Action cameras underwater

Action Cameras, like the SJCAM SJ8 Pro and SJ7 Star, record superb quality 4K 30fps video. Although they will never replace a large sensor video camera with manual controls, they are very impressive and convenient for underwater use.

Videos from St Leonards Pier showing off the 4K results. 

View in YouTube using Chrome for best 4K experience, Safari does not support 4K video

SJ8 Pro camera at 4K 30fps. 

Colour Balance - Auto (would be better as CLOUDY) 

with colour and contrast adjustments in Final Cut

Testing the Crelant VD90 LED flashlight

 with diffusers and 80A colour correction filter.

 SJ8 Pro main camera, SJ7 Star cut-aways. Both at 4K 30fps

Colour Balance - CLOUDY. Exposure -2/3EV

XiaoMi Mijia and ThiEye T5e 4K cameras at 1080 30fps
Colour Balance - AUTO. Adjusted in Final Cut

Cuttle corner

Cottage Reef is a great shore dive halfway between Queenscliff and Pt Lonsdale. The reef is about 50m off shore with max depth of 8m.

You can reliably find cuttles and schools of old wives here and even sea dragons if you're observant.

This adolescent cuttle was just as interested in me as I was in him.




It's quite photogenic with colourful invertebrate growth under deep kelp covered ledges.

The rocky reef faces north so you can often shoot up into the sun with colourful sponges and gorgonians in the foreground.

St Leonards nudibranchs

I never look for nudibranchs these days. Seems I can't resist putting on the fisheye lens every dive.

But that doesn't mean the nudis aren't there, have a close look at the pink sponge in this shot of a pile.

Two tiny Noumea haliclona slugs snuck into the frame without me knowing. Didn't pick them up till weeks after I uploaded the shot to Flickr.

For such an un-assuming little fishing pier St Leonards provides wonderful photo opportunities, both macro and wide angle. 

Probably the best feature is that it's protected from SW winds, so when the ocean is a churning mess of swells this spot is a calm haven.

Video via towed diver

This info is mainly for my own future reference.

I have occasionally needed to record video along underwater transects (that's a scientific term for straight lines running across an area of interest). For transects of 100m or so it's OK to swim it (on scuba), but for longer distances I have been towed behind a boat. A scooter would be the best option but not within the budget.

For the video to be useable towing speeds need to be very slow. Firstly so the diver can hang on and have some depth control and secondly so the image is not moving too fast.

In the past a Panasonic Lumix LX3 has given reasonable results, but this time I tried the Nikon D7000. I wasn't using lights so did a Manual WB measurement off the sand, and that worked well. Max depth was only 4m.

Camera setup was Tokina 10-17mm at 17mm to reduce the fisheye distortion, pointing down and slightly angled forward about 1m off the bottom. 1/50th sec Shutter priority -0.3EV and ISO 400.
Here's an example of the footage captured.

Better results would be achieved with a faster shutter speed (so that single frames would be usable), say 1/125th, slower towing speed, 0EV, more distance to the bottom, say 1.5m, and/or angling the camera 45º forward.


It was interesting to see thousands of Elysia viridis? slugs over the entire area we surveyed.

Tasselled Anglerfish

Blairgowrie Marina is the best site to find this rare and cryptic fish.

I have dived at Blairgowrie 26 times over the last 6 years and this is the first unaided sighting for me.

The camouflage mimics red algae closely so the only way to spot them is by finding the mouth, eye or lure.

My next challenge is to find one in a more photogenic pose, just have to keep returning.

Dive site aerial photos

Mixing two hobbies, UW photography and Kite Aerial photography, results in aerial photos of dive sites.

On a recent dive to Popes Eye in Jan's boat I decided to sling in the KAP bag just incase the wind was nice. I was a little concerned about disturbing the gannets and kite line tangles. Shouldn't have worried as we were the only boat at the site and the gannets are such good flyers and they tended to come in just skimming the water surface.

I used the Pilot 2m2 parafoil which stuffs into a small bag and the GoPro in its waterproof housing. Wind was just right, light and steady. Next time I'll aim to capture the whole rock circle.

Underwater the blue-throat wrasse were up for some posing and the water was clear enough for some decent shots.

Now my dive site requirements are calm clear water with just enough wind to lift a KAP rig. Unfortunately all subsequent dives have been in perfect diving weather with no wind at all.

Macro lens mount in use

Next week has arrived and the weather is calm and the water is chilly and clear.

Here's a video of the lens holder being used on a St Leonards Pier photo dive.

St Leonards octopus

So what happened in July?

This little pale octopus has taken up residence in a metal pipe under the pier.

Here's a video of this engaging cephalopod.

Trying to test a new Sigma 17-70mm macro zoom lens, but conditions have been awful for a few weeks now. Patience.

Close encounter with a fur seal

Had a wonderful 30 minute solo dive with this big inquisitive fur seal at Cottage Reef.
I have seen seals here a few times but never this close.

It was obviously feeding under the deep ledges, then darting out and peering into my dome port.

Luckily I had the Sigma 15mm lens on, but there was lots of suspended sand in the water. Seems to be a feature of Cottage these days. A fair bit of clone stamp and healing brush was needed.

More shots here.

Back to diving at last

Got to go out to Popes Eye with Jan "Hydroids" Watson, Trev "The slug snapper" McMurrich and Bob "Nudibranch" Burn today.

Conditions were crap with lots of current, short slack and poor vis. It was a cool 14c above and below!
However there were lots of slugs to snap and nothing leaked so can't complain too much.
It was definitely a macro day so the 60mm got to come along for the dive.

Here's the collection from today.

Macro at Blairgowrie

Recent gale and even storm force winds have restricted diving and the water temperature is in free fall. Down to 11c now.

However calm conditions on Friday meant we could head over to Blairgowrie to look for nudibranchs and the soon-to-be-named hydroid.

I was armed with the 60mm macro and naturally found a good wide angle subject as soon as I flopped out of the boat. This small keeled octopus hung around for just long enough to get a few shots. Lighting was difficult due to poor vis, strong current and lack of contrast between octopus and sand.

Here are some more shots of hydroids and nudis.

Eaglehawk Neck - Tasman Peninsula

After Bicheno we traveled down the east coast to Eaglehawk Neck dive centre to link up with the taxonomists.

The diving here was on spectacular walls beneath towering cliffs and in enormous caves and splits. Big swells and surge are the norm and sites had to be carefully selected by Mick the skipper.

We found numerous new nudis, hydroids and pycnos and had a wonderful 6 days.

The accomodation was a bit cramped and basic with a big group but the spectacular diving made up for it. The dive lodge needs more cupboards and benches and that Tongtel TV needs to be dumped. Oh, and the electricals need an upgrade to stop the regular circuit breaks whenever the fridge started up.

Even though we were only 1hr from Hobart there was no Optus or 3 mobile coverage but Telstra mobile still worked.

Photos here.

Bicheno Tasmania

Well I'm finally getting organized and have some images to show.
Just from Bicheno at this stage, Eaglehawk Neck to come.

Bicheno is a small fishing village on Tasmania's mid east coast with spectacular rocky coastline and kelp covered boulders underwater.

Water temp was around 14c and the weather was a perfect 20c most days with cool nights. We were woken nightly by noisy male fairy penguins returning to the nests, some of which were in our front garden.

Saw mother and calf humpback whales swimming only a few hundred meters off the beach.

Sometimes we were diving in a thick soup of salps and comb jellies.

Photos here.

Cottage wide angle

Strong northerlies, 30c, nothin else to do. Let's go to Cottage by the sea Reef.

Swell was up a bit and vis was bad at 3m, and slack was late so we had a bit of current to battle at first.

Didn't expect any decent shots but by putting the strobes out as far as they could go and keeping them well behind the port, backscatter wasn't too bad a problem. Photos here.

Also there is much less sand in the water under the ledges.

Macro settings - St Leonards

St Leonards Pier. Strong off shore (W-NW) meant flat water and good vis for a change. New buddy John Mc checked the vis earlier and gave the thumbs up.

It was a real nudi finding day with 6 different species and one of them new to me, some sort of Polycera maybe. Have a look here.

The 60mm lens aperture can stop down to f/32, way smaller than the Coolpix f/8. This means much more flash power is needed. To increase flash power I have removed the diffusers from the Inons and turned them up to -2 or -3. With the Coolpix I was struggling with too much power at the minimum -5 power setting even with diffusers.

My standard macro settings are 1/125 sec, f/22, ISO 200, WB Auto.
To lighten the background water I might use 1/60th and for really dark subjects I'll increasing the strobe power.

60mm macro at Popes Eye

Sunday 7th saw us heading out to Popes Eye in a cold choppy SW wind.

Half way out we paused to watch a seal pup flinging something tasty around tearing off big chunks. Looked like a big cuttle or snapper.
There was another big male seal snoozing on the rocks at the entrance to The Eye.

Vis was about 5m and the current added lots of suspended sand to the water. Still hanging out for a nice clear calm day.
The macro once gain performed nicely with a few interesting nudis around. Here are the results.

Tried a few fish shots which is now possible with the excellent and quick auto focus.