Sony a7S Camera: Underwater Macro Footage of Amazing, Mesmerizing Creatures in the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia

Sony a7S

The following video presents Sony a7S underwater macro footage. 1080p internal recording. (Lembeh Straits, A Macro Symphony) from Kay Burn Lim on Vimeo.

This underwater macro short was filmed in the Lembeh Straits of Indonesia entirely with the incredible Sony a7S camera housed with a Nauticam housing. Most of the creatures shown ranged from the size of a grain of rice to perhaps 2 inches at most. (With the exception of the moray eel and puffer fish). The red “Orang Utan” crab displaying monkey like behaviour was actually residing in a Coca Cola bottle cap. The yellow hairy shrimp after that was barely 4mm tall!

All underwater (and topside) footage was recorded internally in XAVC S at 1080p 30fps at 50Mbit. Lenses used for topside were the 55mm f2.8 Sony Zeiss and the Nikkor 105VR with a Novoflex adapter. Dive footage was recorded with a Metabones adapter and the Canon 100mm f2.8 macro IS L. In many cases, a wet lens/diopter (Nauticam’s SMC) was employed to increase magnification. Video was also sometimes shot in APS-C mode.

The video recorded was done using manual focus via a prototype gear and port, kindly supplied by Nauticam International. The combination worked incredibly well and I am grateful for opportunity to test it. Manual focus is mandatory for video work but Autofocus would also have been appreciated and be much more useful for photo work. Sony has since announced their 90mm f2.8G macro lens. Unfortunately, they have also made this the last lens to be released in their forthcoming line up later in July this year. This is unfortunate to say the least as I will be testing Nauticam’s Shogun underwater housing with 4k recording in April (and in June/July). I would have preferred to test a complete Sony setup instead for 4k work! A little help here Sony? 😛

A lot of support went into getting this test clip done. Many thanks to Nauticam for the equipment aid in getting me the necessary prototype ports/gears to work with and to YOS Dive Lembeh for their hospitality and the incredible expertise of their professional guides/spotters (I will be back very soon). I am also extremely grateful to Doreen Kaw as well for playing the piano intro and end in the clip (and to Carmen Lau for helping arrange it!)

A housing and camera review should be out soon as well. Please share if you enjoyed it and many thanks for taking the time out to watch this video 🙂