I've just posted Howard Hall's review of the Gates DEEP RED housing for the RED ONE camera:
On July 19, 2009 I disembarked the Nautilus Explorer after spending two weeks diving in Southeast Alaska. This was my first experience using my RED ONE camera in the new DEEP RED underwater housing. A couple years ago, John Ellerbrock (owner of Gates Underwater) approached me with the idea of collaborating on the design for DEEP RED. He asked what specifications I thought would make the best possible professional system. I gave him the following criteria:
The housing should be built in three sections: A front port (both dome and flat ports should be available) including a lens-specific port extender, a center section where the camera is mounted and where most controls including all cables are attached thus eliminating constantly flexing and interfacing connections when opening and closing the housing. This is then covered by a rear bell.
I asked that controls for run-switch, zoom, aperture, and focus be fingertip accessible without releasing either handle on the housing.
I wanted to access all the menus allowing the same flexibility as a surface user.
I felt the camera housing should take an extremely wide variety of lenses from digital still camera lenses to Ultra Primes.
I suggested the housing should be able to withstand a depth of 450 feet.
Finally, I wanted the housing to be as compact and light as possible.
My coming up with these specifications, although derived from a lengthy career of designing and using professional underwater motion picture housings, was the easy part. Implementing the design would require a bit of genius.
I'm working on getting full-resolution TIF screen grabs.
I've just posted Howard Hall's review of the Gates DEEP RED housing for the RED ONE camera:
Impressive, the stills are incredible. Looks like he and Gates hit a HR with it, but based on the people (Howard and Gates) involved it is no suprise.
Though looking at the photo of the housing with this
Finally, I wanted the housing to be as compact and light as possible.
gave me a it of a chuckle, 55 Lbs sounds a bit heavy to me
gave me a it of a chuckle, 55 Lbs sounds a bit heavy to me
We can get carried away with Howards report but what is the background to this review... Okay its going to be an excellent look into Deep Red but then again it is Howard hall ... Give it too Joe blogs and its then something different.. Uh oh DeanB speaks his mind but then again I'm 'Mr Be real' ...
The camera is 90% the star... And in real terms how many of us can afford this beast ...
Dive safe
DeanB
The camera is 90% the star... And in real terms how many of us can afford this beast ...
$25,000 for the housing alone. I guess not many. And whoever can afford it and the RED will immediately become my new BFF.
when drawing up his wishlist for the housing he forgot to ask that it cost less than a car.
when drawing up his wishlist for the housing he forgot to ask that it cost less than a car.
Including the camera and the rest probably about 4 or more of my cars
My housing comes in at half that cost. Its a custom job and will be posting a review as soon as I can get my hands on the wee beastie which is in south Africa right now.
Cheers,
Mark.
Hello, all. I've posted full-resolution screen grabs from Howard. They have been converted to high-quality JPGs from the original, 16-bit TIFFs Howard sent in.
