blaisedouros

I don't have much feedback for shooting stills UW, as I am primarily a video guy; however, if you plan on shooting video with your SLR, the t3i has some features that you may find useful, including the option to shoot 60 fps at 720p (while the d5100 has a maximum framerate of 30p at any resolution). If you plan to shoot macro video, the t3i also has a neat feature that crops a portion of your sensor in order to get a 3x to 10x zoom without a loss of image quality; effectively making it possible for your 18-55 kit lens to become a 180-550. That's only useful for macro, but it's a cool feature. Note that my only experience with this camera is topside; I've only used dedicated video camera rigs underwater.

Oh, measurebation. This kind of thing makes me crazy. Why does one have to be "better?" If you need high fps and less resolution, buy the D4. If you need high resolution and less speed, buy the D800. Neither of these two cameras is good for everything; they are targeted at specific needs. Not like anyone here actually needs me to tell them this, but I had to say it on the off-chance it could prevent someone going blind

With Sony E-mount lenses? I haven't shot with them, so I can't judge personally. However, I certainly don't hear anyone raving about how great that glass is... I think another likely contributing factor to the conspicuous absence of a Canon entry to the prosumer space is that Canon is likely cautious of robbing their current booming DSLR sales to the prosumer video shooter market. Right now you can buy a great still camera that also does a pretty darn good job of shooting video...but what happens when you split that market by making a video camera that does it better for the same price?

Heh, if only it were all about what I wanted...I think this is probably more in John E's realm, what with all the accessories and different ports that would be required to support all the lens possibilities. I can see the touchscreen being a major hurdle for the UW crowd, though...the LANC might be helpful for shooting controls, but you can't control menu functions through LANC (it's not part of the standard).

For full RAW 2K video, $3000 is a steal. It's funny, I was just saying in another thread that I thought there was a niche to be filled here. I'd bet that firmware updates could increase the framerate, especially at 1080P.

Very cool. Any clues as to what the bones at 2:16 were from?

Yes, you want to use either your red filter or your lights...but never both.

Definitely good news for you guys--congrats! It's not often camera manufacturers are nice enough to use the same architecture like that.

In this generation, I think you're absolutely right--Epic still does some things better, no question about it. However, Epic's brain alone also costs $34k, putting it in an entirely different category than the 1D-C. Who knows what the C500 will cost, of course; if it comes in at $10k less than the Epic, I would imagine that could put a significant dent in that camera's market, though. What I would be worried about if I were at Red is that Canon (being a more widely diversified company) seems to be willing to use their development muscle to develop and iterate these cameras relatively quickly; they announced the C300 in November, and now we see the C500 comparatively soon after. How many years was the Scarlet just vaporware? It seems to me that the digital cinema camera space is starting to get really crowded (Arri Alexa, Red, Sony, Panasonic, now Canon, probably others that I'm forgetting); with Canon's reach, I can see them taking a large chunk of that market if they continue to play their cards right. Now what I REALLY want to see from them is a $3-4,000 EF-mount HD video-specific camera body...

If I were working for RED, I would be very nervous right now...

Looks pretty darn good--congrats!

Sure! As I said, I'm not familiar enough with Vegas to know how powerful it is. The key (har!) is that the motion tracker must generate keyframes that you can copy into the other video's motion track; if Vegas' motion tracker just makes the changes without giving you access to the keyframes, then it won't work. Aw, I was just giving you a hard time--I totally understand how it is. We're all UW shooters here! I do definitely recommend getting a tripod for macro; shooting really good macro video without one is incredibly difficult, and I certainly wouldn't want to try it. If your housing has a standard 1/4-20 tripod screw on it, you could get one of those small flexible tripods from Jobe; they aren't too heavy, but for a small camera like the W3, it should be enough. The key is for the camera to be weighted enough that the surge can't move it around. Best of luck!

I don't know how smart Vegas is, but I doubt it's smart enough to do 3D stabilization--most standard NLEs aren't. However, there is another amazing program out there called Adobe After Effects which I'll bet you can do it using the following process, or something like it. Here's what I'd try: Bring in both video streams to After Effects. Apply a motion tracker to the left video stream, track its motion, and get it dialed in where you want it. Then, apply a duplicate motion tracker to the right stream, but DON'T track its motion. Instead, COPY the keyframes from the left stream to the right stream's motion tracker. Voila! Instant duplication of whatever motion keyframes were applied to the left stream, and it should be synchronized exactly. Note: This is an ugly workaround, and I have never actually tried it. But, knowing what I know about After Effects, as well as 3D, I believe it should work. The ultimate way to apply image stabilization to 3D is to get it right in-camera, since 3D post is double the work!

Probably not, I'm afraid I was just pointing out that "single-chip" vs "three-chip" is no longer an absolute measure of the image quality that a camera produces.

Just one note--Sola does not cut off when strobes fire. Since I work for L&M, I won't comment further

Thanks David, much appreciated!

Yes...but so is the Red

In my experience, storing NiMH batteries at anything but room temperature will generally not benefit you. Cold temperatures will reduce a battery's performance, but not its self-discharge rate. As far as I'm aware, storing NiMH batteries at 50-100% charge at room temperature is best for them.

Did you have your lights on while white balancing? If so, then the white balance would be correct for anything within range of your lights, but not for the entire reef; hence, the reef appearing green. Think of white balance as a way to tell the camera what the light looks like: if you're shooting wide angle using ambient light, then white balance using the ambient light, without your lights on. If you're shooting a subject using your lights, then white balance with your lights on. If you're shooting ambient light, it often helps to have a color correction filter if you're deeper than 15-20 feet.

Hi all, below is embedded the original 16:30 version of In The Wake Of Giants (we later lengthened the film to 24:00 for PBS' Natural Heroes). I wrote and produced the music score for this film. The subject is humpback whale entanglement, and the VERY brave folks who go out in a tiny rubber boat and cut them free. Everyone likes whales, and this is an issue that not a lot of people are familiar with. Most of the underwater footage and footage from the boats was shot (by necessity) on GoPro and Contour helmet cameras; there's no room for anyone but rescuers on the rescue boats. If you enjoy this film, please consider supporting the sequel, Northern Wake. Or, if you know someone who you think would, please feel free to pass along the Vimeo and Kickstarter links. [vimeohd]39662713[/vimeohd]

Beautifully done footage, and great color grading. Thanks for posting!

Hi SwiftFF5; on your left handle look on the "left" directional button; there is a little camera icon next to it. If you press and hold this button, the camera will take a still. This works whether or not you're recording video. I can't remember if there's any resolution penalty if you take the pic while recording video; I don't think there is, though.

The only advantage I can think of would be that you didn't have to stop taking video to take a photo. Even that, though, can be surmounted--most consumer and some prosumer Canon and Sony video cameras can take a still while taking video, as long as the video isn't at the highest bitrate setting. So for example, the Canon HF S30 can shoot a 8MP still while shooting video without interrupting the video stream. Disadvantages: low resolution, high likelihood of motion blur in any individual frame (unless you're shooting with a really high shutter speed, which is unlikely UW since you have less light to play with), less depth of color in any individual frame than on a regular still image...the list goes on

I almost always have a hard time getting good results with 24p, and much prefer 30p in general. On anything where I know I'm going to have some motion on the screen, I prefer that extra bit of sharpness in the motion. To me, the only reason to shoot 24p is if you know you're going out to film, or if you have a client that demands it. Aesthetically, 30p still has enough of the progressive flicker to feel good to me. Maybe that's all just habit ingrained from the days where I had to do 3:2 pulldowns on 24p footage all day long, though...strictly my opinions here!

Great composition, great color...well done!