrosa]

Here's some more bandwidth for Southern California and for still cameras shooting video.

This is my music video-esque video of diving the Channel Islands this summer. As you'll see, I kinda have a thing for nudibranchs. :05:

As another poster said, 1500 speed on mpegnation is iffy; 700 is best, even on my T3 connection.

http://video.mpegnation.com/a001131853488102305120718510.html

Edited to say: it's 10 min long - if you only want to watch part, watch the stuff toward the end, it's better. ;-) It's playing really choppy for me right now - hope it works better for you all. What can you ask for for $4.99 (total) hosting fee I guess?

Thanks!
Taxgeek

Nice work. It was strange to hear your soundtrack on the 1st part. I used the exact same song on my Aruba video last year.

What kind of housing and lens setup are you using for the nudibranch shots ? I have very little experience shooting macro and would appreciate any tips you could offer. Such as, macro lens or diopter ? Zoom or no zoom, manual or auto focus.

I have a Gates housing with a wet changeable lens. The wide angle lens and flat port work great. I find the macro lens very difficult to use. The focal length is so limited that I've basically given up on it. I plan on trying a set of diopters.

 

[Taxgeek]

Thanks! I love that song. I'm kind of sick of it now though, LOL.

The camera is one of the larger P&S cameras, it has a very plain vanilla housing.
For the really close up shots, the camera was on it's widest angle zoom (like 35mm or so equiv), with two stacked wet mount Inon 165's. (Diopters). Love those things. Sometimes I zoomed in just a tad bc those lenses create quite alot of distortion at the corners. But the camera will focus closest at its widest angle setting, so that's what I usually use. I just get really really close. Forget about skittish gobies or shrimp!

With the wet mount diopters, depth of field is pretty small, but I just plop my camera down on the rock anyway (no coral here to damage), so I plop it down as close to the subject as possible (usually about 1-2"), and let the autofocus do its thing. Sometimes it takes awhile, so patient dive buddies are a must! It hunts less since I added the lights, but still hunts some. I have manual focus on my camera, but it's pretty useless and hard to control, so I just go with auto. Focus doesn't seem to be much of a problem - I just shoot about 2min of footage for each subject at least, knowing that some part of that will be in focus. :05:

If I want to shoot something more than say 6" away from teh camera, I have to unscrew the diopters. I don't usually bother, but I did for the torpedo ray in the video - the diopters were crammed into the throat portion of my hood!

 

[simonspear]

Amazing video from a compact point and shoot camera. The seals (Sealions?) were awesome, but I especially liked that orange fish that obviously wanted you out of his territory!

Thanks for sharing, Simon

 

[Taxgeek]

Thanks Simon!

I keep trying to upgrade the camera, but I can't part with its great video feature. The new ones won't take unlimited 640x480 30fps.

Oh, the orange fish is a Garibaldi, by the way, which I think is the California State Fish. They're really cute when they're mad! :05: They can also see their reflections on the lense port and that makes them stop and look at you, it's great.

 

[Epinephelus]

Here's some more bandwidth for Southern California and for still cameras shooting video.

Captivating! Gorgeous! Wonderful! I loved it!
E.

 

[Reeveseye]

Here's another one from East Anacapa Island a couple of months ago. There's not as much of a variety of marine life in this one, because it's all about the sea lions. And as you'll see in the video, they love to play with divers...

The Sea Lions of Anacapa

 

[spiderwebb1]

This is one of my first attempts. Shot in Bonaire this past July. Please any advice would be welcome. This was shot with the Sony TRV900 and Ikelite housing.Thanks!

http://video.mpegnation.com/a001688261784112105133216394.html