A while back we undertook on a little project to get my
Aquatica 7D housing mounted on a Silent Submersion N-19 scooter. Ignorantly, I
thought this will be easy enough, all we need to do is mount the camera on the
scooter and I’ll be in camera/DPV nirvana. Sadly the reality is far from that
and the one thing I’ve figured out for sure, is that mounting a camera to a DPV
is a sure fire way to mess up a nicely balanced machine.

It’s all about buoyancy and trim. Let’s first start by
assuming that you have a neutrally buoyant (or close enough to) DPV. Stacking a
negatively buoyant mount, strap, camera housing, lights, etc… does the obvious
and makes the scooter sink. You’re now riding this beast that wants to nose dive,
meaning you now have to angle the scooter up to compensate. This forces the
video angle upward (a real problem when you’re trying to shoot bottom
composition) and burns power unnecessarily. The scooter/camera rig can also
become quite heavy to hold for stationary shots too, making it physically a
challenge to hold the rig.

My solution is relatively straight forward; that is, simply
ensure the camera rig (including mount and strap) is as neutral as possible. In
video mode, my Aquatica 7D housing doesn’t have too many options, it basically
down to what size dome you have. My 6” dome is small and has less drag, but the
8” provides much needed buoyancy and does a reasonable job of getting the
housing neutral.

The real problems comes in the form of lighting. Light heads
and more specifically their batteries are negatively buoyant and need to be
compensated. I’ve resorted to using high pressure plumbing pipe (sealed at each
end) to provide positive lift. It’s effective, cheap and nearly indestructible,
though the crush depth is hotly debated in technical diving circles to be
anything from 65-180m. Determining how much lift to provide is simply done
using a trial and error approach. I’ve gone with 2” diameter pressure pipe and
12” in length. Two of these provides more than enough lift for my setup, so I
do the negative adjustments using lead weight on the pipes. Net result is a
neutral rig that is reasonably adjustable as my setups changes. In my opinion,
close enough is good enough here but I don’t want to be fighting with
scooter/camera buoyancy on deep dives.

I’ve mounted the pipes on either side of the scooter using a
cylinder weight mounting system by Bright Weights. I can’t speak for the weight
system, but once we sewed a couple of industrial elastic loops into the harness
system it worked perfectly. Using Velcro strips, it’s super easy to attach to
the scooter when a dive requires it. What’s important to me is to not mess with
the scooter’s buoyancy as at the last minute, I may execute a dive without the camera
and quickly reconfigure the DPV for no-camera whilst on the boat deck.

Mounting the Camera

Nothing came easy here. Before buying a mount, I researched
both the Silent Submersion and Dive-Xtras video mounts, though not much info
was forthcoming apart from a few forum comments. It was clear however that
neither with support my Aquatica DSLR natively, and that both have mounting
holes targeted at more traditional video housings like Gates and Stingray. I
ultimately bought the Silent Submersion version, so mounting the camera
required a custom adapter that would allow mating between the three ¼” holes on
my Aquatica and grid patterns on the mounting plate.

The adapter we made up is simply a block of alloy turned on
a lathe. It has four holes for the mounting plate, and is recessed with another
three holes for the camera (see diagram). Something to keep in mind is that
depending on you dome size, the camera will need to be raised higher off the
mounting plate. Since I have both the 6” and 8” domes, I created the base
adapter to suit the 6” dome and an extender for the 8” dome so that weight and
drag could be reduced. Delrin (aka acetal) would have been a preferable
material (due to weight and corrosion), though availability in large diameters
(at reasonable cost) was a problem for us. Ultimately though, my DSLR has 3 *
¼”  holes in the base which screw into
the adapter, which in turn screws into the mounting plate.

Videography

After going to the cost and effort of mounting the camera on
a scooter, I’m very happy to say there is a payoff. You obviously get the
ability to shoot video whilst moving, either forward facing or angled which
shoots difference perspectives underwater (not just up-down or left-right). You
also get the added benefit of stability since the DPV is near neutral but has a
significant mass. Net result is the scooter dampens the motion, removes the
wobbles and the propeller shroud even becomes a nice hold point that you can
rest on your chest (watch out of the trigger!). This is particularly beneficial
for the DSLR shooter, since these housing suffer greatly from stability issues.

Once mounted to the scooter I’ve almost exclusively used the
propeller shroud as a grips/hold point. It reduce ergonomics whilst shooting
video, but this wasn’t the greatest anyway. Vision to the 3” screen is also
reduced due to the shroud/handle, though this depends on the angle and height
that you hold the camera at. I also found if the rig was negative, holding it
at the correct screen height becomes very tiresome.

I dive using both Dive-Xtras and Silent Submersion scooters,
and feel they’re both great and each has their benefits. For video however, I
do prefer my Cuda 400 as it has an electronic speed control and the N-19 I have
does not. This allows you to quickly adjust speed whilst shooting and also
match the speed of other divers perfectly. With the N-19, you have to stop to
change speeds which can ruin the clip you’re shooting. One technique to match
speed on the N-19 is to purposely cause drag with your body/fins to slow down
and maintain the clip – not the best but it does work.

Rotational torque and levelling the image whilst under way
as also key points of consideration. I’ve found it takes a few second to get
the torque under control when starting off and stopping, so I factor this in my
clip. Levelling the camera also presents a challenge at times and can be
compounded if the camera mount is not naturally centred on the DPV body.

Overall I think DPV mounted video is a very positive thing,
though this opinion is for reasons other than what I had originally expected. I
first thought that it’d be all about the video you could shoot whilst in motion,
this is good, but the stability for me is where the value is. I imagine this
could be different for those with more traditional (and stable) video
rigs.

Still Photography

Perhaps ignorantly, I once thought that mounting my DSLR
camera to a scooter would make camera handling easier on complex technical
dives. I thought that I could use the DPV as a platform to mount the camera rig
to whilst travelling, namely during ascent/descents and when scootering around
large caves/wrecks). In short, I was very wrong.

Mounting the camera rig to the scooter can be fiddly and
time consuming. It’s not a hopeless task, but not something I want to be
repeatedly doing during a dive. For this reason I rarely scooter mount my rig
whilst shooting stills, preferring instead to wrap it up and clip it off as
this results in less drag. The scooter itself becomes a pain too, as you either
let it blow in the current whilst your hands are occupied with the camera
(becoming an entanglement issue), or again clip it off like a sling. I prefer
the latter approach, though at times am lazy and drop the scooter for a sneaky
shot or two. For this reason, I ensure my scooter is trimmed slightly positive
so that it floats off the bottom causing less of an issue.

As we use the scooters to rapidly descend on deep dives, if
the site is not large or I expect to be in one spot for a while I’ll clip the
scooter off to a cave line or part of the wreck. I’ve found it easier and quick
to detach from the scooter, shoot and then re-attach, than it is to side clip
the scooter to yourself and keep shooting. How your gear is configured and
whether you’re wearing you bailout/stage cylinders left only or left-right is
definitely a key consideration. Scooters do offer a compelling argument to left
only stage configuration in my opinion.

For sample video, visit http://damiensiviero.com/category/video/