Canon 7D Underwater Video by Berkley White

[Steve Williams 0]

Check it out here;

 

 

There is also the Aquatica housing write up we've been waiting for on the Backscatter site http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=66.

 

Cheers,

Steve

Edited January 15, 2010 by Drew

[ronscuba 4]

Nice video and article. I recently got the 7d. Love it for topside video. I won't use it underwater due to focus and white balance.

[james 0]

Wow the sunball shots look fantastic too!

 

Great review and write-up by Berk.

 

Cheers

James

[Steve Douglas 16]

Why, do you have that much difficulty achieving focus for underwater work with the camera? My subjective view of the 5 and 7D is that while they may take excellent video they just don't seem ergonomic for video, yet Berklye White's video didn't have the jello effect I was expecting. Perhaps that was just discriminating editing.

Steve

[MIKE POWELL 1]

Why, do you have that much difficulty achieving focus for underwater work with the camera? My subjective view of the 5 and 7D is that while they may take excellent video they just don't seem ergonomic for video, yet Berklye White's video didn't have the jello effect I was expecting. Perhaps that was just discriminating editing.

Steve

 

Being new to video and shooting the 5D underwater I was happy with my video results i.e. lack of jello effect. Berk has more experience and a steady hand so I doubt his shots were overly edited.

Hand held topside video may be a different story.

 

Mike

[ronscuba 4]

Why, do you have that much difficulty achieving focus for underwater work with the camera? My subjective view of the 5 and 7D is that while they may take excellent video they just don't seem ergonomic for video, yet Berklye White's video didn't have the jello effect I was expecting. Perhaps that was just discriminating editing.

Steve

Steve:

 

I focus with my Sony FX7 and Gates housing using a combination of manual focus and the push/auto button. Camcorder is set to manual focus. When you push in and hold the push/auto button, the camcorder auto focuses. When you release the button, it locks to manual. This works great for me on wide angle, macro and moving action. The Canon 7d auto focus is slow in video mode and not always accurate.

 

Reading Berkley's article leads me to believe he was using the Tokina 11-16mm wide angle lens with a deep depth of field, so focus might not have been a big problem on his shots. Would be interesting to hear if he tried any macro.

 

I think the 7d is fantastic for topside video and the extra steps it takes for focus, white balance, aperture, shutter, etc., are not a problem. Although I have not used it underwater, I imagine the extra steps is takes over my FX7/Gates are not worth the hassle.

 

If I were a photographer 1st then yeah, I'd get a housing for the 7d for uw photo and shoot video too. But as a videographer 1st, I am keeping my 7d dry.

Edited January 15, 2010 by ronscuba

[Mike L 0]

Ron hit it pretty dead on. Ive worked with a number of production companies using the 5d2 and 7d for topside work. For underwater, the ergonomics and focusing are definitely more difficult than a rig such as the Gates FX7 or even an HF S10/S11. The new controls and features of the Nauticam will definitely close that gap a bit on the video end.

 

With regards to Berkely's video and article, he does state in there the difficulty of hand holding it and that a tripod would definitely be needed for macro video. He did not shoot macro as Wakatobi frowns upon tripods.

 

I will be testing the new Nauticam 7D set up as soon as we get them the beginning of February and will get out and shoot some macro in the channel islands with it and a tripod.

[fotoscubo714 0]

Check it out here;

 

There is also the Aquatica housing write up we've been waiting for on the Backscatter site http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=66.

 

Cheers,

Steve

 

I was all "gunho" on wanting to go optical fiber until I read the following in Berkley's report: ".....Unfortunately, the recycle time of the pop-up flash can be as long as 3 seconds which can feel like an eternity for an advanced shooter...."

 

Should I now reconsider to go back to the high-maintenence, "pain in the a**" expensive wired cable systems in order to have reasonable recycle times for my fast shooting 7D?

 

Bo

[Drew 0]

You can get the Zillion optical system which fires using the hot shoe.

[fotoscubo714 0]

You can get the Zillion optical system which fires using the hot shoe.

 

Thanks Drew. I was unable to find information on this adapter unit on the Zillion website.

 

I will post my question about this on the lights, strobes forum.

[Mike L 0]

Bo I definitely recommend going with the hard wired system to take full advantage of the speeds of the 7d. That being said it really does depend on what you shoot. If you are a macro shooter the majority of the time, speed is not really an issue. For myself who likes big animals, I want the fast recycle time of strobes like the Sea & Sea YS 250 paired with the 8fps of the 7d camera.

[fotoscubo714 0]

Bo I definitely recommend going with the hard wired system to take full advantage of the speeds of the 7d. That being said it really does depend on what you shoot. If you are a macro shooter the majority of the time, speed is not really an issue. For myself who likes big animals, I want the fast recycle time of strobes like the Sea & Sea YS 250 paired with the 8fps of the 7d camera.

 

Thanks Mike for that insight.

 

I like big animals also. They are easier to see and aim at .

I will never forget the time I had a huge Orca coming straight at me in Baja and had a video cam out of focus

 

Bo

[Mary Lynn 0]

To me, that's gorgeous video.

 

Love the color and the WA look.

 

Also very much enjoyed reading Berk's review!

 

- Mary Lynn

[TheRealDrew 0]

To me, that's gorgeous video.

 

Love the color and the WA look.

 

Second that one, looked great. Was interesting to see the conclusions regarding 5D Mark II vs 7D when thinking whether the primary intent is photos vs video, though from everything I have seen looks like both are nice choices either way. Looking forward to the 5D Firmware update that looks like it is coming next month...

[Gudge 58]

Should I now reconsider to go back to the high-maintenence, "pain in the a**" expensive wired cable systems in order to have reasonable recycle times for my fast shooting 7D?

If you set the 7D's internal flash to "manual" mode and set a low output power it will recycle very quickly. I did a quick test at home with my 7D with the internal flash set to 1/128 power (should be enough to trigger an external strobe via fibre optics if you're shooting manual and not TTL) and drive mode in high speed continuous and the internal flash fired everytime the shutter released for as long as I was happy to hold the shutter release button down shooting JPEGs (with RAW I got the same result except that after 20 shots the buffer filled up and the camera stopped shooting). Edited January 18, 2010 by Gudge

[Newmediasoup2 0]

Check it out here;

 

 

There is also the Aquatica housing write up we've been waiting for on the Backscatter site http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=66.

 

Cheers,

Steve

 

You can now view Canon 7D Underwater Test Video in 720p! Click on the link to get to the article, and scroll down to the video where you now have the option to view it small, medium or in 720p.

Backscatter Canon 7D Article