Imagine what you could do with a Mantis Sub
Case Study: Richard Robinson
Richard Robinson has been shooting underwater VR since 2016—from the frigid waters of the subantarctic islands to the searing heat of the tropics.
“To get the real effect of a virtual experience, you have to feel like you’re really there,” says Robinson. “So most of the shots are by remote... hanging a camera under a drone, propping it up on a tripod, swinging it under a mooring float... anything to get me out of the picture.”
For his first shot he didn’t even get wet. Instead he connected the camera to the end of a long alloy pole, beneath a polystyrene mooring float, and drifted it through a swarm of penguins feeding in a narrow channel off The Snares, a remote island group south of New Zealand. The penguins were darting all around it, it was terrific material... but the shot was a total disaster. The camera was swinging like a pendulum in the sea-state and the effect in a VR headset was horrendous.
“It was the beginning of a very long journey,” he says.
Read about the journey on the new Mantis blog…
What you could do with a Mantis?
There appear to be as many applications as there are Mantis customers. From web video productions to blue-sky science projects, the possibilities are endless.
Sometimes that means building novel hardware. Our latest customer required 8 hours of recording time, which meant engineering an external power supply, patched into the Mantis through one of the ports.
If you have a novel application, and want to talk to us about your requirements, don’t hesitate to get in touch.