Nauticams Panasonic GH3 housing to be showcased at NAB 2013 in early april

http://nab13.mapyourshow.com/5_0/exhibitor_details.cfm?exhid=410905&CFID=89448138&CFTOKEN=ea65bbf280d0a3e9-EEA1621E-A092-3054-FD418731D33F6C03

"Nauticam is the worlds premier manufacturer of underwater camera housings and accessories. Visit the Nauticam booth to see housings for the Canon 1DC, Panasonic GH3, RED EPIC and SCARLET, SmallHD DP4 and more."

NAB starts april 6, so hopefully the GH3 housing will be announced soon.

Wetpixeliers - Stop by the booth and say hi if you go to the show.

Cheers,

Cp

First pictures:

http://www.nauticam.cn/product/view0.aspx?q_cid=1112&q_pid=409

Nauticam NA-GH3 - SKU 17707, price is USD 2400 (GH2 houisng was USD 2100)

http://nauticamusa.com/shop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=638

Interesting to see if a glass dome port is offered or not.

The pictures shown are a first production sample for the Oztek show in Australia. Expect some changes from that design.

http://www.nauticam-europa.com/NA-GH3-housing-for-Panasonic-Lumix-GH-3-camera_detail_7955.html

Housing price is Euro 1889,- inc VAT from Aqua-Fototeam GmbH in Germany. US price for housing only is USD 2400,- as previously mentioned.

The NA-GH3 housing will tentatively be available for shipping by the end of april.

Why does the GH3 housing cost more than an OMD housing?

Why does the GH3 housing cost more than an OMD housing?

The GH3 body is significantly bigger than the OMD - which means the the housing is bigger aka more aluminium and maching. Also there seems to be more rotary wheels on the NA-GH3 housing. The price for the NA-GH3 housing is more or less the same as the previous NA-GH2 housing.

Update... we have the GH3 on the way... should arrive in Las Vegas by Tuesday. Hope to see you all at NAB:

Booth number C12832... to find us, check the map below, and come to the Central Hall, find the massive Sony booth (Sony's booth is always worth a visit) and head south 3 rows and east one row. If you find yourself at the Canon or Nikon booths, just head east all the way to the east wall.

The only difference I see from the previous images is that the rear rotary wheel (for the rear rotary controller - which you dont need to use anyway as the arrow buttons do the same job) has gone and the top rotary wheel has moved closer to the edge.

Nauticam have told me they provide only acrylic dome ports, not glass, for this housing.

We make an adapter that allows Subal /3 ports to be mounted to this housing, called Zen PA-NM-S3.

From there you can attach a number of Subal glass domes, Zen DP-100-S3 for Panasonic 8mm, etc.

We also have a 170mm dome (DP-170-NM). The spacing of this port is actually built for NEX- cameras and their 16mm lens with conversions, but Chris is diving this now in the Bahamas with Olympus 9-18, and we have someone testing in Mexico with Panasonic 7-14, so I'm hopeful it will prove to be a good solution for micro four thirds as well.

The only difference I see from the previous images is that the rear rotary wheel (for the rear rotary controller - which you don't need to use anyway as the arrow buttons do the same job) has gone and the top rotary wheel has moved closer to the edge.

Eliminating the rear rotary wheel helped space out all of the functions on the back of the camera better, and yields much better control access. Presently that dial seems to be only useful in menu navigation, and redundant.

We make an adapter that allows Subal /3 ports to be mounted to this housing, called Zen PA-NM-S3.

sweet!

Nice picture of the NA-GH3 at the Nauticam USA facebook page. Still waiting for the official annoucement...

I'm sorry I'm posting my enquiries here as I unable to start a new topic.

I'm currently taking lessons to get my OWD cert and hoping I'm able to start scuba very very soon. Surveying what are the options I have for underwater photography. I have Panasonic GF1, G3 and lenses 20mm, 14-45mm and 14-42mm. Thinking of using the GF1 for scuba only

What would be a good casing for GF1 and using which lens? Or would getting a macro 45mm lens better?

mumliz:

I am not sure you will get a lot of responses on this thread. FWIW, it is my opinion that the 14-45 is a slightly superior lens than the 14-42 but for underwater use, the differences would be minimal. Either is okay as a general purpose lens, and you can do decent macro with either lens and an adapter and close up lens, but neither is ideal for macro or wide angle. I would suggest deciding which you think is of more appeal (wide angle shots, including close focus wide angle, or macro shots of small things. If the former, look at getting a 7-14, 9-18 or 12mm lens, or my favorite, the 8mm fisheye. If macro, then get the 45 or 60mm macro lenses available for your system. If money is tight, you can do decent macro with what you have now, so I would look at a wide angle lens (unless wide angle is just not your interest. You will need to add a strobe fairly soon as well, although you can do a fair bit of natural light wide angle.

I would make this suggestion, though: Wait until you have been diving for awhile before dealing with the photography. Carrying a camera around complicates buoyancy and task loading at a time when you need to be focusing on diving skills. When you are feeling quite comfortable with your diving skills, then add a camera into the mix. For some this happens fairly fast; for some it takes awhile.

Now a shameless plug: I have a housing and ports for the GF-1 for sale in the classifieds and would be happy to make you a good deal on some or all of what I am selling.

Anybody heard news about availability of this housing? April passed an still nothing on Nauticam's page...

Anybody heard news about availability of this housing? April passed an still nothing on Nauticam's page...

Hi SMY,

We're working on the press release now!

Cheers,

Cp