DIY Pana GF1 housing

Hi,

ive just made a housing for pana GF1.

this camera has a good simple form for making a DIY housing.

its auto focus is excellent so i will use it as a P&S camera.

the housing is a simple waterproof acrylic box with only two buttons (shutter & video).

test has not been carried out yet.

later ill report the results.

thank you.

hi,

it has past the first waterproof test at 40cm depth for 8 hours.

hi, a happy new year!

a 20mm pancake lens is good, bright & small, but somewhat weak in taking a macro photo.

so ive made an open door style 67mm lens adapter:

(clicking the pic shows a large one)

some underwater test shots at home bathtub:

target: wolf (dog?) miniature & 15cm scale

(clicking a figure shows 1000x562 rescaled pic)

Panasonic DMC-GF1+Lumix G 20mm/F1.7 ASPH

F:8.00

aperture priority AE

ISO:100

flash:on

focal length:(mm),20.0

as a result all the photos have been taken with SS:1/80

1) only 20mm lens (open the lens adapter)

as close as possible

2) 20mm lens + strobe diffuser (no macro lens)

3) 20mm lens + DIY macro lens

cropping a 800x800 pic from the original photo taken with macro lens

eye size is 5mm.

focusing is rapid & correct. photo quality is good.

im satisfied with the results.

Thank you.

hi, i went diving & tested the housing so ill report the results:

no leak at max 24m depth 30min diving so i took some photos at 2nd diving (10m depth 40min).

(FYI:

camera setting:

lens: 20mm pancake light:DIY P7 target light

aperture priority F=7.1

internal flash: always on

most of photos were blurred with slow shutter speed (1/30).

(a 20mm pancake lens has no IS).

you can see some more photos here (Flickr).

next ill try iA or manual mode.

Thank you.

hanachan, Many thanks!

thank you, xariatay.

i could not stop buying the 45mm macro lens.

now im making the port for it.

its very good on land.

almost 1:1 mag.

click the pict, show 800x600 resized pict.

hi, ive almost finished the DIY GF1 housing for 45mm macro port.

clicking this pict. shows a large one.

The frontal panel of the housing is exchangeable so i can make a small port.

i newly added a dial for manual exposure ! (that's a back dial)

in most of the digital SLR you need to manipulate 2 points (one dial & one button) to change its exposure.

in this camera it is possible by only one dial manipulation. its very helpful for DIY.

the diffuser and the LCD viewer were also made.

i hope no flooded.

thank you.

hi, i went diving to the Sado island and took photos using this DIY housing & 45mm macro lens.

my target is very small sea slugs.

camera setting: GF1 +45mm macro lens + DIY P7 light. The camera on this housing is digicame TZ7.

This housing (right) is small comparing to the another DSLR housing (left).

click pict shows large one.

one photo: 20mm length sea slug

click shows a large pict(1000x750).

no flooded (15m, 40min and 10m, 50min). the dial for SS & aperture worked well.

auto focus was not so good, often focusing at background.

i felt auto focus of olympus E3 is better than that of GF1.

you can see more samples at Flickr.

thank you.

----------------------------

http://hanachan.ddo.jp/

hi, i went diving to the Sado island and took photos using this DIY housing & 45mm macro lens.

my target is very small sea slugs.

 

camera setting: GF1 +45mm macro lens + DIY P7 light. The camera on this housing is digicame TZ7.

This housing (right) is small comparing to the another DSLR housing (left).

click pict shows large one.

 

one photo: 20mm length sea slug

click shows a large pict(1000x750).

 

no flooded (15m, 40min and 10m, 50min). the dial for SS & aperture worked well.

auto focus was not so good, often focusing at background.

i felt auto focus of olympus E3 is better than that of GF1.

 

you can see more samples at Flickr.

 

thank you.

 

----------------------------

http://hanachan.ddo.jp/

hi all, ive remade the GF1 housing for manual focus.

manual focus is done with two magnet rings.

an internal ring attached to the macro lens and an external ring to the port.

1) add a focus mode select button

2) make an internal & external magnet rings

3) replace the old port with a large diameter one.

external ring:

internal ring:

the ring can be smoothly rotated.

i think this remaking makes macro photo easy.

thank you.

ps:

sorry i made a wrong post. can i delete it?

Congrats, Hanachan! The photo of the sea slug is BEAUTIFUL!

Just saw this thread. I loved reading it, watching the progression of the housing..., and all the improvements you made. Really very interesting! And nice pix... Thanks for sharing.