GonePro Part 2: Krazy Kraken Cannon

In the meantime I could gain some first experience using the Canon VIXIA/LEGRIA HF G30 in open water under real life conditions. So, in this second and follow-up post I'm going to analyze the footage taken with both the HF G30 and GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition. This post follows in the steps of GonePro Part 1: Krazy Kraken Cannon.

GonePro Part 1: Krazy Kraken Cannon

G30 cannon and krazy kraken

In the meantime I've got the Ikelite dive housing delivered fro my video cannon, erm, Canon VIXIA/LEGRIA HF G30. The cannon finally got a krazy kraken as its sidekick.

But how does this new krazy kompany of a cannon and a kraken perform under water in practice? So it's time for some first reports, fresh from a flooded gravel pit...

Protune Under Water: Contrast Crunch

Some time ago, I published an introductory blog post about Protune. In it, I explained that GoPro uses an S-shaped tonal curve for encoding the image the camera sensor sees into the three primary color channels RGB. The idea here is to extend the range at the far ends at the expense of the intermediate tonal range, in a way that Protune stays within the allowed tonal value range of 8 bits per channel H.264 video data. A good idea, it seems ... but unfortunately not always under water...

Easy Canon Cam (Re) Configuration

Canon configuration made easy

In the meantime I could gain some first practise in using my new Canon VIXIA HF G30 video camera, both above and below the water line. In particular, I've now recognized that I need to configure the G30 considerably different for underwater shooting, compared to normal shooting on safe ground. For instance, the variable speed zoom is very useful, but not under water. It's easy to overshot when zooming under water, as control is difficult using the dive housing's controls.

Unfortunately, the G30 features exactly a single set of configuration settings. Configuring all the many differing settings manually one after another when preparing the cam for shooting just isn't feasible.

Fortunately, there's a solution for this, albeit it looks slightly odd. In the end, history is calling...

Cannoning a Hero Fly on the Wheel

Cannoning the Hero Fly on the Wheel.

After having lost video footage three times on different occasions, in each one of my three GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition cams, and each time on a different memory card, I finally contacted what, erm, GoPro boasts as its, cough, «customer service». This «service» is absolutely sure that either (1) I am at fault or (2) my memory cards. With clear signs of having lost any sense of reason at GoPro I took finally their trademark advice seriously and have «go(ne) pro». So I got myself a shiny new FullHD video cannon, so to speak...