Amphibico FXZ1 Vignetting - Fixed?

There is no fix for the vignetting.

Just have to zoom in abit to get around it.

Bummer... but still good value compared to the other housings/lenses.

Wags

Hehehe, if they fixed it then they'd have to claim 85° wide angle vs 90° in all their literature. Most production houses are not fussed since it's still in the overscan area. Only fuss pots like myself and a few others would care, or those who use it for web applications. A friend doing the Ipod video clips told me he had vignetting in a few of the shows available in wide angle.

Shawn you do realize that shooting WA, the black areas are still in overscan area. I think for now, one can get away with it but once the newer HDTVs are out showing full resolution w/o overscan, then people will be scrambling to fix it.

Thanks for the feedback. I am actually shooting for widescreen delivery and the vignetting will show up. my home HDTV is 1920x1080i. I expect to see this appear on the set. I am considering going with Light and Motino instead. I currently own a Blue Fin housing for the TRV 950. My major concern is that they are only shipping with the flat port right now and I only have money for the 80degree wide. I guess this would be close to the Ampibico.

One other question for Wagsy: what is your effect FOV when you did the 5 cent piece adjustment?

Shawn, with the Bluefin HD, the flat port comes included with the housing no matter what other lens you order. Another thing to consider, the FX1/Z1's already shoot wider than most cameras, so it may be good enough for you without extra lenses. I'll be shooting with it this weekend, and post some more info.

Good point on the wider fov with the FX/Z1 cams. I understood the housing came with flat port but was ordering the 80degree wide to increase my fov. Can't wait to see your results.

The 5 cent coin made the vignetting more even on the four corners. You can zoom in abit and move the video frame down abit to cover the vignetting while editing or just zoom in abit when shooting. The coin also lets one zoom in less to get rid of the vignetting as well.

The screw on camera macro lens it comes with causes bad vignetting even when you are zoomed in, get the after market macro diopters and put one right on the flip arm itself. Not sure why Amphibico did not do this as standard?

The rest of the housing is built very good.

85° wide angle vs 90° yes they should change the details.

Wags

Wags. again appreciate the additional information. it is really unfortunate that that Amphibico let this issue slip through QA...what a miss. Amphibico assured me the screw on dioters would not cause any additional vignetting...sounds like another thing they have missed on:( Where does one pick up a +2 diopter for the flip arm?

Shawn

Shawn, Amphibico WA lenses have vignetted for the VX1000 onwards. In their estimation, they don't think it's a factor since in broadcast, the vignetting is in the overscan area. So no prob for them. However with the advent of HDTV and full resolution screens, well, they really can't avoid it anymore. It really was a non-issue for many since you couldn't see it except on a computer screen.

Well, after much consideration (features, field results, price and availability), I have decided to go with the Phenom. The the vignetting does concern me however. I plan to use the "one touch on the zoom button" method to remove this. The 87degrees will still be more than the 80 i planned with LMI, and much less expensive than the LMI 100UWA.

In addition, having owned a LMI housing, I am concerned about the submerged weight of the BlueFin HD. My Blue Fin TRV950 with lights prooved far from neutral undwater (tiring). The review of the BlueFin HD just posted on this forum gives me pause again regarding the bouyancy. The testing method had battery pods without batteries (essentially air balast) and no lights. Add the batteries, lights and a heavy UWA 100 lens and once again LMI has produced a streamlined housing that is heavy underwater. This being said, if they could provide a 100 UWA lens at 50% of the 5K pricetag, there offering would be irresistable.

Another interesting Phenom option that soon (hopefully) will be available is record to firewire drive. Not encoding to MPEG2 could do wonders for the quality of the source (lens to drive). This could more than make up for the loss of FOV from the vignetting. In addition, having the ability to immediately dump to a computer woudl be really nice and save lots of time.

I receive my housing in the next few days and should put it to work in a week or so. I will share my findings with you all when I do. I really appreciate the knowledgable and honest input from folks on this forum.

Shawn, I owned a Bluefin V900 housing since 1999, and the balance was terrible compared to Bluefin HD. V900 was very nose heavy with UWA 100 lens, and the housing had an overall negative buoyancy. I adjusted it with 12lb. hi-density foam around the lens to compensate. Bluefin HD has no such buoyancy issues, and when the UWA lens is available, I will adjust the balance with the four internal, adjustable trim weights. As far as batteries, pods, and lights are concerened, I did a brief test in a pool. I normally shoot daytime without lights and no batteries. The HID lightheads are buoyant, so this even's out the extra weight of the batteries, and provides good stability. Light and Motion put some very good engineering into this housing, and anyone who buys one will be very impressed. This Saturday, I'll be giving it the full test, with and without lights. Good luck with your Phenom. That would have been my other choice for a high quality housing.

Dan

Hi Shawn and merry xmas to all...I ate to much........

You can get a set of 3 macro diopters for the Phenom They come as a set in a nice leather pouch. # 2 works great. About $100 bucks Aus or so for the set.

Send an email to Pamela at GATES. Tell her you spoke to me Paul Wags in Australia and its for your Phenom.

67mm diopter set is what you want, then take the glass out of the ring and

bingo instant flip macro. Put it in the closest flip arm. It will also allow you to zoom in alot more on subjects, works really well.

And yes the standard Amphibico screw in macro does cause vignetting even when zooming in. Well it did on mine.

I'm going to also see if I can get a adapter made to allow say a Gates 120 lens onto the housing.

There is a prism as well for the Phenom for around $1000 AUS!!! Abit over the top I think so I made my own for $5.. image is upside down but it stops the glare whch is really good and also protects the LCD screen from the sun and damage in transport . http://www.hdvunderwater.com/flip.htm

I was going to switch the LCD screen image but then the LCD image would of been upside down so I left it.

The new firewire drives comming out should also fit in the housing with the camera. How cool is that, record to tape and a drive at the same time.

The housing works really well and I have had no control problems after many many dives and is very well balanced. They nearly got it perfect.....so close but that vignetting.

Wags

PS: this is our new site. www.hdvunderwater.com

Dan,

Great summary on the Blue Fin HD. As I mentioned, my overall satisfaction was very high with my LMI setup...just some things needed improvement. If cost and availabilty wer not an issue, I would likely have gone this direction. Overall, I chose a "high-value" purchase route.

Wags,

Again, thanks for the valuable input. Just received my housing. pluged the diopter in and yes, vignetting:( Called gates and diopter set is in the mail...thanks for the recommendation to talk with Pamela...very nice person.

Let me know about the gates 120 when you find out. If this works, wow that would be great for a future upgrade. I worry however that the vignetting issue is not one of lens issues, but camera placement in the housing. worth a serious look however.

Firewire drive would be another hit. Does anyone know what file format and size get create when you record straight to a drive (out of housing use today of course)?

thanks again and I'll update everyone on my first test run.