139 replies to this topic

[Scuba_SI]

Any news on the Nikon D400 with 24mp and 120FPS 1020p video with full manual control?

/nikon fanboy hijack

[synthetic]

Has anyone dived with Ikelite's 5DmkII housing yet?

[gbrandon]

that's it. Can't wait to get it to Tonga this season. You know hangin' right above a singer, when the sound is so loud that your internal organs vibrate.

I hope your diving a rebreather, because when I used to dive OC, those bubbles are so noisy I cant take the sound of it when Im editing. I just delete the whole audio track. (used to shoot video)

Im curious, minus whales , what is worth recording underwater where it would be a advantage to have the audio ?

[gbrandon]

Not to jump on top of what's become a SeaCam/Aquatica thread ...

I'm here at PMA and stumbled upon the Sea & Sea exhibit. Had a nice chat with one of their designers and he said that the Mark II housing was definitely in the works for around an April debut.

Jack

Thats interesting. That was one of the housings I was interested in, but my rep told me they are slated for release the first week of July. REALLY hoping your information is more accurate.

ciao,

Geoff

[gbrandon]

Since im new to U/W photo (shot video for the last 5 years), im curious as to who's using what for u/w housings. On all my trips, I never really payed attention to the camera table looking at the cameras:)

I was leaning towards Sea & Sea, but saw the pics in this thread on the Aquatica. Looks like a nice piece. Iv'e never been a Sea & Sea fan, my friend had their U/W housing for his video camera, I wasnt that impressed. I just cant get myself to accept plastic in a housing. To me it was one step up from a Ike Lite.
I think ill research Aquatica more and see where they are mfg'd at, how the customer service is, etc. I also saw the Seacam as well, I might check that out too.

Any feedback from other Aquatica users on here? How happy are you with your housing? Any issues? How was customer service?

On a side note, It's interesting to see how many people in this thread are so concerned about the video aspects. I think the guy from Aquatica nailed it perfectly when he said first and foremost , this is still a camera with video capibilities, and to remember that.

I wont lie, I bought the 5dMK2 after selling off my last video rig, and want to shoot video with it U/W. What piqued my interest in this camea was the video capabilities, and to be honest, I didnt see anything shot with a EX-1 to me warrant buying one, especially for the money it costs to get a EX-1 and a quality housing.

In my experience, (at least with video) the most important aspect of it all was getting the housing neutral in the water. Any time you have - buoyancy your going to be fighting the weight of that thing while your trying to shoot. I see people mentioning that its hard to get a DSLR housing neutral in the water due to the housing being front heavy? Should this be a concern to me?

thanks for any replies!


Geoff

[Viz'art]

Actually, the average housing tends to be nose up when used with a dome port (the larger the port, the bigger the air bubble), and takes a nose dive when using macro (the longer the lens...), then vector in the multitude of lens /port combination and trimming the housing soon become a challenge. there are various way to cope with this, buoyancy floats and/or arms amongst other.

BTW we are a Canadian manufacturer, located in Montreal.

[photovan]

I hope your diving a rebreather, because when I used to dive OC, those bubbles are so noisy I cant take the sound of it when Im editing. I just delete the whole audio track. (used to shoot video)

I'll be holding my breath

[gbrandon]

Actually, the average housing tends to be nose up when used with a dome port (the larger the port, the bigger the air bubble), and takes a nose dive when using macro (the longer the lens...), then vector in the multitude of lens /port combination and trimming the housing soon become a challenge. there are various way to cope with this, buoyancy floats and/or arms amongst other.

BTW we are a Canadian manufacturer, located in Montreal.

Ahh..see, just goes to show you what I dont know about dslr housings. My experience was with one of my older video systems with a ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) angle lens, which weighed about 10 lbs by itself. Even after I made a foam buoyancy ring, it was still hard on your wrists due to the constant weight on the nose of it from the lens.
I looked up your dealer list and see Mike and Dolphin in sacramento is a dealer for you. I'll give him a call when hes back next week from a dive trip and see what his experience is with your housings.

Am I being unrealistic to believe I can get a lens combo that will let me do macro as well as wide angle or is that near impossible with a dslr camera/housing? Thats one thing I really liked with my ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) from L&M, you could do nudi's one minute and be at 110 degrees (think it was around that) the next.

BTW, do you have a firm ship date for the housings yet?

[newmediasoup]

Stephen Frink,

When you look at the LCD in video mode on the new Seacam housing, can you see the red record circle in the upper right of the LCD?


Cheers!

Joel

[StephenFrink]

Stephen Frink,

When you look at the LCD in video mode on the new Seacam housing, can you see the red record circle in the upper right of the LCD?


Cheers!

Joel

Yes, easily with Pro viewfinder:



But, certainly difficult with either S180 or S45 magnified viewfinders.

Edited by StephenFrink, 09 March 2009 - 05:18 AM.

[synthetic]

What is worth recording underwater where it would be a advantage to have the audio ?

The only example I can think of was that guy who was hand-feeding the Moray Eel who bit his thumb off, you could hear the crunch in the YouTube video.

[synthetic]

Just got my 5DmkII and Ikelite housing! I'm taking it underwater in a week. I might attempt some video just for fun. Though my wife does video, so this could be a source of conflict....

[Bent C]

Has anyone dived with Ikelite's 5DmkII housing yet?

My dive buddy a couple of weeks ago at Sipadan used an Ikelite 5DmkII. The housing worked very well. He shot a number of short vidoes (school of jacks, green turtle, bumpheads) and they turned out great.

/Bent C

[Mike L]

I have not had the chance to take a 5d MKII down yet but hope to soon. We have some of the Hugyfot 5d MKII housings landing later this next week so I will have some feed back on those in the very near future.

I was at PMA a week ago, and it certainly was a disappointment that Nikon did not announce a new, competing DSLR to the 5d MKII...

[Viz'art]

Just a follow up, after having backscatter field evaluate the protoptype of our Aquatica 5D Mk II housing we have implemented some suggestions that they made, the rear window has been elongated to allow the "record ON" pilot light to be seen even with our large Aqua View Finder, the SET/Record controls who was at the lower part of the housing has been relocated to an easier access location and the dual levers for AF-ON and Star has been simplified and is now internally selectable. There is no substitute for field testing Thanks To Berkley and the folks at backscatter for being our lab rats on that one!

[photovan]

... and the dual levers for AF-ON and Star has been simplified and is now internally selectable.....

Jean, not sure if I understand "internally selectable". Can you explain?
...and have you shipped any to Australia yet?

[Viz'art]

Back at the office, sorry about the respond delay. internally selectable means that the user will be able to select which one of the two AF-ON or Star button he or she will want to use, its a well established system already being used on the D700 housing, the thing is that after going through all possible scenarios, we just couldn't come up with one where having the two accessible on the same dive made sense, so instead of over engineering it and end up with clutter around the vital quick control knob, we went for easier access while allowing the user to decide which of the two is most important for the job at hand.

The way it is done is to move the small contact rod that push the button to the choosen location, no fancy tools, just straight on rocky boat on high seas kinda simple.

Australia is getting theirs ASAP. we are in full swing production at this stage

[dsanders]

Hi Jean... Still not sure I understand, is this something that you can do quickly while underwater or do you have to do this before the dive? It is absolutely vital to have access to both controls in order to shoot video underwater! Thanks for keeping us all updated on what you guys are doing... and I think it was a great idea having the Backscatter guys field test the housing for you!

Back at the office, sorry about the respond delay. internally selectable means that the user will be able to select which one of the two AF-ON or Star button he or she will want to use, its a well established system already being used on the D700 housing, the thing is that after going through all possible scenarios, we just couldn't come up with one where having the two accessible on the same dive made sense, so instead of over engineering it and end up with clutter around the vital quick control knob, we went for easier access while allowing the user to decide which of the two is most important for the job at hand.

The way it is done is to move the small contact rod that push the button to the choosen location, no fancy tools, just straight on rocky boat on high seas kinda simple.

Australia is getting theirs ASAP. we are in full swing production at this stage

Edited by dsanders, 19 March 2009 - 11:25 AM.

[Viz'art]

You have to preselect the one you want prior to the dive, we ran over most if not all of the possibillity of scenarios we could think off and always found a way to get what we needed either through menus or custom function assignations. The point is that the dual lever was starting to block access to the quick command anybody with gloves had a hard time not pushing both lever at the same time.

[photovan]

Still not sure I understand either. I hope it isn't what it sounds like.

I agree with dsanders completely, without access to both * and AF-ON as separate functions while shooting. If it is how it is described, this housing no longer shows the promise of the original prototype, to the point of being unsuitable for the 5Dmkii's video capability.

Typical shooting sequence is Live View on>AF ON>*Exposure lock>button on every time.

Only exception would be if you were manually focussing, or didn't care about exposure! The housing should not limit these controls or determine the way to shoot.