Underwater Bubble Blowers User Group Thread NEW

[Johnny Friday]

John, What mount adapter for the EPIC PL mount are you using to to able to use the Nikon Lenses with the Deep Epic?

Thanks,
John McCord

It's the Opti-Tek mount from Jacek---he's a user/sponsor on this forum...just look up OptiTek. There is a R1 mount and an Epic mount. you will also need special Iris Gear supplied by Gates.

 

[John J Ellerbrock]

Hi all,

This is a 'WANTED' post: RED CRADLE Hinges.

I know, this is an unusual thing, but for DEEP ATOM we use the hinge from the RED CRADLE to secure the shade, allowing it to swing down over the front port for protection.

The RED CRADLE looks like this: http://www.red.com/store/power/product/red-cradle

Contact me directly by PM or JohnEGates@sbcglobal.net if you have the hinge and/or RED CRADLE gathering dust.

Cheers,

J-

 

[Pawel Achtel]

3Deep is born...

3Deep is born...

3Deep - no more porthole view! More information here:

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?74750-3Deep-3D-underwater-housing-for-Epic

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Size Comparison

Size Comparison

DeepX versus CinePort

I thought you would like to see the size difference. The housing featuring CinePort on the left is approximately the same size and weight as Gates Deep RED and Aquavideo Red One housings.

 

[Johnny Friday]

Doesn't the Cineport housing hold a betacam? Seems a far cry in size from R1 or Epic. That said, your epic housing sure is a heck of a lot smaller than that truck next to it.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Johnny,

The "truck" next to DeepX can hold Red One snugly and was originally designed to hold Sony HDCAM F-900. It is 250mm (10") in diameter and about 60cm (23") long without the CinePort. It is a very tight fit for the Red One actually. What is the size and weight of your RED One housing? I can't imagine it is much smaller.

In compartison, DeepX weighs 5.5kg (12 pounds) empty and less than 10kg (22 pounds) fully loaded ready to dive (or carry on the plane).

 

[Michael Hastings]

Johnny,

The "truck" next to DeepX can hold Red One snugly and was originally designed to hold Sony HDCAM F-900. It is 250mm (10") in diameter and about 60cm (23") long without the CinePort. It is a very tight fit for the Red One actually. What is the size and weight of your RED One housing? I can't imagine it is much smaller.

In compartison, DeepX weighs 5.5kg (12 pounds) empty and less than 10kg (22 pounds) fully loaded ready to dive (or carry on the plane).

The Aquavideo epic housing is 9" diameter x 17 inches long (versus 24 for a redone). It doesn't sound like much but since volume increases exponentially with diameter, that extra inch would add about 9 pounds of displacement on a 17" Long housing and 13 pounds on a 24" long housing. In other words volume goes up dramatically from the 9" size but not down nearly as much when we shrink it - the 9" size is kind of a sweet spot. The big advantage is that the 9" diameter and 16" body length allows us to use both slr lenses AND large cine lenses like the 10mm and 12mm ultra primes.

And if we wanted to only use short slr lenses we could easily knock off 2 more inches from the length. And if you eliminate the internal LCD capability you could take off another inch or so. But you really lose a LOT of flexibility. To put it in perspective, Tom Hamilton just took a stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port AS A CARRY ON in a Ridgid duffel bag (a hand carry duffel that came free with my Ridgid battery drill/saw combo kit)

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Mike,

I was comparing my Red One housing with our DeepX Epic housing. My Red One housing actually can take two Epics side-by-side.

DeepX for RED Epic is 180mm (7") in diameter and about 35cm (13.7") long.

In case you missed the point of my post, and using your words: while it doesn't sound like much since volume increases exponentially with diameter that extra two inches and twice the length of DeepX would add about, what? 30 pounds of displacement in comparison to our DeepX housing?

 

[Pawel Achtel]

... To put it in perspective, Tom Hamilton just took a stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port AS A CARRY ON in a Ridgid duffel bag (a hand carry duffel that came free with my Ridgid battery drill/saw combo kit)

What was the size and weight of Tom Hamilton's stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port that he carried onboard?
I understand that he took it onboard his own plane, right? You should have probably clarified this.

I do not believe that a stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port in a Ridgid duffel bag wiighs less than 10kg, which is carry on luggage size limit in Australia (and I believe most of the World).

 

[Johnny Friday]

congratulations pawel.
Nice piece of equipment you have built there....but kind of an apples to bananas comparison. Features are much different on each housing as well. And tried and tested and backed up by manufacturers that have been around a while also come to the table here....So if we look at bullet points, we might want to break out a long sheet to list them all. Still you have a fine piece of kit there, but your posts border on the abusive a bit. I'd wait to make those comparisons and claims till you can truly put them side by side and talk about features as well as in field testing---and how your housing performs in warm water with very little air flow etc.....i'd say each of these housings has their weak and strong points, but i think this is no place to knock the competition. Otherwise you may open the door to a flood of knocking as well.

 

[Michael Hastings]

What was the size and weight of Tom Hamilton's stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port that he carried onboard?
I understand that he took it onboard his own plane, right? You should have probably clarified this.

I do not believe that a stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port in a Ridgid duffel bag wiighs less than 10kg, which is carry on luggage size limit in Australia (and I believe most of the World).

It was major commercial airline Airbus 300 I think, so no I wasn't being misleading. Of course it was more than 10kg with the camera, but I have never been stopped with a carryon based on weight, in 25 years of traveling where I used to pack carry ons with upwards of fifty pounds of batteries and lead to avoid overweight . And to be clear, although i think we could jam it into a carry on bag that itself would normally fit into the size checker they use now, I suspect with the housing it would bulge enough that it might not fit.

I'm not really suggesting it would be a "legal" carry on, and I don't recommend that anyone count on that being possible, particularly these days when they are checking closely and charging for everything. As I said - I was trying to put it into perspective that it is a pretty compact housing and not very difficult to travel with. It packs easily in a variety of inexpensive cases that can be checked without overweight or oversize problems.

The Aquavideo epic housing is 9" diameter x 17 inches long

snip...

To put it in perspective, Tom Hamilton just took a stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port AS A CARRY ON in a Ridgid duffel bag (a hand carry duffel that came free with my Ridgid battery drill/saw combo kit)

 

[Michael Hastings]

Mike,

I was comparing my Red One housing with our DeepX Epic housing. My Red One housing actually can take two Epics side-by-side.

DeepX for RED Epic is 180mm (7") in diameter and about 35cm (13.7") long.

In case you missed the point of my post, and using your words: while it doesn't sound like much since volume increases exponentially with diameter that extra two inches and twice the length of DeepX would add about, what? 30 pounds of displacement in comparison to our DeepX housing?

Displacement of AquaVideo Epic housing is about 39.5 pounds (Alum version is a little less because of the flats) and I calculate your DeepX 19.6 pounds for 7" by 13.7" so about 20lbs difference or about 12 pounds difference if we went with the same length. However, we have a standard 4.25 inch setback (distance from the inside of the front plate to the front of the epic) to allow use of lenses like Arri 8R and 12mm T2; Tokina 11-16; Canon 10-22; Red 18-50; Ruby and Nikon 14-24; virtually all of the Ultra Primes including the large 10 and 12mms - with simple, inexpensive, yet effective manual rotary controls for iris, focus, and zoom. (There is also a forward mounting position 50mm closer that allows use of the short fisheye and 14mm prime lenses from Tokina, Nikon, Canon, etc. - you either shift the power/trigger control to the predrilled forward position or order a second power/trigger control at nominal cost.)

Presumably you have a near-zero or slight negative setback so the housing can be four inches shorter - but also very limited lens choices and all of which are no longer made and typically 12 to 20 years old.

It is actually quite easy for me to incorporate a nikonos front plate as an option with our stock housing setup - as was discussed several years ago. However, I don't see much point in it until we get an epic with full 24x36mm sensor that would at least get us back to 94 degrees. But even there, I am a bit wary since if the Nikonos lens leaks - as does happen (and even more likely as they get older) - saltwater will go directly into the sensor area which is not a pretty thought.

Since, if I am understanding correctly that the normal mount is removed and the epic is bolted to the front plate such that the front plate is now the lens mount, I'm wondering if that has been submitted to Red for approval so the warranty is not voided? This was the bugaboo that kept me from even considering actually making the Nikonos mount for the RedOne since we all needed to maintain warranty/tradein status. Voiding the warranty on the Epic may not be as big a deal without the trade in implications, but it does seem to be something that should be made clear to buyers.

Somehow, I don't see Red being excited about approving a mount for decades old water contact lenses that might leak into the sensor - but I could be wrong.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

congratulations pawel.
Nice piece of equipment you have built there....but kind of an apples to bananas comparison. Features are much different on each housing as well. And tried and tested and backed up by manufacturers that have been around a while also come to the table here....So if we look at bullet points, we might want to break out a long sheet to list them all. Still you have a fine piece of kit there, but your posts border on the abusive a bit. I'd wait to make those comparisons and claims till you can truly put them side by side and talk about features as well as in field testing---and how your housing performs in warm water with very little air flow etc.....i'd say each of these housings has their weak and strong points, but i think this is no place to knock the competition. Otherwise you may open the door to a flood of knocking as well.

Thanks, Johnny. a good deal of independent testing has been conducted and the reports will be published soon....some of it is out of my hands.

I'm not knocking the competition, I was just correcting Mike Hasting's confusion suggesting that his AquaVideo housing was smaller than DeepX or that it could be carried as onboard luggage on a plane.

Best fishes,

Pawel

 

[Tom Hamilton]

What was the size and weight of Tom Hamilton's stock AquaVideo Epic housing complete with full camera setup and dome port that he carried onboard?
I understand that he took it onboard his own plane, right? You should have probably clarified this.

I'm posting this message from 35,000 feet aboard a Virgin America Airbus 320, on my way down to Cabo san Lucas in Baja. In the overhead directly above my seat is a duffel bag containing an Aquavideo housing, inside that housing on the mounting tray is Epic 234, Quadvolt module & 4 redvolts, 5" Pro LCD, 256 SSD, Redmote, and Sigma 15mm diagonal fisheye. The bag also fits in the overhead bins of the Embraer 175, a much smaller aircraft I took before this flight.

It is something I have been looking for ever since Epic was announced, congrats to Mike Hastings for pulling it off.

Pawel, this is a PVC housing with plexiglass port, I don't have an exact weight, but it should be slightly over 20 lbs with Epic installed. I understand your concern, I also have direct experiences with the Australian Bag Nazis from my trip to GBR last year. Even in Australia though, this should work just fine.

For last minute jobs requiring minimal equipment and quick deployment, and especially for small owner/operators like myself, this is incredible.

I'll take some pics as soon as this turbulence subsides, and post them here.

 

[Tom Hamilton]

Epic + housing in overhead bin of an Airbus 320, standard rollerbags either side of it.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Thanks, Johnny. a good deal of independent testing has been conducted and the reports will be published soon....some of it is out of my hands.

I'm not knocking the competition, I was just correcting Mike Hasting's confusion suggesting that his AquaVideo housing was smaller than DeepX or that it could be carried as onboard luggage on a plane.

Best fishes,

Pawel

I don't see where there was much room for confusion. Two lines above my answer is the specs from your quote:

"DeepX for RED Epic is 180mm (7") in diameter and about 35cm (13.7") long."

And my first line:

"The Aquavideo epic housing is 9" diameter x 17 inches long (versus 24 for a redone)." Not much room for confusion.

If anyone was generating confusion it was you suggesting that AV epic was twice as long when it is only 4 inches longer (due to the camera setback from the front plate that allows easy use of the lenses commonly employed) or that it would be thirty pounds of additional displacement when it is only 20.

Pawel, don't get me wrong - I think that you are going to be able to get some kickass shots of a few types of subjects/water conditions with the Nikonos 15 that will exceed what we can get with dome ports. However, I think that if the shoot involves the normal gamut of underwater subjects you will either need a second housing like ours OR you are going to severely compromise a lot of shots due to the very limited FOV.

I believe the answer to truly exceptional 5Kish underwater cinema is going to be a fully corrected underwater optic for wide angles like the NIkon 14-24.

That is currently under development with prototypes available shortly. While this optic will be quite expensive, I believe the combination of our housing and this optic will be comparable in price to your DeepX - with even better optical performance since it will be a fully water corrected modern lens design with a true underwater angle of 95+ degrees. It will also be zoom-through so you will have the other focal lengths as well. Yet the housing will still allow use of all of the other normal cine and SLR lenses with the standard ports.

And since the 14-24 is a full frame lens, the optic will be transferrable to future 6K full frame epics even if the brain size changes such that it won't fit the Epic-X housings.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Field Testing DeepX with Nikonos 15mm submersible lens

Field Testing DeepX with Nikonos 15mm submersible lens

Jon Shaw from ginclearfilm testing DeepX underwater housing with 15mm Nikon Nikonos lens in Tasmania.

Pictures and feedback here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...onos-15mm-lens-Underwater&p=971497#post971497

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Here are some first family photos of cute little DeepX babies popping out of the oven.
Those little cuties weigh only slightly more than 10 pounds at birth...

BTW, the inside of the housing takes over 12 hours of machine time....

 

[Ron Lagerlof]

All set up, ready for Indo next week. https://twitter.com/lauadibob/status/185606920546156544

 

[Will Keir]

Going to film some surf vids?