Amphibico PD170 Alignment Problem

I have a Sony PD170 and matching housing from Amphibico. Whenever I video in wide-angle, I keep getting the 2 lef-hand corners of the lens. This problem is not visible through the viewfinder, but extremely noticeable when downloaded to computer for editing. I have contacted Amphibico, who have even suggested removing the housing lens during installation to get the lens ring supplied with the housing centred and seated properly. I have done this repeatedly with the same results - the two left-hand corners of my image are rounded. Has anybody had similar problems? Am I doing something wrong? I am based in Roatan, so sending the housing / camera up to Canada is something I'd like to avoid if at all possible. Thanks

Hi Buz

Welcome to the world of VIGNETTING

The reason you can only see it on the computer is that the computer is showing the 100% framed pixel area. When looking through the viewfinder or displaying it on a normal TV you will not see it due to overscan. All TV's have overscan on by default but some screens like Plasmas, LCD and Projectors have the capacity to turn overscreen off now days.

You can do as they suggested or zoom in abit when filming or fix it up in post like cropping it or zooming in abit in your NLE.

I have a Sony PD170 and matching housing from Amphibico. Whenever I video in wide-angle, I keep getting the 2 lef-hand corners of the lens. This problem is not visible through the viewfinder, but extremely noticeable when downloaded to computer for editing. I have contacted Amphibico, who have even suggested removing the housing lens during installation to get the lens ring supplied with the housing centred and seated properly. I have done this repeatedly with the same results - the two left-hand corners of my image are rounded. Has anybody had similar problems? Am I doing something wrong? I am based in Roatan, so sending the housing / camera up to Canada is something I'd like to avoid if at all possible. Thanks

Hello Buzz,

I have 2 Amphibico PD150/170 housings with the standard 0.55x lens and have never experienced any vignetting. However on my old VX1000 their was this issue but it was not the housing it was actually the CCD of the camcorder which was not perfectly centered, unfortunately Sony does not consider this a problem as its within their tolerances and does not cause any problems when filming without a housing. So the way I corrected this problem was shimming the camcorder in the housing to eventual rid the vignetting. It is possible that the problem is the camcorder. I would try another PD150 or VX2000. Good luck..

Well in this case at least its not Vignetting... its either one of two items....

1) I have heard of this but never seen it in person... the camera lens to sensor alignment is off... there is no user fix... most likely not your issue... and I wouldn't even worry about this

2) As Amphibico has suggested... the front of the housing is not aligning with the camera lens and the housing lens should be removed while the housing is being closed, very, very easy...

Thats what mine does and thats what I have seen on many of these setups....

I ALWAYS remove the housing lens on the housing before placing the camera into the housing and closing the housing door...

If you take off the housing lens and look carefully at the camera lens while you close the housing door you should see that the centering ring just barley scrapes by and seats... now examine the centering ring and the housing lens opening and notice if the centering ring is perfectly centered or is it slightly offset just a bit....

Well if its slightly offset a bit, its not because of the centering ring or the housing lens opening, its simply because when you are closing the housing the cenering ring is slightly brushing off of the housing lens opening and the camera itself is piviting on the tray...

So even though its very very slight, the camera is now shifted slightly on the tray in the housing... and you

will get to see the camera record the side of the housing lens... but notice it only sees the side of the housing lens when the camera is in WIDE zoom...

A couple of things that I do...

1) Make sure the tray is as tight as I feel safe turning the mounting screw to mount the tray to the camera

so it feels very solid...

2) While I close the housing up I put my finger on the centering ring (have to have the housing lens off) and help hold it in place as the housing door is closing (finger nail actually)

3) look down the housing lens hole and examine the centering ring to hole centering... you can see if its off

center and needs to be open'd again to re-center, don't be afraid to hold the centering ring with some force as the door is closed.

4) After all is in the housing, the centering ring is centered, the housing lens installed... wew...

I zoom the camera lens to full wide and then just bump the zoom off of the full wide angle setting slightly

so its not so wide that the camera lens does not see the housing lens.....

The last step is just added insurance and most of the time is not required, but better safe than sorry...

If you do these steps each time, you wont see the housing lens in your videos.....

OK, for you PD-150 and PD-170 underwater shooters.... here's another trick you'l be sure to like....

Go to EBay or B&H photo... and look up the Nikonos Close up lens... Ebay is the cheap way to get the lens

as lots of folks are just about giving their Nikonos setups away as they move to digital...

OK, as PD shooters we all know just how good the macro work is with these camera's right...

Well how would you like to extend the greatness of macro work to SUPER MACRO work... got your attention

did I??

Here's the secret, get one of the Nikonos Cloase up lens, a couple of ultra light arms and clamps, one hot shoe adaptor ( see the ultra light sight for part numbers ) and just mount the lens to the arms, mount the arms to the Amphibico housing using the front center light slot and adjust the close up lens in front of the

housing lens and look through the view finder.... wolaa... SUPER MACRO on the Amphibico/PD-150/170

setup.... and at a pretty good price too...

Best of videoing guys.... hope this info helps you out....

Here's the vignetting I was getting when I borrowed my mate's VX2000 in Amphibico housing.

Here's the vignetting I was getting when I borrowed my mate's VX2000 in Amphibico housing.

Thats the issue there in the Pic.... what you are seeing is the Camera lens is set to wide angle the camera lens is picking up the sides of the housing lens..

In the case of the pic, the camera is slightly off center and once centered correctly the easiest way to ensure that you dont see this in the shot is to just bump the camera zoom off of the wide setting....

Dixter, vignetting IS when you seen the corners of the lens when the lens is on full wide.

That picture is a typical example of vignetting. The biggest cause of vignetting is the housing tolerance for camera sensor alignment and also an acceptance by some manufacturers that the lens will vignette at full scan, since they assume the capture will be viewed in overscan mode on a TV, which was true til the late 90s when people started watching clips from the internet, which is full scan mode. Manufacturers who accept this vignetting do so to give the widest FOV possible with design constraints (such as legacy lens adapters etc).

However, the age of video cameras have changed and the viewing distribution includes computer users, something that was not prevalent til the late 90s. That is why I think there should be a standard for housing manufacturers to disclose vignetting in full scan mode for their lenses. It is unacceptable that housing lenses vignette nowadays even on cheaper standard lenses. If manufacturers do design in vignetting for whatever reasons, there should be disclosure to the buying public, unlike now where it is discovered after it gets wet and thus unreturnable.

Hopefully as more people report on their housings on Wetpixel, the reports can forewarn prospective buyers on problems like vignetting.

Sorry, For some reason it stuck in my head that we were talking about optical vignetting and

it never crossed my mind that mechanical vignetting was the subject...

I guess because I work around the issue on my setup...

agree, the mfg should disclose this info...