Unusual Options for SLR housings

Hi I had a visit from an old diving buddy of mine and he told me about a couple of odd things out there.

First was a conversion to an Aquatica F4 housing to take a D700 at a cost of $US1350 by a local guy. It is just in test at the moment so I will let you know if I hear anything more about this.

Second is a housing for the Panasonic G1 or the Olympus pen (not sure which as we had a couple of wines at this stage) but the housing takes Nikonos lenses directly into the case same as the Nikonos did.

Has anyone heard about these odd configurations and who is doing them?

The attached thread has the answer to the Olympus PEN question with Nikonos lenses posted today.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2772

Phil Rudin

http://www.sfups.org/Galleries/PhilRudin/index.html

The attached thread has the answer to the Olympus PEN question with Nikonos lenses posted today.

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2772

 

Phil Rudin

 

http://www.sfups.org/Galleries/PhilRudin/index.html

Thanks Phil

Doesn't sound like it is too far down the pipe yet to me. In test mode I would have thought there would be images of it and a bit more blurb.

Thanks Phil

 

Doesn't sound like it is too far down the pipe yet to me. In test mode I would have thought there would be images of it and a bit more blurb.

There is also some discussion about the EP1-Nikonos adapter on this thread:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32354

The rough schedule is to have the first prototypes by end of October, and to have the first production units in early to mid December.

David Lewinnek

www.piratepro.com

There is also some discussion about the EP1-Nikonos adapter on this thread:

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=32354

 

The rough schedule is to have the first prototypes by end of October, and to have the first production units in early to mid December.

 

David Lewinnek

www.piratepro.com

Sorry David I thought it was in test and not getting first prototypes end Oct.

Sorry David I thought it was in test and not getting first prototypes end Oct.

Surely a small housing for the Leica M9 adapted to take the Nikonos 15mm lens (or the RS lenses) would make more sense?

Surely a small housing for the Leica M9 adapted to take the Nikonos 15mm lens (or the RS lenses) would make more sense?

We did consider the Leica M9 (as well as the M8, and the Panasonic G1, GH1 and GF1), but eventually settled on the EP1.

My main concerns around an underwater M9 are:

1. It would be difficult to frame images underwater. The M9 doesn't have liveview, and the shade of a 15mm lens blocks the M9 viewfinder, so you're stuck with using an external viewfinder.

2. It would be difficult to focus underwater, for the same reasons as above. This would turn a rangefinder camera into a scale focus camera.

3. The M9 doesn't have an anti-aliasing filter, which some people believe could cause problems with underwater images.

4. An underwater M9 setup (including the housing, camera, lenses, strobes) would be too expensive for many people.

5. There's a small issue where I think the lens mount would need to be unscrewed from the M9 to accomodate the back of the 15mm lens (even the new version 15mm). I'm not sure how many people are comfortable taking parts off their US$7,000 cameras.

In the end, although there are no unsurmountable problems with taking the M9 underwater, it seems like the EP1 will be much easier to use (especially framing and focusing with liveview), priced so that many more people could use it (around US$6,000 less than the M9), and provide only slightly lower performance than the M9.

David Lewinnek

www.piratepro.com

david@priatepro.com