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The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Seacam is great but equally we have had no issues with Subal or Aquatica. Main thing is to have manual lens control options for the port extenders and not all manufacturers have this option. Current DSLR's in use here are Canon 5D 2 and 5D 3 in Aquatica housings and Canon 1D4 in Subal. The 1D4 set up was used for the 2012 Olympic opening sequence for one broadcaster. I did see a Nautiucam housing at a show recent,y which looked OK. We fit the Gates seal check system to all our DSLR housings which helps reliability and confidence.
 
Electronics : to be or not to be ?

It sure would be nice to think that the housing handles & controls stay as-is and the electronics control the Epic (can allow for perfect ergonomics) ... RELIABILITY remains an open question in my mind.
I read comments that suggest 'no RedMote' ... I was under the impression that RED are about to launch the API to drive the camera via the USB socket on the RedMote, but no news yet (I gather the T&C's are being firmed up). I am considering it (and use something like the RaspberryPie with the inbuilt GPIO to drive the RED API via (I assume) a Command Line Interface; but this is all early days assumption on my part at the moment. So, to my knowledge, the RedMote will still be required ... or do any of you know otherwise ? If so, how is the Epic being driven ?

In the meantime ... @ my end, development continues to have the necessary manual control in place ;-)
 
Try a Seacam (Austrian manufacturer) Its the only housing maker I know has one for the 1DX. Port wise. If you plan to use cine lenses then ports has to be custom made. Seacam have a big selection of optical glass domes and flat ports but all for digital still lenses like the EOS and Nikkor. Gears for these lenses are not the right pitch.
As for GH3 most likely all major UW housing will make one for this 4/3 Pany.

Cheers

David
 
Agreed about Seacam ... just sold my 6+ year old Seacam for 1Dsii ... fab housings, but depending on your needs, zoom &/or focus control is a matter of a custom port (one or other will need to be put in the custom port. All boils down to what you use/need the housing for ...
GH2 and GH3 could (should) be very small units ;-)
 
Regarding Amphibico electronic grips, I just received a message from them that they did have some problems with the older plastic-shelled grips over the years, although not as many as the publicity would suggest.

In any event, the Rouge has aluminum-shelled grips, which should make them bullet-proof (and water tight).
 
Regarding Amphibico electronic grips, I just received a message from them that they did have some problems with the older plastic-shelled grips over the years, although not as many as the publicity would suggest.

In any event, the Rouge has aluminum-shelled grips, which should make them bullet-proof (and water tight).
Seeing is believing!
 
the Rouge has aluminum-shelled grips, which should make them bullet-proof (and water tight).

That would be great if they would guarantee it for some length of time....but as Ross says.... and "should" is just not good enough.
 
I still don't like electronics at the bottom of a housing but electronics with in the housing is fine on the basis the camera it self is electronic anyway.

There really should be some sort of way of using magnetic reid switches or some such to use electronic controls on hand grips to avoid through hull controls, but also I should say the only leak we have had on a dynamic O ring control from any manufacturer is on a Gopro housing. The gates housings we have have, There are several here, never caused a contol button issue and as yet neither have any of our DSLR housings.
 
Gentlemen,

In light of the recent shutdown of the old thread, I was thinking, would you all like to have a dedicated forum on UnderwaterCinema.com? It would be more than just a thread or even a section, but a whole forum with sections for different subjects, including classifieds, company postings, videos, etc, etc, etc? We can all come to Reduser and I suspect that most, if not all of us, will, but a specialized forum for us underwater shooters might be a good thing after all. Let me know, if you all think you can use it, then I'll make it happen.

Thanks,
 
AMPHIBICO ROUGE WARRANTY UPDATE

This just in, Amphibico is now offering a full two-year warranty on the Rouge housing, great to see they are standing solidly behind the product.
 
First let me say I am happy that to see a new thread up. I have wanted to participate more in the discussions prior but was really turned off by the tone of the old thread. Being on the verge of making the jump to the Epic for sometime now, I've been waiting and wanting to have the versatility in a housing like the HD Amphibicam. I have been shooting with the HD Amphibicam since 2003 and have owned one for a number of years as well. Indeed I have had issues with the VH1000 and the PD150 housings as far as the button controls on the handles, however I have nothing but positives to say about the HD Amphibicam housing and the fine finger tip controls with which it is equipped. Never a problem with any of it. I do carry spares for all the electronics into the field, which it not a comment on the quality of the equipment but rather, I feel, just a smart way to operate. As most of you I do not like leaving things to chance. I can tell you that there a at least a few people who have been on the fence about making the move and the potential of the Rouge housing has us all very interested. I look forward to getting some reports from the field and the testers.
 
First let me say I am happy that to see a new thread up. I have wanted to participate more in the discussions prior but was really turned off by the tone of the old thread. Being on the verge of making the jump to the Epic for sometime now, I've been waiting and wanting to have the versatility in a housing like the HD Amphibicam. I have been shooting with the HD Amphibicam since 2003 and have owned one for a number of years as well. Indeed I have had issues with the VH1000 and the PD150 housings as far as the button controls on the handles, however I have nothing but positives to say about the HD Amphibicam housing and the fine finger tip controls with which it is equipped. Never a problem with any of it. I do carry spares for all the electronics into the field, which it not a comment on the quality of the equipment but rather, I feel, just a smart way to operate. As most of you I do not like leaving things to chance. I can tell you that there a at least a few people who have been on the fence about making the move and the potential of the Rouge housing has us all very interested. I look forward to getting some reports from the field and the testers.

Welcome, happy you are here.
 
First let me say I am happy that to see a new thread up. I have wanted to participate more in the discussions prior but was really turned off by the tone of the old thread. Being on the verge of making the jump to the Epic for sometime now, I've been waiting and wanting to have the versatility in a housing like the HD Amphibicam...

Welcome to the board, Matt.

Amphibicam was indeed very versitile housing with many advantages but also had some drawbacks.
I think some of the advantages that you are going to miss would be: the ability to zoom, good ergonomics, low geometric distortions, no image plane curvature and relatively sharp image across the entire frame. It was however a very heavy housing, the optics exhibited strong flaring and contrast was relatively low to my eye. Overall, I think it was a good housing and certainly innovative. Many respected u/w film makers use Amphibicam to this day with great results.
 
Thank you for the welcome gentlemen. I agree that there are some advantages of the HD Amphibicam that will not be present in an Epic underwater system. However there is one aspect that I particularly like about the HD Amphibicam that I would like to have in an Epic housing. Focus, iris, and rec at your finger tips so there is no need to remove your hands from the handles.
If anyone has the oppotunity I'd like to hear experience and throughts from those of you who have used the different Epic housings in the field on this topic.
 
Matt,
I'm sure many will agree that no matter what housing you are using....that you are completely familiar with it and put in many many hours of use/training and instinctively know where your controls are located and how to pull focus/iris without ruining the shot. This is all just a matter of spending loads of time in the water and learning your housing---again, does not matter what housing. That said, it's a very big benefit to have all controls at your fingertips.
 
OMG we are up to 4 pages no insults, bloody great, I'm looking forward to a constructive, supportive thread. Loved you Great white stills Johnny BTW absolutely stunning
 
Matt,
I'm sure many will agree that no matter what housing you are using....that you are completely familiar with it and put in many many hours of use/training and instinctively know where your controls are located and how to pull focus/iris without ruining the shot. This is all just a matter of spending loads of time in the water and learning your housing---again, does not matter what housing. That said, it's a very big benefit to have all controls at your fingertips.

Johnny,
Thanks for the input. I'm totally with you on this. No matter what system I invest in I will need to put in the time and effort to become proficient with the setup. Thankfully I live in a place where ocean access and time in the water are easy to be had. The big question is which housing?
 
Thank you for the welcome gentlemen. I agree that there are some advantages of the HD Amphibicam that will not be present in an Epic underwater system. However there is one aspect that I particularly like about the HD Amphibicam that I would like to have in an Epic housing. Focus, iris, and rec at your finger tips so there is no need to remove your hands from the handles.
If anyone has the oppotunity I'd like to hear experience and throughts from those of you who have used the different Epic housings in the field on this topic.

I’m obviously biased having a horse in this race, but having built a dream housing to meet my own requirements my priorities were more towards the smaller size. And, here is why.

Large, long housings particularly used for ENG cameras are almost impossible to adjust the lens iris/focus if lens controls are located at the front. They often measure more than 60cm in length. My HDCAM housing was more than 80cm long. My arms are just not long enough :)

So, the need for servos, servo controllers, more weight, bigger size, more things to go wrong, and all the controls need to be located at the rear end, including grips. However, when the housing is small, say 30cm (just over a 1 foot) long, this is not so much of an issue. With small size comes the ability to reach any buttons regardless where they are located.

It was important to me to be able to operate the housing with dry gloves in Antarctica. So, the buttons needed to be spaced far apart and this requirement often contradicts having all controls at your fingertips.

I guess each housing dictates your shooting style that may or may not suit individual needs. There will always be some trade-offs for certain applications. In general, it is always good for the housing to allow as much flexibility and as many different configurations as possible.

Attached: me shooting with a long housing and a short one - different filming positions, different shooting techniques and ergonomics.

Notice that short housing allows easy reach (even wearing a dry suit) to front controls without the need to take your eyes off the monitor.
 

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