A PROFOUND CHALLENGE FOR CANON!

The shooting of the BBC’s “Amazon Abyss”.

Cameraman Michael Pitts is a specialist in underwater filming, often working at great depths . To go down without the very best equipment is a waste of time and opportunity, he writes.

That was certainly true on the recent expedition mounted by the BBC Natural History Unit  to the Amazon in Brazil, with the daunting objective of  shooting five 30-minute programmes deep in the world’s mightiest river.  It was essential to produce footage of the highest quality.

With this in mind the producer, Andy Byatt, decided to go down the High Definition route with Canon’s new line of HDTV lens- the HJE11X 4.7BIRSD. This lens is compatible with Amphibico’s purpose built High Def housing and port. It delivers distortion free wide-angle images whilst maintaining full zoom capability for high resolution close ups and macro work. Objects as close as 230 mm from the dome vertex can be brought into sharp focus at full zoom. Even this distance could be reduced by adjusting the back focus to bring the focus point closer to the dome. Working in the murky conditions of the Amazon and its tributaries, I found myself leaving the back focus adjusted as close to the dome as possible.

Using the camera systems with the Canon lenses was like taking a Rolls Royce on a clear open road. They were stable in the strong river currents. The control function of the zoom, focus and iris responded smoothly and quickly to the surprise moments  which happen so often in underwater filming.

For example, filming small creatures such as the knife fish, so called because they are no thicker than a knife blade, which speed over the river bed and move in amongst fallen branches and piles of rotting vegetation, was difficult. The fish often darted behind me into the sediment I myself had stirred up.. But once I had the fish lined up and focussed, the image in the monitor was crystal clear and sharp.

A technical triumph

Before I went on the assignment, I felt a degree of apprehension. The odds were going to be stacked against us in bringing back sharp, colourful images. The Amazon presents enormous technical and logistical challenges. But it represents a last frontier, if you like, of unique species in their previously hidden world.

When “Amazon Abyss” was shown on BBC1, viewers were able to share that world. Without the High Def camera and our Canon HDTV lens – the HJ11EX 4.7BIRSD - we could not have brought it to them.