Dome or flat, and lighting

[Phil Rudin 426]

8 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

By the way, if you don't mind me asking, do you have any plans to review the newer SeaFrogs housings?

I contacted SeaFrogs last winter and requested a loan of equipment for review and the reply was that they were not interested. I would be happy to review the latest Sony A7C housing because I own the camera and some of the supported lenses including the 26-60 for the new SF flat port. 

[hyp 104]

12 hours ago, Phil Rudin said:

I contacted SeaFrogs last winter and requested a loan of equipment for review and the reply was that they were not interested. I would be happy to review the latest Sony A7C housing because I own the camera and some of the supported lenses including the 26-60 for the new SF flat port. 

Sometimes I get the feeling UW photo manufacturers don’t actually want to sell their products…

[ashic 1]

Absolutely ridiculous. I can think of two reasons for this:
 

1. They're clueless and don't realise an even "moderately good" rating from Phil would boost their sales significantly considering the extreme costs of the "good" housings. 

2. They fear a terrible review because they're obviously not in the same league as Nauticam, etc. 

 

Now (for the time being), I'll happily stay on the Seafrogs as I don't dive and shoot underwater often enough to justify the cost, and I imagine there's many out there who are similar. As such, not providing a pretty cheap review unit seems plain dumb. 

[newdiver 5]

I haven't used Nauticam housing so can't comment on the comparison, however my Fantasea housing for RX100VI is miles ahead of Seafrogs A7III housing in-terms of overall quality. The camera doesn't fit flash to align all the button and dials and therefore a lot of turning and twisting to change the settings. As an example the mode dial, I had to keep turning it a dozen times to engage it and once it did, it would skip several dials and get me to a mode I didn't want. 

I contacted Seafrogs support who sent me spare dials to replace it and it didn't help, since the issue is the actual camera not seating all the way in and flash where the dials are properly aligned. 

 

[ashic 1]

On 10/8/2021 at 1:46 AM, newdiver said:

I haven't used Nauticam housing so can't comment on the comparison, however my Fantasea housing for RX100VI is miles ahead of Seafrogs A7III housing in-terms of overall quality. The camera doesn't fit flash to align all the button and dials and therefore a lot of turning and twisting to change the settings. As an example the mode dial, I had to keep turning it a dozen times to engage it and once it did, it would skip several dials and get me to a mode I didn't want. 

I contacted Seafrogs support who sent me spare dials to replace it and it didn't help, since the issue is the actual camera not seating all the way in and flash where the dials are properly aligned. 

 

It sounds like an alignment issue. Do you have a cover on the camera? Are all the rubber inserts in the housing in tact / in place? I've had an issue with the 16-35GM zoom gear where it'd just slip from time to time even if fixed with the top lever thing. I added some tape under two of the rubber pads in the gear and that seems to create enough grip for it not to slip. Similarly, I have some issues with the power lever, and I resolved that by adding a bit of tape on top of the bottom right rubber to elevate the camera slightly, and that solved it for me. 

Yes, these things shouldn't happen, but the damn thing's been watertight for quite a few dives now, and it's only £500 or so. You get what you pay for I guess, and for the price, it's pretty decent. Just needs a bit of diy to resolve the issues - which I think vary from unit to unit. Once I figured out the problems, I just spent about an hour on land tweaking tape here and there until everything worked. And it did!

[newdiver 5]

On 10/9/2021 at 12:31 PM, ashic said:

It sounds like an alignment issue. Do you have a cover on the camera? Are all the rubber inserts in the housing in tact / in place? I've had an issue with the 16-35GM zoom gear where it'd just slip from time to time even if fixed with the top lever thing. I added some tape under two of the rubber pads in the gear and that seems to create enough grip for it not to slip. Similarly, I have some issues with the power lever, and I resolved that by adding a bit of tape on top of the bottom right rubber to elevate the camera slightly, and that solved it for me. 

Yes, these things shouldn't happen, but the damn thing's been watertight for quite a few dives now, and it's only £500 or so. You get what you pay for I guess, and for the price, it's pretty decent. Just needs a bit of diy to resolve the issues - which I think vary from unit to unit. Once I figured out the problems, I just spent about an hour on land tweaking tape here and there until everything worked. And it did!

It is an alignment issue and it is how it looked in their video of the a7iii housing they sent me. There are no covers on the camera obviously and I have removed the rubbers one by one and it just doesn't sit flash against the dials.