johnspierce

The more sophisticated housings get, the less sense it makes to have a backup body unless you also have a backup housing.  The electronics in the housing will likely also be toast if you flood it.  

Backscatter's Airlock was my decision for a pressure test device for my housing. It came this week and I've installed it.

 

Pro's

 

1. Completely mechanical. No batteries to go dead or electronics to fail.

2. Footprint is small and adjustable (direction). Clearly would fit in the available real estate.

 

Con's

 

1. More expensive than the Vivid, which was the primary competitor in my decision.

2. Competely mechanical, no ability to check pressure at any time.

 

Installation:

 

It was easy on the Aquatica housing. Remove a nut on a blank bulkhead. Insert the furnished fitting and tighten a nut. I don't know why it bothered me to open a hole in the housing, I open a bigger one everytime I install the Aquaview viewfinder before diving. And now and can test my work for both.

 

Use:

 

The manual pump easily reached the recommended -5 inches of mercury for a pressure test and the -10 inches for locking all ports in place. The pressure did hold overnight. And since there are no electronics or other items to evaluate it's done.

 

Note:

 

I am removing the valve for packing the housing, closing the bulkhead fitting with the included cap. Packing pressure on the valve could possibly leverage into breaking the plastic bulkhead fitting. Reintalling the valve will just take a few seconds.

 

 

Hi,

Did you put the valve in one of your spare bulkheads for the strobe or did you put it where the Hydrophone hole is?

thanks,

John

Ten years ago, my house was broken into, burglars stole approximately $6000 in items.   The next time my insurance policy renewed, they jacked up my policy $1000 per year.   It stayed that way until just the last year.   One of my colleagues made the 2nd claim on his home owner's insurance a few years ago and his insurance company dropped him after paying.  He pays about twice what he used to for home owner's insurance now.

My view on Home Owner's insurance is to use it only for truly catastrophic claims from now on.  I use DAN's photo gear insurance because regardless of what it costs or whether I use it, my home insurance will not be affected.

JP

On my last dive trip in Fiji I tried using the Gopro 3 Black for some macro video.  Here's what I used:

- Gopro 3 black (naturally )

- Snake River Products 52mm filter adapter

- Metal 52mm to 67mm step up adaptor

- Aquatica +5 67mm screw-in diopter (which I already had)

- Change Gopro mode to 1080px60fps  NARROW so it wouldn't vignette.

I tried it in the pool first and it would focus really, really close and was quite crisp.  I had high hopes.  In actual use, I realized my videos would be very jerky unless i used a tripod to stead the cam while running.  I'm just a dumb still frame photographer and really didn't think about that.  So, it didn't work as I had planned because I didn't have a mini/submersible tripod with me - all my macro viddy's are herky-jerky and not really usable.  Next time.

Another thing I figured out on this trip is how to mount the Gopro to my DSLR housing.  I started out with it on top.  I had a triple clamp so I could mount it right next to my focus light.  However, I had a hard time getting it aimed properly while simultaneously taking photos, so I moved the trip clamp to the left hand hold and mounted the Gopro with a 4" extension were it was just beside and a touch back from my 10-17 on the left.  That worked really well and my video was pointed exactly like my still camera.

It was fun.  By the end of the week I was getting some decently smooth wide angle video.  Macro was sortof a fail this time, but next time I'll bring a gorillapod.  Trying now to chew through about 192gb of video files from our dives.  

I had been doing this.I found it easier to store that way as well as transport.  I just kept mine on the lens. Even so, the ring on the actual lens still came off.     Still not sure if that helped add to this problem or not.   

 

Has this been the case with the rest of you where this has happened? Have all of us been keeping our external zoom gear (housing gear) attached? 

 

Thanks for the input - Pam 

Yes, I was leaving my housing zoom gear tightened onto the zoom collar of the lens.  I personally think this contributed to it coming loose.  The Tokina zoom collar as you now know is not even screwed on to the lens -- it's just pressure-fitted with a bit of plastic tape to hold it in place.  Keeping the housing gear fastened to the lens could make it loosen if something else in your camera case pushed against one side of the zoom gear.  Just my opinion, but I think it's better to keep the housing zoom ring off the lens when not using it.

JP