Amphibico Phenom FX1E Review & comments

Hey ya beat me Bryce

That's interesting....anyhow I used a Gates HC/A1 housing couple weeks ago and that had vignetting on full wide with the $$$ ultra wide (weitwinkel) lens on.

Still got vignetting even after Amphibico's rework??!!! So you've still got to zoom back in a bit to overcome it?

You'd have thought they'd fix it completely and put the issue to bed permanently, but I guess it's not as simple as that. If it's asymmetrical can you tweak it somehow with the camera mounting?

Wags, I guess you're talking about the Fathom SWP25. How bad was the vignetting?

Oh, and can someone tell me if you can zoom right through with the Phenom port?

Nick

Yeah, Dave - you loose one of your filters. Not that big of an issue, really - if I want to do half/halfs and need the ND filter - I'll just swap it with the color filter. The diopters screw on - so you really only loose the ND.

Wags - I saw that lens on a trip to the Revillagigedos and it was definitely vignetting as well. I don't get why that's ever an option coming out of production? How that passes quality control???.....

Anyway, I also got the manual wb knob that Amphibico created. I was going to go the route you had written about (thanks), but when I saw they had one, I decided to pay the $35. So far, I haven't been able to get it to jive perfectly. It's not particularly smooth and almost impossible to get to work - it's seems like it is just a mm or 2 off from where the knob really needs to be. More on that later..... as well for the flat port. It's pretty flimsly compared to the original.

Nick, I think the issue is definitely the way it mounts in the housing - I've used three different housings and had different vignetting issues on them all! In any case, the new port is way better than before. And yes, you have full zoom through capability.

Aloha

Bryce

Just got my flat port yesterday as well as the white balance control.

My white balance fitting popped right in no problems and took all of about 1 minute to install. I tried it out and it works quite nicely on land....

I will get in the water with it in the next couple days.

The new port is a lot smaller a sleeker. I measured the width on it before i took off the old one, with the new one you get a FOV of about the old one zoomed into 12.

Also, as it is just a hollow piece of glass it will be perfect for those of you who want to stack macro diopters on the lens of the camera, there is no rear element on the port like with the origina, so stack away and bring that tripod!!

I will now send my original port back for the refit....

M

Is the front of the Phenom ports glass or plastic? Polishable in the field or a $$$ factory return if scratched?

I'm forever polishing out staghorn dinks in my Gates plastic port cover (with Brasso then Microgloss), which does not bode well if I go glass. Having said that I polished my lightly-scratched LMI Stingray 2's glass port with Microgloss and it came up pretty well. Obviously no coating left though.

Nick

Here are a few pics of the new WB connection. Quite a nicely tooled little unit. It is a simple thing of taking off the ND flip and adding the WB. Instead of rotating the ND dial you simply depress it and it hits the camera's WB set button.

Here is the size of the WB unit compared to the ND

Here is the WB in neutral position

Here is the WB when it has been depressed, very simple and effective

Hey it's a small world when it comes to the net, word spreads so fast..

My box of goodies arrived here today as well.

Straight in the water tomorrow and over the next few days will try all the stuff out.

Bryce, I think the 120 on the Gates does it abit as well sometimes but do aggree that all cameras sit in the housings abit different and the camera lenses are all abit different as well.

Mike, enjoy ya blue water shots, they could of put me name on that bracket

Stay tuned...

Personally i call my bracket the WBracket...meaning... Wagsy Bracket!!

Why thanks Mike....

I put the Amphibico MWB bracket in as well and dived with it today. Im happy to say it works a treat.

Once I have dived with both new ports and tried all the macro diopters I will write a detailed review of them all.

The macro port is going to be fun

Do you Wagsy-bracket guys miss the ND filter? How easy is it on the Phenom to speed up the shutter as a substitute?

By the way do the FX1 and Z1 give ND1 or ND2 prompts on the screen like my VX2K does?

Nick

Nick.

No I don't miss the ND filter.

It's very easy to spin the shutter with the knob on the back door of the Phenom if there is too much light like on the surface or shooting up into the sun.

Yes it does promt you on the screen if to much light is coming in. Im on 50 speed (PAL) for most dives and 100 (f8-11) close to the surface or 300 (f8-11) out of the water or split shots. Works a treat.

Hey Nick

Like Wags i am not a big user of the ND, more of the shutter and aperture..

Hi all

Here is my new review of the Amphibico Phenom.

Phenom Review 1.3 meg pdf

Enjoy

Paul Wags

Ok, so if I get this straight, installing the Wagsy Bracket will give me a better, bluer tint to everything, and this is preferable to color correcting in post and using the ND filter as needed?

(you like the way I break things down to the lowest comon denominator for my pea brain?)

Hi Dave

Yes MWB can give you more contrasting colors when tropical diving.

The less colour correcting you need to do in post the better.

You can compare both methods yourself on a dive if you put it in. Remember though, if you use the EWB you have to restart the camera to use the MWB. If you MWB first, you can then try EWB straight after no probs.

Just spin your shutter up to cut out any extra light instead of using the ND filter.