An entrenched culture of filming sexual exploits was rife at the Victorian military training base of a navy trainee who recorded himself raping a female colleague, a court has been told.

Royal Australian Navy sailor Keith Eric Calvert allegedly turned the camera on himself giving the thumbs-up during the sexual assaults captured on his mobile phone in January 2009.

Calvert, 24, was found guilty last month of digitally raping the woman in a Melbourne home after a drunken night out at Crown Casino with five other male defence colleagues.

His lawyer David Sexton told the Victorian County Court that bragging about sexual exploits and capturing them on video was common at the HMAS Cerberus training base south of Melbourne.

Mr Sexton said there was a "work hard, play hard" and heavy drinking culture in which recruits indulged to relax after a strict military regimen.