Mounting Bluefin HD on Scooter

[Anders Jelvéus]

Hi Richard and others with this fine housing,

How do you mount your Bluefin HD housing on your scooter?
To make it work for the videomount on my upcoming SS-scooter, I had to have L&M produce two empty battery pods and two tripod attachments.

Thanks to help from Rodney at Silent Submersion and Russ at L&M they were kind enough to do this for me so I did not have to buy the real battery pods (would cost $ 1100). Instead each pod costed $100, but the whole setup was just a bit over $ 400. Still a sizable amount of money just to be able to attach the Bluefin housing on a scooter (or a tripod for those that use it).

Have you come up with another solution or did you have the battery pods from a previous L&M housing that you could use?

Sincerely

Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi Anders,

I have a Norwegian friend that are working on my scooter mount as a write. I think that it will be done in the end of may and I will provide photos of the set up when its completed. This guy, Tony, is on the list and might actually be in a position to provide some photos as work progresses.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[Anders Jelvéus]

Hi Anders,

I have a Norwegian friend that are working on my scooter mount as a write. I think that it will be done in the end of may and I will provide photos of the set up when its completed. This guy, Tony, is on the list and might actually be in a position to provide some photos as work progresses.

Take care
Richard Lundgren

That would be interesting to see. I do unfortunately not have that connection so L&M is shipping the nescessary parts today so I can use the housing with Rodneys video mount. I like that mount since it is very low profile and makes it easy to attach/detach the housing from the scooter.

http://www.silent-submersion.com/Videomount/lm.html

It will be interesting to see how your video mount turns out. I am sure it will be nice since it is custom made for that particular housing.

Sincerely

Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi Anders,

Tony, member of this forum, custom builds awesome mounts for Gavin's. Works like a charm. See attached pictures:

185 186 187 188

[Ingemar Lundgren]

You can also pan the camera on that mount right and it has a quick release?

[Richard Lundgren]

Aye - 360 deg Pan but no Tilt, you do this with the scooter. Quick release makes life simple deploying or recovering the system from the water. Easy to achieve perfect balance.

The Gavin Scooter needs some minor adjustments shifting the normal center of gravety to place the trigger handle in a 14.00 clock position when idle. Riding you simply compensate the propeller force with your hand, the scooter wants to trim to the left but this movement will, if the weight (batteries) are placed right, only be a slight shift. Distributing the weight of the Gavin i easy, you only have to move the batteries and drill 4 new holes in the lid.

[Anders Jelvéus]

Hi Richard,

Have you found it beneficial to angle the housing 10 degrees down on the scooter or is a flat mount to prefer? An experienced UW videographer recommended me to do this and I thought to check with you first. :)

There has also been some question on Quest Online about HD video cameras the other day, and maybe you could pitch in with some advice since you have plenty of knowledge and experience.

Sincerely
Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi Richard,

Have you found it beneficial to angle the housing 10 degrees down on the scooter or is a flat mount to prefer? An experienced UW videographer recommended me to do this and I thought to check with you first. :)

Anders

I have not tried that. The question that strikes me is why. The only answer that I can find is related to chasing another diver or scootering over an area having the camera one level abow the target shooting down while scootering straight forward. Might not be a bad idea. Would be easy to fix for a trial run.

How do you preset your Z1 for dark waters?

Richard

[Anders Jelvéus]

I have currently actually been running it in more or less automatic mood where I set the gain th max 18dB, medium 9dB and low 0dB. Standard steady shot, flicker reduction on, Zebra @ 80, no black stretch or other effects. I have used autofocus with surprisingly good results despite particles in the water, much better focus compared to my previous PD 150, and that one was not bad either.

I have also been shooting @ 160' with no lights, and despite overcast skies I have gotten descent results with no artifacts. I have also tried the Auto white balance to see how the camera responds and at depth I get a slight green tone, but not as bad as I thought. I will probably install an Expodisc for MWB in a flip arm holder to facilitate MWB at depth.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14240

I then have to replace the macro flip lens, but white balance is more important for most dives, especially at depth. Do you have any other suggestions regarding MWB?

I should receive my Halcyon Apollo dual 50W next week so that will change things. What settings do you normally use?

Sincerely

Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

Thanks for the info Anders

I usually set the Gain to 0dB to prevent pixels in the black areas and the Iris to f1.6 in dark waters even if I use lights. In illuminated waters and close to the surface this would for sure burn the image :) .

Have always used Infinity instead of AutoFocus but as you mentioned, the Z1 seams to operate in auto mode without hunting to much.

I tend to use MWB more and more. So far I usually sneak up to one diver using white doubles and calibrate using these as target. I tend to do this while descending and the poor diver never realize what I do to them :cool: .

To trow out the Macro flip and put in a Expo Disc sounds like a grand idea. Is this "disc" just a bit of white plastic or something fancy? Where are you buying?

[Anders Jelvéus]

I do not know the specific details but you can find some information here:

http://www.expoimaging.net/products/product_detail.aspx?id=MTAwOQ== (http://www.expoimaging.net/?gclid=CIDq7-GrgoYCFSMjGAodfggdiw)

I will call L&M on Monday to see if I can purchase and empty bracket for the macro flips. In this way I do not have to disassemble the existing lenses I have.

I have to experiment with the camera settings as I get the lights. We are also planning to buy one HMI in a near future and use the 50Ws as fill lights. This should raise the quality of the footage substantially.

I am toying with the idea to use Rodneys upcoming nose cone to run the 50ws from the scooter. I just have to down-convert the current from 24V to 12V in the feed to the lights. In this way I would get longer bur- times and the 12W lights would hopefully not need as much juice as a scooter fed HMI would. Its all connected with E/O cords so unclipping it from the scooter to a portable battery cannister should be easy.

Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

These little disc's looks great! I will order one and tear my macro flip apart asap. Will newer shoot plankton anyway:-)

Thanks for a great tip Anders! Halcyon have HMI ready to ship right now in very limited quantities.

[Anders Jelvéus]

I have heard that they have been working on an upgrade for their HMI light. Do you know any details about this?

Here is the info "VideoDan" from wetpixel.com sent me regarding fitting the Expodisc to the Bluefin HD macro flip frame:

"The 77mm was the perfect size for replacing the lens. You need to unscrew the filter holder, and remove the filter elements. There are three filter elements in the Expodisc, so you need to tape them together before cutting. Remove the close up lens, and lay it on top of the filter elements, and trace around the lens, there will only be two straight cuts. Cut with hack saw and smooth with file. You will also have to file the small plastic lens retainer from the flip arm assy. to match the flat filters (the lens is contoured). You may want to wait a few days to find out if Expodisc makes a waterproof external version."

Sincerely
Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

I don't know if the design have been altered or not. Just got words that they are ready to ship. Will have a new one within one week and will be in a position to comment after that.

Take care
Richard

[Anders Jelvéus]

Thanks Richard,

I would appreciate an uppdate regarding the HMI light.

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely
Anders

[Ingemar Lundgren]

Anders don´t you think using a light in the nose cone of the scooter would give you back scatter problems due to the light being to close to the lens? Would it not be better to place the light on a long arm? I think you should test this before doing a big investment. To me it seems improbable that it would give good results.

[Anders Jelvéus]

Hi Ingemar,

The lights are not placed in the nose cone. Rodney (SS) has created a HMI light that is fed from the scooter batteries. He developed a special nose-cone with protective bulk head where the E/O-cord emerges from inside the scooter.

If I placed a converter (one of out team members is an electrical engineer) that down converts the current to 12V it should be able to run the dual 50W lights I have mounted on ULCS arms on the housing. The additional HMI light we will purchase, carried by another team member, will hopefully also reduce the back scatter.

What length of arms would you recommend using when scootering?

Sincerely

Anders

[Ingemar Lundgren]

Ok, that sounds good. I am not doing any UW video but i do stills. Shooting stills or video does not matter though, there is still back scatter to worry about. I would recommend 2 ultralight arms or similar per light. I am not sure the ultralight arms are strong enough to stay fixed while scootering at full speed though.

[Anders Jelvéus]

Yes, that is my concern. I therefore use one 8" arm on each side of the housing, but could potentially get slightly longer arms. I wonder where the limit goes since the bigger reflectors from the 50W lights will create some drag. I have heard that some GUE/WKPP divers use the 8" arms and angle the lights slightly outward to decrease back scatter.

Maybe Richard knows.

Sincerely

Anders

[Richard Lundgren]

JJ usualy use shorter arms on his scooter and angles them out. This works well if the water is clear but will produce some backscatter if not clear. Im working on a solution and will post pictures shortly. The trick is to get the light heads away from the lens yet keep em there while scootering. This will never work at full speed but thats not needed.

[Anders Jelvéus]

That would be great to see. I guess the absolute best solution is to, like you do, have two other divers with HMI lights...
I will test my lights on a couple of tech dives next weekend and can give a report on how the 8" arms works here in California. :)

Sincerely

Anders

[Ingemar Lundgren]

Maybe the ultralight arms is not the best choice for this application? A stronger telescopic arm with fewer joints might work better?

If you could get a long enough arm to work it should be a killer combination to use double 50W HID on camera angeled out and then 1 HMI on the model + 2 on light divers.

From the video i have seen it seems like the 8 inch arm is only enough for close ups. If you try to shoot anything at distance you introduce backscatter if the water have particles.

[Anders Jelvéus]

Yes, the more distance the better it is, but the stress on the attachment in the housing can be too big and you risk breaking the bolt off by the treading in the handle. Especially when scootering. It seems to be tricky to find the best solution, but I will try the 8" arms out first (since I already have them from my previous housing) and work from there.

I have never had as nice of a light like the Halcyon Apollo dual 50w before so I have to get used to how they work first... :)

Sincerely

Anders

[Anders Jelvéus]

I have mounted the 50w lights on my Bluefin HD houing now and used them one time so far. The housing with lights leveled out to be almost perfectly neutral when I removed two of the four internal weights in the housing.



Any further suggestions?

Anders

[Holk]

First - nice forum

We made a Scooter mounting System to, and you can look at the pictures at the link below.

http://www.dir-austria.com/web/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=125&catid=23&PageNo=1

It is made out of one piece without screws.
Some new Arms i made for my HDV Housing , i have to test first and then i could poste some fotos here if you are interested.


Have a nice day

[Richard Lundgren]

Hi Holk!

Love the mount and the video arms! Can the video head arms be converted/built to be mounted on a Gavin instead of on the housing? Are you interested in building and selling some?

Take care
Richard Lundgren

[Holk]

Hy

Sorry this things are all prototypes and not made for selling!
I think for selling it would be to high price :)

[Ali Fikree]

Hi Holk,

Have you got any drawings or specs to your video arms?

I am looking at a similar design and building one for myself but with some modifications.

Best.

Ali

[Stephan]

I'm in the process of mounting a Phenom housing to a Gavin.

As mentioned in this thread I'm also worrying about the strength of the ulcs-arms and ball adapters mounted on the housing and deployed while scootering.

Did someone tested this already and what was the outcome?
Is it possible to mount dual 50W's to the housing using ulcs-arms, strong enough to hold while scootering?
If no, how did you fixed it?

Thanx,
Stephan.