Customer Reviews

Diving DVD - Florida Keys

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This DVD contains excellent footage of a lot of ship wrecks and other interesting dive spots at the Florida Keys. The material was well shot under good conditions with good visibility under water. Picture quality is excellent.

What is so great about this DVD is that they actually swim inside the wrecks, delivering stunning video! It was very touching to see the footage of the Eagle wreck, as I spent three years of my life on it (from 1971-1974), travelling with my mother and father, who was the ship's radio officer at the time.

A nice bonus is the addition of facts and GPS coordinates of the wrecks. All in all a must have for everyone who has dived or is planning to dive the Florida Keys.

If you're looking for colorful reef images on this DVD, you won't find many here. The video on this release is lacking in the proper filtration to render decent underwater color without video lights, so most images in deep water are mostly blue and white. There is some color for the very shallow shots, but the fast-cut MTV-style editing overuses a porthole video effect and adds to the frustration of trying to watch this video. The editing often cuts to the next shot when you've only had a second to look at the image (and were just beginning to look at it).< and you can't pause! .. I'll explain...

All of the video for the dive sites are on this DVD are authored in what is termed in DVD mastering as "Overtures".. overtures are what are put on the beginning of commercial DVDs that have the release company logo (i.e. WB,)FBI warning, etc. Overtures don't allow you skip, fast forward or to even pause the video while playing. If you hit a command on the remote while playing an overture, you'll get a red circle with a line through it. So, if you want to pause and take a still look at the anything on this DVD, you're out of luck.

What is good about this video is that it does cover many of the main sites on the Keys and is helpful to get a sneak peek at the sites. Unfortunately, what is bad about this release overwhelms the good. Poorly shot normal 8mm quality video that seldom keeps still, video artifacts throughout..

If you want to see amazing color and Keys info, get Stephen Frink's book "the florida keys dive guide". Amazing shots and great info and reef maps.

If you want to see amazing color and sharpness and the best underwater video that I know of, check out "Coral Sea Dreaming"(Great barrier reef): this DVD should be the standard by which all underwater releases are judged.. you won't be dissapointed.

Maybe the creator of this DVD should take a look at that one as well....

Having just returned from a dive trip to the Keys I was pleased to see this video available on Amazon. It is a very informative catalog of dive sites and has some terrific video to watch. My only negative comment is that some of the video shifts from scene to scene too fast. It can be a bit "dizzying", unfortunately. Not all of it is like that though, so it's generally a very nice product.

Awesome. Informative. Very helpful in guiding someone who doesn't know the Keys very well find the most exquisite dive sites. This guy's done all the work and laid it out for his fellow divers. Also a great DVD to pop in and play when you're "itching" to dive but just can't make it. Highly recommended to anyone who does any diving in Florida.