Underwater Housing System for Dragon

[Greg Dennis]

I'm researching to get an underwater surf housing for our Epic Dragon, and one of the things I want to get my head around is how doesn't the camera overheat when it's sealed in such a small box? Does anyone have any experience of this and can offer any advice?

Having researched them I am looking at getting the housing from Sean Labrie at SPL housings. Any experience with this particular housing or from other companies? Surf specific housings this is.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Russell Morris]

hey Greg I'm in the same boat as you, I thought there would be a overheating problem too. but after doing a couple shoots with a raincoat on my epic, i can say it won't make too much of a difference, maybe only a couple degrees warmer.
the water that surrounds the UW case almost acts as a cooling system.
SPL Housings have a great reputation for quality and price.

 

[Joshua Strickland]

Greg,

I have utilized SPL housings extensively in our rental for six years and found them to be trouble-free, simple to operate and built like tanks. We have about 15 SPLs currently. No overheating on any camera that I am aware of. They've been used at most major surf breaks all over the world. The controls can be a bit rudimentary but I have not had one leak because of something other than user error. SPL's aluminum welded design is lightweight compared to Dive housings which are of course built for an entirely different environment.

SPL is generally pretty fast with parts if you need replacements. They do need the entire housing if a port baseplate cracks and needs repair.

If you need any other help drop me a line josh@hawaiicamera.com be glad to help.

 

[Loic Parent]

Guys, we had our 2nd surf housing made by a local guy (first one was made by a big shop and way too complicated, it revealed to be a pain to use in real condition)
the news one is simple, safe and works really well, with a different approach from SPL (composite vs aluminium), they are made per unit so he can accommodate any request.
here are some photos and a small video of the locking mechanism that for perfect positioning with different optics.

and he is really affordable.

shoot me a mail if you need more infos :

loic at band-originale.com

https://youtu.be/t9oSr7Z1VJU

 

[Michael Hastings]

I'm curious how much the SPL housing weighs - I don't see a weight spec on their site.

I'm not sure it is any lighter than the PVC version of our 175ft rated dive housing for the same configuration of epic. These are true dive housings but have been used many times for surfing as well by simply removing the dive weight that makes it neutral for diving.

Below are a couple of pictures of the PVC housing we make. Those shown are for a full length Epic system that can use the Quad Battery Module or brick batteries. With a shorter configuration like the REDVOLT XL module it could be at least a third shorter and lighter and with the acrylic frontplate instead of aluminum it would be even lighter - I suspect about the same or less than the SPL - yet fully dive capable as well and at about $5K it is about $1500 cheaper.

I'm not aware of any significant issues with overheating on the numerous housings for the Epic we have out there but you can see an optional heat sink on the yellow housing. It has a sealed bolt that goes to an aluminum plate right above the camera fan exit on the inside of the housing and the aluminum plate on the outside to help cool it as well.

The front plates/ports are easily changeable and these use regular spring clamps to close the housing so a little quicker to open and close than the screws used on some of these surf housings. The rear plate is clear for full visibility of the LCD.