Dan Schwartz

I'm following site policy and started this thread, instead of adding this into the housing discussions.

My father, who is an experienced diver with over 20 years under his belt keeps talking about the SNUBA diving he sees some people do. Also, there is something called hookah diving.

My question: Does using an above-water air supply help when handling a bigger UW camera housing? What do the video boys do with their bulky housings?



Note 1: My father would probably go on this trip and dive with me, depending on his recovery from having 3 discs replaced in his back last week.

Note 2: Although my SCUBA diving skills are at a "resort class level," my father sat in on the classroom training & watched over me during the pool training (East End of Grand Cayman), and said the training quality was pretty good.

Note 3: I've contacted WP member & dive instructor Heidi Connel about poolside dive instruction here in the NYC metro area where we both hail from; with the open water dive to be down on Grand Cayman.

Note 4: I've contacted Cathy Church's UW Photography school for lessons in underwater photography.

Note 5: Because of what I've posted above, I am reasonably confident that I'll succeed in UW photography.

The subject of taking medium format gear has, unfortunately, gone off thread. However, one subject not really talked about is ergonomics.

Not re-hashing all of the old imaging arguments, there are some of us who are just more comfortable shooting medium format... And please, let's leave it at that.

What I would like to hear about are people who have actually used medium format gear underwater (Alex(!), Troy(!), Stephen(?)); and specifically centered around the ergonomics of the larger housing.

Some of my questions include
* How does shooting MF underwater compare to shooting vido with a broadcast-quality camera;
* How does the larger housing react with your BCD?
* I shoot the Mamiya 645AFd system, which is rather bulky: Would your opinion change if you shot a small 6x45 rangefinder (without the bulky pentaprism), like my Fuji GA645, or a Mamiya 7-II? (Later today, I'll put a photo of several 35mm & MF cameras side-by-side, for more intelligent discussion.)
* As you go deeper, is the increase in handling difficulty of the larger housing more than that of a smaller housing?
* Is the increased difficulty of handling a MF rig exacerbated by colder water?

[Those last 2 questions go to my self-imposed 30 foot limit in Grand Cayman.]

Please, let's not turn this into another pissing contest: Above the water, I like to shoot handheld medium & large format. Without getting sidetracked on image quality issues, I'm beginning to think that housing a 6x45 rangefinder may actually be a smaller package than a big dSLR.

Please, let's keep this civil!

The announcement for CaptureOne v4 ß2 just hit my Inbox...

All of you RAW shooters, have at it!  

Update: It requires WinXP/SP2, Vista, or Mac X10.4.10  



[In case you're wondering why I am , it is because I'm running Win2k/Server/SP4; and I do [i]not[/i] want Active Directory here at home...]

One of my favorite cameras is my Horizon 202 swing-lens panorama, which is (pretty much) the Russian copy of the Noblex. It's sort of like a reverse of a Cirkut, whereas instead of the whole camera rotating, the lens rotates to expose a 24x58mm film frame over ~130 degree field of view.

Basically, the issue is housing it with a port that works. To that end, probably a cylinder port would be what is needed, since it would be perpendicular to the lens axis throughout the rotation.

[To that end, think of putting a Cirkut, a Hulcherama, or a Roundshot inside a glass jar with the nodal point along the axis.]

To see a sample of my work, go to page 5 of this PDF; or see below.

Anybody?

Dan Schwartz
Sayreville, NJ

OK folks, here's my Dumb Question Of The Week:

Has anyone tried to pressurize an underwater housing, to reduce the stress on the seals? If so, did the air come off the SCUBA tank via the octopus; or was it supplied by a small, dedicated bottle, with, say, moisture-free nitrogen? Of course, one would need an automatic bleed-off valve for the ascent, yada yada yada...

It would seem that having a small pressure regulator to keep the air inside the housing just a few inches WC above the pressure of the surrounding water would make life easier.

The analogy would be a conventional camera housing is to helmet diving as a pressurized camera housing is to SCUBA diving.

Thanks!
Dan

[PS: Many years ago at Scott Paper, when we had to install a motor control center or instrument cabinet in a wet (& lightly corrosive at times) location, we would pump dried instrument air into the cabinet to about an inch or so of pressure to keep the outside atmosphere, well, outside.]