Underwater Bubble Blowin' Users Group

[fathom]

I have decided to break silence and risk being shouted down but i had a small idea. At the moment the route currently seems to be to get a 35mm lens behind a dome. This is of course fine but what about the idea of using an actual underwater lens. You can still buy lenses for the Nikonos RS and it should not be too difficult to machine the mount and the servo controller for focus. Maybe they wouldn't be that good quality but i presume they were made very well originally and you get an image hitting the sensor that has not had to go through glass air then more glass. What do people think about this? OK so it might be a worry having a potential leak so close to the camera but a leak is dodgy wherever it occurs.

[Michael Hastings]

At the moment the route currently seems to be to get a 35mm lens behind a dome. This is of course fine but what about the idea of using an actual underwater lens. You can still buy lenses for the Nikonos RS and it should not be too difficult to machine the mount and the servo controller for focus. Maybe they wouldn't be that good quality but i presume they were made very well originally and you get an image hitting the sensor that has not had to go through glass air then more glass. What do people think about this? OK so it might be a worry having a potential leak so close to the camera but a leak is dodgy wherever it occurs.

Fathom:

I actually proposed this very early in this thread. It would probably be necessary (for flange distance/backfocus reasons) to replace the entire front of the RED camera with the front plate of the housing with a Nikonos receptacle and then you could use the Nikonos 15 (which is really a 20 behind a dome) or you could use other Nikons using the Nikonos Aqualens system which allows you to mount regular nikons on the nikonos. Presumably the same type of thing could be done with the RS lenses.

That approach is not out of the question, but the big problem is that the Nikonos lenses are not really that wide on the S35 sensor of the RED which has a 1.6x factor when comparing it to the same lens on a 35mm SLR full frame sensor or film which is 36mm x 24mm. This is the reason we are all considering the 10-22 Canon because the 10 mm would be like a 16mm on 35 SLR.

The Nikonos 15 (which again is really a 20) would have the same angle of view as a 32mm on a full frame SLR and even a true 15 mm would be only equivalent to a 24 mm - so not that wide.

Re: the Nikonos 15 - some history - when it came out in the sixties underwater housings and particularly dome ports weren't that common so the Nikonos 15 which is just a 20mm nikon lens with a glass dome was marked 15mm to show its "relative" focal length to lenses behind flat ports. I don't know if the RS lenses went back to Real focal lengths but it still doesn't get around that they wouldn't be as wide on the RED.

BTW Those "underwater" lenses are primarily normal lenses with a built-in dome (and they also are made so their focus compensates for the refocusing of a dome.) It also points out the fact that domes, while not perfect, are one of the most practical solutions for very high quality underwater work

The other issue is that the mount is fairly small so with this big of a camera/underwater case you'd have to reinforce it or worry about banging it hard enough to knock it off or at least cause a leak.

I have decided to break silence and risk being shouted down but i had a small idea.

PS don't worry about "breaking silence" or whatever. At least on this thread we are pretty much about discussion and sharing of knowledge, and leaving the shouting/flaming, etc. to other threads/forums. So as far as I'm concerned, chime in anytime.

[Ken Corben]

PS don't worry about "breaking silence" or whatever. At least on this thread we are pretty much about discussion and sharing of knowledge, and leaving the shouting/flaming, etc. to other threads/forums. So as far as I'm concerned, chime in anytime.

Well said Mike.

Other than the FOV issue I wish the Nikonos 15 was a solution since I own two of them but I would feel a bit sceptical about the bayonet mount o-ring since underwater cinemtography is 1% LUCK AND 99% O-RING.

I think that Mike's proposed RED housing systems from earlier posts incorporate the best of K.I.S.S. When the lens questions for us underwater dudes are answered by the testing of Gibby's #8 led by Evin Grant, Mike will have the data to pull the trigger and start machining.

Until then it's still $10K a week for the U/W cinealta rental...OUCH!

[Mark Thorpe]

Wow, a week has passed since my last visit. Another week closer to the REDvolution my friends.

Been tied up with a short music video type edit. A group in the UK wanted to have a string out of underwater images to accompany their latest release, aptly titled 'Oceanic'. The group, Above & Beyond present Tranquility Base are also avid divers and have actually been to Palau, where I currently reside, albeit before my time. Well in case any of you are interested you can check out the edit:

www.4koceanstock.com/blog.html

Click the Manta Ray image underneath the 'technocean' entry. The file is an mp4 format weighing in at 29MB.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Michael Hastings]

I hate going to your blog - makes me very jealous.

Nice stuff Mark, keep it up.

www.4koceanstock.com/blog.html

Click the Manta Ray image underneath the 'technocean' entry. The file is an mp4 format weighing in at 29MB.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Ken Corben]

Anyone seen this trailer for National Geographic's 3-D live action and CGI epic prehistoric underwater tale yet?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/gi...adventure.html

It will be interesting to see the film in 3D IMAX and RealD 3D to compare the viewing experience. It is an exciting time to be a pending RED owner and underwater filmmaker. Hell, I'd be stoked to have a pair of limit enabled capable RED cameras that shoots 24p @ 180 degree shutter in redcode RAW for my current projects.

Sharky

[Mark Thorpe]

AquaVideoRed206 - I hate going to your blog - makes me very jealous.

Hahaha, gotta love it. Getting ready for the Indo adventure so will be absent for some time. Mind you, I'll be posting some pretty wild critter info when I get back.

Soon Ken, soon......

Cheers,
Mark.

[Mark Thorpe]

Here ya go Mike, something else to make you jealous.....

OK, so they are captive but better that than ending up as cat chow as they were originally intended. These dolphins were bought out / rescued from a performing show in Japan by one of the top directors of Sony. With two invalid sons he believes in the healing abilities Dolphins have on the mind as opposed to the limbs. Floating in the Ocean offers the kids the chance to feel as any normal person would in the watery medium, lets face it none of us are that graceful underwater irrespective as to how good a swimmer we may think we are.

This is what I was up to yesterday, meeting and filming eight Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins at the Dolphins Pacific facility here in Palau......all good stuff.



Cheers,
Mark.

[Michael Hastings]

Stop, I'm stuck here in front of a computer. LOL

[Ken Corben]

Mark,

Again with that friggin' great photo composition - I''d say it was luck but you keep doing it. Meanwhile us drones are plugging away in development hell slogging out budgets. Two budgets really, one for RED camera based production the second for cinealta. An eye opening read even if your not an actuary.