When the new Sony HVR-V1 was announced, I was very eager to try it out as it would be the first 1080 handycam form factor camera capable of 24/30P. Amphibico’s Joe Bendahan told me that they were designing a housing for that camera (and the non-progressive scan sibling, HD-FX7) and offered an exclusive first look for me. So after a lot of difficult logistics including delivery attempts in Thailand and Singapore, I finally got my hands on Prototype #01 (thanks to fellow moderator Shawn Heinrichs and Amphibico’s Joe Bendahan) for my annual Sardine Run campaign. Admittedly this trip wasn’t the best place to do a housing review. One doesn’t get into the water often and the dive depth is mostly above 30ft. It does allow me to test for some of the issues reported on the Phenom.  Most importantly, please note I tested the prototype so some of the issues I mention may have been dealt with or non-existent in the production models.

The report has been split into the following sections:

Page 01: The Endeavor Housing Overview and Setting Up
Page 02: HVR-V1U camera settings
Page 03: The Field Test
Page 04: The Reviewer’s Observations
Page 05: Pros, Neutrals and Cons
Page 06: HVR-DR60 Review

The bottom of the Endeavor with the screw-on lead weights. Those holes are where the rubber feet are suppose to be. They fell off from day 1

The Housing Overview and Setting up
I received the Endeavor with the 94° OPWA lens and the HD monitor back (Package: VHLENAHD) which is the top of the line of their various packages. The first thing I noticed when I unpacked the housing was the compactness of it. The camera fits into the housing with little room to spare on all sides. It weighs just about 12kg as tested, the camera fitted with a F970 battery, making slightly heavier to the old VH2000 housing (which incidentally is the camera the V1 is the HDV equivalent of size-wise) but definitely noticeably lighter and smaller than the Phenom.

The Endeavor with the 94° OPWA lens (photo courtesy of Amphibico)

There are 2 lens choices with the housing, the 94° OPWA (as tested) and the standard dome port (tested for resolution and FOV).  Each port has double o-rings and are designed with Amphibico’s bayonet mount from the Phenom. Changing ports is pretty easy. You have to press the release button while turning the port to remove it. They do require a bit of force to turn as well so care has to be taken with the port surface. The standard dome port comes in a neoprene zipper “hand” bag. There is no such bag to store the bigger 94° OPWA should you switch to the standard dome port.

The top handle is metal and has to be hex screwed in. It has to be removed to fit in a Pelican 1650 case as it’s too tall otherwise. The handle can be removed without opening the rear bulkhead door.

Rear view of housing with camera loaded and cables connected
(note: The AV connector cable(lower connector) need not be plugged in, I did it out of neatness)
If you have a top-mounted monitor as well, be aware only ONE monitor can be used at any time

The rear bulk head door has double o-rings and opens like a door on 2 hinges.  There are 2 latches on the right side of the and to open the housing, you must press the button on the latch to release the lock before turn it anti-clockwise to open. The camera tray is a simple screw on affair with a simple gear and button actuator for iris control. The tray is fastened to the housing floor by a single click latch and slides out easily.

HVR-V1 with camera tray attached showing the Exposure/Iris gear set

The cabling system is also simple with cable for LANC, XLR (or mic), A/V (composite). Most of the wiring is on the right side of the housing. A second mic cable comes out from the left which I assume is for the FX7. The rear HD monitor uses the Component output and has its own cable from the rear bulkhead.

Getting the camera into the housing is easy. The HVR-V1 requires the removal of the viewfinder magnifier extension and the mic handle (removal of 2 screws). You have to set the audio on camera then connect the XLR cable to the XLR inputs before you slide the camera in. You cannot do it once the camera is in the housing. The audio settings for the camera need to be on REC CH1/CH2 for stereo sound.  Turn on the Display Info and ensure the Markers setting on the camera is turn OFF as you will not have info display. Everything else can be done with the camera in the housing.

Once the XLR is plugged, slide the camera in then plug in the LANC cable and the rear monitor’s mini-Component cable. It’s easy to connect to the camera’s Component Out but one has to be careful when closing the housing. The wire for the HD monitor is long to allow the rear bulkhead door to open adequately. The XLR/mic plug is also long and both wires need to be recessed properly before closing the housing. Remember to switch the Auto-Lock switch to manual before closing the housing so there’s access to the WB, Shutter and Gain buttons.

Inside the Endeavor housing

All of the electronics are contained in the top part of the housing, which reduces the chance of a total housing failure should there be a small flood. Just add 3 slim pad sanitary pads to the inside sides and bottom of the housings and it’s good to go. There is a flood alarm that warns you with the lights in the grips.

The Controls
Once in the housing, the camera functions can be set up with the controls on the housing. The new housing has the typical Amphibico hardware, with the 5 button control handles on both sides. The right handle controls the power on/REC (trigger button), mode, zoom controls, and one touch white balance. The left handle has the shift (trigger button), momentary Auto-Focus, AF mode toggle, focus +/- control. With the left trigger (Shift button), the buttons have different functions. Using the shift button while pressing other buttons allow secondary functions for the buttons. You can also use the new HD monitor as a playback tool since you can switch to VCR mode as well.  You have play, stop, FF and REW on the left grip in VCR mode.

The menu control panel with the right trigger button which turns on the housing.

The menu control panel on the right side of the housing. The control panel’s middle 2 buttons control all menu function scroll, using it as +/- buttons to choose which function/ adjust settings when the camera is in the housing. This includes SHUTTER,GAIN and WHITE BALANCE settings.

On the left side of the housing are the Picture Profile, Expanded Focus and Iris controls (button to actuate and dial to control). Picture Profiles can be modified in the Picture Profile menu. The V1 allows 2 custom profiles. Expanded Focus enlarges the image up to 2X (depending if you’re shooting SD or HD) and is a nice tool to check focus. The rear bulkhead has GAIN, SHUTTER and WHITE BALANCE controls. To operate, you have to be in manual mode on the camera and just hit the button of choice.

The rear mounted LCD has 4 buttons, working like the menu control panels. You can see the Y’rBc or RGB signal display on the menu. It also has a zoom feature. There is a 4:3 marker option but it did not work on my unit.

Powering on is a simple pull of the right trigger button and to prevent accidental power off, one has to pull the left grip trigger (Shift) and push the lower left button on the right grip to power off. With all the various controls, the housing will require some work to master efficiently if you are new to Amphibico.  It’s relatively intuitive and not difficult, but still requires some practice to familiarize oneself with all the functions. For instance, there are 2 speeds for zooming, using the left grip trigger (Shift) to zoom faster (where you can go from Z00-99 in about 3 seconds) or slower (Z00-99 in about 30 seconds).  It’s pretty simple and getting the feel does come with practice.

The manual focus adjustment is similar but on the left group. Just select manual focus mode and use the top 2 buttons to adjust focus. Note the speed of adjustment of focal distance is inversely proportionate to the lens focal length setting and focal distance from the camera. For example, at Z00 and under 2m from the camera, the increments start slowly and increase rapidly to infinity. At Z99, the increments for focus is slower below 10m then it zooms to infinity.

The left side of the Endeavor with Iris push button and dial, Picture profile on the bottom right and Expanded Focus on the left.

The housing does not access the 3 Assign Buttons on the camera. Most of the functions that can be put on the Assign Buttons are accessible via the menu control. Only Shot Transition is not available as it needs the Assign Buttons to activate it.

There is no Neutral Density Filter control access. The V1 has 2 ND levels, ND1 is a 1/4 and ND2 is 1/16. Like all digital video cameras start to exhibit lens diffraction from f8. Compounding that is the compression artifacts of HDV. Without ND filter control, it’s difficult to shoot 24/30P while remaining under f8 without using very high shutter speeds, which can cause a strobic effect. The ND control is also for controlling exposure, allowing better control of depth of field with small f-stops in brighter conditions.

For specific details from Amphibico on Endeavor operation, the manual is available (warning: 1.6mb PDF).

Continue on to the next page for the “Camera Settings”...

The Camera And Settings
Before I move on to the field test, I think it is pertinent to talk about the camera and the settings available and what was used on the test. I tested the NTSC version of the HVR-V1U, which allows 24P, 30P and 60i recording in 1080. For most of the test, I used 30P, knowing full well it demanded a little more light to get a good picture. However, the detail gain from the P-scan frame is worth the trade off plus the ability to use 1/30 shutter speed for low light without too much strobic effect. With 30P, I also had more frames to use in slow motion sequences and for high action like baitballs. 24P would’ve been difficult to avoid strobic effects.

I’ll forgo the full review as Adam Wilt has done a great job here. I did do a comparison test with a printed resolution chart just to see if there are any differences with the ports and without. There was no significant drop in resolution (there is a slight drop) but the flip filter did make it drop a little more. The plastic filters are known to increase birefringence as well.

In setting up the camera, the Endeavor allowed the use of custom Picture Profiles which allows more image control. My camera and PP settings were as follows and explanations follow on my choices:
Format: 1080 30P
SteadyShot: OFF
Focus Macro: ON
AE Shift: -1
AE Response: FAST
AT Iris Lmt: F5.6
Gain Lmt: 6db
Histogram: ON
Marker: OFF
Quick Rec: ON
Display/Batt Info: Detailed
Letter Size: 2x
Custom Picture Profile Settings:
• Color Level: +3
• Sharpness: 5
• Knee Point: low or high
• Blk Compnstn: Stretch

Blk Compnstn was on Stretch, to bring up the colors. SteadyShot was never designed for underwater. I experimented with the Wide Converter setting and it still moved a bit when the background got busy with fish. Since there was something on the lens port like a bubble or dirt, I knew it wasn’t me causing the movement. Focus Macro was on because with the 94° lens, it’s focusing on a virtual image and having the added length when zoomed didn’t hurt at all.

I shoot auto AE sometimes and find Sony cameras tend to overexpose; as a precaution, AE shift was at -1. Pulling it back a bit made for better pictures in my opinion. Another reason is that Sony tends to use shutter speed to control exposure in auto shutter mode, either over or under cranking it down to 1/30 which makes panning fast to follow a subject harder. This is definitely a personal taste setting.

With digital video cameras being just 9x cropped sensor cameras in 35mm, the diffraction at high f-stop values is noticeable. That’s why the maximum on all video cameras is F11 or less. Due to the diffraction issue (which isn’t a major thing but I like to have things at the optimum for the test) I limited iris to F5.6 because there was no choice for f8. It was f4, 5.6 or 11. I can see the difference between f5.6 and 11 (being the closet pixel-peeper I am) so I stuck with 5.6 as the limit and often used manual shutter mode to control exposure. In retrospect, I think leaving it at f11 would’ve been better with the lack of ND controls on the housing.

The histogram is the only way to accurately gauge exposure with the HD monitor, since zebra isn’t available. Marker Settings has to be off to show camera info display. Quick Rec allows the camera to record images faster to tape. The only caveat is for those who shoot with transitions on camera and don’t intend to edit on a NLE. The tape roll isn’t smooth and so your last scene may not be where you think you stopped on the tape. The Display/Batt Info should be set at Detailed so you have all the settings in front of you. Letter size at 2x is just easier to see on the screen.

Custom Picture Profile Settings
HDV, being 4:2:0, is flatter and lacks color, so a little boost in Color Level helps. Most post production types will shriek in horror at that but I like the look. The sharpness setting of 3-5 improves the detail level without too much anti-aliasing. With the conditions I was diving in, low knee was crucial in controlling highlights. But when the situation called for, a high low was more useful too. Hence the need for 2 PP profiles since that is the only way to access knee control. For general underwater shooting, I think Medium gives the best picture though.

I must STRONGLY stress that most of these settings are personal and everyone MUST experiment to get the image they like. The V1U does a decent job of customizing images. For those interested in shooting 24P, there are 2 modes, 24P and 24Pa(24PA is not in the earlier printed or PDF manuals). Basically both are stored in the 60i data line on tape, but 24Pa mode stores an A frame for NLEs to recognize cadence for 24P. 24P mode does not sync to timecode or the start of the clip. Check with your NLE on which one it supports as it may not work without some updates.

Continue on to the next page for the “Field Test”....

The Field Test
With this compact housing, I found it to be a delight to work with. I usually roll in with the housing and the lighter weight allowed me to do so without problems. Once in the water, I immediately felt the even balance and neutrality. It’s just a touch negative and has a slight tilt to the left due to the placement of the lens port and camera. Otherwise it bore the renowned Amphibico balanced handling, which made it very easy to shoot, even with one hand. At the bottom of the unit, you can adjust the weight and balance of the housing with screw-in lead weights. With the prototype, I had all 4 weights in and never adjusted them.

The Endeavor’s User Interface sheet
(It looks more complicated than it really is. Just practice before a big shoot!)

As for operating the housing, as I said before, it does take some practice to familiarize oneself with the various controls (doubly so since my prototype housing didn’t have ANY labels). This is especially so for using the shift button to get the other functions like faster zoom, powering off etc. It must be said it isn’t overly daunting at all and I remembered all crucial functions after the 2nd dive and all after the 3rd.

Almost the controls were within reach without having to release the handles, even the rear bulk head controls requires the left hand to almost leave the left handle to actuate. This aids the ability to shoot steady clips. Only the flip filter required totally releasing the right grip to operate, which is fine since you wouldn’t need to shoot the filter flipping down anyhow. The control buttons on the sides of the housing were within touch of the grips, but Picture Profile, Expanded Focus and Menu Control Panel do need a bit of stretching or feeling around the grip to reach for my medium-large hands. I found feeling for the correct buttons to change settings (the middle 2 of the menu control panel) without releasing the right grip is somewhat difficult, especially if you have short fingers.

My medium-large hands couldn’t easily reach the menu controls

An example is how I was shooting a certain baitball. I had AE at -1 and I wanted to control the shutter speed, so I could keep it higher for slo-mo sequences later. Using auto shutter, the camera would drop to 1/30 when it could and I didn’t want that. Of course, baitballs are highly dynamic and trying to switch shutter speeds, I constantly had to feel all 4 buttons on the panel then feel back 2 or 3 buttons to find the right one. For reef scenes and less hectic, this would be a non-issue. And certainly, if I dived with the housing daily, the controls would become easier over time.

It was about then I also bemoaned the lack of ND filter control. I had set the camera for 1/120 and f5.6 and had to shoot a bright scene suddenly, a simple flick on the ND filter would allow me to shoot without problems. Without it, I had raise the shutter speed to 1/1000 even. In shooting in 24/30P mode, a very high shutter speed can cause an annoying strobic effect, so the ND filter is rather crucial for maximum image control in recording in Pscan. That, however, is an infrequent occasion and the housing fared well without the ND filters often times.

One function I didn’t try was the Smooth Slow Recording mode, where the camera are shoot at 120 fields per second at a super compressed, reduced resolution in short bursts for slow motion capture. I was very much into trying to capture in high shutter speed for slow motion clips but the reduced resolution outweighed the 120fps. So I never attempted it. In afterthought, I should’ve tried it underwater for a complete review.

One issue reported on Wetpixel by Phenom users was that the 94° port was prone to scratching. Apparently the coating on acrylic lens rubs off easily which leaves lines that show up on camera. The Endeavor uses the same port so I was cautious in how I handled it. With constant bashing from the surf launches and entries, the port stayed scratch free. It was covered with a neoprene cover and placed in a cushioned box. Even with the HD monitor, there were small bubbles I couldn’t see and the usual safe pressure wave of the hand at the beginning of a dive didn’t remove them. Normally, after entering the water, I’d wipe the lens off lightly with my gloved hand (I did use my neoprene gloved hand for a brush once or twice with no detrimental effect). I didn’t dare to wipe bubbles away as often as I would with my coated glass dome lens. I only wiped it down with a clean chamois after rinsing topside. Unfortunately, unless Amphibico gives me a lens to “test” the limits of abuse it can take, I regrettably didn’t test for the issue, lest I get charged for damaging the test lens. In retrospect, I was overly cautious about this issue due to the fact the housing wasn’t mine. Amphibico does recommend a gentle wipe with the hand upon entry in their manual.

Still, the 94° lens is a nice lens optically, with no significant drop in resolution compared to the camera and it was vignette free. Resolution did drop slightly more with the plastic flip filter on. It handled small macro subjects without problems too. There was also a bit (but negligible) of barrel distortion. The 94° dome port acts like a 0.7x WA converter in coverage, wide but not very. The FOV isn’t as wide as on the Phenom since the V1U is 35.9mm (35mm equivalent) at its widest whereas the Z1U is 32.5mm(and the 94° lens was designed and built for the Z1 and Phenom housing). The V1U has the narrowest focal length lens of the HDV handycam 3x sensor so all adapters/converters will suffer accordingly. The standard dome port merely reduces the water magnification effect.

Using the sun to WB at various depths, I can say the Endeavor’s Electronic White Balance works well. However the range of the V1U’s WB isn’t good past 22m(75ft), even with the flip filter on. Which comes to one of the more debated issues of the HVR-V1/FX7, the “lowlight” performance. I did bring it down to 30m (100ft) and left the flip filter on. I limited gain at 6db (anything more becomes objectionable in terms of resolution and noise to my eyes but if it means missing the shot, 36db hypergain works too!). The results were acceptable and workable. This is of course dependent on the visibility and turbidity of the water. On this particular dive, I had 25m visibility and clear water. At 19m on another dive with 10m viz and more particles in the water, it actually looked comparable. HDV already requires more light than DV. If you shoot mostly in turbid and dark conditions, the V1 may not be for you. Then again, HDV may not for you too.

The HD monitor and its hood (note the reflection on the glass)

With the new 16:9 “HD” resolution monitor in the rear is a departure from the tradition viewfinder. It is also a very contentious addition, as many on Wetpixel have questioned the functionality of a rear monitor versus a viewfinder. To end this argument right now, I … can’t!  It works well as a viewer but in certain conditions, namely shallow bright water, it’s really not bright enough and there was too much reflection on the glass. The conditions I tested the housing in (many shallow dives with bright sunlight), quite a few times it was a battle to see what I was shooting. Obviously positioning the housing out of the bright light helped a bit. The hood could also be deeper and cover more of the monitor to minimize the effect of the reflections on the glass. The use of a non-reflective glass would also help.

The LCD monitor lasted for 4.75 hours plus (yes I actually timed it) with 4 2700mh batteries at 21°C, which should fit 4 long dives in a day without a change of battery. More importantly, the monitor shows the histogram, which while small and difficultly to see at times, allows the shooter to control exposure better than eyeballing the monitor (since zebra is still unavailable on external monitors)

Handling wise, the housing was very good, especially for wideangle. I was finning hard alongside a whaleshark and shooting with one hand and came back with very steady clips (which especially surprised me!).  The near neutrality of the housing made it so easy to use in choppier water at the surface too. With the standard dome port, the buoyancy is slightly more positive with less tilt to the left of the housing. There was space for 2 more of those screw in weights at the bottom of the housing. I had 4 installed to make it neutral again, but I was not supplied with these so I did not use the standard dome port in shooting dives.

The 8 screw holes on the top of the housing probably allow the attachment of an ball joint adapter for arms etc. I have no idea how that would affect the balance of the housing. The left control arm does have provision for turning on lamps from Amphibico.

With the shallower shots, having a single button to push for WB without having to lift one hand off the handle makes for easy shooting. The V1’s WB range isn’t fantastic, I’d say about 9db range, which means you’ll need to use the filter more often, which can sometimes negate the need of ND1 filter.
Another useful button I used quite a bit was Momentary Focus. It allowed the locking of focus on a given subject and since I limited the exposure to F5.6, fixing the focus to a certain distance and relying on a large f-stop to keep everything in focus wasn’t always an option, so this feature was very useful.

Continue to the next page for “Observations”

My Observations
I’ll talk about the camera first. The HVR-V1 was the first 1080 progressive scan 3x sensor HDV camera on the market. Read Adam Wilt’s review for the technical details. The low-light performance is very decent as HDV cameras go, but not as fast as the Z1. At 6db, the noise is still very acceptable but the noise reduction is the DSP brings the resolution down quickly after that. Progressive scan does demand more light for the higher resolution. In fact the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) for the V1 is about 54 to 56db at 12db (courtesy of Alan Roberts, technical guru at the BBC), which is about the maximum for HDV format. The Z1, while more sensitive, has a PSNR of 49. So while there may be more noise, the detailed resolution of the V1 has a more detailed picture than the Z1 at 12db gain. Overall, the V1’s resolution is better than the Z1, especially in progressive mode.

The CMOS sensor does remove smearing in bright lights and there are a few more important image controls over the Z1 like knee control. The most notable advantage over the bigger Z1 is the 20x lens, which can only help in macro shots. The 30x digital zoom is surprisingly usable, although I didn’t test it with the Endeavor due to the lack of subjects and lights to make it a good test.
The rolling shutter effect that apparently plagues CMOS sensor cameras was minimal in my tracking shots underwater since I didn’t pan too fast and the distortion underwater is difficult to see. You can find it if you look hard for it but for all intents, it wasn’t a factor in my tests. Another issue is the blocking and artifacting from HDV compression when the scene gets busy. I found it manifesting in topside shots of the choppy seas. It’s noticeable to my semi-trained eye but only truly objectionable if the project is due for filmout. I’ve seen enough blocking on broadcast HDTV productions. Color and inter-frame is the biggest issue. HDV’s 4:2:0 is limited in this respect but with the ability of post-production conversion to various 4:2:2 intra-frame codecs like Apple’s Prores 422 or Avid’s DNxHD, a lot can be done. But expect no miracles.

This capture frame from the V1 shows a bit of blocking on the water. It isn’t objectionable but is there
(click image for larger version)

The V1 is more expensive than the non-progressive FX7, which wasn’t tested but shooting in 60i on the V1 (which would be the same on the FX7), the picture is fine. The FX7 lacks the detailed image controls of the steroidal twin, the V1. Still at under $2800 street, it’s a good 3 sensor HDV camera.

As for the Endeavor, Amphibico dealt with previous issues from their older housings and came up with a solid housing for a good camera. However, as there is no such thing as perfection, there are some drawbacks and compromises to this housing. The Endeavor’s HD monitor is wonderful in resolution compared to the older SD monitors, but it is difficult to see in bright shallow conditions. Is it worth the dollar difference over the standard definition monitor? I think if you are shooting wide angle and use fixed focus and auto mode mostly, and only want the monitor for framing, then the SD monitor should suffice. The HD monitor is more flexible in use. You have higher resolution 16:9 which looks much sharper and focus is easier to see. That’s especially excellent for macro use. The display is crisper and easier to read. It looks as good as the camera’s own LCD, only not as bright.

That brings us back to the shallow water issue for the monitor. I can focus on things precisely at 16cm away from my eye in air and about 20cm in water(water magnification). In order to remove as much outside light as possible in bright conditions, I tried to put my face right as close as possible to the monitor, basically treating it as a large viewfinder. With the reflective nature of the glass, it still wasn’t to see. So the monitor hood/boot could perhaps be deeper to help cut out intrusive light in challenging conditions and perhaps a less reflective glass could be used as well.

Amphibico’s choice to forgo the viewfinder was mainly due to the different height of the viewfinders on FX7 and V1, which meant they’d have to make 2 rear bulkheads. So they built one bulkhead with a monitor back. While not the first to do so, they did compromise the use of a viewfinder.

The housing allows changing tape easily, without fully removing the camera out of the housing.

The Endeavor is pretty much 95% electronic, with just a dial for iris control and 15 buttons that actuate the corresponding functions on the housing. This means the learning curve to work the housing is higher. There are no manual controls that can act as a backup to the electronics as well. The right grip controls did act up 3 times in that I couldn’t actuate the wide control(top left), and the tele (top right) switched to wide. A simple power off and on solved the hiccup but therein lies the fragility of electronic housings. If the LANC board (Sony control system) goes down for whatever reason, it’s done for. It’s very much unlikely to happen, though and the one I was testing was the 1st prototype. I also could not replicate the problem on demand. I put it down to electronic gremlins and it never happened in water.

For someone accustomed to manual controls in forms of knobs for focus and zoom, it took some getting use to change focus and shutter settings by pressing buttons instead of dials. For instance, I couldn’t never get the manual focus controls to get the transition focus shot what I wanted. Specialty shots like transition focus (near subject to far subject or vice versa) were hard for this heavy fingered man. The ± buttons caused the focus jump too fast or slow, depending on where the zoom was. That said, how often do do you shoot those shots? Of the 1+ month, I only attempted that shot twice, when I had a Rhinopia Frondosa in the foreground and a Manta in the background. The manual focus system does lack finesse in general and I gave up trying. Another shot I’d use manual focus control is to track a very small subject while using a diopter due to the lack of DOF. With that, the manual control of the left grip will probably work well enough.

I will say that while the other controls were relatively easy to use, changing settings using the Menu Control Panel’s middle 2 buttons (acting as cursor or number up(-) and down(+)) was difficult as my fingers couldn’t quite comfortably reach the panel’s buttons comfortably and feeling for the right buttons (the middle 2) was slightly difficult.

Camera controls at the back of the housing within reach of the left thumb

The grip control system is comprehensive and complete. A few times, I had accidental power ons while hauling up the camera back onto the boat. The handler would accidentally touch the right grip trigger while storing it away, powering it up. Which is fine for the FX7 since Sony has a low power standby mode but on the V1, the low power mode consumes more because it remains active in standby mode being the pro model. So the monitor also stays operational. It’d be prudent to check that it stays switched off after you get back on the boat less you find you’re out of battery when you need it most. It would’ve happened to me but I always carry spare batteries on the boat while out at sea.

The 94° OPWA on the Endeavor. The big button is the release for the lens mount and must be pressed before the lens will move.

HD Monitor with Histogram On

The HD monitor allows crisper focus check (with the expanded focus feature) and is naturally 16:9 anamorphic. It lacks 4:3 markings (even though the menu on the monitor says it’s available) so for those who shoot SD broadcast will have to stick the markings on the glass yourselves.

In the end, the Endeavor is probably the most compact of the V1/FX7 housings. It’s well featured, handles very well and has few drawbacks, but none that are absolutely major save perhaps the ND filter control. The ND filter control is more crucial to those who shoot in p-scan like 24/25/30P as the strobic effect is more pronounced. In 50/60i, even though the frame rate is 25/29.97 fps, there is very little detrimental effect in using high shutter speeds to control exposure. So the lack of ND filter control will affect V1 users more than the FX7 users. Again, it is very important to know what kind of shooting you’ll be doing and choose the equipment that suits it.

Without having seen other housings for the camera, I cannot comment on how it compares to the others. My complaints of the electronic controls are more applicable to “specialty shots” which are not common underwater and the majority can be overcome with a little ingenuity and work. Testing while on the sardine run also overly emphasized the HD monitor problem in shallow water, since I was above 10m in water A LOT! (Amphibico is working on the hood which facilitates shallow water diving) So despite the very valid issues I’ve mentioned, this housing worked well for me in South Africa for nearly 2 months, despite taking a beating in the daily surf launches. I do recommend it as a good general shooters housing option, especially in the pricey configuration I tested.

If you are considering this housing, I suggest you buy it with the HD monitor and the 94° OPWA. Amphibico has different packages with different ports and monitor backs at various prices points, with SD monitors and a standard flat port as a basic package to the top of the line which I tested. I think the 94° OPWA is the choice lens to have for this housing. They used acrylic instead of glass for weight and cost reasons. The acrylic coating may be more fragile, however in my 22 dives with it, I had to take extra care not to touch it too often and never scratched it. Functionally, it’s versatile, able to shoot medium WA and good medium macro. The standard dome port is better for super macro (especially with an achromatic diopter) but loses about 25% coverage compared to the 94° and there’s the added positive buoyancy to deal with. If you are considering the housing with the dome port for budget reasons and want to shoot WA, plan to upgrade to the 94°. The standard port doesn’t have a good FOV. Unfortunately for those who are thinking of other housings, there aren’t many good alternatives that can match the versatility of the 94° in the $2800 price range (there are lenses which do for more money).

Frame capture at 1440x1080 shows why HDV can fit into a 25mbps stream
(click image for larger version)

Thanks to Joe Bendahan of Amphibico for his tremendous help in setting up this review. 

This is the breakdown of the major Pros and Cons of the Endeavor housing. This isn’t a cheat sheet/cliff notes so you’d only lose out if you don’t read the review.

Pros:
• Very good handling and balance (Would’ve been excellent if there wasn’t that left tilt)
• Versatile 94° OPWA lens (works for medium WA to medium macro), vignette free
• Compact and light (about 12kg, and fits in a Pelican 1620 case, good for traveling)
• Access to custom picture profiles (for greater image control like knee control etc)
• One push Electronic WB that works.
• Plenty of useful controls all within reach (although not always easily) of your fingertips. 
• Good super macro choice with 20x (30x with digital zoom with a noticeable drop in resolution) lens and +X power diopter (which should fit in the standard dome port) and the use of expanded focus mode for accurate focusing.

Neutrals :
• Electronic Controls: Learning curve is relatively high with secondary functions in shift modes etc.
• Somewhat Pricey, especially for the 94° OWA and HD monitor as tested. (It is priced similarly to other brands with aluminum housings and electronic controls.)

Cons:
• No ND filter access!
• Shallow water viewing of the HD monitor back can be difficult, especially with the sun behind. Too much reflection and screen isn’t bright enough.
• Using the menu control panel to change settings for SHUTTER, GAIN, WB and Picture Profiles is cumbersome to use frequently. (If like many, you shoot auto everything, then it’s not a major issue as the V1 allows some control over auto modes)
• Higher maintenance 94°OPWA lens. (I was warned by the manufacturer NOT to scratch the port) . It also has low quality cover. A soft rubber cover with hardened exterior would make it safer for packing and storage. For a high dollar option, it should come with a proper cover/case.
• Manual Focus: Lacks finesse and difficult to use.
• Plastic URPro red filter drops resolution and increases birefringence. They should provide the glass version.

Minor issues (possibly due to the housing being the prototype)
• Rubber feet came off on arrival (and I never replaced them).
• Right electronic grip went haywire 3 times in 4 weeks ( no zoom control), forcing a shutdown reset each time to solve the problem.
• A gear in the Iris control assembly fell off repeatedly (mostly in transport). It seemed to be missing a retaining shim to keep it in place.

Sony HVR-DR60
Another little contraption I brought along was the Sony HVR-DR60, which is a harddrive recorder/playback unit Sony released along with the HVR-V1. The one feature I was very interested for use in Africa was the 14 second cache recording that it had. Basically if you point the camera, the DR60 will continuous record on disk cache. When you hit the REC button, it’ll load the last 14 seconds along as a separate file. This means the DR60 allows .mt2 files to be stored in folders, much like the P2 system of Panasonic. This really helps in the workflow.

The DR60 uses the same L type batteries as the HVR-V1 and Z1 and lasts over 400 mins on the F970 battery. It can store up to 270mins of HDV 1080i or DV. With the HVR-V1, you can even record directly to the DR60 without a tape in the camera. For timelapse recording, this would be great both to save the recording head of the camera and allow for longer periods of recording.

Field Test
I was so excited with the simplicity of the setup of the DR60 I decided to be stupid and not read the manual fully. I used it with a HVR-A1 and V1. Setting up was supereasy. Connect the firewire cables, turn on the camera’s iLink and it’s done. You can turn off the cache recording, the backlight of the LCD readout and the 3G sensor, which is basically a Y axis accelerometer which disconnects the harddrive spindle if it thinks it’s dropping.

Since I was on a boat, I turned off the 3G sensor, just in case it decides that a 2ft drop in elevation from the chop is a fall.

The DR60’s LCD menu and front. You can manually record to the drive as well

After setting it up, it’s good to go. There’s a symbol which tells you if the camera link is good and there’s a on/off button for the camera link as well. The menu scroll is done on the side and while the buttons are small, they were easy to access.

I used the cache recording function to record whale breaches since letting the camera run was a big waste of battery and tape. I had about 20+ breaches I recorded with the cache function, including 2 double breaches… or so I thought. I looked at the clips and I missed out right in the middle of the breach every time! Turns out in the manual somewhere, it says there is a 0.5 sec delay once you hit the REC button where both camera and drive STOP recording! After seeing how the Phantom HD and other cache recording cameras work, I just assumed there would be no delay… OPPS!

Once I managed to resist tempation to hit the REC button whenever I see action, allowing the action to pass on at least 5 sec before hitting REC, the system is actually very good. 14 seconds is a great buffer for stuff like whale breaches and the like.

The DR60 also works as a harddrive when linked to a computer. Pulling the HDV files out is like any computer drive, you open the folders out and copy it to your destination folder. As of now, there is no direct interface with any NLE to extract files like the P2 system.

There are of course some drawbacks, one quite serious as well. In my 2 months of use, the DR60 got corrupted 4 times, requiring a format each time to clear it. Each time the drive seized up while connected to the camera. The previous files were still on the drive but it would not record, giving an error instead. Perhaps the jostling of the camera caused the spindle to skip or something, but it was VERY annoying. I’ll trying it with 3G turned on next time to see if there is a difference.

DR60 has its main controls for power, menu control and Camera link are to the left side of the unit.

Another annoyance (less so of a problem) is the mode switch. You can switch the camera to HDD or video mode or OFF. You have to push the green button on the slider to switch modes, but flick at the slider and it does it without the green button push. The slider switch is pretty imprecise with no real click to denote what mode it’s in. Many times I turned it off and it would switch to HDD mode or stay on. You really have to watch the LCD screen turn off.

Otherwise, the little nifty device is pretty good. It comes with a L bracket to mount on the camera and fastens tightly. It does make the camera more front heavy obviously and using it with the V1, I did get tired after several hours of hand holding. Is it worth the $1600 price tag? If you shoot anything that requires cache or backup recording, it is not the only choice for Sony HDV cameras. The workflow advantages are also there. It’s a little big to fit in most housings with a big battery but a small F550 could make it easier. However if you use Final Cut Pro, you have to convert the .m2t files into Quicktime .mov files before you can edit them. This is more an issue for Apple than Sony but is still nonetheless a huge problem. One workaround is to use MPEG Streamclip to convert the files.

There are definitely other alternatives including the excellent Focus Enhancement FS4Pro HD but none offer the elegant solution and the use of Sony batteries, not to mention the 14 second cache recording. So despite the failures and cheap slider switch, the DR60 is worth it for those extended seeking cache recording.

Pros:
• 14 second cache recording
• Easy filing system for workflow
• Easy to setup with Sony cameras
• Uncomplicated ergonomics
• 3G sensor for great data protection in case of drops
• Mounting accessories all included

Neutrals:
• 60GB is small for $1600.

Cons
• Harddrive corrupted 4 times while in use, requiring a reformat.
• 0.5 sec delay in cache recording mode.
• Mode slider switch is loose and undefined, requiring a check to see if it is OFF.
• No tapeless recording for older Sony cameras.
• .m2t files not compatible with Apple’s Final Cut Pro without conversion.