Underwater Filming by Rich Stevenson

Underwater camera housings, lighting and specialist equipment hire

All of our underwater filming equipment is professionally designed and set up for underwater media work, please click here to download Rich’s hire list: RS Underwater camera hire list

We specialise in all aspects of underwater camera housing hire for TV and Film productions, and all the equipment is owned and operated by Richard and the team so you can be sure it’s fit for purpose. Rich’s company is called Waterproof Media Limited and handles the dry hire aspect of the business, so please use the webpage to make contact and read more about the equipment that’s available, click here to link though

To view our studio and cinema camera housings please visit the cinema page here

To view our broadcast and documentary housings please visit the broadcast page here

To view our DSLR, mirrorless and indie film housings please visit the DSLR page here

To view our Scubacam lightweight housings please visit the scubacam page

Red Weapon / Dragon / Monstro and Gemini DSMC 

We have a Gates underwater housing that takes any of the Red DSMC 1 and 2 camera systems. It also comes with remote follow focus and HDSDI surface monitoring for DP/focus puller, and can be operated without the follow focus if working in open water. The housing has a 5″ HD monitor kit for critical focus and framing, and a double V lock plate is in the housing for longer operation under water.
Lens support is for PL, Canon and Nikon lenses and there are a variety of lenses that work well with the Epic which are detailed below.

Alexa Mini and Mini LF camera

This camera system is a firm favourite with commercials and features and is supported with a Nauticam underwater housing. As with the Epic housing above, this kit comes with a 5″ HD monitor for the operator to control critical focus and framing, and the housing can be used manually in open water. For studio work I have installed the hardware support to enable the WCU4 hand controller and C-force mini motors to control focus, iris and zoom from the surface using 45m long waterproofed cables. An independent iris control for DOP can also be integrated into this housing in addition to the WCU4 controller used by the focus puller.

Scubacam bags

Scubacam bags are available for a multitude of cameras such as the Alexa min, Red Epic, Sony FS72, Phantom 4k flex and Canon C300mk2.  The bags are designed to fit quite a few different cameras, so drop me a line if you need to check what could possibly work. The bags are great for shallow filming where the operator is looking for a quick and simple waterproofing solution for their camera. Personally if I’m filming underwater I’d use a housing, but the bags can provide a great option for the correct environment.
Please also note that I now have a much bigger scubacam bag that fits the larger Alexa cameras and the Phantom 4K flex. This bag has cabling for the LCS, RCU and surface power options and all the bags have surface feeds for picture and lens control

Filming with Phantom Flex

Panasonic EVA1 5.7k camera

This exciting new broadcast camera from Pansonic boasts 10 bit 422 4k images at frame rates of 60fps, and 2k/HD frame rates of 240fps making it an ideal broadcast / documentary / indie feature film camera system. The camera comes in a Nauticam housing with full control over all manual buttons on the camera, and also has picture to surface and external monitoring as standard

As this camera is perfectly suited for documentary and presenter work as we can plug in an audio feed from the presenters mask to record an audio sync track over the video which makes post production much easier.

Click here for a video we made on underwater audio recording which is useful for any production considering putting a presenter underwater to make pieces to camera whilst diving.

The housing also has a hydrophone that can be used to capture underwater wild track such as bubbles, reef noises etc.

Finally this system has a variety of ports for the front end that allow super wide angle through to flat port macro work making the whole rig incredibly versatile and quick to use in the field, it will also be offered with the new Nauticam WACP system which offers an incredible image for underwater filmmakers

Sony A7S2 and Pansonic GH5 and S1H systems

All 3 of these popular cameras are now supported in Nauticam housings. The Sony cameras were bought for working in low light conditions as they have an exceptionally sensitive sensor capable of high ISO with low noise patterns, and the S1H and GH5 offer 10 bit colour profile with 4k internal recording, and either camera is a perfect small form solution for high resolution imaging
Please note we also have an Aquatec surf housing for the Panasonic GH5 that supports both the 7-14 and 12-35mm Panasonic native lenses

Go Pro 6 x camera 360 filming kit

The 360 Hero housing has provided some stunning 360 films in the past 12 months and is a complete kit ready to use and shoot 360 through 6 individual Go Pro 4 black cameras that are included in the kit. Please click here to visit the show reels page to see an example of what the cameras can produce

Canon 5D3 /4 / S Ikelite housing

The Ikelite housing supports the Canon 5D3, 5D4 and 5DS camera bodies and has lens control for the 16-35 and 17-40mm Canon L series lenses. The kit comes with an 8″ dome port and is probably our most simplest camera housing to set up and use.

Specialist underwater camera systems

Rich has also made equipment for one-off filming projects where an already existing solution doesn’t exist, such as the open ocean sequence in Blue Planet 2. Some examples of equipment  made include 360 degree filming rigs, hydraulic camera cranes, pole cams and tow cams. At the bottom of this page are some photos of equipment that’s been designed and built for bespoke projects, and if you need something making or engineering please get in touch.

Below are some images of the equipment we own and use, please click on the right hand side of the image to scroll through

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