Canon HF S11 and Zoom through

Instead of resurrecting an old thread, i'll start a new one specific to this topic:

Is there a housing for the canon hf sxx cameras that offers WA (better than 70 degrees) with decent zoom-through capability.

I would really like to be able to shoot both the big and small creatures on the same dive.

aloha

Is there a housing for the canon hf sxx cameras that offers WA (better than 70 degrees) with decent zoom-through capability.

I would really like to be able to shoot both the big and small creatures on the same dive.

Hi,

I've got the Gates housing and the fp32 wide angle port. It doesn't support much zoom thru, maybe 15%. But Iv'e also got the flat port that's great for closeup and macro because you can add diopter filter on the camera and it works very well.

The Gates GP32 port is also 85 degrees.

As for the Light and Motion Bluefin C housing with optional 135 degree wide angle lens, the wide angle lens does offer a 35-40% zoom through capability. The lens does of course come with a price tag of $1500. Although it has zoom through capability, it will not give you macro like capability as you seem to be looking for.

The HF-S** has also a telephoto mode. I've been using that mode for close-ups with my WA lens. I don't feel from the pictures the degradation of picture is substantial. Using the WP80 on a Mangrove housing, I think I have something like 70% of zoom through capabilities. The picture below is a low format grab from one of my mts file

The HF-S** has also a telephoto mode. I've been using that mode for close-ups with my WA lens. ...

Thanks for bringing that up - I forgot to ask about that.

I've got the Gates housing and the fp32 wide angle port. It doesn't support much zoom thru, maybe 15%.

I think you mean the GP32, no? Someone on a previous thread (Mike L, methinks) mentioned similar - 20% zoom through.

The pic posted by Scubacastor pretty much illustrates what I would hope to achieve macro-wise. I concentrate more on reefscapes and things moray-size and larger - but I also like to poke around for the little guys and you never know when you're gonna find a cool crab or pipefish or indeed pygmy seahorse.

I am assuming that pygmy seahorse in the pic was not some giant mutant on a giant mutant fan and was actually about the size of your pinky tip, right?

So do ya reckon the GP32 will produce similar res with the 1.7 telephoto function on the canon?

I know the telephoto function is a digital effect - but at least on land it looks quite good.

thanks for the helpl!

I've just been looking at the Mangrove housing on the aditech site.

They support wet mount lenses! So you can start off with the flat port (which is threaded), and add macro or WA lenses (or color filters) on that.

They also have a dedicated WA lens - the WP80 Scubacastor mentioned.

Any reports on image quality using these wet mount lenses?

Scuabcastor - I seem to remember a thread or two where you chimed in about your housing. I will look for those... any more impressions to add?

aloha

- arp

Found that review of the Mangrove by Scubacastor - here is the thread: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...amp;hl=mangrove

En francais en plus! Je commence a lire toot sweet.

I am assuming that pygmy seahorse in the pic was not some giant mutant on a giant mutant fan and was actually about the size of your pinky tip, right?

This guy was about 1cm long.

I know the telephoto function is a digital effect - but at least on land it looks quite good.

I don't think it's actually a digital effect. Sometimes telephoto is just interpolation of pixels but (I may be wrong), from the info I've grabbed about that camcorde, it seems here it is about using less pixels than the 8Mp of the sensor but the number of used pixels is still enough to natively qualify the picture as HD rather than interpolated pixels.

They support wet mount lenses! So you can start off with the flat port (which is threaded), and add macro or WA lenses (or color filters) on that.

I also own the flat port with the M67 thread. The Inon UWL-100 type 2 does not fit the port and the type I has awful vignetting and distortion but I think this is mostly because of the size of the lens of the camcorder and far distance from the housing port. The smaller HF-200 may actually do the job better. I don't know about the other WA lenses (especially the new 10bar ones). The macro lenses from Inon seems to fit nicely without vignetting but I haven't had a chance to do some wet test with them. I had a dive with the flat port only on a wreck. It was not terribly interesting. Unless you want (like me) to do some macro work and unless the 10bar WA work, I don't find the flat port to be an interesting buy (although the port and necessary tool are less than 100 euros).

Found that review of the Mangrove by Scubacastor - here is the thread: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...amp;hl=mangrove

 

En francais en plus! Je commence a lire toot sweet.

I need to add the last part of the review which will be more about field use in remote locations (in Raja Ampat) where the pygmy picture came from

I've recently uploaded a video on vimeo from a raw mts file (auto WB, red filter, WP80, 5m depth):

http://www.vimeo.com/8873938