Housings with no viewfinder, monitor only, opinions ?

I am firmly in the must have viewfinder camp, but on many occassions I wished I had a top mounted monitor. I frequently see creatures I'd love to film, but can't get my camcorder and body in a position where I could properly frame the shot using the viewfinder without trashing the reef.

A top mounted monitor with a top mounted handle would be perfect.

Has anyone tried out Pmooney's idea of removing the rear monitor ?

Ron, the monitor backs are just a clear glass (or plexiglass) held down by a frame with o-rings. The monitor is inside this enclosure. I use to switch between VF and LCD monitor on my old S&S setup. It's pretty much the same principle. The problem is that without magnification, the camera VF,if too far behind the glass, even with the 0.25 magnification by water is going to be pretty hard to judge focus.

Gates' solution for their FX7 is interesting and we'll have to see how effective it is in dealing with that problem.

Mark, peaking shows as an outline on the subject and nowadays you can also change the colors to suit the subject. Where the line shows up is where the focus is... there is no better way to be accurate in your focus than that. Eyeballing it in a vf with even 2x magnification can't possibly give that sort of accuracy. It's designed for small DoF shooting.

Drew,

Cheers mate...

One day I'll read my operating guides and find these things out. Just set my peaking to 'red' and was thinking nothing works so I messed around with the manual focus and there she was lovely red line.

Dive safe

Dean(i'm a man I don't read manuals)B

I don't know what resolution the Endeavour's monitor back delivers but their new HD monitor's resolution is 1440 x 272 (R+G+B = effectively 480 x 272 for judging focus), whereas the FX1/Z1's viewfinder and LCD are 1120 x 224 (although in his Z1 review Adam Wilt reckoned the LCD actually resolves more lines (400) as opposed to the viewfinder's 350).

As I can see the top LCD with my Bluefin and it's as high resolution as the viewfinder, underwater I only ever use my viewfinder when the camera is underneath something and I can't see the top screen, or when I'm at the surface at the end of a dive, or if I'm creeping up on a critter slowly and trying to "hide" as much as possible.

As for peaking, I use it topside for focus on my Z1. I set it to red and the maximum setting. It's great but can't be used at the same time as zebras on the Z1 so I don't use it underwater as I like the zebras on.

Has anyone tried out Pmooney's idea of removing the rear monitor ?

This was just a suggestion for a field repair on on a failed monitor....... It was not being suggested as anything else .

There is a girl here filming Whale Sharks with an EVO with the rear LCD.

At the surface or on shallow dives she has trouble filming because of the glare.

Running around on the boat shooting with it she is basically pointing and shooting blind.

If the LCD fails then she is basically without a camera, which has happend due to loose connections.

I suppose one could take off the LCD and just look through the basic hole if desperate.

It is a good idea but I think the viewfinder needs to be still included.

Maybe a larger rubber sun shade would help as well.

My personal thoughts for these small setups is having a flip out mirror like the classic Navigator 900. All the cameras come with good LCD's now days and you can flip the image with electronics.

I don't know what resolution the Endeavour's monitor back delivers but their new HD monitor's resolution is 480 x 272

This raises another issue when deciding on Gates/Amphibico for the FX7/V1. No viewfinder on the Endeavour, assuming that they are using the same HD monitor as their stand alone then the resolution is only 480*272. Will that be good enough u/w?

The Gates optional monitor resolves to 1440*272 and it has a viewfinder as standard. BTW the Sony FX7E's LCD is 960*220 (PAL)

The Gates monitor is expensive but the basic housing price is much cheaper and adding the monitor makes the price comparable. It is also on top!

To add to the dilemma all three ports on the Amphibico have full zoom through! The standard dome port on the Gates doesn't.

Yours indecisive

Roger

Roger

You have two choices with the Endeavour for LCD resolution.

The 3.5" Standard Definition LCD rear Viewfinder or

the 4.3" 16:9 High Definition LCD rear Viewfinder. (1080i/720p)

The Amphibico 94 degree port is wonderfull and place a macro+2 on the flip arm and you have even better range. Put a +4 on and you can fill the screen with very small stuff indeed but you are only 1 inch from the port so abit dangerous.

There will be no Vignetting with that port as the FX7/V1 camera has a slightly smaller FOV than the FX1/Z1.

Or just go for the Fathom lens options...

Expensive i know, but you get what you pay for..

Always check your budget before taking any advice and progressing to the shop counter

Dive safe

DeanB

Thanks Dean,

Strange I'm sure when I last looked at the specs for the Amphibico 4.3" monitor it said 480*272, now when I have checked it again it states true 1080i*720 (1440x272 R+B+G)

Doesn't help the decision making much, but your info on the 94 degree port is very useful. I suppose as an Amphibico user you would recommend that housing

Do you know if the handles come of the Endeavour for ease of transport, or do all the electronics pass through them?

Roger

Guys, the Amphibico website had a typo. The 3.5" standard resolution is 110k. The 4.3" HD is 1440x272(392k) like the Gates. In fact it's the same manufacturer.

1440x272

How does that work?

1440 x 272 would make the pixels 3 times as tall as they are wide if it wasn't a R+G+B display. I guess they call it 1440 instead of 480 because you get a red, green and blue pixel in a group of 3 next to each other (horizontally).

I guess would give more accurate chroma/luminance rendition than a simple non-R+G+B 480 x 272 display but in terms of resolution for judging focus we're actually only talking about an effective resolution of 480 x 272.

I've read somewhere, probably here, that these are the same LCD panels as the PSP.

but in terms of resolution for judging focus we're actually only talking about an effective resolution of 480 x 272.

All these numbers are making me feel very inadequate. The proof is in the pudding.

Can you guys with monitors focus your cameras with a resolution of 480x272 Or do you all use autofocus, peaking +/- experience?

Presumably viewfinders are even lower res.

Roger

Well as soon as I can get my hands on an Amphibico one, I will take it for dive and tell you all how good it is.

After you Sir

Guys, this is getting to be measurebating.

The point is the at 392k, the resolution is higher than Sony's viewfinder AND own monitors. If anyone has been able to focus with the older SD monitors, they will be able to do so with the newer ones.

The best way to judge focus is to use Peaking. But that's not possible with external monitors.

Also the monitors are unable to display zebra in the normal way, but as you can see in this pic, the histogram does help with control exposure.