I had the chance to shoot some underwater video with Bluewater’s Canon 7D Mark II out at Farnsworth Bank the week before last… in some epic visibility.

The highlight of the camera is the hybrid autofocus used during Live View shooting, which along with the Canon 70D, is miles from the nearest DSLR or mirrorless competitor. This new AI Servo autofocus allows the camera to quickly lock focus and track the subject while filming video. This is HUGE for videographers who want to rely on AF for their shots.

The video below was shot while swimming over Farnsworth Bank using AI Servo AF and auto white balance. There was no color correction done in post.

– Brent Durand

Want more info on the 7D Mark II?

Read the Underwater Photography Guide’s Canon 7D Mark II Review for Underwater Photography.

Or learn about settings with UWPG‘s Canon 7D Mark II Best Settings for Underwater.

Canon 7D Mark II Underwater Video

7D Mark II Underwater Housings

–  Ikelite Canon 7D Mark II housing on Bluewater Photo

–  Ikelite Canon 7D Mark II housing review on UWPG

–  Aquatica Canon 7D Mark II housing on Bluewater Photo

–  Nauticam Canon 7D Mark II housing on Bluewater Photo

–  Sea & Sea Canon 7D Mark II housing on Bluewater Photo

The post Testing Video on the Canon 7D Mark II first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Aquatica just announced an exciting new development and partnership between them and Ikelite. Starting with the upcoming housing for Canon 7D Mark II camera, the two companies will be partnering to bring the world renowned Ikelite TTL control circuitry in the Aquatica housings. This new development means that you can have the high quality aluminum housing, known for its rugged construction and nice ergonmic design complete with full TTL control when using Ikelite strobes and sync cords.

Using sync cords allows you to take advantage of the lightning fast recycle rate on the strobes, and Ikelites TTL circuitry keeps up with that fast recycle rate, providing accurate flash metering to give you a well exposed image automatically.

TTL is great when you are shooting in situations where taking the time to adjust the strobe power and dial in the shot may mean you miss a fast moving or shy subject, so the pairing of the excellent Aquatica housings and Ikelite TTL looks to be a very promising solution.

The first housing to have this built in will be the Aquatica housing for Canon 7D Mark II which should be shipping at the beginning of 2015.

The post Aquatica Announces Ikelite TTL Control first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Text and images by Brent Duran 

Canon DSLR shooters have two main options when it comes to macro lenses – a 60mm and 100mm.  As a full frame shooter I use the 100mm f/2.8L macro lens.  This lens has three focal distance settings that should always be set depending on what you expect to shoot.

.3 – .5m:  This is the shortest focal distance, starting at 1ft (.3m) and will give you a true 1:1 macro image.  The focal range is capped at a distance of .5m, meaning that autofocus will only search for focus within this range.  This is a great setting for shooting small subjects like nudibranchs.

.5m – Infinity:  This setting is for larger subjects and means the lens won’t be used as a true macro lens.  You can shoot larger fish or even a portrait of your dive buddy on this setting.  Note that if you’re trying to shoot a macro subject that’s .3m away, the lens will not focus.

Full:  This setting allows the camera to use its full focal distance, great for versatility and those dives when you’re not quite sure what to expect.  While this is very convenient, the downside is that autofocus will search through the entire focal range.  This means that if you miss focus at .3m it will take some time for the lens to search through infinity before coming back and locking focus at .3m.

As always, make sure to plan ahead before you commit to a setting in your housing!

The post Canon 100mm Macro Focal Distance first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Looking to use a WET wide angle lens with your G-series Canon camera? In all housings, the port is too long to make effective use of wet wide angle lenses. If you’re using the Ikelite housing, however, you now have access to wet lenses via their wide angle port.

Wide angle port with Inon H100 Type 2 lens.

By swapping the existing flat port with the shorter, flat, wide-angle port you gain access to a number of wet wide angle lenses, such as the Inon H100 Type 2. The shorter port means the wet lenses are placed closer to the camera lens when fully zoomed out, limiting or completely removing vignetting depending on the wet lens used. However, shortening of the port also limits the zoom some, but you can still zoom out to 85mm without issue, just over 3/4 of the full zoom range.

Wide angle port with no additional lens from the same viewpoint.

It is important to use care when zooming with the short port, as going past 85mm will cause the lens on the camera to hit the port glass, creating a lens error that will shut down the camera. However with practice, or by customizing the rear dial for “step zoom” (see page 168 in the Canon user manual) you can control the zoom with ease. The step zoom function is fantastic as it allows you to step the zoom up to specific focal lengths, so you never have to worry about going too far. We found during tests that using a diopter at 85mm gives you just a little less magnification as using the diopter at full zoom in the standard port, so you don’t sacrifice much in terms of macro when using this wide angle port.

All in all the Ikelite Wide Angle Port with 67mm threads for the Canon G15 looks to be a great solution for being able to use great WET wide angle lenses and allows for more versatility underwater with your Ikelite housing and Canon G15.

Note: Keep in mind that these examples are all from top-side tests and that underwater images will have added magnification due to refraction causing the image to be slightly less wide.  To get identical results would require the addition of a dome port, like the Dome Unit for the Inon H100 lens.

The post Ikelite Wide Angle Port Grants Access to Wet Lenses for the Canon G-15 first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Keeping an eye out for a great price on a top end camera?  We just spotted an outstanding deal over at Amazon on the Canon 5D Mark III.  We felt we had to pass this along as you don’t see this kind of price come around very often.

Here’s how it works.  The listed price is $2,975.00.  They’re offering a standard Amazon reward of 2%, with an extra 4% rewards until January 1st.  This reward is basically a credit that can be used later to purchase items from Amazon.com.  With the rewards factored in, the price on the camera comes down to $2,796.50.  Act fast as this kind of price is rarely seen on this kind of high-end camera.

We have great housings for this camera in stock from Ikelite, Sea & Sea, Aquatica and Nauticam.  Please note: we are not an Amazon affiliate, we just felt this was a really good deal.  Check out Underwater Photographer Todd Winner’s thoughts on the 5D Mark III.

Here’s some specs on the camera:

The post Great deal on the Canon 5D Mark III first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.

Nauticam Optical Trigger – Check out this video about a much anticipated new product coming soon from Nauticam. This trigger will allow certain dSLR shooters (like all you 5DMKIII shooters) to shoot via fiber optic cable and others to shoot without using the internal flash, allowing high recycle rate on the strobes for quicker more accurate shooting.

Canon 1DX housing – a fantastic new housing for professional canon shooters. The best part about this housing aside from the weight and size, is that it works for both the Canon 1DX and 1Dc!

Nikon D600 housing – the slightly smaller, toned down brother to the D800 super camera has a beautiful housing from Nauticam coming out soon. A perfect pairing for the camera, all controls are placed for easy access, and everything functions smoothly within this housing.

180 degree viewfinder – Learn more about Nauticam’s great 180 degree external viewfinder, a perfect tool for wide angle photography, allowing 3x the magnification from the standard viewfinder. This addition will make composing, focusing and checking your shots much easier!

The post New Nauticam Product Videos first appeared on In Focus Underwater Photography Blog.