The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

[Pawel Achtel]

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?

As usual your assumptions are incorrect, Tom.

The handles of all our housings are made out of Titanium.

Our flagship 3Deep housing is made entirely out of Titanium including lens mount components, back plate, front plate and all fasteners.

We do not use acrylic in our housings as we believe it is not suitable for such application.

Best Fishes from Tasmania!

 

[Tom Hamilton]

PS, fourteen (14) world free dive records were posted here yesterday at the competition.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

As usual your assumptions are incorrect, Tom.

The handles of all our housings are made out of Titanium.

Our flagship 3Deep housing is made entirely out of Titanium including lens mount components, back plate, front plate and all fasteners.

We do not use acrylic in our housings as we believe it is not suitable for such application.

Best Fishes from Tasmania!

Then, Pawel, I stand humbly corrected. Please accept my apologies.

What is the material you use for the back plate?

 

[Pawel Achtel]

No worries, Tom. :thumbsup:

What is the material you use for the back plate?

It's a rare form of "Unobtainium" that does not suffer from the inherent problems exhibited by acrylic. :lipsrsealed:


The two can be easily differentiated by using a sledge hammer. LOL

 

[Ross Isaacs]

I use a compressed air nozzle to blast away all unwanted water from the port after each dive or after washing housing.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

I use a compressed air nozzle to blast away all unwanted water from the port after each dive or after washing housing.

Ross, just wondering if this air/salt water/sand blasting method is what your housing manufacturer recommends or your own improvement? LOL

 

[Ross Isaacs]

Relax and take a sedative Pawel I think your overly excited :emote_happyhappy:

 

[James Killion]

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

Looks like fun times Ross!

 

[Ross Isaacs]

Looks like fun times Ross!

Yes it was very pleasurable using the Megs out at Osprey Reef on that sheer wall that plummets some 2,000 meters vertically into the abyss. The Deep Atom performed faultlessly and my 3D crew is now trained and up to speed for the big productions we are scheduled to shoot in the near future. Actually all of the Deep Atoms that are working in the field are all producing extraordinary 3D footage and my hat goes off to John Ellerbrock and his design team for producing this state of the art 3D camera system which is actually working on various high end projects around the world.

 

[Michael Hastings]

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

Same is true of PVC ;-) Lightweight, strong, lasts for thousands of years....

 

[Michael Hastings]

Then, Pawel, I stand humbly corrected. Please accept my apologies.

What is the material you use for the back plate?

No worries, Tom. :thumbsup:



It's a rare form of "Unobtainium" that does not suffer from the inherent problems exhibited by acrylic. :lipsrsealed:


The two can be easily differentiated by using a sledge hammer. LOL

I can't speak for Pawel's housing since I didn't check that material when I saw the DeepX, but it is general practice to use Polycarbonate instead of acrylic for pieces that need to be clear but will have things like o-ring grooves, control passthroughs, fairly closely spaced drill holes, etc. where there would be a significant chance of the acrylic cracking as it is more brittle (somewhat like glass) .

Polycarbonate is more like PVC where it is sort of "gummy" and tends to give a bit rather than crack. It can still crack but not as easily. Polycarbonate is generally not as clear as acrylic, most of the thicker industrial use Poly usually has a bluish cast, so it isn't as good for optical use but of course this isn't a hard and fast rule as they make polycarbonate eyeglasses. Again, none of these things are hard and fast rules when discussing things like large classes of materials like PVC, acrylic, polycarbonate as there are numerous formulations and grades that have different amounts of plasticizers which makes them more or less brittle.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

The tensile strength of acrylic and polycarbonate is about 55–75 MPa. The tensile strength of PVC is only about 44 MPa. The "Unobtainium" is about 400% stronger

 

[Johnny Friday]

The tensile strength of acrylic and polycarbonate is about 55–75 MPa. The tensile strength of PVC is only about 44 MPa. The "Unobtainium" is about 400% stronger

....and why is this so important? This discussion seems to be non-sensical now....so if i drop the pvc housing or aluminum housing or the titanium housing...i guess i'm ok....as long as my camera was not inside.
Hopefully this discussion will die and move on to something more interesting.... uke:

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Relax and take a sedative Pawel I think your overly excited :emote_happyhappy:

I just wanted to make sure that some other drongo doesn't feel that blasting compressed air on the optical port to blow off salt water off the optics and housing is a good idea. That's all. ;-)

I'm totally relaxed as we now have all the hardware components for our u/w colour science project. We just did the bench testing. Yes, it is very exciting as we can now reproduce colours underwater like never before.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

....and why is this so important?
....Hopefully this discussion will die and move on to something more interesting.... uke:

Some housings require a crane to lift and are limited to 30m of water, others can be effortlesly picked up by 5-year olds and are strong enough to go down to 100m and this may be of interst to some readers.

Some housings can break to small pieces catastrophically, some won't. Some people, like me, prefer the later.

Some housings will rot away in a matter of months, some will last for 100 years and still look as new. Some people care about it.

There are several housing manufacturers on this forum that are interested in this topic. Each have their own solutions, weaknesses and strengths. We all try to outsmart each other for a better outcome. It's a good thing.

If it is not interesting to you, don't read it. Some people are less ignorant about technology, the materials used in construction of their housings and the reasons behind it. They like to make better and informed decisions.

Certainly your post did not contribute anything useful to anyone.

 

[Greg F]

That sucks tom about the weight....

This is video of my first 3 months using my Red. I hope you enjoy it

All the new footage has no vignetting, newer footage also is much cleaner.

 

[Johnny Friday]

Some housings require a crane to lift and are limited to 30m of water, others can be effortlesly picked up by 5-year olds and are strong enough to go down to 100m and this may be of interst to some readers.

Some housings can break to small pieces catastrophically, some won't. Some people, like me, prefer the later.

Some housings will rot away in a matter of months, some will last for 100 years and still look as new. Some people care about it.

There are several housing manufacturers on this forum that are interested in this topic. Each have their own solutions, weaknesses and strengths. We all try to outsmart each other for a better outcome. It's a good thing.

If it is not interesting to you, don't read it. Some people are less ignorant about technology, the materials used in construction of their housings and the reasons behind it. They like to make better and informed decisions.

Certainly your post did not contribute anything useful to anyone.

I still don't get your point. So your housing will last a thousand years? and there seem to be i think four housing manufacturers on in this forum. Are you saying that one or more of those housing manufacturers makes a housing that will rot? Maybe you meant something else ?? I'm not sure how a housing rots but you don't need to elaborate on that. But regardless the four housings we continually see here on this forum all seem to be solidly constructed. And none i think need to withstand a mack truck running them over. If that's a selling point, then so be it....You are the only manufacturer that we as consumers see heckling all of the other manufactures and users of other products. I don't think that's a good business practice.

 

[Greg F]

And none i think need to withstand a mack truck running them over.

I am pretty sure if my housing got sucked into the prop it would tear the boat apart. Thats strong enough for me LOL

Having said that the boats have sacrificial metal and pretty standard across many things in water.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Johnny,

My point was that titanium does not need sacrificial anode because it will never corrode. Michael's point was that PVC housing will not corrode too. Fair enough. Some housings eliminate the problem altogether, others try to minimise the problem, some don't.

Earlier I was simply responding to Tom, who made incorrect statements in respect to our housings. How is correcting factual information about our products "heckling all of the other manufactures and users of other products". I think you are confused, Jonny. Very confused and antagonistic for some reason.

Further, following Michael's post about differences and similarities of acrylic, polycarbonate and PVC, which was informative, I further clarified and responded what we use something else and why this is of benefit without revealing trade secrets.

I was further referring to a discussion about zinc sacrificial anode. If, as you say, other housings are "solidly constructed" and corrosion is not an issue, why are we discussing it? I didn't start the subject, barely suggested a solution and without specific reference to any specific product.

Again, you seem to be confused and somewhat ignorant how housings are made and how they differ from each other. But, that doesn't mean that others are not interested in how much a housing weighs, how big it is and how deep it can go - as all of those features largely depend on the design and materials used.

And, Why are you concerned about my business practice? I couldn't care less about yours.

Perhaps, to be very claear and get it out of the way, I will never sell you any product, even if you wanted one.

Can we now talk about housings without your constant trolling as if I wanted to entice you into buy something?

 

[Ross Isaacs]

I just wanted to make sure that some other drongo doesn't feel that blasting compressed air on the optical port to blow off salt water off the optics and housing is a good idea. That's all. ;-)

I'm totally relaxed as we now have all the hardware components for our u/w colour science project. We just did the bench testing. Yes, it is very exciting as we can now reproduce colours underwater like never before.

My suggestion of using compressed air on my housings also got a vitriol response from you Pawel (unnecessary). Obviously one must control the pressure which is used. I have never noticed sand on my housing after a dive so your suggestion that I am blasting sand onto my optics using my method is a mute point. I always use this method to displace water which might be sitting in places which are hard to dry out. I have never done any damage to my gear with this method and I would highly recommend it for fast turn around times when on a big job. I am to a point I am frightened to post anything here because I ALWAYS get a negative response from you Pawel or some scathing criticism that I chose a Gates product and not one made by the master of underwater cinematography which is not helpful.