ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

One part of the final presentation on Friday was a collage of video that Russ and I shot this week with the 5D mark II. With the firmware update from Canon last week, I was able to shoot in full manual exposure mode. With underwater wide angle photography, having control over your depth of field with aperture control is essential to get sharp corners when shooting through a dome port. With the large 35mm imaging sensor and the ability to use a high quality 180 degree prime fisheye lens on underwater video for the first time, it generated so much excitement from the staff here at the Digital Shootout. I was able to do video splits and close focus wide angle shots that you just can't do with traditional video cameras. Also, by being closer to your subject and eliminating as much water between the lens and subject as possible, the contrast improves greatly and the colors are much more saturated.

The video above is straight out of the camera, downsized for the web, with no color correction or other manipulation. I just put the clips together in iMovie and let the footage speak for itself.

I must thank our models Jen, Mickey, and Sean for putting up with us photographers for the afternoon, and also our divemaster Jenne for the orange trick. I'm sure he must have won a few bar bets with that one!

Enjoy the footage from the week!