Underwater Bubble Blowin' Users Group

[Michael Hastings]

Update from AquaVideo

Update from AquaVideo

Hey Mike, sent you a PM last week but have not heard back. Can you e-mail me asap so we can finalise purchase?
best, joe

Lots of stuff going on here on the bubble blowers thread - I have been a little out of touch the last few days but I have an excuse. Since Erik at Birger and then Mark started doing the marriage thing I figured I might as well take the plunge (again) so my girlfriend ---- and I got married on Thursday - simple civil ceremony and a delayed honeymoon, but have been kind of doing the family thing for a few days. We are both very happy.

Anyway, back to work today - I'm prepping a rental for cam and housing tomorrow but Joe I will get your proforma done either today or tonight. I have a unit here that is done except for any custom things you need and a couple more in process so shouldn't delay things.

Indeed !!! ... and the approach I'd like to explore is to have the Nik 15 mounted (re-housed) and mounted on a 'bulkead' and that bulkhead is bolted to an Epic / Scarlet front. The bulkhead would ... a) keep all in perfect register and b) the bulkhead would be the 'port' of the housing.
The 'bulkhead' is essentially in place of a Birger, Red PL mount, etc ... if this makes sense ? Camera hanging off the back and lens off the front ...
I'm currently taking my 15Nik apart ... and doing some 'minimum' tolerance measurements; we have some time to explore options before the FF35 is available.

Mike ... as you have most of the gear ... would be great to get some side by side tests ? Maybe we should pencil in a few days in Florida and have a Red Underwater Bubble Blowin' Users Group :biggrin: good excuse for a few beers in the sun I say ...Cheers ...

David, as far as the Nik 15, what you are talking about is pretty much what I had in mind, and as Rudi said I also think the big advantage of the Nik 15 is that the elements are all perfectly aligned.

I second that!
Mike has a nice place, convenient pool and not far at all to good dive spots. Also decent hotel just around the corner.

What you say Mike?

Amund

As far as the bubble blowers get together I'm all for it. Ken Corben and I discussed this earlier this year but we didn't have as much stuff together (or time), so the time is probably better now. I live in a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale about 15 miles from the Ft. Lauderdale airport and 25 miles from Miami International so access is very easy. I can probably arrange for the use of my pool or we may be able to set something up at one of the hotels right here.

It would be great to do this - as Ken and Amund know I have a lot (way to much) of a variety of ports, AquaLenses, Aquatica housings and other stuff and depending on timing I should have housings plus maybe Ken, Amund and others would bring their rigs too.

I could also easily setup some good dives in the Keys (weather permitting) or if enough interest I could set something up with Stuart Cove over in the Bahamas to do the shark dives and such. Stuart's place is probably the leading underwater film set in the world - so they are very familiar with dealing with the hardcore underwater movie wackos. Maybe this should happen January/February to give people some time to make plans. Post your preferences.

No, no, no.........are you not aware that this could be bad for you.........never ever drink and work. Jeez man, what are you thinking.....
hhehehe hmy: I'm in.

Hey, Mark - my new wife (and stepson) are Firefighter/EMT's - ----'s actually an inspector/assistant fire marshal now, but also does Emergency Medical Training - so I've got the rescue part covered. They both like to drink beer more than I do though, so we may have to assign someone to watch the rescue crew.:biggrin:

BTW, I think we could pretty easily setup for the MP-E65. I will post some photos in the next day or two of the frontplate which besides having the threading for the Aquatica ports, has another seal groove and is setup for other plates that I think would work perfectly for what you describe.

 

[Frazier Nivens]

Congratulations on your marriage, was wondering where you were, I'm in for the Keys or Stuarts, or BOTH. There's a great little hotel close to Stuarts, Orange Hill Beach Inn that's reasonable. If here in the Keys I can set some dives up with Capt. Slates Atlantis Dive Center and find some rooms for everyone. We could probably get our own boat, do the 510 ft. Spiegel Grove, Rebreathers, whatever the Bubble Blowers wants to do. I could probably arrange for us to go to the Aquarius UW Habitat for a dive.

Coming to see you this week if you're available. Will call you,
Frazier

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Frazier,
Good to hear from you, been a while eh? Not sure if I could get over for a few days jollies with the 'Blowers' as there are things going on here. If I could I would.

Mike and Lori - CONGRATULATIONS - well done mate. Hope you are as happy and united as much as Terri and I. Its a great feeling......

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Frazier:

Thanks brother, and as far as the keys you and Slate were who I was going to call to set something up so glad you are on board. I'm here all week, so come on up.

Mark:

Thanks to you and your wife. Hard to have a bubble blowers convention without the original bubble blower so see if there are dates that might work, if not we'll have to buy a blowup doll or something and set it in the corner with a beer mug in its hand.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Frazier: Hard to have a bubble blowers convention without the original bubble blower so see if there are dates that might work, if not we'll have to buy a blowup doll or something and set it in the corner with a beer mug in its hand.

Yeah, and uhhh, make sure thats a cigar in it's mouth.......and nothing else!!!

Cheers, send dates when concrete so I can check.

Best,
Mark.

 

[Matt Ferraro]

Hello all bubble blowers. I have been catching up and reading all the posts from the beginning. Though I do not have a Red I am very curious about the camera and its various applications. From the posts I have read I can tell there is a wealth of knowledge an information contained in this community. My wife and I work for a non-profit in California concerned with marine issues, I as the DP and her as the still photographer. We are both life-long students of photography/film and would love to join you in Florida to participate and learn. Would that be possible?
Matt

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Hello all bubble blowers. I have been catching up and reading all the posts from the beginning.

Hmmm...This brings a suggestion to mind. Can we ask administrators that underwater filming needs a separate forum, rather than a single thread?

 

[Michael Hastings]

We are both life-long students of photography/film and would love to join you in Florida to participate and learn. Would that be possible?
Matt

Assuming we can put something together I'm sure we would all welcome you.

 

[Rudi Herbert]

The whole idea of a housing based on the Nikonos 15mm sounds definitely interesting, at least worth a try. I'm imagining right now a small housing for the FF35 Scarlet and the 15mm out front, who knows, that could turn out to be one excellent solution which, if it even yields 80-90% of the image quality an Arri 8mm and a dome produce, then sign me up, so CamDiver better start buying all 15mm lenses out there

As for a Bubble Blowers meeting, I would love that, and being in Miami, I can do Ft. Lauderdale or the Keys, though I don't think I'd have time for the Bahamas. I can bring my Nikonos RS lenses too, those might also be a nice option, although there are so few of those out there that it might be not worth the effort...But if there's a sort of "universal" coupling for the Nikon mount on the housing, then we could all use whatever lenses we have, including the Sea & Sea 12mm which also makes very nice images, humm, this is sounding more and more like something worth diving into.

 

[Michael Hastings]

The whole idea of a housing based on the Nikonos 15mm sounds definitely interesting, at least worth a try. I'm imagining right now a small housing for the FF35 Scarlet and the 15mm out front, who knows, that could turn out to be one excellent solution which, if it even yields 80-90% of the image quality an Arri 8mm and a dome produce, then sign me up, so CamDiver better start buying all 15mm lenses out there

As for a Bubble Blowers meeting, I would love that, and being in Miami, I can do Ft. Lauderdale or the Keys, though I don't think I'd have time for the Bahamas. I can bring my Nikonos RS lenses too, those might also be a nice option, although there are so few of those out there that it might be not worth the effort...But if there's a sort of "universal" coupling for the Nikon mount on the housing, then we could all use whatever lenses we have, including the Sea & Sea 12mm which also makes very nice images, humm, this is sounding more and more like something worth diving into.

Rudi:

We might want to get together if you really want to pursue it. Does anyone know where I can get a drawing of the nikon mount with dimensions, flange focal distance, etc.?

Because of the way the 15 works I believe this would probably require dedicating a scarlet (front mount removed) to be bolted to the front plate so not necessarily an easy changeover from regular to underwater - not impossible just might take a half hour each time.

One cool thing is I have a bunch of the AquaLens setups from when I bought out Helix so you could easily put regular surface lenses on it as well by using the AquaLens which goes into the Nikonos mount and then has a regular Nikon mount on it and a screw thread for using the dome ports, macro ports, etc. It has built in gears for focus and iris.

Does anyone have any surplus Nikonos bodies lenses we could use for experimenting. It can be a flooded one, just so the mount area is good. Same with the lenses.

 

[Rudi Herbert]

Aqua,

Darn it, all my underwater photo gear is in europe at the moment (except my Nikonos RS body and lenses but I have those up for sale so I don't want to promise them), but I should travel there around Christmas, so I could bring a few bodies and lenses back. Getting dimensions for the 15mm lens should not be difficult, I think Stephen Frink or one of the other guys in the Keys has blueprints on the majority of the Nikon glass. However, having to have a Scarlet to figure out the front of the housing should prove, of course, considerably more difficult. I will call around in the meantime and see if I can find a body and a couple of lenses and let you know.

 

[Matt Ferraro]

I have a Nikonos V body and a 20mm lens to contribute to the cause, but I am out of town until mid December. Let me know if this will help I would be happy to send it off when I get home.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

.....so CamDiver better start buying all 15mm lenses out there .........

I've already got mine, and in pristine condition.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

BTW, I think we could pretty easily setup for the MP-E65. I will post some photos in the next day or two of the frontplate which besides having the threading for the Aquatica ports, has another seal groove and is setup for other plates that I think would work perfectly for what you describe.

Keep me posted on your findings Mike. Would love to think of a way to effectively house this lens.......

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Ken Corben]

Mike,

I'll send you one of my first generation Nikonos 15mm Lenses for "experimenting." Fun idea...

K

 

[Michael Hastings]

Keep me posted on your findings Mike. Would love to think of a way to effectively house this lens....... Cheers, Mark.

Mark: Getting the MP-E 65 housed should be relatively easy with the current design, maybe just a slight shift in where we mount the camera - just would need to get my hands on the lens for a day or so to do some measurements and see what we would need to gear it up. Are you anywhere where you could get the lens to me?

The other part would be the ring light and I would want to investigate building the lcds into a frontplate/port. That might take a little longer as I haven't played much with the LCDs yet.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Mike,
I'll send you one of my first generation Nikonos 15mm Lenses for "experimenting." Fun idea...
K

Cool, I should also contact Mike Mesgleski that does Nikonos Repair he might have some broken nikonos's around and he is a good resource for repair or tuneup of your lenses. Haven't talked to him in a long time, but I think he would remember me.

10044 SW 221 Street Miami, FL 33190 305-234-0903
http://www.underwatercamerarepair.com/

 

[C.H.Haskell]

I will be in Harbour island bahamas next week if anyone is down there....let me know. Cheers.

 

[Frazier Nivens]

Hi All,

I have a Nik 15mm lens that I can take up to Mike when he's got the time to work with it. With work may not get to come up till 2nd week of Dec. I'll leave it with you if need be.

I also would be interested in the Canon MP-E65 Macro lens setup. Fully extended at 5X it's quite the long lens. I'm sure Mike can figure out a way to house it, but then we'd need a tripod for sure at this extreme. Any movement would be challenging I believe. But it would make for some outstanding imaging.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Hi All,

I have a Nik 15mm lens that I can take up to Mike when he's got the time to work with it. With work may not get to come up till 2nd week of Dec. I'll leave it with you if need be.

I also would be interested in the Canon MP-E65 Macro lens setup. Fully extended at 5X it's quite the long lens. I'm sure Mike can figure out a way to house it, but then we'd need a tripod for sure at this extreme. Any movement would be challenging I believe. But it would make for some outstanding imaging.

The MP-E 65 might not be as practical as I thought. I had forgotten that it extends (I have the 100mm Macro but it stays the same length) so given that the subjects would be extremely close we would have to have some sort of extensible port (not impossible - it could be like a telescoping tube set with piston type o-rings - but either quite expensive or someone would have to do it as a hobby-type venture. Our standard frontplate is pretty easy to adapt things too since it has multiple port sealing options and I have predrilled and tap holes around the second seal to make it easy to attach whatever you want.) or you would just have to choose a particular extension and an appropriate regular port. In other words if what you are really after is the max magnification since you can't get that with other lenses it wouldn't be hard, but if you want to adjust magnification underwater it might require the telescoping port as well.

I would have to play with the lens to see how close you need to be for a given magnification, but I suspect I am going to stick with the simpler macro setups to start.