Gates FX7 housing on their website

Roger, with large subjects you're going to get "milky" results using a flat port even in clear water and I expect you will get frustrated by it.

Thanks Nick, just the sort of info I needed, I might well take your advice.

Roger

Roger,

Humm!!! When I read this seems like Amphibico's "Phenom" & upcoming Endeavor with the 94 Degree full zoom through lens is still the best deal around. My budget does not allow me to purhase a lens that costs more than the housing or camera just to get another 20 degree FOV??

Just an observatiion...

Regards

Newton

Hi Mark,

 

Thanks for the info. I think I have it sorted out in my mind now.

Snapping it up my not be a financial option, the SWP44 costs £3250 from a well known distributor in the UK and that is approx $US 6000 I imagine the new one will be a similar price

 

When the housing comes available I will probably go for the flat macro first and then see what sort of performance I can get. The clarityand brightness of the water in the Red Sea makes wide angle a little easier by simply finning further away from the subject.

 

With a liveaboard trip planned in mid June to film the large shoals off Ras Mohammad I am just hoping that the housings are not delayed. I have already had 2 diving holidays since I bought the FX7 B)

 

Cheers

 

Roger

Me thinks a decent/pro lens is a major consideration of any camera..especially if you can flip a diopter behind it.

Maybe Roger could cut back on his 300 holidays a year and buy us all a SWP44 for xmas

Dive safe

DeanB

Maybe Roger could cut back on his 300 holidays a year and buy us all a SWP44 for xmas

I would be happy to oblige, but without the holidays I wouldn't need the housing, and what else could I do with my retirement

perhaps

Hi Roger,

The Red Sea is clear with great colors up to the shallower reefs. I'd suggest jamming a URPro filter in the lens barrel of your camera. Use a retaining ring from a filter to keep it in place. Then screw a much cheaper (than the SWP44) Century Optics x.7 wide angle to the camera and then place all of that behind the standard dome. The Century will allow you up to 85% zoom through if you do need to use telephoto. On overcast days switch to a flat port with your lighting rig to get those portrait and macro shots.

Just an idea.

Mark.

What I think will be interesting to see is if the Endeavour is using the same wide angle as the Phenom however Gates are making another lens for the V1, I wonder whether there will be any distortion with the Endeavour.

Or vignetting issues or zoom through issues. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'll be getting the Gates with the flat and dome port. The big Fathoms port will have to wait.

If someone gets the Endeavor, we can do a nice comparison.

Hi Roger,

The Red Sea is clear with great colors up to the shallower reefs. I'd suggest jamming a URPro filter in the lens barrel of your camera. Use a retaining ring from a filter to keep it in place. Then screw a much cheaper (than the SWP44) Century Optics x.7 wide angle to the camera and then place all of that behind the standard dome. The Century will allow you up to 85% zoom through if you do need to use telephoto. On overcast days switch to a flat port with your lighting rig to get those portrait and macro shots.

 

Just an idea.

Mark.

Hi Mark,

A good idea, and I will certainly bear it in mind. Presumably the flip filter on the housing will do the job, and gives me the option to do without e.g. during the 5m safety stop when it is as bright as day

Thanks Mate.

DISCLOSURE: I WORK FOR GATES UNDERWATER PRODUCTS

Hi all,

Thought this topic might warrant a direct post to avoid confusion.

First, let me define some conventional terms:

Port: is anything that goes on the housing in front of the camera.

Adapter: is a lens that widens the field of view (FOV). No zoom through.

Converter: is a lens that widens the FOV *and* retains zoom through.

Now here's the short scoop on ports. You'll find all this info on our website.

SP -- Standard (dome) Port. The optical physics of a concentric dome means your camera must focus on a virtual image, and thus you get little or no zoom through capability. SP's are inexpensive, and retain the same FOV as the camera when used underwater. Gates has an acrylic and glass dome version for those that prefer one over the other.

FP-- Flat Port. Like your scuba mask, this narrows the FOV by 25%, so it's not a good choice for shooting big stuff. By its nature the FP allows full zoom through, and so is more appropriate for macro work w/diopters. This port is also inexpensive and available currently in an optical acrylic version.

WP or GP -- Gates designators for Wide Port / Gates Port adapters. They increase your FOV but offer little or no zoom through. These ports have glass elements embedded into a pressure-proof shell. The difference between WP (a Fathom port) and GP (a Gates port) is explained on our website. http://www.gateshousings.com/ports.html

SWP -- Gates designator for a Super Wide Port converter. Full zoom through is retained. This is a high performance lens, sort of 'all in one' giving you super wide FOV (up to 120 degrees) and zoom through for macro -- and everything in between. This high performance = more cost.

Now, for those of you asking about the SWP34, this is a brand new design. The FX7 and V1 have different chip sizes and different internal camera optics. This means none of our other SWP's are compatible. The SWP44 designed for the FX1/Z1 produced a very soft image with the FX7/V1 cameras -- far below Gates' standard for image quality. So a new SWP is under development.

Two items to note about the FX7/V1 housings:

1) The SWP34 will be renamed SWP44-next because it will fit the -44 opening on the FX7/V1 housing. SWP34 is just a placeholder until we sort out those details.

2) The available ports for the FX7/V1 are SP44, FP44 and SWP44-next. No WP or GP.

I now return to my cave.

J-

DISCLOSURE: I WORK FOR GATES UNDERWATER PRODUCTS

 

Hi all,

 

Thought this topic might warrant a direct post to avoid confusion.

 

First, let me define some conventional terms:

Port: is anything that goes on the housing in front of the camera.

Adapter: is a lens that widens the field of view (FOV). No zoom through.

Converter: is a lens that widens the FOV *and* retains zoom through.

 

Now here's the short scoop on ports. You'll find all this info on our website.

 

SP -- Standard (dome) Port. The optical physics of a concentric dome means your camera must focus on a virtual image, and thus you get little or no zoom through capability. SP's are inexpensive, and retain the same FOV as the camera when used underwater. Gates has an acrylic and glass dome version for those that prefer one over the other.

 

FP-- Flat Port. Like your scuba mask, this narrows the FOV by 25%, so it's not a good choice for shooting big stuff. By its nature the FP allows full zoom through, and so is more appropriate for macro work w/diopters. This port is also inexpensive and available currently in an optical acrylic version.

 

WP or GP -- Gates designators for Wide Port / Gates Port adapters. They increase your FOV but offer little or no zoom through. These ports have glass elements embedded into a pressure-proof shell. The difference between WP (a Fathom port) and GP (a Gates port) is explained on our website. http://www.gateshousings.com/ports.html

 

SWP -- Gates designator for a Super Wide Port converter. Full zoom through is retained. This is a high performance lens, sort of 'all in one' giving you super wide FOV (up to 120 degrees) and zoom through for macro -- and everything in between. This high performance = more cost.

 

Now, for those of you asking about the SWP34, this is a brand new design. The FX7 and V1 have different chip sizes and different internal camera optics. This means none of our other SWP's are compatible. The SWP44 designed for the FX1/Z1 produced a very soft image with the FX7/V1 cameras -- far below Gates' standard for image quality. So a new SWP is under development.

 

Two items to note about the FX7/V1 housings:

1) The SWP34 will be renamed SWP44-next because it will fit the -44 opening on the FX7/V1 housing. SWP34 is just a placeholder until we sort out those details.

2) The available ports for the FX7/V1 are SP44, FP44 and SWP44-next. No WP or GP.

 

I now return to my cave.

 

J-

john thanks for explaining many subtleties to a newbie

it has been a very useful lesson....

paul

Hi Mark,

 

A good idea, and I will certainly bear it in mind. Presumably the flip filter on the housing will do the job, and gives me the option to do without e.g. during the 5m safety stop when it is as bright as day

 

Thanks Mate.

Urmmmm, Roger.

Take your camera, put an orange filter on it on land and white balance through it. Is your image still an orange washout? No. Do the same at 5m depth by pointing the camera at the sun and you get wonderful color saturation but no orange tint. You can also WB through video lighting if the filter is fixed in place.

Cheers,

Mark.

Take your camera, put an orange filter on it on land and white balance through it. Is your image still an orange washout? No. Do the same at 5m depth by pointing the camera at the sun and you get wonderful color saturation but no orange tint. You can also WB through video lighting if the filter is fixed in place.

Hi Mark,

Please remember you are speaking to a complete novice. The FX7 is my first camera with MWB, my current Sony 330E and previous Canon MV1 (Optura) only had AWB and certainly can't cope with a filter in place. 5m stops are orange I was not aware that the MWB could correct for an orange filter in sunlight or with video lights.

I have used a removable filter on the front of the housing so that I could remove it for bright conditions and if I switched to lights for macro. The S&S housing for the 330E also has a flip over dioptre for macro work. If the water is anything other than Red Sea blue my filmed colour is awful. This was particularly so in Kenya, where there was a significant green bloom! I will be spending many hours rendering that footage on the PC You can see why I am keen to get in the water with the FX7 housed.

Thanks also to JohnE for his explanation.

So any advice will be gratefully accepted and valued, and I will learn.

Cheers

Roger

John! thanks a bunch for posting, very useful info!

Roger, hehe... that whole wb through the filter gets a lot of people.

Works a charm though, welcome to the beautiful world of manual WB

Not only can you MWB with a filter in near the surface but it helps as it cuts the light back abit so you don't have to spin the shutter up as much if your fstop is maxed out.

John congratulations your very first post.

Thanks for the great info as well.

Hi Roger,

The Red Sea is clear with great colors up to the shallower reefs. I'd suggest jamming a URPro filter in the lens barrel of your camera. Use a retaining ring from a filter to keep it in place. Then screw a much cheaper (than the SWP44) Century Optics x.7 wide angle to the camera and then place all of that behind the standard dome. The Century will allow you up to 85% zoom through if you do need to use telephoto. On overcast days switch to a flat port with your lighting rig to get those portrait and macro shots.

 

Just an idea.

Mark.

I plan on doing this too, except I will probably try the Raynox lens 1st. I was very surprised how well their .5 lens worked on my Canon HV10. They just released a .7 lens with 62mm threads just for the FX7 and it costs a lot less than the Century. I figure it's worth a try before shelling out $$ for the Century lens.

Raynox FX7 lens

John,

Is the Gates housing going to be able to access the 'assign' buttons on the V1.

Dive safe

DeanB

I plan on doing this too, except I will probably try the Raynox lens 1st. I was very surprised how well their .5 lens worked on my Canon HV10. ...snip...

which model was it that you tried on the HV10? The HD-5050 PRO?

also are you using the hv10 in a housing?

I plan on doing this too, except I will probably try the Raynox lens 1st. I was very surprised how well their .5 lens worked on my Canon HV10. They just released a .7 lens with 62mm threads just for the FX7 and it costs a lot less than the Century. I figure it's worth a try before shelling out $$ for the Century lens.

Ron,

Thanks for the link, it looks like a good lens but.... 43mm deep, I doubt there will be enough room for this - perhaps John from Gates can enlighten us.

Roger

Hi Mark,

Please remember you are speaking to a complete novice. The FX7 is my first camera with MWB, my current Sony 330E and previous Canon MV1 (Optura) only had AWB and certainly can't cope with a filter in place. 5m stops are orange I was not aware that the MWB could correct for an orange filter in sunlight or with video lights.

Hi Roger,

Sorry about that. I thought you were more versed in technique.

For the best results and good underwater video you will need to have access to manually white balance the camera. I am not surprised that with a non manually adjustable WB setting on your older rig that you got washed out orange imagery at 5m and shallower.

With a filter in place set the white balance on any given light reflective surface like a dive slate, white patch on a wetsuit, some people use hands others use available sand on a sunny day. In shallow water use the sun, direct the cam to the sun with the filter in place and set your WB. Once done you can then go back to filming and getting nice rich colors on wide scenery without needing lights.

Going to macro using lights will require a further WB using the lights as their kelvin temperature will normally be different from that of the sun and will give a different color rendition.

Hope this helps.

Mark.

Not only can you MWB with a filter in near the surface but it helps as it cuts the light back abit so you don't have to spin the shutter up as much if your fstop is maxed out.

Wagsy,

The Marine Visions picture of the right hand side of the Gates housing shows a lever for the ND filter. I used this a lot in the bright conditions in Kenya. It allowed me to keep the camera settings in the middle range for maximum flexibility. I imagine this could be useful for those shallow bright shots over white sand.

Mark,

Thanks for the info. I have been using video U/W for about 10 years and have many hours in the can, but it has all been on basic cameras and mostly all on auto. However I have been interested in photography for 50+ years. My first video camera was a Sony considerably larger than the FX1 and it was connected by cable to a so called portable Beta recorder! That was 25 years ago. I believe that Peter Scoones (renowned BBC u/w cameraman) hand built a housing for a similar camera and a separate housing for the recorder, which he towed behind him like a dog on a lead. Up until then video cameras had to be connected to a recorder on the boat by a long cable.

It will be good to be able to use a camera u/w that will allow me the sort of control that I have used on still etc. for so long.

Roger