Inon/Hugy viewfinder in Sea&Sea

Look on my works ye mighty!

I couldn't wait for Sea&Sea to work out that the market could bear a better viewfinder on the DX-5D housing. I bought a Hugyfot assembly including the Inon 45 degree finder. Then I bought a lathe. Then I bought some delrin. Then I worked.

I now have a better viewfinder on my DX-5D. I must thank Udo for all his help sending my pictures of his Hugyfot setup and words of encouragement.

I can now see all four corners of the 5D's huge viewfinder. It's not as bright as the Seacam S45 would be, but that wouldn't physically fit on the back plate.

If this thread needs to go hide in the DIY section, so be it. I thought it might be more useful to people in this section to show what is possible though.

As you can imagine I'm very chuffed with the fruits of my labours.

Woo! Yay! and indeed Hoopla!

Martyn

Very cool. It's fine here.

But it would be great if when you get some time you make a post in the DIY forum about what you did to make it come together.

Thanks William, that's a good idea.

Martyn

Thanks William, that's a good idea.

 

Martyn

Martyn, very nice! Would love to see a DIY report on how you did this. Now what was the price tag on the viewfinder+45deg connector...?

Very cool Martyn.

That is a really useful modification. You and Udo could start a little business, retrofitting these to a variety of housings.

Alex

(I will move this thread to the DIY forums later on, let a few more people bump into in DSLRs first).

Cheers Alex,

I've certainly thought about getting a few more of the adapters in from Hugyfot and modifying them now that I have the dimensions sorted. Any of the recent Sea&Sea housings that have the replaceable pickup finder should take my modified adapter. Obviously the seals on anything I did for anyone else would need thorough pressure testing before use but I would have thought this could be arranged fairly easily.

This is a basic schematic of the adapter, modified and installed in the perspex back plate of the Sea&Sea housing.

I've cut an o-ring slot to take the large o-ring that the stock viewfinder barrel seals with. There's also a slot for a smaller backup o-ring in the narrower bore, just before the fat fixing oring that I've had to use to hold the dapter in. I wanted to use a proper circlip, but there isn't room and the fixing o-ring does a surprisingly excellent job.

The left side is the flange where the viewfinder fits. There is a split ring that goes around that flange and an identical flange on the viewfinder. I'll post some more pics later on.

Martyn

HI Martyn,

well done just one question what is the magnification like? is

it as good as the Seacam S45, which I use with my D70 I fine

it amazing .

Andy

Very, very, interesting indeed!

I need to know more - more pictures, more details, more anything!

Well done.

Hey Martyn,

Well done man!!!! It looks like it comes from the factory like this straight away. You have a true dream rig now.

I'm sure the quality of the Inon/Hugyfot viewfinder isn't the same as the S45 Seacam viewfinder, but it's hell lot cheaper too. (900 euro..). Curious to hear your UW experiences, but i'm sure you're going to love it as much as i do.

cheers, udo

The Seacam S45 just has to be better than the Inon/Hugy and I would have used it if it would have fitted, but alas the Seacam viewfinder bore is huge! That's what helps make it so good, there's no restriction of the light entering the viewfinder body.

Anyway, by popular demand here are some more pics:

The adapter is held in place with an o-ring

This is what wetpixel looks like through it.

Sorry about the poor image quality, that's more to do with trying to use my little Sony T9 to emulate my eyeball than any deficiency in the Inon finder.

The split ring that holds the assembly onto the housing flange. You may be able to see that I've shaved off about 1mm on one side of it, because the flange in closer to my housing back plate than it would be on a Hugyfot housing.

Just today I got a backup o-ring from my friendly neighbourhood scuba equipment serviceguy, Dave. Perfect fit. I can see two good sealing beads through the housing perspex, so I'm ready to pool test it later in the week.

Martyn

Good pictures Martyn - things are starting to make sense now.

The split ring is a bit confusing to me. Is this just to stabilise the viewfinder when in place so it does not rock around and threaten the integrity of the yellow sealing O-rings? - otherwise, I can't see what this bit does. How securely is it clamped together by the two blue O-rings.

I'm encorouged by the fact that your ingenuity looks like fairly straightforward lathe work.

Can you tell me how thick the small perspex section on your 5D housing is? - I'm wondering how it compares to the all perpex rear of my housing?

The other big question is, how did you go about getting the viewfinder in the UK - did you go direct to Hugyphot in Belgium?

In the last picture, the tube extending from the viewfinder, with the yellow o-rings is what mates with the flanged "socket" that is now fixed into the back of the housing. The split ring holds it in place, while allowing it to rotate for landscape/vertical use. The two blue o-rings are thick blue viton or similar and hold it nice and tight. It would take a huge force to separate it on the surface, even more at depth.

The perspex section is approx 15mm thick. How does that compare with the back section of yours?

Geoff Sharples at Cameras Underwater furnished me with the assembly. They are dealers for Hugyfot, so had a couple in stock at the time.

The trick with modifying the adapter was not only working out the dimensions to fit the stepped bore on the housing and take a pair of o-rings, but also to mount up the original part to machine it. Very fiddly that I can tell you.

I'm wondering whether it might makes sense to get a few of the adapters and modify them for the Sea&Sea housings. I guess we'll see how many people are interested in that. If anyone is, PM me.

Martyn

The rear section of my housing is approx 9mm thick. I'm surprised that the DX-5D is that much thicker.

From your efforts so far - what do you reckon it would be like to get an adaptor to sit within 9mm compared to around 15mm?

Thanks for the info Trevor.

I got Pakman to show a close up of the viewfinder mounting on the 350D housing, which is very similar to your D50 housing. These alloy/polycarbonate housings use a slightly different, fixed pickup finder and mount as you say into a thinner back panel.

Although the dimensions of my modified adapter will not directly fit, I believe it would be straightforward to modify an adpater to fit the 350D and D50 housings. In fact the installed assembly would be easier to mount and dismount, as the flange would have better clearance from the back panel. It takes a few minutes to get the split ring sections in place and the blue o-rings around them on my 5D.

My guess is that the 5D and D200 housings use a thick slab of plexi to allow space for the o-ring seal around it.

Martyn

Just a quick update.

I tested the rig for watertightness in the pool last night, both with the accessory finder in place and without.

No Worries!

I'll still test it at full dive depth on my first dive next trip before putting a 5D in it, but I'm pretty happy that it's A1 now.

Martyn

how much did you pay for the lathe?!?

great job Martyn, great initiative.

Does the viewfinder/adaptor block seeing any of the camera LCD?

Cheers Mike,

I've been wanting a small lathe and a small milling machine for ages, so it's crossed the first off the list. Actually used it last night to trim down a Sea&Sea focus gear for an old 50mm f/2.5. I'm making up a long reach gear for the 100mm USM macro, so this forms the gear stub that sits at the rear of the lens.

tkr,

You have to tip the camera forwards slightly to see the image properly, but the prism body doesn't really block it as such. I'll post a picture.

Martyn

Martyn,

Thought I'd drag this thread back up. Just got back from a 1 week trip to Palau. I've been pretty happy with my housed 400D (XTi) especially now with the Tokina FE. But the niggle I have is the combination of small/ dark viewfinder of the 400D itself with 0.6x viewfinder which can be frustrating especially with small macro subjects. i was just looking at the divervision.com website and they are now selling the Inon angled viewfinder for USD550 (stock) and $700 (fit for Nexus/ Patima housing).

Obviously your mod would not be reversible, but might be worthwhile given the lack of any other alternative for S&S housings. Shame they didn't work with Inon to roll this out as an option like Nexus did!!

a few questions

1) since the 350D housing rear is thinner than your 5D, I'm wondering if the Inon viewfinder would protrude into my housing too far?

2) Is the 45 degree viewfinder removable from the housing for transportation? If I read your thread correctly, there is a flange that is permanently fixed to the housing plexi. And then the 45deg viewfinder mounts to that. So removing that, the housing is still sealed, right? If the viewfinder got knocked in a rinse tank or dive tender on the way to the dive, the housing seal would still be intact?

3) (not directed to you specifically Martyn) Other than simply taking the housing down to depth for pressure testing, does anyone know of any companies that can provide pressure testing for a housing? (wonder if S&S Japan would test a modified housing!)

4) How different (if at all) is the Inon 45 viewfinder for the HUGYFOT from the Inon stock 45 viewfinder which I believe is sold out here in Asia?

5) Oh and if I do decide to go ahead with this, of course I would be willing to pay for your service and parts... We can take this to PM's later if the discussions get that far

Pakman,

Apparently, there are some adaptors coming up for the S&S / Inon viewfinder. Look at the link http://www.scubacam.nl/catalog/index.php?cPath=22_117

I didn't have a chance to go see it. I asked if it would work with the 350D housing and they said yes. Anyway, the viewfinder adaptor looks weird because it seems too far from the housing.