In the first underwater production shoot using Canon’s new XL H1 high-definition camcorder, Los Angeles-based DP James Mathers shot an underwater documentary in Manokwari Bay, Indonesia.

With his XL H1 HD camcorder encased in a custom-made watertight housing built by Gates Underwater Products (San Diego, CA), Mathers took the 8.3-pound camcorder to new depths.

He said that underwater photography requires camera operators to insert weights into the camera housing in order to achieve neutral buoyancy due to the air that is trapped in the camera housing. The larger the camera, the larger the housing, and the more air there is.

A full-size camera starts off being heavier, but also requires a lot of additional weight to achieve neutral buoyancy. That’s okay when you’re submerged, but it can weigh close to 100 pounds when out of water. For this shoot the combined total weight of the Canon camcorder with underwater housing and buoyancy-compensating weights was only 35 pounds.

Other benefits of the H1 were the camera’s excellent low-light performance underwater, and the one-hour record time of the HDV tape, which meant fewer times opening the housing and less risk that a seal was broken.

When shooting with two XL H1 cameras underwater, Mathers used Canon’s Console software to set them up and match images between the two.

For more information, visit http://www.canondv.com/.