If any of you are interested this was all A1 footage in a GATES housing with SWP44 port, this is an amazing spot around 4.5 hrs north of Sydney. Fish Rock Cave is located close to the continental shelf and right at the point where tropical and temperate waters meet. There is generally a pretty strong current that makes holding the cam steady tricky... but the current is what bring the fish!



ginclearfilm - South West Rocks (http://www.ginclearfilm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=1)

Here it is embedded

Fish Rock Cave- South West Rocks on Vimeo

Great fish life and footage, indeed!

Is it possible to fix the camera on the bottom and take a long footage? That is how I create my LentoVision video, all of them above the surface. It would be great to have those wonderful scenes and beautiful fish in a clip for several minutes.

How long are your clips, by the way, before you edit? (I am almost allergic to 2 second clips).

Wow... that footage is some of the best I've ever seen. What a dive spot! That SWP44 lens is incredible.

Thanks Bill and Sverker, yes the SWP44 is a great piece of glass.

Sverker, most of the clips are between 10-30 secs (original) the client (South West Rocks Dive Centre) wanted it to be short and punchy and make people wanting more, hence book and dive.

I could fix the cam to the bottom as I have a tripod for the camera.... in fact that is a pretty cool idea and it would be interesting to see whether the sharks behave any differently! I will do that next time I'm up there.

Jon

Jon,

Very special, really like some of the post work, love the water clarity. Another place that has to go on my list..... :)

Al

PS Congrats for the Wetpixel / Sensational Seas win.

Thank Alan, yep definitely worth a visit.

Cool images Jonathan.

What sort of light levels are you getting when diving? Are you using gain or stopping the lens down.
Also what are your focus techniques for diving with camera.

Have always wanted to shoot and dive.

Thanks

Hi Simon,

Regarding light most of the shark shots are at around 30m and the visibility was around the 20m mark, I shoot with twin 40w HID lights but really they will only light about a metre and a half in front. Have the gain set on 0 and will shoot wide so it gives me the option to open the iris wide if needed.
Regarding focus underwater I always shoot manual which is actually pretty easy due to the fact that underwater you focus on a 'virtual' image due to refraction, for WA stuff I pretty much leave the came on 0.4m and everything from about a metre to infinity is in focus. Macro stuff you will need to change it though.

Thanks for the compliment,

Jon

Jon,

some brillant footage to be certain!!

While I understand that this is a promo and the client wanted short undifinitive clips to draw interest, it would be awesome for you to put together your own video that would allow us to enjoy everything better!! It is what I call attention deficite video.

the manta Rays, ?? I definitely wanted to see more of!! along with a lot of other fish!!


dale

Thanks Dale, point definitely taken. I am working on it as we speak, I have already released a DVD on diving around Sydney and wanted the next one to be on Northern NSW and a reasonable part of the film will be shot in this area. Fish Rock should take up around around 15 mins of the DVD so there will be heaps. Also it will show the area throughout the seasons so you can see the change.

Cheers

Jon