TDI-Brooks has jointly developed a drift camera with Dr. Ian MacDonald at Florida State University. ( A drift camera flier is available here) Figure 1 shows a picture of this unit being deployed.

Figure 1.   Drift Camera.

The drift camera is lowered with a 3-pt suspension and communicates to the surface through a conducting cable.  The drift camera system is comprised of a 14.7 megapixel Pentax digital camera with strobe illumination as well as a low-light video camera.  The drift camera can be deployed on a frame drift from the surface ship and held 2-5 m above the bottom based on feedback from a SeaBird CTD with altimeter.  The low-light video camera gives a preliminary view of the seafloor, including compass heading, to assist in targeting and transecting.  The digital camera and strobe collect images with a repeat rate of 5 seconds and can be triggered automatically with an intervalometer or on command.  A rendered drawing of the complete system and examples of imagery collected is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.  The upper panel shows a rendering of the drift camera frame and components.  The lower panel shows four black and white examples of high resolution color photographs taken with a similar system at depths of 3,200 m in the Gulf of Mexico.

The drift camera can be used in a transect mode whereby the ship drifts or motors very slowly (< 1 knot) along a linear course, while the video and still cameras collect images.  The objective for transect mode survey is to determine what seafloor features are present with an extended area of seafloor which is deemed of interest.  In practice, the ship may have limited control over the course direction given sea and wind conditions.  The alternative mode is to identify a series of points that coincide with geophysical, acoustic, or geophysical signatures.