Sony HDR-HC5 and Equinox Pro 6 housing (Problems)

Hey guys,

I'm fairly new to underwater videography so please excuse me if some of these questions seem a little "noobish"

I Brought a Sony HDR-HC5 and Equinox Pro 6 housing about 6 months ago now, and I'm having a couple issues with both the housing and camera.

First of all while filming every 10-30 seconds my video camera seems to lose focus and refocus, do I have to set the camera to a manual focus setting to stop this? or could this be happening because of the low visibility I have been filming in (thanks to some crappy New Zealand weather ).

A couple times the camera has just stayed unfocused for a good 30 seconds, no matter how many times i try to point it at something with a good contrasting color to the greenish water, The only thing that seemed to stop it was waving my hand rite in front of the thing a couple times.

Is this normal?

Do any of you guys have an Equinox housing?

I'm just trying to figure out if things always go wrong with these housings, as I have had quite a few little problems.

First of all, after cleaning the housing lens I noticed lots of small scratches on it! i used a normal camera lens cleaning kit and tissues to clean it and did it like you would with a camera lens (very gently applying pressure) now every time I film in strong light the scratches show up in the video

another problem I have had with the housing was a couple screws in the backplate rusting and a couple latches starting to rust.

I mean seriously, EVERY screw and latch should be made of stainless steel, not medium steel roughly coated in chrome or paint...

Just before i also noticed the black plastic ring that protects and shades the housing lens (not sure of the name) has several large cracks down the bottom of it

not good!

huh.... looks like the equinox do hv lots of problem?? maybe some other member here can give some comments on this??

Your focus problem is due to the auto focus searching. Set it to manual at 1m and you should be good.

Thanks for that.

So if i was filming say, dolphins that were like 15 meters away, would I adjust the focus distance to 15 meters or should 1 meter do?

With regards to the port are you using a lens cloth to clean it?

Also rinse with fresh water before wiping as the salt can scratch acrylic ports, a solution to your problem could be to get an acrylic (I am presuming that the port is acrylic not glass) polisher. Like Novus 1,2 or 3 depending on how bad they are, this should get rid of your scratches.

Can't help you with the screws.

regarding focus.. focus on something that is a 1m or so away with auto focus, then lock it (by putting into manual) they check to see what is in focus and not. You will probably find that from around 50cm to infinity is in focus.

Remember when underwater if you change the focus maybe to do some macro stuff you will have to reset the focus.

Jon

anymore comments from the master around?? because I am eyeing on the PRO 6 HD model which have the CAM Control for Sony SR12.... i think a rust in the screw and latches is a no no in U/W housing.... hope to hear more feedback for this housing... cheers!!

With regards to the port are you using a lens cloth to clean it?

Also rinse with fresh water before wiping as the salt can scratch acrylic ports, a solution to your problem could be to get an acrylic (I am presuming that the port is acrylic not glass) polisher. Like Novus 1,2 or 3 depending on how bad they are, this should get rid of your scratches.

 

Can't help you with the screws.

 

regarding focus.. focus on something that is a 1m or so away with auto focus, then lock it (by putting into manual) they check to see what is in focus and not. You will probably find that from around 50cm to infinity is in focus.

 

Remember when underwater if you change the focus maybe to do some macro stuff you will have to reset the focus.

 

Jon

hey,

I have used both a lens cloth and lens cleaning tissues, i think both caused scratches. Thanks for the tips, I don't think the scratches had anything to do with the salt water as i had rinsed the housing in fresh water overnight prior to cleaning the port (i was getting it ready for diving that day) but ill remember that for next time.

Yea the port is made of acrylic. I think ill give that a go, thanks for your help B)

Would a glass port be better than acrylic?

anymore comments from the master around?? because I am eyeing on the PRO 6 HD model which have the CAM Control for Sony SR12.... i think a rust in the screw and latches is a no no in U/W housing.... hope to hear more feedback for this housing... cheers!!

The Pro 6 is my first underwater video housing so i cant really compare it to anything else.

I think apart from the couple of problems i have been having with mine they are good housings.

The housing could certainly benefit from some sort of non scratch port (maybe a glass port?) and some stainless bolts and screws.

Another thing i don't like about it is the vignetting of the housing while using the wide angled lens. I usually just zoom in slightly to fix this problem but every so often you get a piece of the housing come into frame and it can kill some nice footage.

The 3 years warranty is good though. but its pretty annoying if i want parts or things fixed as I have to send it away to America which can take a fair while from New Zealand.

yea, one of my concern is the rusty area, can we change the stainless bolts and screw on our own? since i am from Malaysia, i can't find any dealer that is selling this housing so i can't have a look on this housing, actually the 3 years warranty for me = useless too, coz i hv to send all the way to US and the courier fee will cost a bomb!!

Rusty hardware on an underwater housing is just ridiculous. They've either cut corners in the design/manufacturing process or the designers just don't know what they're doing when specifying materials. If I were you I would let it get as rusty as you dare and then return it near the end of the 3 year warranty. They might even replace the housing if it's bad.

The scratches sound like you've used a cloth that's had some salt or sand or something on it. Even if you've got a proper lens cloth, you need to launder it regularly to get the crap out of it, and shake it really well before each time you use it. And between uses keep it in its own little container or sealed bag.

I have successfully used Microgloss polish to polish scratches out of plastic ports. It's a white cream with minute diamonds in it. If the scratches are deep I use Brasso first and then this afterwards. It will remove any coating that plastic ports have on them, which usually is a much lesser problem than the scratches themselves. It will also leave extremely fine scratches on the plastic, which will show up if you look very carefully at footage taken towards the sun. But they'd be much smaller than what you're describing I bet.

I agree with nick regarding the rust... just make sure that they don't cause cracking due to the rust.

Glass vs Acrylic

Glass more expensive, more durable, but if you scratch it..it's hard to get the scratch out.

Acrylic, cheaper, less durable but you can polish / remove minor scratches.

There is actually another product called micro mesh, have a search for it on wetpixel, there was a big thread on removing port scratches.

Jon

I would like to comment that the last housing I seen from Equinox had rusted screws on it also. This housing was for the SR12 and I was not impressed with it at all. As a matter of fact the customer is wanting his money back because of its flaws. I to have an SR12 and tried it in it and it just had problems. We sent it back to Equinox and they said they have a no return policy and that they would do their best to make it right. I agree with making it right with the customer but it should have never reached a customer this way and they agree with me. I am waiting for a L&M Bluefin housing for mine but I am told they already have one in the Stingray HD; I kind of like the looks on that one better than the Equinox, but I also like the electronic controls. I'm sorry to here that you had problems with your housing, I hope they make it right for you.

Wanted to follow up and make sure your issues have been rectified, I know you talked to the staff last week. We value all of our customers and take care of them.

In regards to the hardware issue, we build all of our products with stainless steel products, but our supplier for the last 6 months have been feeding us junk from china with actually a non stainless spring in the latch and that is what makes the latch look like it is rusting.

We have replaced that supplier with a new one some of our industry partners have used and have had great success.

In regards to guy that said let it rust for 3 years and then return it---stay classy bro.

Also cadillac dive we are waiting for more input from you and your customer who received that unit that was repaired.

Hey guys,

 

I'm fairly new to underwater videography so please excuse me if some of these questions seem a little "noobish"

 

I Brought a Sony HDR-HC5 and Equinox Pro 6 housing about 6 months ago now, and I'm having a couple issues with both the housing and camera.

 

First of all while filming every 10-30 seconds my video camera seems to lose focus and refocus, do I have to set the camera to a manual focus setting to stop this? or could this be happening because of the low visibility I have been filming in (thanks to some crappy New Zealand weather ).

A couple times the camera has just stayed unfocused for a good 30 seconds, no matter how many times i try to point it at something with a good contrasting color to the greenish water, The only thing that seemed to stop it was waving my hand rite in front of the thing a couple times.

Is this normal?

 

Do any of you guys have an Equinox housing?

I'm just trying to figure out if things always go wrong with these housings, as I have had quite a few little problems.

First of all, after cleaning the housing lens I noticed lots of small scratches on it! i used a normal camera lens cleaning kit and tissues to clean it and did it like you would with a camera lens (very gently applying pressure) now every time I film in strong light the scratches show up in the video

another problem I have had with the housing was a couple screws in the backplate rusting and a couple latches starting to rust.

I mean seriously, EVERY screw and latch should be made of stainless steel, not medium steel roughly coated in chrome or paint...

Just before i also noticed the black plastic ring that protects and shades the housing lens (not sure of the name) has several large cracks down the bottom of it

 

not good!

To whoever handles equinox housings customer service now. On 31 May 2008 - 01:51 PM

you mentioned that the supplier has been changed and now it is genuine stainless steel parts and getting good results. For your information I purchased a HD 8X earlier this year for my sony nex vg900e and the reason I read this forum is because I am getting slight rust in the metal parts after few weeks it went into seawater. Yes, I did rinse it with freshwater after each use. I am not too happy and in the future I will definitely look at alternate underwater housing for my future equipment.