So over the last few years aerial drones have been kind of a big deal in videography. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to make one for underwater use. There's a bunch of these in development and they look pretty sweet. Although ROV's have existed for decades, most of them are designed for industrial use and are priced accordingly. All of these are $2000 or less, which is comparable to aerial drones.

If you know much about movies like The Abyss, they've used various underwater ROV's to function as dollies/jibs/cable cams, for some relatively smooth, controlled camera moves.


The iBubble seems to be the most promising one, is it self contained (no tether/umbilical) and is fairly autonomous is able to follow objects and do several different types of shots. This is similar to what DJI, GoPro, etc. have been adding to their drones with various orbit and follow modes, cable cam, etc. Pretty cool.

Fathom One is tethered but looks very nice. Also pretty affordable (less than a $1000 US).


OpenROV's Trident is another tethered unit but looks really maneuverable and fast.


Finally, there is CCROV. Also tethered and box shaped.

Pretty exciting stuff. If these things deliver what they're promising I imagine they'll become an nice tool for underwater videographers/photographers and we might seem them turn up for rent at dive shops.