VR Photography "

Recommendations and reviews from 1 person

• Referral from April 30, 2014
  

  Gavin F. asked:

  Anyone have any recommendations for out of the box waterproof cameras for shooting underwater panoramas?

  

  Scott H. replied:

  Shooting VR underwater is very similar to shooting topside (except with the very real possibility of drowning). It doesn't even require scuba experience if you're working in shallow water. Today, it is advantageous to use a camera with a full-frame fisheye lens for u/w panorama shooting and stitching. If your camera is inside an underwater housing (such as an Aquatica or similar), you'll want to make sure the lens is properly centered and aligned distance-wise and behind a dome port. This actually gives the sharpest results, and almost eliminates the magnification factor you get when using a traditional lens behind a flat port (the air/water interface acts as an additional optical element in your optical system). There are some relatively inexpensive possibilities (such as GoPro cameras) on the small, digital side of things, which have a lot of promise. However, if you want more control (manual WB, exposure, focus, etc.), you'll probably want to go with a more traditional DSLR and underwater housing - significantly more expensive. Either way, you'll get best results if you take a tripod and calibrated pan head underwater to shoot from (assuming you'll be in contact with the bottom, rather than suspended in the mid-water levels). Plan on doing lots of testing, both with your shooting and stitching/post production. The most important thing to be concerned with when shooting underwater is safety. It's incredibly easy to get so distracted by what you're trying to do photographically, that you forget about your own air supply, surroundings, etc. Make sure you're a competent and safe diver first -- it should be second nature for you. Then, make sure you're a capable panoramic photographer (so it too is second nature for you) AND have reasonable experience shooting photos underwater. Only then will you have a reasonable chance of creating acceptable underwater panoramas AND surviving your efforts. I have a section in my Virtual Reality Photography book about underwater panoramic photography. It's available at: http://www.vrphotography.com/

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