| The
video and photographic equipment that I now use for SCUBA has evolved
over many years from very heavy and cumbersome 35mm still cameras and
housings to lightweight compact digital items that make both
travelling and actual photography a great deal easier. |
SONY 75m Marine Pack
My first foray into underwater video in 1999.
The Marinepack was an original SONY item and cost over £2,200, the
analogue Hi8 Camcorder used with it cost another £800 a very expensive
and heavy system. The housing was solid aluminium and nearly
took up my whole baggage allowance when flying.
 |
Ocean
Images Dolphin Pro
This housing was purchased following the sale of
my SONY housing because it was too heavy. The Dolphin Pro was
half the weight of the SONY but had a depth restriction of 65 meters,
which did not really matter to me. A much neater solution for
travelling with. I kept the analogue camera as it gave excellent
results.
|
 SONY DSC-9 4.0
Megapixel
& Housing
Digital still camera, oh what a
joy. Replacing my Canon 35mm camera and housing with the DSC-9
Cybershot and its housing was a great move. The system could
dive to 40 meters, 10 meters deeper than my Canon, and take loads more
photographs. Also it weighed nothing (about 1.5 kilos) when
compared to the Canon & housing at 10 kilos!
|
 SONY
DCR-TRV25E Video Camera
Having seen the results from a friends digital
video camera I decided it was time to upgrade and sold off all my
analogue equipment. My new set-up did save a some weight as both
the camera and housing were much smaller than the analogue equipment,
it also gave better results.
A great deal of research and testing went into
the purchase of the camera because I wanted one that had a good
autofocus that did not constantly adjust the focus underwater. I
had seen this fault on many digital camcorders and the TRV25E proved
to be very good at maintaining a constant focus lock.
|
 Ocean Images Dolphin Pro TRV
Now for the housing. I did
initially use the new digital camcorder in my Dolphin Pro housing but
being a small format camera I believed that a smaller housing would
save a bit of weight. I searched around after discovering the
Ocean Images did not make one to fit and the SONY Unit retailed again
at £2,200 .. ouch!
Finally after having no success at all in
finding a small housing to fit I approached Ocean Images and asked if
they could make me one. Bearing in mind that they are in the USA
I envisaged problems mainly because they had never seen the camera
(not available there at the time). I set about sending them
photographs and measurements and eventually they got back to me and
agreed to manufacture the housing. Later still they told me that
they had a acquired a TRV25 and were using it to design the housing.
Eight weeks later I received a shiny new Dolphin
Pro-TRV housing and it is extremely light. |
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Lights
I use video lights when necessary underwater. My
camera has a very low lux capability and can shoot in quite dark
conditions. It also has infra-red facility but I have yet to use
it on a night dive using this function, it needs to be turned on
before entering the water as it is controlled by external switches at
the front of the camera.
The lights are 75W halogen lights with flexible
arms. For use when in tunnels and caves and at night.
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