Anyone building monitor housings???

Hi Guys,

Been a while. Just looking around to see if anyone has a friend of a friend of a friend who may be a dab hand at making underwater enclosures etc. I'm basically looking to house a Panny HVX200 and probably going with the Gates housing. Thing is I don't want (read can't afford to) pay the quoted $15k from Gates to basically pay for their RnD to produce a housing for a Marshall 7" HD compatible monitor. Its one thing to pay for a custom job but guaranteed if it works we'd see the monitor housing available, courtesy of yours truly, through the Gates website. Not having a go just don't think its a very nice way to treat the client seeing as HD housings are gonna become the norm in the not too distant future and someone's gonna have to take the first step to produce such monitor options and housings. I just don't wanna be the one paying for it. That should be down to the manufacturing company......IMHO.

Cheers,

Mark.

<_<

Well the guys using the F900 in a custom Subspace housing used "only" a 5.7" monitor.

Drop me an email and I'll put you in the right direction.

That panny is more of a pain than you know Mark for u/w use.

Hi Mark,

Do not know if its any use but Extreme-facilities Amphibico's U.K dealer are going to be making custom 16:9 monitors that might fit the Gates.

Dive safe

DeanB

Assuming I move to a Z1/Gates combination I will also be in the market for a good 16:9 external monitor.

I would be very surprised indeed if Gates themselves don't develop a good 16:9 monitor housing in the not-too-distant future. The majority of customers for their bigger HDV housings are going to want one so the demand will certainly be there.

As their owner John himself recently told me, it won't be long before better LCDs are available for an external monitor.

If Gates don't come up with one, the connector they use for their monitors is simple, reliable and very readily available to use with 3rd-party monitors. It's called an EO connector (formerly Crouse Hinds).

Can you get hold of Gates' small SD monitor in the meantime and make do with that?

Nick

I recall seeing a widescreen LCD monitor at a DEMA show some years ago - the name of the firm exhibiting eludes me ( I will check my diaries to search more completely once I get to the office). I believe the chap was italian / swiss italian ( do't be offended if I got it wrong ), Lets say european and that he had also developed a very special lens "the tallesector " again spelling is probally wrong. This lens had the amazing ability to focus down to very small object's and maintain amazing depth of field.

I saw that the lens were modified and fitted to Amphibico . Gates - (I think Lawrence Wahba got one ) and from memory to some Light & Motion Bluefins.

They also had unique system that used fitted high density foam block asa bouyancy solution. It was fairly popular in eorope as I understand.

Perhaps some of our more distinguished member's recall the very expensive lense ( over 5K in those days ) that i am talking about - this memory could lead us to the maker of those 7" wide screen LCD monitors that were exhibited at that show all those years ago.

The things you can remember is uncanny..............

Nick ,

I have been using a 2.5 Gates Monitor on the Z1 housing with fair luck.

Sure it will great to get a native 16:9 screen but until it comes readilly available a 2.5 will do for most - if size is immediately important Have John to get you a 4" Monitor gates monitor

good luckjava script:emoticon('')

I wonder if we could house a Sony PSP's LCD somehow???

Display: 4.3 inch, 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD, 480 x 272 pixel (16.77 million colors), Max. 200 cd/m2 (with brightness control)

4.3" big enough? 480 x 272 pixels enough?

Nick

The guy's name is Jean Claude Uldry, and the lens is the Thalacetor, made for the VX1000 housings for Amphibico. The company is based in Saronno Italy.

Great lens it was, but when Fathoms came out with a competitive lens at 1/3 the price. well...

I recall seeing a widescreen LCD monitor at a DEMA show some years ago - the name of the firm exhibiting eludes me ( I will check my diaries to search more completely once I get to the office).  I believe the chap was italian / swiss italian ( do't be offended if I got it wrong ),  Lets say european and that he had also developed a very special lens "the tallesector " again spelling is probally wrong. This lens had the amazing ability to focus down to very small object's  and maintain amazing depth of field.

 

I saw that the lens were modified and fitted to Amphibico . Gates -  (I think Lawrence Wahba got one ) and from memory to some Light & Motion Bluefins.

 

They also had unique system that used fitted high density foam block asa bouyancy solution. It was fairly popular in eorope as I understand.

 

Perhaps some of our more distinguished member's recall the very expensive lense ( over 5K in those days ) that i am talking about - this memory could lead us to the maker of those 7" wide screen LCD monitors that were exhibited at that show all those years ago.

 

The things you can  remember is uncanny..............  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Dru - I knew that someone would come through.

Here is a link to the monitor. http://www.adval.it/monitor.html

It only talks about PAL std and looks like it uses a amphibico style 3 pin wet connector.

The Thalamon is ok but really bulky. Actually the guy at Subspace who makes HDCAM housings just use a 4" for a viewfinder. Amphibico uses about the same LCD monitor size I think. I thought of the thalamon for my HVX but too darn bulky.

A housed 7" monitor is going to be pretty enormous. With that on top of the HVX housing you won't be able to see where you're going or what's coming at you! (other than through the monitor).

Now if Gates would spend your 15k on developing a monitor-back à la Sea&Sea/L&M, that would be very interesting. It'll never happen though as I doubt they're interested and their mechanical controls probably get in the way.

By the way if I was developing a custom monitor housing for a big Gates housing for personal use only, I would consider engineering it to be very positively buoyant so I could ditch my monster buoyancy tubes (which I have to carry to offset the weight of my L&M Sunray lights).

Nick

Nick,

Thanks for the ideas, especially for using the monitor housing to offset the negative bouyancy. I may be erring on the side of caution for a while with plans for this unit. It would have been used solely for stock. Thats to say specific targets for stock footage would have been sought out and then filmed from a static position whether on a tripod or handheld. I was not planning to swim around the reef with it on a search for whatever comes along. The mass would kill my legs after a while and my tank wouldn't last any longer than the 16 mins of DVCProHD offered by the two 8Gb P2 cards!!

Cheers for the input.

Mark.

PS A protruding rear backplate with the onitor situated there so it wouldn't interfere with the manual controls of the Gates would also be a design option. Make the housing a bit long and hard to manipulate maybe.

Mind you, I've been using Sealux for years, a great housing IMHO, they have that option for the backplate monitor a la L&M

Mark