[PSUBS-MAILIST] Great White mods

[Jon Wallace]

The question is what's the resolution of that two inch screen and is it 
good enough, and large enough, to see the details that you might want to 
see in an H2O environment.  Water is going to cut down both visibility 
and overall lux so the specs of the camera are important.  It also 
depends upon whether you just want a visual reference for surface 
obstruction issues or whether you want to keep filming during the dive 
and record the results just in case you bump into a real mermaid and 
want to have proof of her existence.

I've spent some time looking at this issue and found three reasonable 
solutions.

1) GoPro, Bullet Pro, or similar sport recording device.  They are small 
and take great images, and record to internal memory card. The bullet in 
particular is easy to encase in a housing because of its shape.  The 
problem is that you can't get a live feed off them (actually you can 
from the bullet but the image sucks) and battery averages two hours 
duration, so on a long dive you won't have a complete video.  Most of 
the PC2013 underwater diving footage is from these type of cameras.

2) Webcam in waterproof housing.  The microsoft lifecam webcam is a 
"bullet" type camera, 720HD, and easy to house in a 1-atm can. However, 
it is USB and requires external storage if you want to record the video 
feed which means carrying a laptop, netbook, or other device with enough 
storage for that data.  If you use a device with an OS you can at least 
start/stop recording when you like and therefore be more selective with 
the recorded images. I've been successful connecting up to three webcams 
into my netbook and viewing them all at the same time.  Benefit over the 
sport device is that you get both live feed and recording capability.  
They are cheap, averaging $79 (US) so if a housing fails and they go 
kaput, no big deal.

3) HD Video Cam, traditional consumer grade video camera.  Most of the 
newer models have internal recording and external feed so you can view 
live plus record.  These models provide the best image but good ones are 
also still relatively expensive ($800-1200 US) compared to sport cams 
and web cams.  I haven't had the courage to risk losing my video cam to 
water infiltration in a housing of my own fabrication.

Jon


On 2/9/2014 10:25 AM, Joe Perkel wrote:
> Vance,
>
> Everything is miniaturized these days. I just bought a flexible 
> inspection camera at Home Dept for a 100 bucks with a 2" color screen 
> that I used to locate a problem behind a wall. When I was an aircraft 
> mechanic, a similar bore-scope would have set you back thousands.
>
> I'm thinking dual usage in recording HD video on a DVR of the dive and 
> critters, and a live feed from the bow camera to a 2" - 4" LCD screen 
> mounted on one side of the forward facing port in the tower. On the 
> other side of the same port could the sonar display. As an instrument 
> rated pilot, I'm used to the notion of developing a scan between 
> instrumentation and the outside world.
>
> Everything's a compromise Vance. I'm struggling between an elongated 
> bow shape for surface transit, or a blunt nose draggy type shape that 
> tugs and dances on the towline. Everything's a long way off down in 
> the Keys.
>
> Joe

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