Going Swimming with the HVX

August 11, 2006

Anyone taken the HVX underwater? Have some examples to post? I am shooting for an opening sequence for a documentary next week of kids swimming and jumping into a pool. Just bought the HVX and am going through its ins and outs. I'm loving it so far! Will post results here after I am done.

August 16, 2006

Just got the Underwater Houseing in. Tight fit! EWA has made some significant improvements in the construction of their housings. First, know that its a soft shell housing and therefore decently flexible to get to key features. However, they have added finger inserts to allow you to get to more features more easily. They have added one near the lens, one near the iris wheel, one near the power switch and one near the servo zooom control above the tape deck. Previously there was a line where the two pieces of plastic were joined that crossed in front of the viewfinder. Now they have put a solid peice right where the viewfinder is to avoid the line being in the way.

So far everything is set for tomorrow. I will be shooting in a community pool at 720/24pn. I'll probably shoot 48fps for most of it. The sun is supposed to be out and nearly directly overhead so I'm hoping for some nice sillouette shots as well as some intersting glows around the kids from lens flares and such. We shall see....

August 18, 2006

Here are some stills from the shoot. These were shot 720p. Exported from FCP as best a quality of JPEG's as it will. Imported into Photoshop and saved for Web as JPEG; size 50%, Quality 60%.

Edited August 18, 2006 by Paul Wizikowski

August 18, 2006

The first one is half size, the second is full sized. Apparently saved the wrong file into my "for Web" folder. Anyways, enjoy. In the near future I hope to cut a short montage of the footage. When that is done I will add a link here.

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As a follow up to the shoot. All went well, just slow. It was very difficult in the bright light of the sun to see much of anything in the viewfinder. I basically resorted to flipping the LCD around and trying to rough a shot that way. Even that was difficult to see. I needed to increase the brightness and contrast of the LCD but I didn't feel like I could take the time to really test and retest a good viewfinder setting. That said I got plenty of stuff the client is thrilled with. The 48fps footage looks just beautiful. And the light rays from the sun dancing around were so captivating. It was almost surreal. I'm really looking forward to taking it under again.

John Michael Corey · August 20, 2006

I'm new to the HVX as well as cinematography. What does the water-tight housing for the HVX cost? Is it "low impact" ? By this i mean is it only suited for calm waters, or would the housing be appropriate for, say, filming surfers racing across waves; could it withstand the pounding of waves? Got a pic of the HVX in the enclosure?

Thanks for posting the images. It's exciting to see what the HVX is capable of. Flares are great! I'm looking forward to the footage you'll be posting.

Thanks again.

Edited August 20, 2006 by John M. Corey

August 21, 2006

I'm new to the HVX as well as cinematography. What does the water-tight housing for the HVX cost? Is it "low impact" ? By this i mean is it only suited for calm waters, or would the housing be appropriate for, say, filming surfers racing across waves; could it withstand the pounding of waves? Got a pic of the HVX in the enclosure?

Thanks for posting the images. It's exciting to see what the HVX is capable of. Flares are great! I'm looking forward to the footage you'll be posting.

Thanks again.

Yea, its low impact. It could take the pounding of waves but not much more. Here is a link to a pic of it http://www.weatherornotphoto.com/wacacapaag.html

These soft shell housings keep the camera dry but do not protect it from impact. Personally if the waves weren't ridiculously crazy I wouldn't have a problem taking this rig out. Id be sure to tether to me though.

Bob Hayes · August 22, 2006

That looks like a pretty nice bag. I wouldn?t trust it filming surfing from the water because of the churning pressures of the waves. But I?d probably risk a dunk in calmer waters. After a little experience with it I think I'd feel comfortable taking it to 10?. Ewa says it rated to 30?. I don?t think I?d trust it that deep.