I just returned from a week on the Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. I used the HC-7 and Gates HC-7 housing for about 12 hours of snorkeling. This combination worked wonderfully; and I got some great footage of “schools†of green sea turtles feeding in a turbulent surge zone, 4 species of morays, trumpet fish, cornet fish, an octopus, dolphins near and far, and the usual tangs, wrasses, goatfish, chubs, tilefish, trevallies, and parrot fish.
I filmed on the same reefs last May with the HC-1 and a EWA Marine bag. I got some good footage then, but the video captured with the HC-7 and Gates housing is way better. Even in bright, tropical surface waters the shaded lcd display was easy to see and provided accurate framing without loss of the big picture of fish and corals before me. It is easy to push the manual control knob and select settings with the manual control wheel. I usually used the exposure adjustment, turning the exposure adjustment up or down to accommodate the scene. The zebra pattern was easy to see on the lcd. I hate overexposed coral in the scene, and I was able to adjust the exposure to get the fish and coral in the right zone. You can control focus, exposure, shutter speed, AE shift, and white balance shift with the manual control knobs. You can even control more than one of these at the same time. You could, for example, set the focus to 4 meters, push and hold the knob in a few seconds, scroll down to exposure, and set the exposure to your liking with focus locked at 4 meters. Incidentally, while focus distance is locked in this case, exposure can be adjusted instantly by spinning the knob that is connected to the little wheel on the HC-7. Everything can be reset by pushing the manual control button or knob, holding it in for a few seconds, scrolling down to reset, and selecting reset. Aside from changing exposure, I also adjusted AE shift and focus.
I was swimming near some spinner dolphins in water that had a fair amount of organic flotsam (high surf the previous day). The autofocus would often lock on flotsam in the foreground, so I set the focus to about 4 meters which seemed to work well for dolphins at 5 to 50 feet distance.
I did not get the version with manual white balance. You can set all of the normal presets (standard white balances, peaking, OIS, zebras, etc.) on the camera before you seal it up in the housing.
At about 9 pounds with camera installed, the Gates housing was more stable than the HC-1 and EWA bag, although shaking was still an issue in the surge zone. My guess is that snorkelers are going shake more than divers, even at or near the surface because of the snorkeler’s positive buoyancy.
The HC-7 image is sharper (more detailed) and has less noise than the HC-1. I’m not really sure, but it also seems to have better dynamic range and fewer artifacts. I would guess that its image quality is closer to the FX-7 than the HC-1. Given the combo’s small size, versatility and high quality of footage, I would think that the HC-7 and Gates housing would work very well for amateurs and pros who want or need to travel light.
I found one minor problem when using the standard flat port. I noticed this problem when testing the unit near the surface in a Colorado mountain stream. There were occasional warped, diamond shaped reflections of objects behind the housing (e.g., pine trees). These little anomalies were in the far upper left quadrant of the frame. They appeared to be reflections of objects behind me from the left barrel of the camera, bouncing off the inside of the flat port. These may not be noticeable at any kind of normal diving depth. I remedied the situation by placing a piece of folded, stiff, matte black paper behind the lcd in such a way that the camera and housing held it in place and out of the way of the seal and camera controls. I did not use the orange filter, so I also attached a 37 to 52 step up ring to the front of the camera. (You cannot attach a filter to the camera and still use the orange flip out filter.) This blocked light from the lcd viewing port of the housing. This barrel reflection is not a problem with the standard dome port, and probably would not be an issue with any of the wide angle ports. I can think of a variety of quick and easy fixes, and I am sure you folks could as well.
Tiny bubbles are an issue at the surface and in the surge zone. Swimming through my own wake, a small breaking wave, a parrot fish wake, or in surge zone inevitably deposited a few to a few dozen bubbles on the outside of the port. The domed port seemed to collect more. On my second trip out, I started to routinely sweep the bubbles off the port with a finger. I suppose this practice could lead to earlier degradation of the port surface, but in clean water it’s likely to take a very long time before this is a concern. At only $115 US per standard port, it’s not something I would worry about. The cost of these infrequent trips to tropical seas is far greater. I wonder if you could use a hurricane blower under water to sweep bubbles off the port.
The caps for the ports could be a bit more robust. They tend to fall off at inopportune times. I used a little wrist lanyard to keep from losing the housing in the water.
My overall impression of the housing and camera combo is extremely positive. High quality images, affordability, light weight, good view of the lcd, and decent manual controls make this a very appealing package for what I like to do. If I learn to dive this year, I’ve also got a system that will work well in the deep.
Cheers,
Pat
(Snorkel safe!)
How was the buoyancy of the housing w/ the standard port? Slightly negative?
). I think the problem stems from having one WA lens that fits many cameras. You may wish to bring this up with Gates and see what they can do.
