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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Underwater Bubble Blowin' Users Group

Ken and Mike, I'll be watching with bated breath for the tests. I'm sure hat with all the pro feedback from you though Ken that will all just be a formality.

My main aim is to get RED wet ASAP using Birger and Canon 10-22mm. Not even thinking of any topside applications at the mo, I guess I will start decking myself out with the appropriate topside gear as and when RED wet stock starts paying off.

Playing as big as it gets for the moment, on tail end crimp factor scale that is!!

Best.
Mark.
 
Hi Ken. Good to hear that the pro housing will be all black. We agree that housing both the EVF and LCD will be important for different applications. Looking forward to hearing your feedback. We certainly hope to be filming some tigers with Mark next year. We are going to be looking around for some good bull shark filming opportunities in Mozambique in January. Unfortunately no RED. The Sony Z1 will have to do. Regards, Russell and Cindy
 
hi ken,

where is the centre of gravity in the housing? is it smack in the middle or is it low because of a weight on the bottom or whatever?

in other words, can you point the camera in any direction without having to forceably hold the orientation?

cheers,
david
 
dmig said:
hi ken,

where is the centre of gravity in the housing? is it smack in the middle or is it low because of a weight on the bottom or whatever?

in other words, can you point the camera in any direction without having to forceably hold the orientation?

cheers,
david
Click to expand...

Great question to which there are several solutions.

In the PVC housings the trim is rather spot on. CG may be a little aft in the aluminum housing due to battery, drive and camera with the Arri 8R. I am guessing that it will be closer to center with the Birger/Canon solution.

John at Gates uses a clever and elegant internal min-weight system with velcro to trim the balance of the camera.

A second solution is to use small wings on the side of the camera that are cheese plated for numerous handle, monitor and light positioning options - either parallel or rifle grip (off set) and add external trim weights to these plates.

A third option is an abacus style balance system built into the foot of the housing ( a small rectangular U channel welded to the bottom of the cylinder for tripod attach points and also serves as stable feet for the housing to prevent rolling. This design enables quick trimming in water by adjusting the trim weight on the "abacus" when one does a configuration change in the housing, e.g., changing lenses and ports.

Mike is building the abacus system for testing on the first two pro housings.

Sharky
 
CG can be anywhere.

CG can be anywhere.

dmig said:
hi ken,

where is the centre of gravity in the housing? is it smack in the middle or is it low because of a weight on the bottom or whatever?

in other words, can you point the camera in any direction without having to forceably hold the orientation?

cheers,
david
Click to expand...

Edit: As you can see Sharky beat me to it (I had to answer the phone and didn't notice he posted before I uploaded this.)

Basically it is pretty easy to set CG anywhere you want. The displacement (the weight it has to be to be neutral) of the housing is about 48 lbs. whether it is the aluminum or the pvc. The PVC housing is quite light so takes a lot of weight. On the protos we had about 10 pounds on the bottom and a 5 lb on the top.

That is about how I like it, as the extra weight on the bottom gives it a little "steadicam" effect. I got used to massive housings, since the early broadcast systems went about 125 lbs and we gradually moved down to 70 to 80 lbs for Varicam and F900s - so the 30 pound HDV housings and even these RED housings feel like toys. The other thing is most of my jobs have been television oriented with talent - so not a lot of time underwater - say 30 minutes of level shooting of the talent and 10-15 minutes shooting fish and creatures and usually only 2 dives a day. I recognize that a lot of you shoot much longer and twisting and turning for creatures etc. and we have some thin aluminum extrusions filled with lead that can be fitted on all four sides of the PVC housing making it effectively neutral in all directions.

The aluminum housings don't take a lot of weight and the aluminum tube keeps it well distributed so it is pretty easy to get it however you like it with small weights.

If you look at Sharky's post 520 you can see there is an aluminum channel on the bottom of the housing (It will be black anodized on shipping versions.) The channel has mounting holes for tripod or other mounting and a molded weight that can be shifted forward and backward to trim balance and then locked in place. On the PVC housing it is a rather large weight - on the aluminum just a few pounds. From there it is just a matter of using small trim weights to get it exactly how you like it.

The channel also has four holes for the ball mounts for the ball type strobe arms which can be used to make a small underwater tripod setup for macro and such.

(Note: the displacement is about 2.3 pounds per inch and on the initial housings we are going pretty much max length to allow use of the REDDRIVE and the RED brick batteries, since we want to do more testing with other batteries before we commit to custom Li-ions on the side.) Personally, I think the weight at just under 50 lbs total is about perfect - easy for 2 people to get it in and out of the water, one person can without too much strain - and underwater there is enough mass that you get steady shots. The length is certainly manageable, but a little longer than perfect. However as I said in one of my earlier posts - since it is cylindrical we can (relatively easily) shorten the housing and regroove the end without a complete rebuild - when better configurations become available i.e. CF, expresscard, etc. with long record times and/or alternate power configurations.)
 
Mike,
With regards to the camera fitting in the housing how is that achieved? What I mean to ask is do we need to buy the RED Cheese Plate in order for the RED One to slide into the housing or do you have your own proprietary fitting mechanism?

PM me if you prefer with any answers.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Maybe a bit belated, it's still the 25th here, but seasons greetings to all Bubble Blowers. Next year will be an amazing year for all Aquatic RED Cams I'm sure. I have some pretty big plans lined up already.

Again, best to all.
Mark.
 
CamDiver said:
With regards to the camera fitting in the housing how is that achieved? What I mean to ask is do we need to buy the RED Cheese Plate in order for the RED One to slide into the housing or do you have your own proprietary fitting mechanism?
Click to expand...

No RED cheese plate needed. That said, I have tested just about every accessory made by RED and gotta' say the quality and price are unbeatable.

The attached photo is of a working prototype for the PVC splash housing but shows the rudimentary concept of the finished product for the finished Pro Housing. The camera attaches to a camera tray that slides in and out of the housing from the front or rear and is locked in place by dual mounting screws.

The difference - the Pro Housing will not have the LCD mounted on the tray internal to the camera housing, rather, separate housing for LCD and EVF.

The rear of the Pro Housing will provide removable RED battery and RED drive.

OF COURSE, Mike will build it any way you want but this is the direction I am leaning and it is still way smaller than other professional housings.

CamDiver said:
Next year will be an amazing year for all Aquatic RED Cams I'm sure. I have some pretty big plans lined up already.
Click to expand...

Really looking forward to seeing everyone's RED 4K UW images next year especially yours - Cheers Mate
 
No cheese plate needed.

No cheese plate needed.

CamDiver said:
Mike,
With regards to the camera fitting in the housing how is that achieved? What I mean to ask is do we need to buy the RED Cheese Plate in order for the RED One to slide into the housing or do you have your own proprietary fitting mechanism?

PM me if you prefer with any answers.

Cheers,
Mark.
Click to expand...

First, Merry Christmas to all the bubble blowers, too.

Nothing additional is needed from RED. The camera in its base configuration has a pair of 1/4-20 and a pair of 3/8-16 mounting holes on its flat bottom (actually I think there are two sets of 1/4-20s) and these are the standard screws for mounting on most tripod plates.

IN the housing we use a long aluminum plate that slides in and has slots that mate with two shoulder bolts at the back and two 1/4-20 knob screws lock it in place in the front. The camera mounts to the mountplate with two more 1/4-20 screws and the mountplate has guide pins to further keep the camera from twisting.

ONe of the real beauties of the RED camera for us bubble blowers is that it strips down to almost a perfect configuration for a housing.
 
Hey thanks Ken n Mike,
I guess I should have looked a bit closer at the image as it's pretty straightforward eh?

Looking forward to seeing many images in 4K, its going to be wild.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Rule #1

Rule #1

When the viz is Shite........

55_1198957186.jpg


Go Black and White !!!

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Hey folks

I enjoy this thread and now need some help and I figured someone here may be able to.

I want to take my wife to get her open water certificate and was hoping to take down my canon HV20 for fun, anyone recommend a housing for this little guy? I have been diving for many years but never done any digital work down under so this is all very unexplored territory for me and I am not even sure how well the Hv20 will perform under water. Any thoughts?

We are thinking of going to cuba (thats where she is from) so I wanted to keep my video gear minimal. I notice some people are using a cheap sony housing but I dont mind spending 900 bucks if its worth it.

Thanks!
 
Hi Haskell,
There are a number of affordable housing solutions. However for peace of mind and to have the ability to check that the wet stuff stays on the outside I would recommend something like Ikelite, maybe www.ikelite.com but Google Ikelite anyway. The units are affordable and robust.

Cheers,
Mark.

P.S Here's the link to the HV20 page, what a nice guy I am eh? hehehe. http://www.ikelite.com/web_two/can_hv20.html priced at $1100
 
Hey Mark

Thank you good sir...yeah after looking into it I think this might be the ticket. Then after more looking around I think I would rather upgrade my hv20 to a XHA1 and the Ikelite to a Gates. This should be a nice intro set up? haha...I wish...RED already has me tapped financially.

I just like the idea of shooting tape underwater (archive reasons) but if I was going to take the dive I think the A1+gates combo seems like the ticket...anyone shooting with somthing similar to this?
 
I have been using Gates with my Sony Z1U for the past year and a half and I really do like the ruggedness, modularity and manual work flow. Tough as nails and built to last. There are many different manufacturers out there. Personally I used Ikelite at the beginning and then went to Sealux and eventually Gates.

Hope it all pans out for you mate.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Good to know. How do you like the sony ZIU underwater? I know there threads on this I am sure but would like to know. I was thinking about taking my HVX down but I dont know that its going to manage in low light...and dont feel like offloading p2 data in a wet environment. What makes the Gates modular...could a gates housing be converted later for another camera? I must dreaming. Have a good one.
 
Hi Haskell,
The modularity of Gates, IMHO, relates to the fact that you can choose the elements you want to shoot with and build them into the system, pretty much like the RED cage idea here. For example the ergonomic hand grips versus the standard, the 2.5", 4" or new 16x9 Hi Rez external monitors, the port selection. All of these options allow the shooter to customize their system to suit exactly their style. I'm not saying that this doesn't exist with certain other housing manufacturers but my experience thus far with Gates is one borne of not having that option with previous housing lines.

Deep Red should be available by mid 2008 if all goes as planned, as far as I am aware of. You should contact GATES, RedUser name, as he, John Ellerbrook, is the CEO / Owner of Gates Underwater Housings and will be able to explain more including costs etc.

Cheers,
Mark.
GATES RedUser Profile: http://www.reduser.net/forum/member.php?u=1936
 
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