The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

[Jon Shaw]

Tom, Just stick a hole in it and it will drain, when on the boat I always carry a bottle of fresh water which I chuck over the port and then stick the port cover back on.

Thanks for the link Mike.

 

[Rudi Herbert]

Pawel,

All things being equal, that is, still or cinema lenses used behind a dome, then we are talking about the lenses and not their performance, or lack thereof, underwater. Good glass is good glass, and theoretically, any well constructed lens that uses good glass elements should be able to resolve, or outresolve, any sensor density or pixel size. I think it is the lack of corrective elements/aspherical glass in some lenses' design that yields poor corners and other distortions. But aspherical glass is expensive. Ironically, your much touted Nikonos 15mm accomplishes all of its magic with nary an aspherical element, and even the dome front element is actually a concentric, spherical dome, so Nikon figured out long ago how to cure underwater maladies in the simplest, yet most effective, way possible.

Tom,

Do cover the dome when transferring to/from water, never leave it exposed. Rinse with fresh water as per Jon's suggestions, and if you want the certainty that you have removed all residues, then spray with Purosol http://www.adorama.com/CPPSM16.html?gclid=CPOvycjmrrcCFeLm7AodMlkASA prior to the fresh water, leave purosol on for 5 minutes, then rinse. Perfectly clean and good as new.

 

[Johnny Friday]

I'll add to the water on dome port and give you the cheap guy approach....i've replaced a number of glass domes and had plenty of anti-reflective coatings falll off....in fact i remove any AR coatings on outside of my dome port (rather have them removed); and after every dive, i spray down with 91% alocohol - Cost $1.99 per large bottle and that's it....displaces water and keeps salt from curing on the dome port. Any AR coatings will have their problems in salt water no matter how much the tout how good it is...and salt is the great equalizer as are hard based fresh waters with lots of calcium in the water...mexico to name but one.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Thanks Rudi, Johnny, Jon. Johnny, can I reduce travel weight by using multipurpose Stolichnaya?

Gorgeous images Mauricio, can I ask what camera settings you were using? I'm in the Bahamas at the moment with a client, off to Roatan tomorrow to film the Caribbean Cup free dive championship, would love to produce something close to your stuff.

 

[Michael Maes]

Hey All,

would like your collective opinion here, installing the dome port cover underwater before handing the cam up to the boat crew, does that trap salt inside that could potentially damage the dome?

Thanks

I always do that Tom and afterwards I rinse all off.
Never had an issue.
FYI: I have the Gates hard-covers so... they don't touch the glass.
Not sure what cover the Amphibico uses though.

 

[Mauricio Handler]

Thanks Tom - settings using Scarlet 4KHD - 640ISO f5.6-7 30fps 1/125th
best of luck- keep in mind your water if sunny will be much clearer.

 

[Greg F]

I'll add to the water on dome port and give you the cheap guy approach....i've replaced a number of glass domes and had plenty of anti-reflective coatings falll off....in fact i remove any AR coatings on outside of my dome port (rather have them removed); and after every dive, i spray down with 91% alocohol - Cost $1.99 per large bottle and that's it....displaces water and keeps salt from curing on the dome port. Any AR coatings will have their problems in salt water no matter how much the tout how good it is...and salt is the great equalizer as are hard based fresh waters with lots of calcium in the water...mexico to name but one.

Please elaborate Johnny?

 

[Pawel Achtel]

I rinse thoroughly with pure water (rain water) as we have ample supply of it.
Avoid anything touching or rubbing the dome.

 

[John J Ellerbrock]

I'll add to the water on dome port and give you the cheap guy approach....i've replaced a number of glass domes and had plenty of anti-reflective coatings falll off....in fact i remove any AR coatings on outside of my dome port (rather have them removed); and after every dive, i spray down with 91% alocohol - Cost $1.99 per large bottle and that's it....displaces water and keeps salt from curing on the dome port. Any AR coatings will have their problems in salt water no matter how much the tout how good it is...and salt is the great equalizer as are hard based fresh waters with lots of calcium in the water...mexico to name but one.

We stopped coating CX side of the dome a couple years ago because a) sooner or later salt water takes it's toll; and b) the gain of an AR coating on the water-glass interface is minimal. Harald @ Seacam (a brilliant engineer, whom I respect greatly) learned this long ago, and no longer coats the exterior of the dome.

Hey All,

would like your collective opinion here, installing the dome port cover underwater before handing the cam up to the boat crew, does that trap salt inside that could potentially damage the dome?

Thanks

Tom, somewhere on your housing is zinc. It prohibits corrosion while in-water. It does not work out of the water (the details of which I won't belabor) where localized corrosion (or glass etching) will occur. Hence the need for rinsing -- or as Johnny does - displace the Salt Water.

(Technically speaking the zinc does not prohibit corrosion, but rather corrodes preferentially to the other metals of your housing. Sacrificially, as it were. Poor zinc. We knew thee well.)

 

[Rudi Herbert]

I like the alcohol idea, cheap and effective, BUT don't forget alcohol dries everything it comes in contact with (ironic since we claim to be "dry" when we yearn for alcohol, not that any of the thread memebers would know anything about that and if it finds its way to the o-rings on the dome, it can induce cracks and other irregularities on the surface. I found this out the hard way and to compensate had to lube my o-rings much more frequently, so I changed to Purosol which is a tad gentler. But all of these, water, alcohol or purosol will work if used properly, more importantly though, is the fact that the dome should be protected from possible scratches. Especially with glass domes, once a scratch finds its way to the surface, it will stay there like a dinner guest who won't leave...

 

[Johnny Friday]

Please elaborate Johnny?

Used windex spray bottle filled with bottle of alcohol and spay liberally on glass dome port AFTER a fresh water rinse...is my approach....using the "misting" side from spray bottle not stream side. Therefore displaces most it comes in contact with...and good for dealing with salts that build up on the dome port over time. Then put cover back on and wait for next dunk. Have done this approach for years after having numerous problems with salt build up as well as hard fresh water calcium build up in most 3rd world countries. Each can damage a port.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Thanks John, excellent advice from a someone in the know. Rudi, never occurred to me that alcohol would dry out the O-rings. Have experienced the dry effect in other circumstances, but never made the connection, hard to think straight on those occasional morning afters :-/ I guess.

Yes indeed John, the Rouge has two zinc inserts just aft of the dome port interface. Someone brought up recently though, the zinc sacrificial anode may not be effective in drawing corrosion from the rear housing door, due interference in the electrolysis process from the O-rings. They install zinc washers on such things as rear port shade bolts, or whatever else happens to be handy, to ensure continuity.

Good practice?

 

[Pawel Achtel]

ODEX Seminars at the International Underwater Imaging Symposium

I would like to cordially invite everyone to a couple of seminars I will be presenting at this year's ODEX in Sydney.

1. Underwater Optics - on 7 September 4:00 pm
2. The most innovative underwater housing - on 8 September 10:45 am

Green Seminar Room

We intend to talk about underwater optics and challanges of underwater imaging in general. And, we are going to present 3Deep housing and talk about some innovations that made it the most innovative product at NAB 2013. We intend to show some (world's first and only) true 4k underwater 3D motion picture images and we intend to shoot some 6k 3D footage in the pool.

More information at: http://www.odex.com.au/aqua-shots.html

I believe Jon will be presenting a couple of interesting talks there too

 

[Ross Isaacs]

Thought you guys might enjoy this little clip using our Deep Atom out at Osprey Reef in the Coral sea if you haven't seen it yet.

https://vimeo.com/66777906

 

[Greg F]

Used windex spray bottle filled with bottle of alcohol and spay liberally on glass dome port AFTER a fresh water rinse...is my approach....using the "misting" side from spray bottle not stream side. Therefore displaces most it comes in contact with...and good for dealing with salts that build up on the dome port over time. Then put cover back on and wait for next dunk. Have done this approach for years after having numerous problems with salt build up as well as hard fresh water calcium build up in most 3rd world countries. Each can damage a port.

This will become part of my standard dive package

Thought you guys might enjoy this little clip using our Deep Atom out at Osprey Reef in the Coral sea if you haven't seen it yet.

https://vimeo.com/66777906

Vimeo is broken for me right now.. from what I could see it looks really neat!

 

[Pawel Achtel]

A frame grab from true 8k motion picture with no distortions, no aberrations and no image plane curvature:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/achtel/8839311952/

Greetings from sunny Tasmania

 

[John J Ellerbrock]

Thanks John, excellent advice from a someone in the know. Rudi, never occurred to me that alcohol would dry out the O-rings. Have experienced the dry effect in other circumstances, but never made the connection, hard to think straight on those occasional morning afters :-/ I guess.

Yes indeed John, the Rouge has two zinc inserts just aft of the dome port interface. Someone brought up recently though, the zinc sacrificial anode may not be effective in drawing corrosion from the rear housing door, due interference in the electrolysis process from the O-rings. They install zinc washers on such things as rear port shade bolts, or whatever else happens to be handy, to ensure continuity.

Good practice?

It is indeed necessary to have electrical contact between the zinc and parts of the housing you want to protect. Surely Blake and his team have this considered, and covered.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

It is indeed necessary to have electrical contact between the zinc and parts of the housing you want to protect. Surely Blake and his team have this considered, and covered.

Yes, they do.

Point of discussion only, a housing is only as good as the manufacturer's willingness to make incremental improvements. Being number one doesn't mean you have it all figured out, only means number two hasn't surpassed you, yet.

The O-ring zinc issue was pointed out to me by an individual with considerable experience.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

It is indeed necessary to have electrical contact between the zinc and parts of the housing you want to protect. Surely Blake and his team have this considered, and covered.

If you make housing out of titanium you don't need galvanic (sacrificial) anode...problem solved! :biggrin5:

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Perhaps not the titanium tube Pawel, but when I examined your housing at BandPro in LA last month, I noted the hardware that secures the aft acrylic plate, the handles, and certain components that attach the Nikonos to the front plate, are not Ti.

Any issues there?

Johnny, re dome port cleaning, was only able to find a 50% alcohol solution here in Roatan, hope that suffices. Apparently, the 90% stuff is under ever more control from the US FDA, gets ya dangerously high I guess. BTW, saludos from Maria Theresa. She is one of three judges here at the competition, and a free dive legend in her own right.

TSA out of Miami stole one of my trim weights, specially designed for Rouge, went to a bait and tackle shop for an impromptu field replacement, gotta stay flexible in this game :-/.

Hoping to keep the conversation intelligent, generous, and ever forthcoming.

Kind regards to all, learning never stops.