Gates Underwater Products (San Diego, CA) has released their initial Test Report of the Sony PMW-EX1 in their prototype Underwater Housing.

Owner/CEO John Ellerbrock took the Sony EX1 and Underwater Housing diving on the wreck of the Yukon in Mission Bay. Here is his report and a link to the Sample Video Clips:

May 13, 2008

RE: Test report on the Sony EX1 and Gates EX1 housing

The camera / housing system was tested on 5/11/08 on the wreck of the Yukon
in San Diego. The conditions I hoped for were present: Overcast skies and
typical San Diego visibility of about 30 feet. Water appeared greenish and more
than the usual particulate matter in the water. These conditions were ideal to
evaluate the low light capability of the camera.

(Side note: one of the problems with HD cameras is very poor low light and WB
capability. The introduction of HD meant a big step backward in these features
compared to their SD predecessors. HD cameras often will not WB below 15
feet or so, requiring the addition of light and/or the use of the red filter to assist.
The EX1 is conversely a step forward again showing remarkable low light
capability on land. A key element of this test was to see how it would perform in
the inherently low-light medium of underwater).

The housing setup included the SP44 dome port and EM43 monitor. The EX1
prototype needed 6 lbs of weight to get slightly negative in the water.
(Production models will need only 4 lbs in the basic configuration.) No lights
used as this was a test of the camera in ambient light conditions only.
The down line was moored to the forward guns of the Yukon, where I began
shooting at 70 feet. The camera was set in ATW (Auto Tracking White balance)
without the red filter and gain=0 to see if the camera could adjust for water
conditions. It did not. The screen showed exactly the scene in front of me:
green, washed out, muddy and dark.

The next step was switching to Preset B and manually white balancing on a
metridium anemone (which are very handy for WB. They are pure white and
conveniently abundant). I must admit that the image on my monitor genuinely
surprised me. The colors literally jumped off the screen. Rich red corynactis
anemones surrounded by the white metridiums and hazy blue background were
unexpected. Honestly it looked completely Photoshop-ed. But the camera
reported a WB setting of 3200K (shifting very red) and captured colors as they
are – not as they appear under the highly blue / green shifted ambient light
underwater. It was at once striking and enjoyable to see.

I then continued on to other visually engaging spots on the Yukon including the
main mast, stack and propellers. Max depth was 90 feet and still the EX1
performed flawlessly correcting for color.

Reviewing the video later on a large LCD monitor revealed the camera struggled
for detail and sharpness in these conditions. I do not know if this is due to low
light or the XDCAM format compression -- or both. Either way this is typical for
video cameras in low light and not surprising, but it remains notable the EX1
performed exceedingly well in conditions from which nearly every other HD
camera on the market would be precluded.

As for the housing I discovered a three minor tweaks necessary for production,
but otherwise it performed like a classic Gates product. A control knob requires
slight change as do two bottom rails on the rear shell.

One item of note is the trim weights. The EX1 design includes adjustable trim
weights secured to the bottom rails which can be added/removed and trimmed
forward/aft for just the right buoyancy/trim. On my second dive I moved two 4 oz
trim weights to the front shell as the housing was a bit ‘nose light’. Doing so
brought it perfectly into trim – exactly as planned and designed. I believe users
will really appreciate this feature.

The new camera tray is a delight, too. A single captive thumbscrew makes fast
the camera, and two lock arms snap the tray in the housing with and secure it
with a positive ‘click’. Easy, quick and convenient.

Editing the XDCAM footage from the SxS flash cards is straightforward. First,
using the Clip Browser utility from Sony I can plug the camera into my USB port
and review, delete and transfer clips right from my PC. No tape transfers, no edit
lists. From there Canopus Edius Broadcast (my editing suite of choice) readily
imports the files and handles them effortlessly.

(Side note: this is a big reason I choose Edius: support for HD formats is
available when the format hits the market (that is, no waiting for a ‘plug in’
support months after you got the camera) and it handles the format flawlessly.
No bugs, crashes or other issues requiring a support call. This has been true
with HDV, DVCPRO HD and XDCAM. )

In summary the camera performed beyond expectations for white balance in low
light. Users will appreciate the new cam tray and trim weight features. In well lit
conditions I expect the camera to produce sharp detail – especially with the
SWP44C super wide. Downloading and editing the video is easy and
straightforward, readily lending itself to the emerging discipline of acquisition,
editing and internet broadcast from the field – not the station.

Video can be found here: http://www.gateshousings.com/EX1videotest.html