Underwater Bubble Blowers User Group Thread NEW

[Paul Russell]

Have been doing some TVC pool stuff with my Deep Epic but this was the first real open ocean test footage. Quick and dirty cut, conditions weren't great, vis on the wreck was 5-7m, Fish Rock was better at 15m vis but the depth was reasonably deep at about 30m. I am going to sound like every other guy with a Red but the vimeo thing just doesn't do it justice. I watched it on a 2K projector and it looked flippin awesome..... and that is at half res.

looks flippin' great, that does, Jon. Fantastic diving.

[John J Ellerbrock]

I had a great pleasure to meet John J Ellerbrock who kindly came to Cine Gear to welcome me in Hollywood.
Picture of me and John having a good chat.

The pleasure was mine Pawel. Welcome to the ranks of underwater housing manufacturers.

As mentioned during our chat, competition is good. It brings our product / service differences into sharp relief, from which customers make informed choices. This is important -- indeed necessary.

Best of success,

John

[Jon Shaw]

Pawel, looks mate looking forward to catching up when you are back. Ross and Paul, thanks guys, yep the diving in NSW is pretty awesome I love it.

[Pawel Achtel]

The pleasure was mine Pawel. Welcome to the ranks of underwater housing manufacturers.

As mentioned during our chat, competition is good. It brings our product / service differences into sharp relief, from which customers make informed choices. This is important -- indeed necessary.

Best of success,

John

Thank you, John. If you are ever in Sydney or Tasmania, the beer is on me.

[Pawel Achtel]

Quick update, guys:

I'm very excited that Band Pro Burbank and Munich will be selling DeepX and 3Deep in US and Europe.

DeepX will be sold as two packages:

1. DeepX body, titanium rails, titanium side handles, titanium mounting plate and RED module support bracket for $20k
2. As above with a fully serviced 15mm Nikon Nikonos lens for $21k

Congratulations to all early adopters.

BTW, there is one last DeepX listed on eBay at the low introductory price, so if you are quick before I have the time to change it...

We will be announcing a whole range of new accessories designed to make underwater film making easier.

What I would like to promote as a manufacturer is that we will do our best to make sure that these accessories will work with equipment from other makers. I'm hoping that accessories such as lights, supports, tripods, monitors, handles, etc...should fit no matter whether you have AV, Gates, or one of our housings.

I'm intending to pre-announce most products so that the competitors could plan their efforts accordingly in providing suplementary and alternative offerings at the benefit to you guys having a greater choice and ability to plan ahead.

Best fishes from Hollywood.

[John J Ellerbrock]

Have been doing some TVC pool stuff with my Deep Epic but this was the first real open ocean test footage. Quick and dirty cut, conditions weren't great, vis on the wreck was 5-7m, Fish Rock was better at 15m vis but the depth was reasonably deep at about 30m. I am going to sound like every other guy with a Red but the vimeo thing just doesn't do it justice. I watched it on a 2K projector and it looked flippin awesome..... and that is at half res.

Beautiful Jon. Well done.

J-

[Rudi Herbert]

So being from down under, Pawel is the rugged, Crocodile Dundee like, blond guy right? :-) Good to see those two smiling together in a photo, we're too small a community not to be friendly towards each other.

Onto another thing. Need some advice from locals of the Florida Keys like Frazier, or others who have shot there frequently. Though the keys have been my backyard for many years, I haven't done as much shooting there as I should have, and thus, I'm not familiar with weather patterns and the like. I spent the last four days in the upper keys shooting (on my beloved Gates/Ex-1/Fathom) and I'm aghast at the murkiness of the water. We went through rough seas, rougher yet, to super calm, and through it all, the water remained so dirty that it basically made all the shots unusable. Can anybody offer any guidance in terms of when and where in the keys I can get some decent water clarity? I need to stay no further south than Tavernier. I was basically shooting on the Northern reefs like Molasses, French, Elbow, and the Washington and Benwood wrecks, but regardless, terrible conditions.

Thanks,

[Frazier Nivens]

Hi Rudi,

Stay close to the Elbow, you'll get your best visibility there. Gulf stream comes in closer there in the Keys. Vis goes up and down, you never know what you'll get, I've seen it rough as can be and 100 ft. vis and rough and 10 ft. vis. Best winds of course are westerly and light but that doesn't always mean good vis. You can get great vis down to Tavernier, Islamorada. But close to the Elbow is better, reefs are nice also, If you can get to Horseshoe reef, the Elkhorn stand there are totally amazing and in wonderful condition, beautiful with lots of color and thousands of small fish floating around over the corals.

Vis yesterday looked a beautiful blue from the surface, but when I jumped in with EPIC there was lots of particulate in the water column. You should be golden with that Gates/EX1 and Superwide combo though in most vis. It's what 110 degrees.

I shot a 14mm lens yesterday on EPIC and got this, vis was only about 45 ft. or so but again particulate in water. If I had to say when to go I'd alway go West winds and not over 7 knots and you should be flat calm and good vis most of the time. Call me next time you are here, we should touch base again.

A few frame grabs from yesterday. Pardon low res images.

Call me, if you don't have my number pm me.

Best,
Frazier

[Mark_Thorpe]

Hoping to be making some contributions here again in the near future. Been lurking, in the shadows, where the weird people hang out.....

[Tom Hamilton]

For anyone who has joined this thread recently, Mark Thorpe won the very prestigious Prix du Public at the 34th World Festival of Underwater Images in Antibes, France, for his short entitled 'The Majesty of Muck'. Well done mate!

When Mark talks u/w imaging, I iisten. Very carefully.