Rattus

Hi Guys,

Looking at that Scubacam version, it looks to me like you'll end up with a small viewfinder image, possibly with some corner clipping. I don't know this for sure, but it would be my educated guess, looking at the way it is rigged. The image has to go through the 0.66x or 0.8x pickup first, then the Inon finder. The Inon finder was clearly designed to get close enough to the camera viewfinder to avoid any pickup optics. Maybe it works OK, but I'd caution anyone to try it first.

Martyn

Someone at ULCS told me that the BA-HB:

can normaly be fixed on the top of the A20 and someone else told me it fits perfectly on his aquatica housing ...

Just to keep yo updated ... now i have to try it for myself.

That looks like the best bet, especially if the flange is a little too wide to fit between the two ridges on the housing, you could then file two flats onto the flange which will lock it on place once the bolt is tight, so that whatever you hang off it can't start to loosen the fitting. That would be my concern with any fitting where the ball is threaded and just screws into the housing - that's how the TLC part appears to work, maybe the photo is deceptive.

BTW, I'd check the thread before attaching anything tightly. If it's not the right pitch, and some of the metrics seem compatible with some imperials and vice versa, the aluminium will start to tear out. Of course you can bet it'll fail at the least favourable possible time too.

Martyn

What is the spacing between the centres of those two holes, and are they both M6 thread?

I'd be looking at either:

a ) installing a ULCS BH-HB (aka AD-MOD) with two flats cuts into the base flange to stop it rotating in that slot, and a M6 bolt through it into one of those tapped holes.

or

b ) install a slightly modified BA-AQN or BA-AQW. Obviously the base flange will need to be able to take two bolts, much closer together than the pairs used on the tops of the handles.

This is the sort of thing that drove me to buying a milling machine. If you need anything making up, give us a yell. I'm in UK so not too far from France, postally speaking.

Aquatica put this mounting point on most of their housings, I assume they have some plan for using it to attach stuff. It'll be interesting to see what they say.

EDIT:
I had a a quick look at the TLC shoes available from Cameras Underwater, and it looks like the 17551 or 17552 might be what is supposed to go in that position. You could then add a ULCS BA-DT or BA-AD to the dovetail that provides. Make sense? Looking at pictures of James Wiseman's old Aquatica Kodak housing, that's what seems to be mounted on the top of the housing...

http://wetpixel.com/...housing-review/

Martyn

From this next one you can see the 4 individual flash tubes, its not really a true ringflash.  The fifth, round one is a focussing light.

Hi Si,

I'll be interested to hear how you get on. The strobe does tend to give great results for tiny macro stuff. Mark Webster loves his. BTW I also tested it with the Sea&Sea TTL Converter for canon and it worked nicely, though you'd need to watch out on a Nexus housing due to the +ve ground issue on the converter.

A couple of questions:

Is it possible to change the bulb on the focus light? I couldn't see a way to do it, but then I only had a short while to play with it at Ocean Optics and their focus light bulb was blown.

Any idea yet what the buoyancy is like on it? My rig is already annoyingly -ve in macro trim to the extent that I'm looking at compensation options.

Cheers,

   Martyn

Sounds like YS-110 Da Ja Vu

Uh huh, just what I was thinking. Much as I like their products, their announced to available times on their strobes are about a whole year at the moment. Hey ho.

Martyn