dougaldiver

Yup.  A person can always go through the menu presses by looking through the housing, aligning the dial to 'one push' and then aim at whatever.  However I don't like taking my eyes off the action, I have missed too many things that way.  After now using the housing on several trips I use two methods:


Ryan

OK. I used the camera and housing in the Red Sea for the last 2 weeks. I didn't find MWB too hard. setting up the menu to get to the one push button required tipping the camera sideways so I could glance through the window on the side to see where the pointer was pressing.

Once I got to the one push I could hold the camera in the left hand (holding the left hand grip) and use my left thumb to push the button while my right hand held a white balance card (or I used the palm of my hand)

The biggest problem was then finding the OK button to leave the menu. I got very frustrated trying to do this and continually hitting the one push button again.
In the end I resorted to using the ON button on the back of the housing to cycle through from camera to memory to playback and back to camera.

This kept the white balance setting and, while taking a few seconds to do was more reliable than making multiple attempts to hit the OK button.

I made a few experimental shots comparing AWB and MWB and the colours were much better with MWB

Thanks ShawnB
Off to the Red Sea tomorrow for two week (yaaay) so will try out the 'cuddle'

I am so excited. Both the "housing cuddle" technique and the "palm white balance" are taking off!

I've recently bought a Sony HC3 and L&M Bluefin HC3 housing. Will the housing cuddle technique work for this and could someone describe how this technique works?

Thanks

Hi Dougaldiver,

What made you to choose the Bluefin and not the Amphibico housing? Does it have more manual controls, better ports & lenses or does it come with a standard monitor in the back?( the L&M site did not gave me a clear picture about that). I ask you that because they have a dramatic difference in cost(3000$ for Bluefin
and 1600$ for Dive Buddy Evo!!!)

Hi Kiri

At the time I was looking I struggled to find anyone in the UK who could show me the Amphibico housing 'in the flesh' so to speak and I really wanted to be able to spend some time looking things over and talking to someone about it beore I spent my money. I may have tried harder to find someone but my initial research also showed that MWB was not possible with the Amphibico and it is with the L&M.

The Light and Motion Bluefin HC3 does not come with a monitor back. The standard back allows access to the viewfinder but if you want a monitor then you have to have the external compact monitor (which adds a lot more to the cost). I did like the idea that, if the monitor fails, I can use the viewfinder as a backup.

Hi

I can't comment on the Amphibico but I faced a similar decision between the Gates and Light and Motion Bluefin HC3

I went with the LIght and Motion in the end for the following reasons. They make sense to me but may not be right for you

The Gates housing had no access to MWB (although WB adjustment was available through the assignable button and roller). I believe for the HC7 Gates now offer access to MWB but I'm not sure if they can retrofit for the HC3.

I like to be able to switch from wide angle to macro on the same dive. In order to do this with the Gates I would have needed the Fathom Super Wide port at about £2000, which also looked pretty big against the housing. The other ports were either wide angle with little or no zoom through or flat ports for macro. With the L&M the standard port allows a reasonable wide angle and also allows full zoom through including the tele macro facility on the HC3 (I also got a L&M wide angle port as part of the package that I will probably use on wreck dives where I can be reasonably sure that I only want Wide Angle)

I wanted a very compact light system. Most of my videoing is done in warm clear water (Red Sea, Indian Ocean etc) and I only really use lights for inside wrecks or small caves, filming something under an overhang where the natural light is insufficient, sometimes for macro and the occasional night dive.

I found the L&M lights integrated so nicely with the housing that it would be no chore to have the lights fitted on the offchance that I need them. The lights that seemed to be readily available for reviewing on the Gates housing (at least in the UK) seemed to add quite a bit of bulk and drag and I felt I would probably end up not taking them on dives for this reason.

On the downside for the L&M I had to buy an external monitor which adds some bulk to the top of the housing (and some cost to the package) whereas on the Gates I could have viewed the cameras screen through the rear window. However, with the L&M I also have access to the viewfinder if the monitor packs up (not sure how this works with the Amphibico monitor back). I also, in many ways, like the idea of the manual controls on the Gates (having previosuly used an Ikelite housing) but I felt there was sufficient redundancy and security on the L&M so I didn't see this as a major down side.

Did I make the right choice? I hope so, at least for what I want to do. I've only had a chance to take the camera on one dive (freshwater) to try out the balance etc but I'm looking forward to getting 24+ dives in with it in the Red Sea in July

I hope this helps if only in giving you some ideas on the questions you might want to ask