Kraken 5.5 "ultra bright"u/w monitor

[Tobyone]

Has anyone had any experience with this monitor. I am reluctant to believe any of the Youtube people.

[Davide DB]

I wrote Kraken and Weefine about their 7" monitors. No replies from them 😶

 

I don't understand why all these new monitors (also SUPE) are depth rated to 80m. Once it was 100m. This breaks the deal for me.

Another strange spec is their weight underwater: Kraken writes 2140g on land/560g underwater for both models 5.5" and 7". Very strange indeed and it's a lot.

Anyway their lights are good.

[Tobyone]

David,

I ordered the 5.5 ultra bright and waiting on delivery. I have noticed most manufacturers will set a test depth for warrant and safety reasons. I had a TG-5 which is supposed to be good to 45ft. Took it to 100ft by accident, no water ingress.

Will give update as soon as I can test.

Edited August 28 by Tobyone
misspell

[Davide DB]

I was interested in their 7" monitor which is a behemoth so I asked them some info. Here their reply:

Quote

 

7” Monitor: 2214g on land/560g underwater

5” Monitor: 1945g on land/320g underwater

 

The HDMI cable that is included is quite flexible but we are working on a 90 degree cable. It is not ready yet, however.

 

The 80m depth rating is because of the large pane of glass over the screen on the monitor. To ensure the integrity of the monitor, we only rate it down to 80m. It may be able to go deeper, but we cannot insure it for deeper and do not recommend taking it below 80m.

 

 

Depth rating and hdmi cable position are huge deal breakers for me.

The 5.5" has a more ergonomic hdmi position but same weird depth rating.

The only meaningful review is this but I guess you saw I already. If you are still alive, at the end, he speaks about a couple of weird things on the function buttons that could be solved via fw upgrade but who knows 🤷 

 

 

[ChipBPhoto]

FYI - I ran into a new user of the 5.5” Kraken monitor yesterday.  He said he likes it overall.  The brightness is terrific, even in a shallow sunny dive.  He also stressed it is quite negative due to the very compact design.  He was adding more buoyancy to compensate.  The battery life was good.

 

The only concern he expressed was regarding their included video ribbon cable.  The thin design can cause it to flicker if the cable is moved.  He is working through a better HDMI cable solution for a more solid video connection.  Other than that he has been very happy thus far. 

Edited September 1 by ChipBPhoto

[Davide DB]

7 hours ago, ChipBPhoto said:

 

The only concern he expressed was regarding their included video ribbon cable.  The thin design can cause it to flicker if the cable is moved.

 

Yes, from camera body to the housing bulkhead they chose the same cables used for fpv drones.

The good: is cheap and easily available everywhere.

The bad: fragile. Especially in the part where the connectors are crimped to the ribbon.

 

[Davide DB]

On 8/28/2024 at 11:16 PM, Tobyone said:

David,

I ordered the 5.5 ultra bright and waiting on delivery. I have noticed most manufacturers will set a test depth for warrant and safety reasons. I had a TG-5 which is supposed to be good to 45ft. Took it to 100ft by accident, no water ingress.

Will give update as soon as I can test.

 

Hi Toby,

 

Did you have the opportunity to test it?

 

[Tobyone]

2 hours ago, Davide DB said:

 

Hi Toby,

 

Did you have the opportunity to test it?

 

Tried in a pool, bright sun. Looks like it will workfor my needs. I thought about a 7 inch, but glad I got the 5 inch. Even the 5 inch is large for thew rig.

[Davide DB]

Is it very heavy? How about cable routing?

My Nauticam GH5 has the worst hdmi input position.

 

[SwiftFF5]

21 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Is it very heavy? How about cable routing?

My Nauticam GH5 has the worst hdmi input position.

 

 

While diving with Reef Photo at the Blue Heron Bridge recently using a rental GH6, I discovered that there isn't really enough room between the camera and a Nauticam housing for the internal HDMI cable.  I had to shave some of the rubber off the connector to get it to close.  I made sure that Reef Photo knew about it, so they could talk with Nauticam about it.  I am not sure if there might a "low profile" connector or something that might help, but it will probably also be an issue with the GH7 since it uses the same housing.

[Davide DB]

19 minutes ago, SwiftFF5 said:

 

While diving with Reef Photo at the Blue Heron Bridge recently using a rental GH6, I discovered that there isn't really enough room between the camera and a Nauticam housing for the internal HDMI cable.  I had to shave some of the rubber off the connector to get it to close.  I made sure that Reef Photo knew about it, so they could talk with Nauticam about it.  I am not sure if there might a "low profile" connector or something that might help, but it will probably also be an issue with the GH7 since it uses the same housing.

 

Good to know! Were you using an original Nauticam cable? No problem on my GH5 housing but I couldn't find a third part cable compatible because the space is really tight!

 

BTW I was referring about the external bulkhead position. The combination of its position and straight monitor connector gives me just one option to mount it and not the best one. I had to completely change my arms configuration and i'm not satisfied.

[SwiftFF5]

On 11/13/2024 at 11:15 AM, Davide DB said:

 

Good to know! Were you using an original Nauticam cable? No problem on my GH5 housing but I couldn't find a third part cable compatible because the space is really tight!

 

BTW I was referring about the external bulkhead position. The combination of its position and straight monitor connector gives me just one option to mount it and not the best one. I had to completely change my arms configuration and i'm not satisfied.

 

Yes, it was the original cable that came with my GH5 housing when I bought that, and the GH6 is even tighter.

 

Ahhh, I understand.

[Davide DB]

8 hours ago, SwiftFF5 said:

Yes, it was the original cable that came with my GH5 housing when I bought that, and the GH6 is even tighter.

 

15cm Nauticam HDMI cables are outrageously priced