On July 19, 2009 I disembarked the Nautilus Explorer after spending two weeks diving in Southeast Alaska. This was my first experience using my RED ONE camera in the new DEEP RED underwater housing. A couple years ago, John Ellerbrock (owner of Gates Underwater) approached me with the idea of collaborating on the design for DEEP RED. He asked what specifications I thought would make the best possible professional system. I gave him the following criteria:
My coming up with these specifications, although derived from a lengthy career of designing and using professional underwater motion picture housings, was the easy part. Implementing the design would require a bit of genius.
- The housing should be built in three sections: A front port (both dome and flat ports should be available) including a lens-specific port extender, a center section where the camera is mounted and where most controls including all cables are attached thus eliminating constantly flexing and interfacing connections when opening and closing the housing. This is then covered by a rear bell.
- I asked that controls for run-switch, zoom, aperture, and focus be fingertip accessible without releasing either handle on the housing.
- I wanted to access all the menus allowing the same flexibility as a surface user.
- I felt the camera housing should take an extremely wide variety of lenses from digital still camera lenses to Ultra Primes.
- I suggested the housing should be able to withstand a depth of 450 feet.
- Finally, I wanted the housing to be as compact and light as possible.
Full review here:
http://wetpixel.com/...rwater-housing/
I'm working on getting full-resolution TIF screen grabs.
