My First Video & Housing

I know, Lah... I'm coming back on Sunday to watch, hit the parties then then fly out again monday morning.

PAL and NTSC are TV color systems. PAL is ROW including LAH land... NTSC is US, Japan and Brazil.

wolfeeldiver

Yes I was also recommended Marine Vision but I live in Singapore.

do u know if the housing comes with filters?

or do i need to order it?

seems thet UR Pro filter is add'l cost and not standard as some say it is.

do u know?

do u need to specify when ordering to have the housing 'ready' for seal check?

is there a standard 'outlet nipple' or do we hv to fit it again if we wanna use seal check?

Thanks!

Mei mei,

Joe at Marine Visions can ship anywhere in the world very easily. I believe that one UrPro filter is included but you would have to pay for additional filters for example green water.

I also believe that you would need the seal check valve to be installed before it is sent to you or you would have to ship it back to GATES to have it installed.

Jon

May I know what's the difference between the Gates GP25A WA Port and the Fathom25 Imaging WA Port? there must be BIG diff as its almost double the px.....

 

My local dealer says the standard gets me only 50% angle and the GP25A gets me 80%

(sorry its gonna be my first so i dun know the technical terms v well)

 

I will for sure get the WB Control if I get it. Thanks.

 

When u travel how do u carry it?

Do I need to get weights for this housing? Is it Neutral? I am not very strong and my arms get tired easily.

 

Thanks!

The Fathom WP25 has glass elements and anti-reflection coating on the lens,and the assembly is Nitrogen purged (keeps interiour from fogging). The Gates version is some type of plastic elements. The Gates website has some good comparison info about their ports. I may be wrong, but if I were to be ranking the various ports from the poorest optical quality to the finest, my understanding is it would be in this order: Flat Port (great however for dedicated macro), Standard Port, Gates Port GP25, Fathom WP25, Fathom Super Wide SWP25. Cost is also in that order, appx. $150, $150, $300, $900, $2400 if I recall correctly.

When I travel, my Gates HCC/9 housing, both a flat port and the Fathom WP25, plus two Sunray 1000 lights, extra batteries, two chargers, lock line arms broken down, all hardware, housing handles, and a white slate and arm too, and a small tool kit all just fits inside a carry-on bag made by Think Tank. Its their Airport International model. This is comperable in size to the Storm or Pelican carry on bags, but not hard shelled. And I have room for the actual camera and extra battery and charger too. So all my video gear fits in one carryon bag for airline travel. Everything is broken down of course,and in padded dividers. Then at the desination I put it together the night prior, and carry to the boat the day of the dive. I also customized my setup by using the Light and Motion Stingray Universal mounts on the top of the Gates handles. This allos a spring loaded quick disconnect on the arms, so that on the boat I can easily "snap" the pre assembled lock line arms and lightheads to the video handles. A quick snap, and plug in of the power cables to the batteries, take off the lens hood, and I'm in the water!

I have the Light and Motion Sunray 1000 LED lights. If money were no object I'd gotten the sunray 2000s, but it is. There is also an adapter plate called a GAS adapter that is made to mount the battery pods to the Gates housing, and it works well. You can see it in the photos below. The entire assembled package is a little negatively bouyant, but no more than around 2 lbs negative I'd guess. That was a little more than my liking, so I built some ABS plastic floats, that mount along side the battery pods, and now my rig is under a pound negative. Its ugly now, but it works well. I could have made slighly longer floats and got it neutral but I did not want that. I want it to sink when I descent, and to be able to set it on the bottom if desired.

The housing came with a "blue water" URPRo filter. Came with a plastic grade. I hear you can get a glass version, unsure of the cost.

I purchased all of my items from Marine Visions and Joe had excellent service. I'd recommend him.

If I recall, the seal check system was a little pricy, and yes, that appears to be something the factory needs to install. Same with the WB control. YOu could add this later, but replacing the rear window is a bit.. difficult..and if you do it youself the housing warranty is void.

I will say one thing. THe gates housing is very well made, very good quality. However, I did have to "fine tune" and adjust the focus controls to make it work better as desired with my particular camera. Simple matter of taking a hex allen wrench to the controls and making some adjustments.

I'm two weeks away from my next adventure with the rig, clearer water next time, and will post some links with done.

Thanks...

Joe also came highly recommended by another friend. However I decided to order from my local shop.. and EVERYTHING is sitting right here by my study desk.... I ordered last week only..

I made the SILLY mistake of buying the FH100 instead of FH70. And I bought 2!!!.. fishballs!!.. The housing cannot take anything more than the FH70 size.

Anyone can advise on how to transfer the stuff on our tape to the mac? or highlight the link?

Or advise on a preferred way to store the footage and archive method. Its my first videocam so am kindda BLUR...

Well I will be playing w my setup tom... sooo sleepy now..