Rui_Guerra

Glass port scratches are as problematic as they are inevitable. Fortunately, it is possible to remove scratches in glass ports if the scratches are not too deep. Stephen Frink suggested to me I use "jewellers rouge" which I found on Amazon. I used a Dremel which has a power cord (when I tried with battery packs, ran out of juice before finishing) and a whole bunch of felt polishing wheels (catalog #414). It took a long, long, long time. Perhaps an hour but the minor scratches did disappear. I went through a number of felt wheels. It is a long and boring process but gives one time to reflect on the dangers of rocks attacking poor defenseless dome ports and to be more protective in the future. I write this now as I am preparing to attend to another session of polishing, which I hate as much, if not more, than cleaning the camera's sensor (also necessary this weekend). While you are out diving and having fun, think of a tiny wheel spinning round and round and be thankful if you have acrylic domes how much easier they are to repair.

I can't guarantee this process will work for everybody but so far it has done well for minor, hairline scratches and little dings. I hope this advice cuts into the sale of replacement Seacam domes, Harald is doing far too well these days.

Good luck!

I had been told by opticians and housing manufacturers that it is not possible to polish out scratches from glass domes: they must be replaced. However, after reading this post, I did some searching online, and found a DIY Glass Polishing Kit for $40 at www.hobbytool.com. I had a couple of scratches on my glass dome that were not deep, but close to 2cm long, and managed to produce really ugly black scars on the image files when shooting into the sun. To my utter astonishment, they disappeared after only about 20 minutes of polishing using an electric drill with the wheel, pad, and polish solution provided in the kit. Best $40 I ever spent. Thank you Yellowmon!

Hi all,

After a cave dive, my Subal 8" dome port had several scratches, right in the middle! THey are not deep, but the longest one is 2 cm long.

I've read all the posts in this thread, but from the 7 pages, only those two addresses the problem of glass domes (maybe ir will be appropriate to create two different topics - acrylic and glass - to be easier for future reference...?

Anyway, I live in Portugal, so maybe some can post advice regarding where can I buy that glass polishing kit, inside EU?

Also, has anyone more tried to polish glass domes?

Thanks,

I'm very impressed with the customer support from Light & Motion ! Just minutes after I've send a ticket with the water temperature question I got their answer:

"Dear Rui,

Any water temperature that would be unsafe for Sola 4000 would likely be unsafe for you, too.  Tropical water is fine; perhaps staying away from volcanic water in Hawaii or shooting in a hot tub would be a good idea, but almost any open water conditions, even in very warm tropical water, will not hurt the light."

So, if someone have the same question, this is the answer. :-)

Cheers,

Hi all,

I've just get a SOLA 4000 and know that they cannot be used out of the water, because of the heat that it generates.

But I wonder if one can use it in warm tropical waters, at around 35, 36 or 37ºC? Or for instance in a heated swimming pool? 

Anyone have tried it or knows if these kind of water temperatures will be a problem for the SOLA 4000?

Thanks,

The inclusion of illumination tests will be welcome and useful for someone who is not sure about what to buy or just wants to knows exactly the light quality and intensity of one's strobes/video light.

A very inexpensive test chart to do, at whatever size you want will be a simple white 3mm thickness PVC board (I use one with around 1 m wide). Then one simply mark (at the edges) 5 or 10 cm spaces all around. To make the grid (to focus or to evaluate edge sharpness or lens distortion - optical or chromatic) just use black electrical tape. It's quite easy and quick to make lots of horizontal and vertical lines (the grid) and two at the diagonals.

Then you can put in in the pool floor or (better) at a pool wall (just make tho small holes at the corners and suspend it with some line and weights (out of the water) at the pool side. You can even use a tripod with a quick release plate so you can repeat results at exact the same distance while you change lens/port/extensions.

Cheers,