Building My New HD setup

[H20doctor]

well after seeing the quality of HD video and how amazing it comes out !! , i took the time to research Camcorders .. I had to look at what did what ? and for how much $$ , I also had to consider once i bought a camcorder , then I had to waterproof it in a Housing ... So I had 2 choices , camera and Housing... with all the options available ... The FLIP , Panasonic.. Go Pro Hero.. and many others .. I went with a Canon
The canon line is impressive and had many options for Video... I also didnt want to eat a Housing $$ , and Most Ikelights Housing arent cheap , they also dont let you use 100 % of the camcorders functions... So I bought the Canon Vixia HF 200 back last Christmas for 699.00.. And i just Now got the Housing last week for 425.00 from Abes of Maine..
Yes its a Big purchase thousand Bucks in video... So i am getting dive insurance on the gear before I get it all wet.. I am also building a custom lighting Rack for the set up .. this light rack will allow me to switch between my camera and My video, all on the same set up.. I purchased the Lock line from them and will mount my homemade video light son them... I also got delrin Pegs and a a 4 inch wide strip of delrin from Tap plastics all under 18.00..

I still need to figure out how far apart should I have the Lights ? and How high up should they be ? the current sections are 12 inches High .. I have enough Locline to go another 24 inches total ..

[mz53480]

Cool!
How much for the blue flowery box in the last pic? :biggrin:

[cardiver]

Cool!
How much for the blue flowery box in the last pic? :biggrin:

And the vertical blinds are so 1980!

[mz53480]

Cool!
How much for the blue flowery box in the last pic? :biggrin:

And the vertical blinds are so 1980!

Oh Yeah baby!
(but seriously....how much for the box?)

[Dusty2]

And the academy award for the BEST VIDEO DOCUMENTARY goes to......

[Norris]

Chris don't forget the NHZ part of your subject.....

MZ I already PM'd about the blue flowery box so you DONT GET TO HAVE IT. I may let you borrow it for a week though.

[H20doctor]

Its all good .. The Blue Box can be purchased from Ben Franklin, its a Photo Box.. The 80's Blinds are in the House cause The 80's Fricken Rule .. Metal .. , and for you other wise Crackers .. Keep it up and I will Video you In HD silting Up the dive sites and Flubbing with your trim , when you least expect it !! MuuuWaaa Haaa

[Dashrynn]

Its all good .. The Blue Box can be purchased from Ben Franklin, its a Photo Box.. The 80's Blinds are in the House cause The 80's Fricken Rule .. Metal .. , and for you other wise Crackers .. Keep it up and I will Video you In HD silting Up the dive sites and Flubbing with your trim , when you least expect it !! MuuuWaaa Haaa

when ya wanna video me silt up everything in hd? i come back this weekend!

[Pez7378]

The 80's Fricken Rule .. Metal .. , and for you other wise Crackers .. Keep it up and I will Video you In HD silting Up the dive sites and Flubbing with your trim , when you least expect it !! MuuuWaaa Haaa

Who you callin' CRACKER?!?

[H20doctor]

So Today i had to realize that my other super chip SST-90 is 8 weeks out from Avnet... which means I wont have a Light Rack till the end of summer... And also the 5 amp drivers wont be avail till the end of April maybe 1 week of may, Plan B , build a light Bar with 2 SSC P7 chips ...This seems good but I would have to order chips from Hong Kong , and thats also 7 weeks out.. So the little voice in side my brain said ... just use the Led's i have in stock and make a light rack for now.. and get the Big bad light rack made later towards the end of the summer.. that way i can get filming underwater and still have a good light set up.. I worked today on the Light Modules, Or light engines>> 3 XRE chips , putting out about 700 lumens per engine.. so a total of 1400 lumens for video light.. My future set up will have close to 5000 Lumens

[Dashrynn]

I'd like to see this homebrew rig! I'm curious though, how many degress will the beam width be? What is the freq on those led's or what color light do they project?

[smike]

...
I also got delrin Pegs and a a 4 inch wide strip of delrin from Tap plastics all under 18.00..

complete 1.jpg

You will want to test your new setup in a tub of water and get the rig buoyancy close to neutral. It looks way buoyant. For a rig I made a couple years ago, I had plastic conduit for a handle, so I drilled several 1/2" holes in a block of wood, melted some lead and poured it into the holes, then broke the wood up and had a lead slugs to place in the handle. I kept adding lead until it was neutral. Be safe, do everything outside, clean up well. Lead is nasty stuff.

Neutral is much better than my current camera setup, which is a too buoyant, I haven't had time yet to fix that, but I will fix that before I dive my camera again, because of the wrist strain.

[H20doctor]

Dash.. the optics are 8 deg, im just lookin for some flood action with no spot , I am also going to get some sandblasted Plexi and use that for a light diffuser.. Mike I am going to make this rig as Neutral as possible , But the chunk of Delrin is pretty darn Heavy, and thick.. Not too sure on what Im gonna use for weight , or if i will need any ?

[Dashrynn]

I read up on all of the leds mentioned and found that they are 6300 kelvin, I am on my phone but I think 6300 is a slight blueish tint. And personally I like the blueish tint, I assume 8 degrees for each individual led is what you mean. And with 6 total I assume you will be rocking a nice rig but with too much flood would you be having your leds farther away from the lense to prevent backscatter?

[Nwbrewer]

I read up on all of the leds mentioned and found that they are 6300 kelvin, I am on my phone but I think 6300 is a slight blueish tint. And personally I like the blueish tint, I assume 8 degrees for each individual led is what you mean. And with 6 total I assume you will be rocking a nice rig but with too much flood would you be having your leds farther away from the lense to prevent backscatter?

Cree XR-E's come in a wide variety of tints. If he's using the ones I think he is, yes they are slightly blue, but no worse than the average HID. I prefer warmer tints for camera work, but they don't cut through the water as well as the more blue LED's.

[H20doctor]

It really depends on the Bin code ... I'd say there more white tint than Blue .. , I have plenty of Loc Line to throw the Light Up and out .. As I remember you want the Light to throw Out in a Cone Of Light ... I will fire them Up later and get a Picture of the Color and Beam spread Pattern

[H20doctor]

today i got both the light Engines mounted into the lens Housings... And here they are fired up ..

6 feet from the wall

Off the deck looking out into the Horse Pasture

Looking at the light spill on the deck

straight on

[H20doctor]

well i had to figure out how to mount the camera to the delrin... so i went to wallmart and bought me a piece of crap O camera tripod for 20.00 , then i took off the top mounting plate thingy and stuck in on the delrin with 3 nice stainless screws.. the other end threads into the bottom of my housing.

The mount ...

the mount locked into the Base

whats nice about this is the housing stays locked into the Base and doesnt move at all

Here is the completed Rig from the Front

and with the Lights fired On ...

Here is the battery tube for the Batteries , and the backside of the set up

So three days of custom work and I got the sucker all done.... total cost for this was under 125.00

[Nwbrewer]

Nice work doc. I believe the mounting bolt for the standard tripod is just a 1/4-20 SS bolt though....

[Mattleycrue76]

Looking good Doc. You should join us at MUK tomorrow and get that sucker wet.

[Dusty2]

Nice looking rig Doc but the beam is way to focused for video work. You might think about checking out one of the camera stores for masking material or you can use the crinkle type plastic that they use in florescent lighting. The idea with video lights is to totally diffuse the light so there is no hot spot at all or very little.

[H20doctor]

just got my wide angle Lens 2 days ago !!!! sweet

[cardiver]

Nice! Now you need to show up at TTN tomorrow night.

[ljjames]

actually i'd LOVE it if my light heads were buoyant.

Then i could ballast the housing (or scooter) so that the whole kit and kaboodle floated right side up!

I think most of us just suffer silently with light head heavy systems or invest in xtra buoyancy floatation arms or syntatic foam floats, etc... to try to make things a bit happier

[Dusty2]

My preference is very slightly negative so if I should drop it it will settle gently to the bottom and not float away and it is not floating up and getting tangled in my gear. Floaty cameras are the pits! always trying to get under your hoses or other gear. Just a few ounces negative and when I release it to do something else it's always dangling down gently from my wrist and out of my way.