Davide DB

Davide, the point of forums is to discuss the realms of possibilities and nuances that may not be considered.  Even Ryan started thinking about the Ultra Prime 6mm as a possibility and I'm sure if he saw the Century 6mm with adapter, he'll probably be convinced.  Now is it practical to get T stop, focus gears etc on a small housing? Most probably not, but hey neither is getting a RAW or even a Pro Res camera, even @ under $1k.
 
Ryan,
Going back to the 7-14 Lumix, I remembered it showed low distortion because it is software corrected in stills. Were your tests using still software that is corrected or video that's uncorrected?  My notes say CA but also barrel distortion @ 7-10mm.

The point of forums should be to let users to take an informed decision. The paradox on the interweb is that it's full of people speaking of what sex an angel is. There's space for everything of course, but when the noise increase (nuances that may not be considered) forums like this loose sense.
It happens dozen of times. Every time you google for buying a smartphone, a camera, a car... you will find someone complaining about the most exotic nuances.

MFT is probably the most versatile mount/size as today. It's not just chance that it's the second BM camera designed with this mount. You can mount nearly everything. I used for fun on my GH2 the most exotic lenses with cheap adapters.
The problem is that 90% of camera manufacturers and users don't even suspect that you can bring a camera underwater. Hence 90% of housings have ports for standard or most common lenses. You have some exception like the latest Red camera housings (but, again, we are speaking of a complete setup in excess of 30K euro).
My bet on upcoming BMPCC housings is that you will have something like Nauticam mirrorless line: a simple yet bulletproof design with standard acrylic ports for current m43 lenses. They already have everything ready. Hence forget about Tokina 11-16 or other wonderful cinema lenses. Nobody will design a custom ring adapter for manual focus or zoom for a 995$ camera.... We will see. Of course I hope to loose my bet.

BTW 7-14mm is one of the best wide angle lens out there. Tack sharp with minimum distortion and CA in real word use. Just search for it on Vimeo. I forgot that here we are filming pool tiles alll the day
Distortion is corrected in camera and it works perfectly with video too, also on Olympus bodies.
AFAIK the BMPCC has an active MFT mount so it should work. Actually a lot of people have a lot of questions on "active mount" definition.

@Timccr: you have a lot of amazing spots just near you. If you are a wreck lover i suggest to not miss the VALFIORITA near Messina: better than the THISTLEGORM.
I know that wide angle shots will likey be a problem with the BMPCC crop factor but again, sadly nobody cares fo underwater filming while designing a camera
I hope to see some BMPCC sample with the 7-14mm soon. This is what you can expect from the 7-14 on MFT mount:




Bye

A nice vimeo channel with several video:

http://vimeo.com/channels/blackmagicpocketcamera

 

 

 

Regarding the MFT diatribe, IMHO you guys are in another world. You are complaining to not be able to use a 15.000$ lenses on a 900$ camera?

Arry lenses on a pocket camera... like starting a movie on a hoestring budget. LOL

 

I do not mean that it couldn't be possible or it might not be nice but actually camera manufacturers like to keep theyr feet on the ground. Which lenses are going to use 99% of my customers? 

UW Housing choice are even more restrictive... so what we are speaking about?

 

My son is complaining he can't use my m43 lenses on his camera too: 

 

 

 

Byeeee 

It seems that Nauticam will show the new GH3 housing and other amazing stuffs at NAB in April:

 

http://bit.ly/ZtxJ77

 

Nauticam is the worlds premier manufacturer of underwater camera housings and accessories. Visit the Nauticam booth to see housings for the Canon 1DC, Panasonic GH3, RED EPIC and SCARLET, SmallHD DP4 and more. Nauticam - Innovation Underwater

Hi I haven't a photo of the 7-14 cover. But it's just a heavy plastic dish... If I recall it correctly the diameter should be 160 mm.
People at the kitchenware store were looking at me suspiciously when they saw me hanging around the shelves with a self-retracting tape measure

About the stickers, there was a misundestanding, I tried to crack a joke but English it's not my mother tongue
For stickers I meant decals.
The first time I brought my housing with the custom cover, people told me "hey, have you a coffee can on you dome?" After that I applied a couple of Nauticam and Scubapro decals on it hiding its origin

Regarding 8mm vs 7-14mm...

They are two completely different lens. The 8mm it's really extreme. it's very difficult or nearly impossible to cover the entire FOV with your lights. (I have a couple of FIX 3500) and I strive to perfectly light all the scene. Moreover it's difficult to judge from the tiny display. I gave away two SOLA 2000 for this reason. The aperture is much less than the FIX. Probably this lens fits better for photography or video shots in ambient light.
I used this lens for my video on the DESPREZ wreck and I failed to correctly position my lights on most of the shots.
The 7-14mm is really a lovely lens. 110° at 7mm are perfect for nearly all wide scenes and at 14mm you can shot some detail or some fish. I wish it was f2.8

Hi Kun,

yes, flow motion v2 looks like nice hack, it is quite popular I would say. I got 64gb 90mb/s SD card, so thats also not a problem.

Yeah, thats what I want to confirm - Manual Mode, HBR, 24p cinema.

Magic filter with lights ? I used them before, when I didnt have lights, but now I dont think I need magic filter.

Can you also tell me your settings for FN buttons?

I have the same setup as you plus 8mm fisheye and dome and Fix Aquavolt 3500.
I do not use FN.

Fully manual, FM 2.02 Hack in 24p Cinema Mode. On extremely detailed and well lit subjects there is some difference between HBR and 24p Cinema mode. I prefer the 24p cinema mode but maybe I'm just a pixel peeper

Do not use AFC but exclusively AFS. I use a lot the AF Lock toggle. I found that center weighted AF (the one with the [*] symbol) is absolutely better that multi point AF. I ruined several shots with that.  Expecially with the 8mm fisheye with a very narrow aperture (> f8) the lens can focus dust or shadows on the dome. So IMHO the way to go is:

- Center weighted AF;
- Narrow aperture >= f8 trying to be hyperfocal;
- Prior of the shot you focus and lock with the AF lock button;
- you start recording;

If light it's not enough to get a correct exposure, bite the bullet and increase ISO I got decent shots (for my taste) up to 1600. Actually noise perception is a personal taste.

Last but not the least, remember that GH2 has something like a bug on ISO settings. An ISO setting of 320, 640, or 1250 may result in increased noise depending on the camera's previous setting. To avoid this, switch the camera to the ISO setting 1/3 stop higher, and then back down. (i.e., 400 to 320, or 800 to 640, or 1600 to 1250). If you turn the camera off while in ISO 320, 640, or 1250, you must repeat the ISO switching after turning the camera back on to avoid higher noise.
Set the film mode to Standard with -1, -2, -2, -2. Adjust contrast and saturation as necessary.

Have fun

My latest effort underwater.

There's no banding in the original footage

The Steam Ship was built and launched as ROSOLINO ORLANDO in 1919 by the "Società Esercizio Bacini of Riva Trigoso" for the "Industrie Navali Società Anonima" (INSA) of Genoa. In 1923 she was renamed VALSAVOIA.
She was 5.733 tsl with a length x breadth of 117.60 x 15.70 m.
The SS VALSAVOIA, was torpedoed and sunk by HMS SAFARI on February 2nd 1943, while traveling from Naples to Palermo,10 miles West of Capri island near Positano.

The wreck lies under 85m/ 278ft of water in upward position.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 7-14mm loaded with Lee Powell’s Flow Motion 2.02 settings; Nauticam Housing, 2x FIX Aquavolt3500 lights and 2x 50W HID Yellow Diving.

Music: Dandi + Mattanza + Bologna from the soundtrack of "Romanzo Criminale" by Paolo Buonvino.

Edited on Edius 6.07 + Canopus Imaginate 2 dor the animated chart

[vimeohd]53775747[/vimeohd]

I saw that GV released its canopus codecs pack for Apple too.

Bye

The lake of Posta Fibreno, is located by the village of Posta Fibreno, a small council of the Frosinone area in the Lazio Region. The lake is in a karstic terrain and rich in underwater springs.

Waiting for clearer water in winter time I edited some test shots filmed this summer.
In this period, warmer, slower moving waters increase the production of algae and allow it to accumulate in large blobs covering most of lake vegetation. Underwater shots are almost completely ruined by this mucilage, that constantly sticks to the port.
In the opening shots I got the front lens writing caught on the port. I have to put some black tape on it. Shame on me!

We will be back in water in January with a gin clear water.

For now, just a taste of this wonderful place.

Shot on a Panasonic GH2 + Lumix 8mm & 7-14mm loaded with Lee Powell’s Flow Motion 2.02 settings; Nauticam Housing.


[vimeohd]51504827[/vimeohd]

Davide,
Thanks for those most recent links. I will pass them on.  I really found them interesting and, in a discussion yesterday with someone, we talked about how it was actually fun to learn more and more about this BM cam finding the good and the bad.  Remember that this is a first generation cam so there should be improvements down the line.

I came across this comparison between 5DMK3 and BMC. They are compared for "dynamic range, sharpness, pushing levels, banding, artifacts, rolling shutter, chromakeying, wide/telephoto lengths, DOF (depth of field), low light, macro blocking, contrast, and more"

From what I understand they tried to shot in challenging conditions trying to see the camera limits. Maybe I missed something because the clips from the 5dMKIII are the ugliest I've seen so far. Really strange.

I suggest to see fullscreen and reading the video desciption.

[vimeo]49875510[/vimeo]

Modified frog or modified shuffle kick is the way to go for filming while swimming.
Anyway you have to exercise you video skills a lot to obtain a steady hand. Of course a nearly perfect setup is a good starting point

A DPV is a better choice for filming cave and wreck diving. Despite of the added difficulty of using a scooter in a cave environment (maybe a proper scooter cave training is a must) it adds a lot of stability.

The key point is getting a perfect trim and buoyancy of the entire setup. The best option is trying to have both camera setup and scooter+mount separately neutrally buoyant . If for some reason you have to remove the camera from the scooter mount you still have a working/manageable scooter. Sometimes it's hard to achieve and mainly depends on the camera setup.

A suggestion for tech dives: evaluate carefully the buoyancy system. I was so stupid to use Stix floats in a 80m+ dive. On the box neither on their web site they specify the max depth and it was my fault to not investigate. I used them a lot of times above 45m but below they became like chewing gum and it's a PITA finding yourself at depth with a heavy scooter and camera and a lot of deco on your back... Once crushed they need some hour to return to the original shape.

As usual guys at P-V are a step ahead when dealing with Panny.
They "sent" a couple of guys at Photokina covering the Panasonic event. The reported back the event via twitter and there is a wiki page:

http://www.personal-view.com/photokina/coverage/gh3

Or you can just go on Panasonic Photokina press site:

http://www.panasonic.eu/photokina2012/

Or plain GH3 site:

http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/systemcamera/gms/gh3/

Fro video recording formats here the various features:

Hi Steve,

Everything went good, as all vacations, after all

Thank you for point me out your article. It's nearly the same work-flow I use with Edius. Except using 10M for 1080p and I'm satisfied with the results.
My question on Vimeo arises because I found several people who use higher bitrate for Vimeo and they states that the final quality is better... The ratio behind this is since Vimeo compresses the material one more time after upload, you will get better quality if you have a higher bit rate to start with.
Hummm... I wonder if this is true and if someone has tried.

Just as example I found this comment on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/fo...comment_4440398

He is referring to an Howard Hall video which is only 386MB while being of extreme quality. Ok: he is HH, he is using a Red camera and blah blah blah... but downloading his original file:

Well I answered my own question regarding the Howard Hall video. I downloaded the original source file. It was variable bit rate, dropping down to 9 Mbsec in the simple scenes and spiking to over 26 Mbsec in the complex scenes.

On the other hand, what is the maximum bitrate I can use for home viewing? Or better saying which bitrate is worth using? At home I have a Samsung tv with an integrated media palyer and a db plyer. Both reads H.264 files..

Thank you in advance

Hi guys,

Just playing with H.264 export with my NLE.

What's the best bitrate for H.264 1080p export to play on a media player/ps3/smart tv?
Is it the same max bitrate supported by BD?
I'm not planning to burn a DB but just a single H.264 file.

And speaking about exporting for Vimeo...
Their guidelines suggest 10Mb for 1080p and 5Mb for 720p.

Do you usually comply with these values or you export higher bitrate for Vimeo?
I saw that they accepts higher bitrate but I was not able to spot if this leads to a better quality.

Bye

Some spam:

http://nofilmschool....ra-in-low-light

Frankenstain vs Dracula (FS100 vs BMCC)

http://nofilmschool....-light-showdown

Given that this thread has been hijacked...

Speaking about monsters, there is also this Sartek led light head rated 10000 lumen, very expensive indeed:

http://www.sarind.co...rod=LED10000VW.
I've seen a couple of cave videos where the model was using this head:

You can skip to minute 2:50

[vimeohd]36657225[/vimeohd]