Video Clinic, Part 1

Introduction:
     Should you take photos or shoot video of your dive trip? Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Do you want a few nice pictures to hang on a wall and pass around at work? Or do you want to impress the neighbors with video footage when you invite them over for root beer floats? And which can you afford?
     Video is easier. Your video camera automatically adjusts to low light levels. It focuses for you. You just aim it in the direction of the action and push the button. You're more likely to have a final product you're proud of. On the other hand, you can't hang a video tape on the wall (well, I guess you could, but...). You can't pull the tape out of your pocket at a business lunch and say, "Hey, let me show you some great pictures of bluegill spawning!"

Assuming you already have a camcorder, you can start shooting video for the price of a housing, usually north of $600. While you can get a cheap underwater 35 mm camera for $200, a reasonable entry-level system (like the Sea&Sea MX-10) will cost $500. So dabbling in snapshots is cheaper than dabbling in video at first. To get serious, adding two lights to your video housing will add about $900. And that's about as serious as you can get, unless you plan to plug a video-editing card into your computer. On the other hand, you can spend $2500 on your 35 mm photo equipment and still not take good pictures. At Left: The author in scuba gear (taken from the introduction               segment of his latest dive video).

     So you decide. I do both video and photography. But I really like doing video. It's more personal. It's more fun. And it's more realistic. Video tells the viewer what things are like down there. I even digitize my best underwater photos to use as closeups when I compile my dive videos.

The Equipment:
     Housings are available for most popular video cameras. A video housing for a small 8 mm or VHS-C camera will cost $600 to $1200, depending on the number and type of controls (electrical vs. mechanical). A good light will cost you $400 or more. You need two lights for smooth color.

Look for a housing with a dark orange-red filter that can be switched underwater. My Ikelite housing takes amazingly good-color video because it makes no compromises. For distance photography (greater than 3 feet) you turn the top knob and a dark orange filter pops in front of the lens. This gives excellent colors -- not the gray-blues you see with most underwater video. For closeup or nighttime video, you turn on the lights and click the filter away. The goal is to have the color balance as close to what your eye sees as possible.

      Look for a housing that lets you turn your camera off while inside (to conserve battery power). And speaking of power, you need more than one battery. On many dive boats, there may not be enough power outlets for you to recharge your camcorder battery between dives.
     If you're shopping for both a camcorder and housing, talk to your dive store or factory rep about systems. Some camcorders work better underwater. The ultimate is a housing with electrical connections that let you control all the camera's functions: white balance, backlighting, and (most helpful) the edit button to review and reject what you just filmed.

Before Diving:
     Double-check the housing to be sure everything is fastened together properly. Check the lights. I store my video lights with the lens ring loose so air can "burp" out with altitude changes. It would ruin a $500 light to enter the water without tightening the lens.
     If you're doing a night dive, check for the color-correction filter. Some of the most fabulous nighttime critters I've seen appear bright red in my video footage, because I forgot to click the filter off.
     Give your video housing a practice dive, preferably in the rinse tank, before you get in the water with it. Hold it upside down so you can look for water drops on the lens port. Once you're in the water, stop at about 15 feet. Hold the camcorder above you so you can see the lens port again. If you see any droplets, abort the dive.

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Juggling your Lights and Filter:
     Video lights are for closeups and for night diving. They have very little effect on objects more than six feet away. When the filter is on, objects illuminated with the white light of the video lights will appear red. To prevent redness, you should use your lights only (1) when really close to your subject, and not using a filter, (2) for a little extra fill on objects a fair distance (10-15 feet) away when diving at depth, and (3) at night.
     I have dual video lights that bring the colors of underwater critters to life. I use them when I'm filming close to the reef -- 18 to 24 inches, with no open water visible. When the lights are on, the filter is off. If there's any open water within my angle of view, I click in the filter and turn off the lights. (If the lights are on, some fish will cruise by and light up red as a stop light.) On rare occasions, if I need a little supplemental light for a deep scene about 15 feet away, I'll fire up the lights (being sure there's nothing closer to the lens than my subject), and film with both lights and filter. But I have to confess these scenes usually wind up with odd color.
                Night: Lights. No filter.
                Daytime open water: No lights. Use filter.
                Closeup of reef: Lights. No filter.
     In general, if you are using lights and can see ANY effect of your lights on the object, you should either remove the filter or turn off the lights.

At left, this video of garibaldis and senioritas was shot with a color-correction filter using natural light. At right is video footage of purple hydrocoral with video lights and NO color-correction filter. In both cases, the colors seem fairly natural.

When shooting during the day with your lights (without a filter) objects more than five feet away (and the water itself) will appear an intense blue. While this may be nice by itself, it will clash with the scenes where you're using the filter, in which the water will be a more natural neutral color.

Editing Equipment:
     Unless you're absolutely perfect with your filming, you'll need a way to edit your videos. This can be easy, or horrendously complex.
     If you just want to get rid of that ten minutes of unplanned footage of your thighs on the swim back, you can edit using two VCRs. Just stop the recording VCR while you fast-forward past the boring or out-of-focus parts. You can narrate as you go, or add background music, using the audio input of the recording VCR.

The next step up is a "sequential" editor. This is a box that does fades, dissolves, effects, and titles while mixing the input from two VCRs, your microphone, and separate audio sources. Of course, you need a third VCR to record it all. This gives you a more professional-looking result.

The ultimate in video editing is "non-linear." This means you store all your video clips on a computer hard drive while you adjust, fiddle, add, delete, and otherwise play around until you're convinced the whole video is perfect. Then you spit it out to video tape as a final product. It requires a sound card for your audio tracks and a video capture and output card. (Many computers have only a video capture card. This gets the video IN, but you can't get it back OUT after you've edited it!)

Click on the garibaldi for the next lesson.

About the author: Bruce Argyle is an emergency physician practicing in Salt Lake City. He uses a Sony 8mm TR4 camera in an Ikelite aluminum housing with two 50 watt video lights. After making a bad video, he resumes use of his 35 mm camera. After taking some bad pictures, he'll try video again.