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When you've been assigned to do an underwater shoot halfway around the world in a remote location, you want to make sure that the equipment you're bringing will work flawlessly. For Los Angeles-based director of photography James Mathers this meant making practice dives close to home, amid the underwater kelp forests of Catalina Island. A veteran underwater cinematographer, Mathers is experienced in using both film and digital video cameras beneath the waves. His choice for his most recent assignment, however, which eventually took him to Manokwari Bay, in Indonesia, was the Canon XL H1 HD camcorder. This HD camcorder gained his attention not only because of image performance and compact size but also because of what he calls its "fantastic versatility...