37 replies to this topic

[Alex_Mustard]

See also the forthcoming housing from Acquapazza in Adam's DEMA report:
http://wetpixel.com/...m-dema-2012/P3/

Alex

[lisperit]

"Lis,
Nauticam tray is adjustable camera position wise on tray, handle extension wise on tray. I can make it as close as your handle set up, no problem."

Yes but I need a tray smooth and as small as possible because the palm of the right hand need to go "around" the lower angle of the tray to be comfortable: custom tray.

"You left side flexible arm, that is not LocLine, is that stiffer than Locline ?"

Yes it is quite stiffer but Locline is still good underwater , neither is stiff enough out of the water.
Both are cheap and practical to use.

[Jensm]

Hi again

Got the Patima housing, here are a couple of first impressions.

Build quality
Very convincing. I'd use it as weapon any day. The latches on the sides don't seem flimsy or unreliable at all, actually it seems to me like a simple and efficient solution.

Controls
- Front ring is controlled by dial on top. No slip, easy to turn. Can actually be done with one right hand finger while holding the housing (probably not with gloves, though)
- Mode dial is controlled by dial on top. No slip, you can easily feel the stops where it clicks into place. Takes two fingers.
- Rear dial is controlled by separate dial on back. Diameter of knob is very small, could be difficult to grab with gloves. No slip, but a little hard to turn
- Rear buttons (and rear dial) are very close. I think this is where "you get what you pay for" comes into play. Would be difficult with thick gloves. Still, perfectly useable without gloves, just not as nice as could have been.

Lens compability
- I tried it with an Inon UWL-100 Achromat type II. Need to zoom in to about 32 mm avoid vignetting, but that's as expected. Even when doing so, distance to lens is still short enough to remain sharp (at least centre is very sharp, need to judge the edges in full daylight). Close focus until literally touching the front element to the subject.

I haven't tried it diving yet, and won't get to until a trip in about a month from now, but so far I'm very happy with the price/quality compromise. I trust this much more than I would the Ikelite, and it's more compact (but a little bigger than Recsea and Nauticam).

Jens

Edited by Jensm, 16 November 2012 - 10:14 AM.

[Interceptor121]

Good news on the patima and yes you get what you pay for
It is interesting to see that in Europe the price gap is bigger than in UK as it stands I don't think the patima has got any chance on this market
Moving on with regards to locline arms my experience is that 3/4" original locline segment are really stiff however to the point that for my sola I have 6 3/4" segments joined to 6 1/2" segments as otherwise the arm is so stiff that cracks the locline mount of the sola (that has a bad design)

Having said that the same arm with all 3/4" segment with a 1/2 kg strobe in air stands stiff too however I think around 750-800 grams is the limit

Bear in mind I use this for video only if I was doing stills I would definitely put a ball arm as it is much more precise for video though there are less useful placements so locline works just fine and adds no weight in water

Still I have 4 Jumbo floats and with two sola and a ulcs tray with a lens adapter and a diopter is nearly neutral

[SPP]

Great to hear ur Patima is nice to operate Jen.
Any aluminum housing build quality with today CNC must be good, that is given, unless the CNC programmer is blind ha ha ha. Now you probably realized why I won't want plastic housing in this day and age of more affordable CNC machines.

One day I should play with a Patima. Many thanks for the quick review.

The port of Patima maybe a bit forward no ? Or in water it may be better ?
I do not get any black edge at 28mm ( 10.4mm ) on RX100 with Nauticam + Inon H100 type 2.

Your Patima has 2 locks only, that is why you find it easy to operate. If your housing is any bigger and it has 3 of those kind of lock, you will not find it pleasing. Patima also is smart enough to use two alignment balls on the main body, so the door won't be slipping when placed and to be locked. That alignment balls makes a great difference because Patima back door is flat and not shoe box type enclosure. Shoe box shape back door self align by shape and no need alignment balls.

I think Patima will eat alive Ikelite market if they have proper international distribution.
Patima makes Ikelite less less appealing now. More so looking at the Ike size, bloody hell.......... it is so HUGE.
Control wise overall Ike seems to be the worst too. The zoom lever with no self recoiling capability to go back to mid position is so sad, they could actually use spring block like Gates video housing zoom lever, even though using strong double side tape to mount the spring block on housing internal don't look so elegant, but at least it has function.

I don't get it that Bluewater said Ike's lens control dial doesn't work very well, "takes a minute..........they said", while it is near identical to Patima's one in terms of the angle of attack and friction area of the housing dial to lens control ring dial. I guess it comes down to tolerance. Patima being aluminum has much better dimensional accuracy over plastic Ike........ any day. CNC vs moulding......hhmmm, that is what we pay for.


Alex M,
Thansk for the Aquapazza link. I have always wanted Aquapazza kind of magnetic focus+zoom rings on my Nauticam NEX7. If only they sell the port adapter and can fit well, it could be a fancy toy to buy...he he he.
.
.

[Jensm]

do not get any black edge at 28mm ( 10.4mm ) on RX100 with Nauticam + Inon H100 type 2.

I think that's just because what I've got is the Inon UWL-100 which isn't actually made to suit 28 mm equivalent lenses.

[Interceptor121]

I think that's just because what I've got is the Inon UWL-100 which isn't actually made to suit 28 mm equivalent lenses.

In video mode with stabiliser set to active you should get no vignette with that lens
The uwl100 takes well a moderate amount of zooming so you should see what happens with the corners

[SPP]

I think that's just because what I've got is the Inon UWL-100 which isn't actually made to suit 28 mm equivalent lenses.

Wow, don't you think that is rather waste of money if maximum wide angle is what you are after.
I just read about ur lens, it is actually for 35mm yah ?
http://www.inon.jp/products/lens/lineup.html

Holy cow, so many variations and Inon should code it more obviously differentt. Inon seems to love to use description which if 1 digit or alphabet is missed, we could end up buying the wrong product.
.

[Jensm]

Wow, don't you think that is rather waste of money if maximum wide angle is what you are after.
I just read about ur lens, it is actually for 35mm yah ?
http://www.inon.jp/p...ens/lineup.html

Holy cow, so many variations and Inon should code it more obviously differentt. Inon seems to love to use description which if 1 digit or alphabet is missed, we could end up buying the wrong product.
.

I got it second hand for a fourth of the store price. If not, I'd have got the 28 mm variant. It's not a problem, just means I have to zoom to about 32 mm.

Jens

[Lwang]

Wow, don't you think that is rather waste of money if maximum wide angle is what you are after.
I just read about ur lens, it is actually for 35mm yah ?
http://www.inon.jp/p...ens/lineup.html

Holy cow, so many variations and Inon should code it more obviously differentt. Inon seems to love to use description which if 1 digit or alphabet is missed, we could end up buying the wrong product.
.

You are not really wasting of money, since these wet lenses are not converting a 24mm lens by 0.6 and turning it to a 15mm lens (both 35mm equiv). The way they work is that they create a smaller image of a certain exit diameter, and the way they specify it, a UWL-100 would allow a camera with 7mm lens a certain distance from the wet lens be able to see 100 deg field of view. If your camera just so happens to have a 5mm lens of the exact same spec, you will not be seeing images of 140 deg field of view, but instead will see the edge of the lens, which is often referred to as vignetting. So you zoom in the lens until the field of view from the zoom lens covers exactly the exit diamter of the wet lens.

Inon produced variations of these lens because some have a wider exit diameter, allowing a 28mm lens to capture the 100 deg image, or the camera does not have internal zooming, causing the zoom lens to be a bit farther away from the wet lens, thus the zoom lens sees a smaller image, which includes the edge of the wet lens (vignetting). That's why they tell you to zoom in a little.

[oskar]

Thanks that was a good explanation! What are the actual exit diameters of the Inon UWL-100 variants? I have a S&S lens made for 24mm equivalent that may work then with the RX100.

Further to the optics discusion. What hapens to the effective aperture of the lens combination? I suppose it is the same as the original lens or is it atually a larger aperture (lower f-number)?

Cheers
/O

Inon produced variations of these lens because some have a wider exit diameter, allowing a 28mm lens to capture the 100 deg image, or the camera does not have internal zooming, causing the zoom lens to be a bit farther away from the wet lens, thus the zoom lens sees a smaller image, which includes the edge of the wet lens (vignetting). That's why they tell you to zoom in a little.

[Lwang]

Thanks that was a good explanation! What are the actual exit diameters of the Inon UWL-100 variants? I have a S&S lens made for 24mm equivalent that may work then with the RX100.

Further to the optics discusion. What hapens to the effective aperture of the lens combination? I suppose it is the same as the original lens or is it atually a larger aperture (lower f-number)?

The exit aperture would be roughly the diameter of the rear element of the wet lens, at close distance. And what your camera's lens sees is its diameter and the distance to the rear of the wet lens.

The wet lens works almost like binoculars, which doesn't focus the subject into an image, but changes its magnification factor, and your eyes, acts like the camera & lens. The eyepiece lens of the binocular has to be bigger than the pupil or else you have problem seeing a full image. When using it at night, your iris dialates and the effective pupil diamter is larger, making it harder to see the whole image unobstructed. Also if you pull your eyes farther away from the eyepiece, the problem gets worse, and you see a smaller diamter of the image (as in vignetting).

As for light gathering capability, it should not negatively impact. But on some tests, they said it is 'dimmer'? I guess it is pretty easy to test.

[seafan]

I've been looking into Patima housings but am wondering why they don't put a cold shoe on the top of them?? I like to put my focus/video light on there instead of having to add another handle on the other side of the tray.

[davephdv]

I have the Nauticam housing, which is really sweet. I would disagree about the Ikelite housing. I thought it was a nice housing and not too large. You can easily hold it with one hand. Quality construction and it takes 67 mm thread lenses.

The Acquapazza housing looked very nice as well.

[BariN]

Hello,

I would like to ask SPP and Interceptor 121 what you two think of Aqupazza housing. I am deciding between Nauticam and Aquapazza for Sony RX100.
I do not have a chance to put my hands on it to see for myself which one will suit better. I really like your posts and anyone can see how detailed your comments are.
I really appreciate your help.
BariN

[Steve Williams]

Hi BariN,

There is a new review of the Aquapazza RX100 housing up on the Underwater Photo Guide site by Carolyn Wang

 

 

 

Cheers,

Steve

[BariN]

Hello Steve,
Thanks for the link. Yes, i had read it and even tried to find some sort of contact information of Carolyn Wang as I wanted to ask her more Qs.
Her Aquapazza review is probably the only review about Aquapazza housings. That is why i made a post on this site.
The housing looks very good. But is it better than Nauticam?

BariN

[BariN]

Oops, never mind, got the spelling wrong. Found some more review that I am going to look at...

Edited by BariN, 15 April 2013 - 08:55 AM.