Photography & Cinematography

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Norbert Wu did his underwater cinematography using HDTV technology for Thirteen/WNET New York's Nature series, US television's premier natural history venue. "Under Antarctic Ice" is scheduled for broadcast on PBS stations in Fall 2001. Norbert said "It represents, to my knowledge, the first time that HDTV technology has been used in Antarctica, which is the coldest, windiest, harshest, driest, and most remote continent in the world. It's a tribute to HDTV technology that my team had few problems with our equipment there, topside or underwater."

Norbert used two Sony HDW-700A (1080i) high-definition camcorders (HDCAM) for topside and underwater shooting. For the topside and aerial shooting, he used two different Canon high-definition lenses: one HJ18x7.8B and one HJ9x5.5B HD-IF. For the underwater shooting, he used two Fujinon HA 10x5.2BERD lenses. "Underwater, the Fujinon lenses [the HA 10x5.2BERD model] gave us great range, so much so that we never used any filters, mainly shooting wide open." The HDCAMs were encased in aluminum underwater housings developed by Vincent Pace, president of Pace Technologies, who worked closely with Fujinon to create the underwater camera housings. Norbert said "Both the Canon and the Fujinon lenses worked fine. Even in the extreme cold, the Canon lenses didn't freeze up. We beat them up, and they kept on going -- real workhorses."

About HDTV, Norbert said "Natural history filmmakers like myself are particularly excited about HDTV technology because of the numerous advantages over film it gives. For the first time, a small three or four-person crew can create images that rival 35mm film. It's a tremendously exciting and enabling technology. My biggest problem as an underwater filmmaker has always been the size of the film loads. A typical 400-foot load of 16mm film generally lasts for only 12 minutes of shooting, which means that I often have to cut my dives short to reload film. Especially in demanding diving conditions like Antarctica, every trip to the surface means precious shooting time wasted. In comparison, I was able to shoot 40 minutes per dive with the Sony HDCAMs." "We didn't have to worry about film-changing issues, and we could stay underwater longer, which was important since we only had limited windows of time when we had decent light down there. We could just pop a 40-minute cassette in and be done. We didn't have to lug tons of film stock all over the polar region. Those things make a big difference."

"Other advantages of shooting video versus film underwater are numerous. I have not often used zoom lenses underwater, since the cardinal rule of underwater photography is to get close with a wide, prime lens. The Fujinon lenses, however, offered the ability to zoom in on subjects with no discernible loss of sharpness or contrast. They offered great depth of field and a fast lens to deal with the low light conditions under the ice. This was another benefit of using the HDCAMs -- their low light gathering capabilities. We pushed the cameras to their limit, using gains of 6 to 12 db during shooting in order to bring out ambient light under the ice. As a comparison, we would have had to use film rated at ISO 1600 to 6400 otherwise. The HDCAMs picked up this very dark environment well. For underwater lighting, I used portable SunRay High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights from Light and Motion Industries. I also had 1300 watt PAR 36 surface supply lights which I normally use for my film shoots in brighter locations such as California waters and the tropics. ... In Antarctica, we had less need for such powerful lights since the ambient lighting was so low. This was another benefit of the HDCAMs -- we were pushing them to their limit, using gains of 6 to 12 db during shooting in order to bring out ambient light under the ice." "The camera really works well in low-light situations, but the lights were needed because that deep underwater, everything becomes blue, no matter what camera you use. Therefore, we mainly needed them for the purpose of bringing the colors out, and there are spectacular colors under that ice." "And we really pushed the camera-we even overrode its white balance settings in order to get the maximum light out of the situation, and we really pushed the gain to get images like extreme high-speed film. Had we shot on film, I doubt we could have gotten the same kind of color saturation as what we did with HD." "As a comparison, my still photographs normally required exposures of 4 to 8 seconds to bring out ambient light. The HDCAMs picked up this very dark environment well."

"We did have a few problems with the gear, none of them substantial. In extremely cold conditions, the HDCAMs exhibited flicker problems. The extreme depth of field and sharpness of the HD lenses also led to problems, because any speck of dust or snow shows up with major effect on the image. We had penguins jumping up in front of us splashing water on the lens, and even the tiniest particles would appear in the picture. With film, dust particles on the lenses are far less of a problem." In frozen conditions, always dry cameras after rinsing them with fresh water, before taking them into cold salt water. "At temperatures like we had in Antarctica, fresh water immediately freezes when you do that. So any water that might have seeped into a crack will immediately freeze, and you won't realize it until you are down there shooting."

"A few other essential items in our gear bags were the gear bags and cases themselves, supplied by LowePro and Pelican Products; Anton/Bauer batteries and chargers; Really Right Stuff's mounting plates and clamps, which we used to hold all kinds of gear underwater and topside; and an Extron CVC 200, a HD or component to RGB converter that we used to output the signal from the HDCAM to computer monitors and video projectors." About Lowepro bags, Norbert said "Lowepro gear proved useful for our constant packing and unpacking, in all phases of our Antarctic field operations -- via snowmobiles, sledges, helicopters, & tracked vehicles." The HDCAMs were powered by Anton/Bauer HyTRON 100 and Digital ProPac batteries. Norbert said "I could not have accomplished what I did in Antarctica without Anton/Bauer equipment. The HyTRON 100 and Digital ProPac batteries allowed us to work for hours in the harshest climate in the world. The batteries were often charged in remote camps using small generators to run the PowerChargers. After the production I used the chargers' power feature to run the HDCAMs as we made dubs. The batteries and chargers performed flawlessly." About Really Right Stuff's quick-release plates and clamps, Norbert said "We used their precision, anodized aluminum clamps and plates to hold our cameras and lights both underwater and topside in Antarctica. They performed flawlessly in this harsh environment, never freezing up or rusting."

Several of the Antarctic recreational dive trip operators offer photography advice; you can link to their sites through this site list.

Text ©Norbert Wu, & Peter Brueggeman. Photographs ©M Dale Stokes. Photographs may not be used in any form without the express written permission of Norbert Wu.. Norbert Wu no longer grants permission for uncompensated use of his photos under any circumstances whatsoever; want more info?