Based in Los Angeles this engineering firm has set the standard as a third party manufacturer supporting many different leading brands in the world of cinematography. It was only a matter of time until ET started to supply an impressive array of support items for the RED One Digital Cinema Camera. From EVF supports, cheese plates and sticks to dovetails etc they seem to have an angle on most items. They have also designed and built their own underwater housing for the Red Camera. Whilst we did not have use of their RED underwater housing on this shoot, they did however modify one of our AquaVideo housings. Expert craftsmanship saw the addition of custom Focus and Iris gears specifically to allow for use with the uber impressive Arri 8R Ultra Prime lens as well as the addition of a Switchtronics dual battery tray to allow for up to three hours of recording. While we used this camera for a variety of shots, its main use was specifically targeted towards capturing underwater time-lapse sequences of jellyfish migrating from one end of the lake to the other. Our normal shot setup would be to take a frame every second over as many hours as we could get out of the system. Using this in conjunction with the Arri 8R Ultra Prime rendered stunning results.

The main difference between the standard AquaVideo housing and this hybrid is the over all length of the unit. It is very long. Best suited to those with arms similar in length to those of a Silverback Gorilla this unit requires a lot of juggling to and fro as, again, the monitor is located at the back end of the housing behind the aluminum back plate and a small plexi-glass window. This is not a failing of the system though, an external monitor would have been great but that was not deemed necessary by the owner / operator who, through familiarization with the system, has gotten used to operating the housing as is.

Additional extras added by Element Technica are a cheeseplate and cheese stick used to create the carrying handle as shown in the first image. Using the standard Aquatica domes the system is still very much an AquaVideo base system. Four locking latches for security and an aluminum front plate allows for good heat dissipation. During use of this system for time-lapse shots we never had any overheating issues. Only once was there ever a temperature warning while on an extended reef dive while trying to make the camera overheat. Overall this system worked well for the tasks it was assigned to.

The design extras implemented on this system was overseen and built by Joe Ortega of SL Cine. Using a rod system that locks into place it is an example of old-world craftsmanship that is hard to come by nowadays. It should be noted that these are fixed gears and designed specifically for the Ultra Prime line. With some playing around with gear rings, one can make the gears work for a variety of lenses, however that would take much time and patience.

This is again a very simple and straightforward housing with very nice gear controls. Not as mind blowing as the Gates adjustable gears, but noteworthy none-the-less. With the addition of an external LCD, this would make for an excellent everyday use housing with some remarkable allowances for staying underwater for up to three hours and giving the user the satisfaction that their battery will likely not run dry by the time they exit the water.

Mark’s verdict:

• A very long unwielding housing specifically aimed at time-lapse applications.
• Not user friendly on reef dives.
• Good initial price point.
• Smooth as silk gearing.

Contentious points:
• Weight of the unit, it’s a workout.
• Fiddly maneuvers to get the camera locked into position.
• Dome port availability.

The main issue with this system is that it uses direct pressure activation on the record feature. This means that as one descends through the water column the increased pressure can, and did on numerous occasions, initiate unwanted recordings. A simple spring activated system with a locking mechanism would have been a better idea.

John’s verdict:

Differs a bit from Mark’s as I see the potential of this housing.
• Great shoot times: up to three hours of record/run time
• Focus / Iris controls: these gears are a work of art
• A system that you can build to suit and in stages
• Great three-point contact with this housing—only the LCD is located on the backplate behind a plexi-glass window so you cannot use it as currently modified.
• Easy access to quickly change batteries and hard drive as the back plate unsnaps and reveals the batteries and hard drive.

Contentious points:
• No external LCD or EVF
• No spring activated run/record lever—it’s a bit soft and does not spring back.
• Dome port availability. Users of the AquaVideo systems may have to consider an alternative dome port since Aquatica no longer makes these screw on ports.
• Long reach to get to Focus and Iris knobs

What would make it better?
• External LCD on a dovetail rail or mounted to the cheeseplate (Gates makes this possible if they decide to sell their LCD housing)
• Adjustable gears—this would put the system high up on the list if it just had adjustable gears.
(ET informs us that they are considering developing adjustable gearing)

Summary(From all three parts of Red One underwater appraisals)

All in all we had an extremely successful shoot in Palau. We had at our disposal three very different underwater housings to get the job done. The whole issue of housings for this camera was a bit of a unique situation. The RED 1 camera has been out for over a year and as such we are only now starting to see competition to the AquaVideo housings emerge on to the market. Mike Hastings of AquaVideo was first to jump on the bandwagon and get a working housing out in the field that may not have all the capabilities of the other manufacturers, but it did get things moving. Why has it taken others so long to get housings out on the market? Late R&D? An uncertain market? Who knows for sure. With the multitude of controls available on the Gates housing I can say that we were certainly happiest with the flexibility of that system. That is not to take any thunder away from AquaVideo though. Both systems for their intended use were up to the tasks set for them. With fingertip controls, the external monitor and access to the menu, all of these things combined allowed the Gates operators so much more flexibility and options. It was because of the ‘Deep Red’ that we accomplished the majority of the shots on our shot list. There are weak points to both systems at the moment, these have been passed back to the respective manufacturers and are either being addressed as this paper goes to press or are in line to be taken into account with next generation housings.

In closing we would like to thank Mr. Nick Martorano, owner of Ocean Wonders Underwater Productions and resident videographer at Sams Dive Tours in Palau. We were made to feel completely at home as we took over his store to charge batteries and dump camera gear for the nights. Nick also helped out on numerous days with BTS shoots and photo sessions. A few short video clips of housings being used underwater can be found at Nick’s website located at:
http://www.oceanwonders.org/RED_Palau