HID + Video + Caving = Cool

[stollman]

I went over to Bedford, Indiana to shoot a little caving video with my friend Kevin. I thought some of you might have an interest.



HID Lighting Systems

1. Light & Motion, Arc Ultra, 13W HID Trail Bike Light, 675 Lumens, 5800 Kelvin, Mounted on Helmet with home-made Diffuser.
2. AAC Style, Oracle Flashlight, 35W HID, 3000 lumens, 4200 Kelvin, home made Diffuser (cut 76mm circle out of Barn Burner Diffuser with Dremel and Router fixture. Tapered off edge with Dremel so it would fit into the groove of the Rubber Oracle Filter Bezel (Barn Burner material thicker than Amber Filter that came with light)
3. Xevision, Barn Burner Flashlight, 75 HID, 8000 lumens, 4200 Kelvin, with Xevision Diffuser


Video:
1. Xtreme Recall Helmet Camera, 580 lines of resolution recording to a Sony DCR-HC32 Camcorder stored in a Pelican Case
2. Sony DCR-HC96 Camcorder, Mini-DV, 3/4" CCD (the larger the chip, the better the low light performance), 7x Wide Angle Lens (wide angle makes a better shot for narrow cave passages).

YouTube Link - Video and Lighting Equipment Overview – 7 Minutes (click on the HQ button for High Quality Playback):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5mgkZKz9o

YouTube Link - Donnahue Cave Trip – About 7 Minutes. Was in the cave for 4 hrs (click on the HQ button for High Quality Playback):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4AklfakesQ
:

Something Learned:
3000 lumens of light is a bit much for small walking passages. There was some overexposure is some of the walking scenes. I'd say 500-1000 lumens would be plenty. My new Oracle 35W worked out very nicely, and the Xevision light was awesome as usual.

Supplier Links:
Light & Motion: www.bikelights.com
AAC Style: www.automotivelightstore.com
Xevision: www.xevision.com
Xtreme Recall: www.xtremerecall.com

Thanks,
Mike (a.k.a. VideoCaver)

 

[Patriot]

Very nice video and light work in the cave there. That BB was really kicking some butt. Just goes to show that there's no such thing as too much light, probably especially true with video.

Both vids were great and it was nice to see the equipment used before the actual caving. Nice presentation.

Thank for sharing.


P.S. I suspect it wasn't very cold in there judging from what you guys were wearing....no WP clothing, I mean.

 

[Lightcrazycanuck]

That video was really cool.Nice work.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[stollman]

The temp in a cave is in the mid 50's year round. Donnahue is a short cave, and you can walk through the hole thing in less than an hour. Also, it was reasonably dry, except for the one spot you saw in the video (it was toward the end of the cave). I kept reasonably warm because I had to pack all the lighting and video stuff. Caving is like hiking underground climbing over and under stuff - it can be pretty physical. But, you can also get hyper thermia in a cave, especially if you get wet and stop moving. You dress according to the caving situation. I know some guys that wear wet suits when visiting a very "wet" cave where swimming is required.
.
There is a large cave in KY called Pine Hill that I want to shoot. I've been thinking about building a Dual HID out of a Vec192, similar to what some other folks have done on this forum.

The Barn Buner is a great light. It is small enough to fit in a backpack, and it puts out some serious lumens. Xevision has really developed a great product with this light. The Oracle 35W did pretty good too on the medium sized passages, where the BB would have been too bright (over exposure).

 

[cue003]

Very nice presentation and good song in the 2nd vid. The vids were both well put together. Putting the Barn Burner to some real use.....Excellent.

 

[lux lumin]

Stollman

A very enjoyable video which I feel is well made and shows us those rather wonderful toys in action. I am starting to become attached to the idea of owning one of those 35W HID your video has seriously helped me make the right choice.

Good luck lads and please keep up the fantastic work! :twothumbs

 

[Patriot]

I forgot to mention that I really liked those wide scenes where several lights were used to illuminate multiple depths of field. Having people walk through the gave scale to everything in those scenes, which was a nice touch. Please post some more video if you happen to have additional footage.

 

[CajunJosh]

Thanks for posting those videos, in all this time I've never actually seen the form factor of the XeRay light in someone's hand for size comparison.

 

[maxspeeds]

You have great presentation and did a wonderful job. I can envision you having your own cave show :twothumbs

 

[jamie.91]

really cool video, and a great watch

jamie