Shoot like a PRO Underwater

Few things are more frustrating than a great dive with a pro-sumer camera. HDV is simply inadequate due to Inter-frame or I-Frame MPEG recording. And that’s only the beginning. Low-to-no color sampling [4:2:0 vs. 4:2:2], minuscule data rate (25Mbs vs. 100 Mbs), and use of mini-DV tape vs. tapeless workflow add to the nightmare, but most importantly HDV does not meet broadcast standards. HDV I-Frame compression compares groups of frames to determine the compression algorithm. [see below] That’s fine for a ‘talking head’ interview where very little changes frame-to-frame, but ask yourself the logical question. Is any frame of underwater video similar to the one prior? Much less the last 15-frames? Of course not, and so the results are substandard at best. DVCPRO is a professional broadcast format. Most importantly each frame is compressed separately. HDV is doomed to consumer cameras. As broadcast standards get more demanding HDV will be kicked to the curb, left at the dock.

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Want to shoot Pro High Definition? - Buy our rugged, balanced, high quality AquaVideo Marine Case for the Panasonic HVX-200 P2 camcorder. This is the first system to provide true production level, 24p 4:2:2 recording in a compact and affordable underwater package. Rated to depths of 50 meters/165 feet, it is easy to set up and easy to use. Did I mention quality??? See our HD PodCast or our store main page hd2o.tv or the clips below in this FLOG.

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Buy Our Rig: includes the housing and light kit; ships in a secure plastic bin. $3000.00 studio@hd2o.tv

Optics are designed to provide an extreme wide angle view – for dramatically clearer, more colorful underwater pictures. (The lens I use  - Century .75x bayonet specifically for the HVX200 - MSRP $1195) Glass dome port optical system (not acrylic) is optically neutral; corrects for distortions and aberrations and allows true lens-magnified macro and zoom-through without having to change lenses or optical setup. Stainless steel closure clamps, five front and five back, are quick and secure the 1″ acrylic end-plates with spring-loaded locking latches to prevent accidental opening. X-ring seals are highly reliable.

Controls to all major camera functions are on this rig to include; power, record trigger, zoom, focus, iris, mode, user 1, 2, 3, white balance, A/B presets, etc. About 48 lbs dry, this rig is small, self contained, rugged, and extremely agile in the soup. 10.75” diameter allows the camera?s LCD to be open and viewed through the clear backplate without glare. Velcro secures the battery pack for the SuperNova 250w 3400K HID light-kit. We use a 100GB FireStore FS-100 which also fits below the camera mounting plate, or use P2 cards.
Ships in a plastic bin; 16″x18″x24″.

HVX200 Camera, Century .75 lens mount, FireStore FS-100 are NOT included.  studio@hd2o.tv

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Intra- vs. Inter-frame compression facts :

[Wikipedia] Most compression systems used for acquisition in the digital cinematography world compress footage one frame at a time, as if a video stream is a series of still images. This is called intra-frame compression. Inter frame compression systems can further compress data by examining and eliminating redundancy between frames. This leads to higher compression ratios, but displaying a single frame will usually require the playback system to decompress a number of frames from before & after it. In normal playback this is not a problem, as each successive frame is played in order, so the preceding frames have already been decompressed. In editing, however, it is common to jump around to specific frames and to play footage backwards or at different speeds. Because of the need to decompress extra frames in these situations, inter-frame compression can cause performance problems for editing systems. Inter-frame compression is also disadvantageous because the loss of a single frame (say, due to a flaw writing data to a tape) will typically ruin all the frames until the next keyframe occurs. In the case of the HDV format, for instance, this may result in as many as 6 frames being lost with 720p recording, or 15 with 1080i recording [3]. An inter-frame compressed video stream consists of groups of pictures (GOPs), each of which has only one full frame, and a handful of other frames referring to this frame. If the full frame, called I-frame, is lost due to transmission or media error, none of the P-frames of B-frames (the referenced images) can be displayed. In this case, the whole GOP is lost.

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Anchovies, or Sardines, or Minnows Oh My!

Key Largo - Our trusted Captain Jeff Jarvis told of a magical place where the bate fish were so thick we could not see through them. We had to see that for ourselves in HD. If you look close you will see a Barracuda (their worst nightmare) hanging in the current; upper right corner.

Take a wild guess at how many fish are in this one minute clip, go ahead - guess; who could prove you wrong??? Enjoy

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Madrid — The Oceana Ranger catamaran is equipped with a robot that has dived down to 500 meters depth to film species that are rarely spotted, or have never even been seen, in the Canarian archipelago.

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The goal of the expedition is to identify areas that should be turned into marine protected areas. Only 2.7% of the EU’s marine surface area is protected, but the United Nations calls for 10%.

Oceana has found around a dozen species in the Canary Islands whose existence in the archipelago was unknown until now. Glass and rock sponges, ball, white and black coral, and armored searobin are some of the species that have been found. A wide variety of rare species, or species for which hardly any biological information is known, were also able to be filmed live, including channeled rockfish, anglerfish, silver and pink gallo fish, fan coral, bathyal sea fans, Venus fly-trap anemones, and lollipops sponges.

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Shipwrecks have captured the imagination of scuba divers with each person alone with their thoughts to wonder what may have happened, who was on board, how many died, and if other divers may have tempted the interior to find a watery grave since. Most wrecks are as safe as underwater safety can be, and most divers use extreme caution when entering a ship’s interior, totally aware of what could be. This wreck is mostly skeletal with very few interior spaces to explore, but that doesn’t diminish the experience.

The BENWOOD was sunk in 1942 after WWII. Some say she was hit by German U-boat torpedoes and could not limp back to port. Other say she was laid to rest and used for target practice. Either way the BENWOOD is a shallow dive in reasonable current in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary as a wonderful artificial reef to explore… and wonder.

Choose the 640 or 960 HD clips. Our HD PodCast on iTunes offers an excellent viewing experience.

 

 Shipwreck BENWOOD: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Shipwreck BENWOOD - HD clip: Play Now | Play in Popup

Music by Garry Lee Rosenberg, appropriately titled; Sea Anemone.

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Rapidly changing technology can make last year’s great idea into a slumdog, and that is certianly the case with HDV. The 2009 show seemed to be a sort of catch up year, in that innovations of recent years are now very usable and ready to work.  RED for example: a few years ago the camera was a prototype. This year the accessories were out in big numbers.  3D is big. More on that in years to come.  It’s cool, but the technology has to develop to attract an audience.

NAB camera report

My favorite camera is from Silicon Imaging. Slumdog Millionaire Shot with the SI-2K Cinema Camera. The SI-2K series combine a DCI-spec 2K sensor with CineForm’s revolutionary Visually Perfect® CineForm RAW™ codec. All that- embedded Intel Core 2 Duo powered architecture. It delivers a direct-to-disk recording platform with unprecedented image quality, 11-F stops of dynamic range, an intuitive 7” LCD touchscreen interface that is off the charts, sharp OLED electronic viewfinder option, IT-friendly connectivity, battery powered operation, and up to 4-hours of continuous shooting on its hot-swap 160GB notebook hard drive. My friend Steve Waterford of ZennaTek has already invented an ingenious waterproof housing that has interior climate control and lens clearing airflow for housing lens.  This partial submersion bag is for taking it to the extreme.

Please note: There is no up-side benefit to my company if you shoot a specific camera.  In fact; I’d like to see all ocean videographers using HDV please. This is my NAB 2009 review of cameras I personally would deploy underwater.

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For the Mel Fisher fans, “Today is the day.”

HD2O Cameraflyer and Crew worked long hours underwater shooting this documentary. We only did the u/w camera work for one vessel.  Tune in to tru TV on Wednesday, March 18th at 10pm EST to watch the epic battle across the coast of the Florida Keys, as two treasure hunting vessels battle each other in a race to uncover half a billion dollars of treasure scattered across the sea floor.

In this image Joe “ICE” Berg is shooting a color chart for me to reference in post production.

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PodCast # 008 is about another predator. Why? Because the web is good for bringing quick hits, shock value, what I call “kick-in-the-ass” content. Suddenly here comes HD2O.tv underwater video where everything is soooo sloooow, or is it.

• Ocean Fun Fact: Did you know the baracuba can swim at speeds reaching 30 MPH? Take a look at this Great Barracuda he’s hunter and predator they may follow divers, as they do larger fish, in the hopes of scavenging remains.

About this shot: As quickly as I got “ICE” to turn the camera this cuda snapped up a small fish near his leg.  Look closely; the minnow is in his teeth as he turns off to eat what remains.

Good thing barracuda don’t like the taste of humans?  You bet! because he sees us long before we see him. We’d have no chance, so remember ” Do No Harm” in hopes that no harm come to you or your fingers which could be gone in a second if you mess with this magnificent animal in his domain!

Remember: these clips are HD so they are large.  I recommend using the ‘pop-up player’ and they may take a moment to start.  For best viewing jump over the iTunes and subscribe to our HD Podcast! For absolute best viewing get the DVD from our store here, Or we send a barracuda to your home for a little visit.

Let’s start 2009 with a wonderful video featuring the therapy dolphin residents atisland Dolphin Care, one of the non-profit groups we promote through education and information.  Once you see the power of children interacting with these special mammals I hope you will consider adding I.D.C. to your list of special causes once you see how powerful the experience is for children from all over the world and their families. Visit their site for more information.

The people behind I.D.C. are heroes. There is no shortage of love for child or animal pouring from and back to this facility in Key Largo. Remember: this is just a sample! The full track is only on our DVD.

If you enjoy this clip you will love the 5-minute track featured on our 2009 DVD. Get it today fromour storeand you can feel extra good knowing a portion of revenue from sales is committed to our heroes at Island Dolphin Care.

View this HD PodCast on iTunes!

ENJOY!

Last year I broke down and got my wife a new camera, which I use all the time. She loves it when she gets the chance. As a video guy I had to do, and did research on the camera market only to find at that time, Casio had just released the EX-Z1000 [in my opinion] the best camera by a wide margin. $300 bought 10-MPix and color accuracy. That’s worth the money, but this little Casio had way more. It’s still an awesome camera.

Now comes the future: Casio Elimim EX-F1 It isn’t perfect yet, but don’t discount Casio as a player. This gadget is HOT, it shoots 300, 600 or 1200 fps and encodes them on the fly to an H.264 file at 30 frames per second. 1:10 ratio means one second equals 10 seconds of footage or SUPER SLO-MO. There is an excellent review at gizmodo. com that I suggest reading for the pros, cons, and future of this invention. Don’t be surprised to find the future of imagery at the end of that camera link! Click either camera for details, click the review for results.

Regards,

Paul

Every spring leads scuba divers to Honduras, Belize, or the Philippines to catch a glimpse of the largest fish in the sea. The massive yet passive whale shark is mostly harmless despite their massive size, just watch out for stroking of their massive fins. Despite easy access, scientists know little about the whale shark numbers, migration patterns, or breading, but that is about to

VIDEO P R E S S R E L E A S E

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Las Vegas Company Takes HD Down Deep Video attached…

LAS VEGAS, NV – Paul Dymon films, inc signs underwater cameraflyer and pro dive instructor Joe Berg to their HD underwater team. His knowledge from both skill sets, video and scuba, helps showcase coral reefs and ocean animals. Berg is instrumental in showcasing “The Keys” as one of the great scuba location in the world. HD2O™ is shooting world class dive destinations fresh again in HD, the quality and format of a brand new generation.

Berg rounds out a team that includes a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer and former Navy rescue swimmer. “It’s no day in the park,” Berg says about shooting for Dymon. “The camera housing weighs about 60 pounds. The difficulty is propelling it in a smooth, fluid manor while maintaining neutral buoyancy.”
Following each shooting day the team gathers to review the content. “We no longer use video tape so clips are off-loaded as digital files to a drive system that is battery operable for total portability at sea. Sample clips can be compressed and uploaded on-the-spot for remote review and immediate client feedback from anywhere in the world. Back in Paul Dymon’s Las Vegas studio data is transferred onto a high-powered workstation for compositing, color correction, and eventually distribution.

DON’T MISS: “SHARKS COLLIDE” @ 2:00 minute mark

For highest quality images - videos are compressed with the H.264 codec.

Note: You need the latest Flash Player upgrade to play with these sharks!

The link above will analyze your version of Flash and offer the appropriate upgrade path.

Here is a peek into his collection of his shark footage.

Comments encouraged. Here’s a picture of Joe’s office and studio in The Keys… LOL

Welcome to a sample of our videos designed for public display, customize to each license. Audio designed for paging, voice over, and easy conversations.

Restaurant Video Menus: We invented the vertical plasma display for AquaKnox @ The Venetian. See the AquaKnox and W. Puck’s famous PostRio in-room commercial, both works produced by our boutique division; Las Vegas High Definition or LVHD. Content can be delivered on a standard DVD or for clients with dynamic content needs, changes are delivered remotely through secure network media playback units. HD and NTSC standards are available.

The first application uses graphics to present info for a friendly tavern atmosphere. Wait ’til you see the ‘friendly barracuda’ at about one minute.

Stick around and get hammered… at the Rusty Nail.

This application is designed for a relaxing hospitality in-room channel. Voice messages and graphics would be upgraded to the resort.

FYI: The tune is “TORTURED BEAUTY” from the featured DVD available in our store.

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