One of the most curious facts that always surprises those who read it is that more people have gone to the moon than to the deepest place on Earth, under the oceans. That point is the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific Ocean, south of Japan and under the US flag. there it is where the deepest photographs have been taken.
The depths of the oceans are unexplored due to the technical difficulties and the cost of an expedition to those points. In fact, surely you know one of those who have come down. Neither more nor less than James Cameron, the famous film director. He developed one of the most advanced capsules to record the depth of the trench in 3D. And it is an important part, therefore, of his history.
The difficulties of going down to more than 10,000 m depth
The Mariana Trench reaches its deepest point at 11,034 m, in the Challenger Deep. It extends for about 2,550 kilometers with a width of 69 crescent shaped. If we put Mount Everest inside it, there would still be thousands of meters to cover. Human survival is impossible without a specially prepared vehicle.
To give you an idea, according to James Cameron’s own statements in the documentary he made, it takes more than two hours to descend to the depths. And the pressure is so high that the capsules of submarines are 90 mm thick. This is how they prevent the pressure from destroying us.
One of the deepest images, taken at 10,900m
If you want to experience an adventure in the extreme depths, just wait for a new alliance of EYOS Expeditions and Caladan Oceanic to bring tourists back to Challenger Deep. That trip cost €750,000 per person.
We can find photographs, but when they manage to reach such a depth, video is usually recorded more than photographs. You can get much more out of a recording than a single frame. But they do carry at least one camera.
Very rarely has the maximum depth been reached with a crew. The last one was on November 10, 2020, by a Chinese team with the Fendouzhe submarine (fighter in Chinese). They broke a record that has not yet been broken. They reached 10,909 m and collected biological samples, sediments and rocks from the seabed.
They made 13 dives before the record, and in eight of them they exceeded 10,000 m. The most incredible thing about that expedition is that the mission was broadcast live by the official CCTV station in Beijing and served to demonstrate to the world China’s technological progress.
There the pressure is 1,086 bar, more than a thousand times the normal pressure at sea level. The worst thing is that inside they have found plastics, the result of contamination. The animals that live there also suffer from our presence.
How to take pictures and videos at such depths
Many countries finance these investigations, but the most famous is that of the USA, the famous Ocean Exploration, with one of the most complete pages on the subject that you can find. That is where we have found much of the information.
As going down to the depth of the Marianas Trench is very complicated and expensive, they usually settle for going down to around 4,500m with an ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), an unmanned submarine that is controlled from the ship. It is connected to the ship by a cable (Do you remember ‘Titanic’?)
These high-tech pieces of equipment, of various sizes, from a shoebox to a van, are modular, which means that various elements can be added depending on the technology needed by the scientific team that rents it.
One of the deepest images
ROVs have the power of a rugby player but the skill of a neurosurgeon, says David Wotherspoon of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. And they need eyes to be able to be operated at a distance. And above all light, something that does not exist in the depths of the earth.
The basic image equipment of these submarines is as follows. The brands of these cameras are not known to the general public. First of all, we find a 1080i Insite Pacific Mini Zeus HD location system; a SULIS Subsea Z70 scientific camera, with 4K resolution and 12X zoom; four HD DSPL FlexLink HD Multi SeaCam cameras. And of course DSPL SLS-6150 LED lighting and two additional Newtsun 500w LED lights.
The quality of these teams is impressive, but their features call our attention. For example, the Sulis Z70 has a 12x Zeiss zoom lens, but the size of the sensor is striking, just 1″ and a resolution of 20 MP. And it is so protected that it weighs 13 kg.
This equipment is mounted around the ROV to be able to record all the angles, even to always have control of the umbilical cable that we have talked about. And they are prepared for both video and photography. Any of the photographs we see of the depths are taken with this equipment.
James Cameron recordings
We can affirm that the highest quality images that we can find of the most extreme seabed were taken by James Cameron in 2012. It took him two hours to reach the 10,898 m that he reached. He went down alone in the ‘Deepsea Challenger’, a torpedo-shaped submarine made of fiberglass and a steel shell that withstands the pressure of 1000 atmospheres of the trench, which he himself helped design.
It was so well equipped that some compared it to an entire television studio. This is how he was able to record the documentary ‘Deepsea Challenge 3D’ that was presented in 2014. The frames of that video are the best and deepest photographs that have ever been taken.
James Cameron
Specialized cameras created for this submersible were used there, since until then nothing similar existed. I am convinced that the experience accumulated in this project is what has helped this director to have a very clear idea of how to record the second part of Avatar.
But many years have passed and today we find more advanced equipment such as those offered by specialized companies such as Triton, which were capable of recording that wonderful BBC documentary ‘Blue Planet II’
From a photographic technical point of view, the problems are many. Teams have to withstand pressure above all elseavoid condensation and of course have sensors that support low light and allow real color to be recorded.
In fact we do not know the color of the depths, as it depends on the color temperature of the equipment. And since light has never arrived, we don’t know exactly if what we see is real. But in the meantime, we can look at the images of a place on earth where only 7 people have been.
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