Canon 7D for underwater video

[DamselDiver]

I want to shoot underwater HD video with the 7D. I think that the 7D would be a great underwater video tool when used with a high quality dome port and decent video lights. I'm concerned about a couple of things though.

-Has anyone used the 7D for underwater video? How did the video look?

-How difficult is it to adjust white balance when changing from natural lighting to artificial lighting and back? How well does auto white balance work with video on this camera?

-Does grabbing stills with the 7D while shooting video create glitches in the video?

-How sharp will the video be for macro shots?

I have to admit that this camera with the right lens and housing is really attractive for underwater video. A proper housing for an HPX-170 weighs over 50 pounds above water, and that's nonnegotiable, because that's the displacement of the housing and that's what the unit needs to weigh above sea water to be neutrally buoyant in the water. A 7D housing would weigh half as much. A smaller lighter package means it's easier to maneuver the camera into position in the water to get the shot. It's also much easier to handle in the boat or on a dinghy where space is often at a premium. A compact 7D rig would be great for remote locations and harsh conditions.

In the end I'm probably going to set up a 7D rig, I just don't know if it's going to be my primary underwater rig or not. I'll use the P2 camera for surface shots and the 7D as a primary underwater camera and "B" camera on the surface. The ability to grab high quality stills is also extremely attractive. Audio capture with the 7D for this application is not an issue.

Anyone's experience and thoughts would be appreciated.

Best Regards
Cheryl

 

[matt s.]

how would you manually focus?

 

[DamselDiver]

With the fisheye lens most shots are set to infinity, you'd have to manually focus anything closer than 15 inches with the Tokina 10-17 f3.4-4.5 zoom. The Canon 28mm f1.8 prime is infinity past 10 feet. This would be fine for shooting pelagics in open water. With the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens you'd have to focus manually with the knob on the port. I can only imagine that the 100mm macro lens would be used for short clips of tiny marine life.

Most high end SLR housings have manual focus. Sea and Sea has a geared ring that fits over the focus ring of the lens. There are definite limits to the 7D, but I believe they can be worked through. The thought of taking high res stills and grabbing HD video clips with the same tool is really appealing.

Although I planned on manually focusing most shots, I thought the 7D had functioning auto focus in movie mode. I was playing around with one at the shop and I'd swear on a bible it was auto focusing. I was surprised because I thought you couldn't auto focus the 7D in movie mode.

It's no substitute for an HPX-170 for most video jobs, but you could get some outstanding footage with the 7D that you could never dream of getting with a full sized DVX camera, especially the tiny macro stuff.

 

[matt s.]

cool. i know nothing about underwater shooting or housings. just was curious

 

[Sculpin]

-Has anyone used the 7D for underwater video? How did the video look?

The 7D housings wont be out for a few months. Many people are shooting 5Dm2 video underwater however. I would anticipate the experience to be similar. Lens selection would of course be different.
I've just returned from a dedicated UW photo/video trip to the Maldives. The most popular camera on the boat was the 5Dm2. The video people using the 5Dm2+15mm FE lenses were getting of 100+ Manta's feeding blew away the video my wife collected with her HC3+ $3000 110 degree Fathoms lens. I ordered a 7D to replace my 20D while on the boat. I picked it up the day after my return.

-How difficult is it to adjust white balance when changing from natural lighting to artificial lighting and back? How well does auto white balance work with video on this camera?

For WA you usually place a red/orange gel in the rear filter slot of the lens. Unfortunately the Tokina 10-17 FE does not have a slot so you (and I) will need to use tape. After filter addition you are stuck with video or shallow strobeless stills for the duration of the dive.
White balance is a bit of a hassle. You take a photo of your slate or white fin then navigate to the photo and instruct the camera to balance off of it. Using custom menus it's just a few button pushes since the most recent photo pops up immediately after hitting the Custom WB button

-Does grabbing stills with the 7D while shooting video create glitches in the video?

Yes, I'm told.

I was playing around with one at the shop and I'd swear on a bible it was auto focusing. I was surprised because I thought you couldn't auto focus the 7D in movie mode.

Yes, the 7D will autofocus in video mode. It wont do it smoothly like a vidcam though. Even worse, the aperture will change momentarily while the camera focuses - even if you are already wide open.

Check out this UW video shot on the 5Dm2:
http://www.backscatter.com/learn/article/article.php?ID=59
You could never pull this off with a traditional vidcam.
There is a good article there as well.
Note - I have no affiliation with the shop hosting the video aside from knowing the owner.

-Brad

 

[DamselDiver]

I just downloaded the 7D owners manual. You can auto focus in movie mode while recording if you press a button on the rear of the camera. I don't know if you can "servo focus" by keeping that button pressed or if pressing the button only updates the focus. Most underwater shots are manually focused so this is not a big deal.

It also seems that exposure for video is either full manual or full auto, but I might be mistaken. This could be more of a challenge because I don't know how full auto exposure effects the look of the video. Manual exposure underwater will be extremely difficult at best.

As far as taking stills while shooting video goes, if you press the shutter button while the camera is recording video the camera will record a unique still image and a frozen image will be recorded to the video file while the camera renders the full size still image. I would rather the video file be split at this point rather than a single file with a static image "somewhere in there". I can see this causing problems during editing.

It is very much a stills camera that records video and the constraints of video production indicates that this type of camera probably won't replace a dedicated video camera anytime soon. It will also be interesting to see how well video from a 7D will match footage from a DVX camera.

I see the HPX-170 and the 7D as distinctly different tools. The HPX-170 has scene files, variable frame rates, fine exposure control and incredible audio options. The 7D has low light performance, interchangeable lens options, true macro capabilities and high res still performance. If I could have only one it would be the HPX-170 for video or the 7D for stills.

I'm drooling over the possibilities of the 7D for underwater video, and at some point I'll add it to the toolbox, but it's more important to get the HPX-170 housing and workflow right so that I'm ready this winter for our annual shark research project. I'm going to pick up a 7D this fall for stills and I'll play around with the camera and video files, but with the cost of a proper housing and dome port approaching $5k and the time and effort it will take to learn to shoot underwater video with it, it's not in the budget this year. And the limitations on video capture with the 7D make the Panny a better option for my project this winter.

I want very much to set up a 7d for underwater video, but it will have to wait until I get my HPX-170 diving rig perfect. I have some footage I need to get right this winter for a diving project, and I know that the HPX can shoot HD at 60 FPS and I can do fast and slow motion as needed. I can tailor the look of the footage to match the other camera operators on this project. There will be an EX-1 as well as an HVX-200 capturing video above and below the surface in ambient light. The 7D is just too much of an unknown quantity and the learning curve too steep to try to fold into this project this late in the game.

On a side note, can we still call solid state digital video clips footage? Or should we call it bittage or byteage or giggabyteage or something to that effect?

 

[morgan_moore]

for underwater, where lowlight capability and decent wide angles are usually a help, and synching audio is probably not a problem I would consider the 5dmk2

S