Anyone have experience with Meikon Aluminum housing?

Hi,

Have anyone had experience with the Meikon aluminum housing? I am looking for something for the Sony RX100.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Meikon-top-quality-of-Aluminium-waterproof_60109461182.html

Its kind of discussed here:

http://www.lcimagery.com/2015/01/meikon-aluminium-housing/

They seem to have implemented the dial (unlike the cheaper plastic one), and has dual o-ring, a pet peeve that I have with some of the more expensive alum housings. Before going on about chinese junk, don't forget, Nauticam is a chinese brand too. And Meikon makes housings for alot of different camera (and I'm not talking about using a generic plastic cube and drilling holes left and right for the buttons, circa 1950's Sea Hunt, and current day Ikelite).

Direct from china pricing seems to be in the $400-$500 range, but if one only feels safe buying $1000 housings, then one can buy it here for that price:

http://www.digital-underwater.com/UW-Gehaeuse/fuer-Kompakt-Kameras/Sony/Meikon/Meikon-Aluminium-Unterwassergehaeuse-fuer-die-Sony-RX-100

These products have not launched yet

1. Service?
2. Parts?
3. Is there a dealer near you?

Ikelite housings for RX100, RX100M2, RX100M3 are in the same price range.

Ikelite o-rings are readily available. Ikelite housing service is admirably priced.

I have not held a meikon for RX100 in my hands, but from the pictures, the ergonomics of the Meikon do not appear to be substatially different from Ikelite.

You get what you pay for.

And some times you don't!

I have the plastic housing for the RX100-ii if that's of interest. A few notes however:

* shutter button doesn't line up properly (manual fix)

* flash diffuser is too far behind the dome, so you get about 1/4 of the image illuminated (top left) and 3/4 dark, so absolutely no use at all

* M67 compatible!

* comes with connectors for optic cables, which is great with a strobe

* has a hot shot (may be useful for focus lights etc.)

* missing a dial for the 'round the lens' adjustment control, which is annoying as you have a bit less control with ISO/APT/SHUT depending on how you've set your camera up.

* overall amazing value for money I think, but if you're gonna spend that much, then get the proper stuff. However, ikelite also seems to suffer from limited controls I think? I may be wrong...

Either way, I would suggest either cheaping out and buying the plastic meikon house, or going all out and buying proper branded stuff. If they've fixed all of the above, then great, but i dont think that price makes it very attractive.

Thanks for all the info guys. I waited long enough for the housing to be carried by somebody, and nobody is. So I just went ahead and got their plastic housing while I wait some more.

What I noticed with the plastic housing is that that the 67mm lens port seem to be optimized for wet lenses that protrudes alot more inward, like an Inon Type 1 mount or the 28AD (although with the AD's mount kits sticking in front of the lens port, it will get nowhere near that). I got the Inon UWL-100 Type 2 and it sits farther from the housing's port lens. Will have to see how that goes.

I don't have issues with the flash diffuser since I will be using the slightly too small fiber optic ports to trigger my strobes. Will have to use eletrical tape to mask the front of the housing against the strobe since in tests, I can see slight shadow of my wet lens from the internal flash.

The 67mm thread seems to be made out of non-magnetic metal. Can't be 100% sure since I can't get it to conduct electricity over the anodized layer, but I do seem some tiny parts that looks like metal, it taps like metal and the lens screw to a fit like its on a metal thread. So just from that, it is better than the Recsea CWS-RX100, a plastic housing that has plastic lens port threads, which according to reviews, it never felt secure and eventually stripped from light usage.

I've just ordered the "newer" half black housing together with a dome. Will report back when it gets to me. One thing I don't really like is the lack of the rear wheel control, but for the price I can't really complain. Another alternative would be the fantasea housing(with rear wheel), but that's much more expensive.

I've just ordered the "newer" half black housing together with a dome. Will report back when it gets to me. One thing I don't really like is the lack of the rear wheel control, but for the price I can't really complain. Another alternative would be the fantasea housing(with rear wheel), but that's much more expensive.

I got the camera a while ago, but have barely used it. since I didn't have a housing for it and I either use DSLR or camera phone for photos, depending on situation. So I haven't got to realize what the advantages of the rear wheel are (except for being able to adjust the shutter/aperature in manual mode).

Which dome did you get? The Meikon plastic dome? If so, a wet lens would have probably been a better solution since they are glass and have a 0.6x magnification factor, while the dome just corrects for water's 33% magnification effect, which effectively makes it an 0.75x lens.

As for that dome, I am not sure why they made it so big. I think they could have made a 3 or 4" dome and it would be much more compact.

I'm coming from a fisheye fix s90 housing, so I can forsee slight isues in full manual control, but I believe there is a work around(which I haven't tried), by changing to Shutter Priority and switching back. Still not a deal killer until I put it to test.

I was under the impression that the dome was made of glass based on the review here: http://www.lcimagery.com/2014/05/meikon/

In anycase, I should be able to test the housing this weekend at the pool. I also do have the inon ufl165 which I previously used with the s90, so I will test it with both.

I do not dive regularly anymore, hence the apparent downgrade and reluctance to invest in more expensive housing or in new wet lenses. I'm willing to jump for the fantasea, but the.meikon+dome was half the price of the fantasea after shipping, and seemed like a pretty good deal so long as it performs adequately.

I've spoken to the meikon guys on facebook and it seems like the aluminium housings would be "officially launched" during the hk dive expo in Dec.

Set the menu to go back to the last menu access. Then u can change between shutter and aperture. Pretty quickly. But I have it on aperture all the time as my shutter speed is quite fix. Esp for Marco.

The iso is set to the left button and the right button is for the flash.

Inon uwl h100 type 2 works well.. With no vignetting.

If u use a plug with an oring to plug into a flash, maybe just get a thinker oring will work.

I was under the impression that the dome was made of glass based on the review here: http://www.lcimagery.com/2014/05/meikon/

 

In anycase, I should be able to test the housing this weekend at the pool. I also do have the inon ufl165 which I previously used with the s90, so I will test it with both.

 

I do not dive regularly anymore, hence the apparent downgrade and reluctance to invest in more expensive housing or in new wet lenses. I'm willing to jump for the fantasea, but the.meikon+dome was half the price of the fantasea after shipping, and seemed like a pretty good deal so long as it performs adequately.

 

I've spoken to the meikon guys on facebook and it seems like the aluminium housings would be "officially launched" during the hk dive expo in Dec.

From all the videos, they pick the dome by the sunshade with 2 fingers, making it look weightless. From video like this, they have a plastic protective film on the dome, which they only do on plastic items:

Also, on this video, the person said it is arcrylic:

Not sure if dome unit's thread is plastic or metal, which would likely affect its long term reliability, especially given that they recommend the port to be re-attached while underwater, where merging of the thread is alot harder.

Maybe the light weight allows it to be neutrally buyoant, unlike all the glass ones.

Officially launched? I was waiting for it for forever, and because I have an upcoming trip coming up real soon, couldn't wait any longer.

I do kind of feel screwed that the RX100 housing is one of the first housing they made, given the lack of features. I see newer plastic models having access to the control dial, double o-ring and internal water sensor.

Set the menu to go back to the last menu access. Then u can change between shutter and aperture. Pretty quickly. But I have it on aperture all the time as my shutter speed is quite fix. Esp for Marco.

 

The iso is set to the left button and the right button is for the flash.

 

Inon uwl h100 type 2 works well.. With no vignetting.

 

If u use a plug with an oring to plug into a flash, maybe just get a thinker oring will work.

I thought people said they if they are in M and can only control the aperture, they quickly jump to Shutter priority mode in order to change the Shutter speed, and jump back to M again. Less buttons to press than changing the function of the front ring.

My fiber optic plug barely squeezes into the flash adapter port, even before the o-ring touches the hole. Maybe you got one with larger diamter adapter ports?

Looking more closely at the camera's lens in relation to the port. The lens, instead of sitting flush to the lens port, is roughly 6-7mm behind it. This is likely why lenses like the UWL-100 vignettes. They could have easily avoided that issue by making the port glass sit more flush with the camera's lens. Maybe they are still learning on how to design these things for uses beyond the casual P&S divers.

I know what you mean. I've actually sent them a picture of their housing for the g7x which has double o-ring, as well as the rear dial, asking if they had an equivalent for the rx100, and they sent me the image of the alu housing...

The housing I got do come with the leak sensor, and you are right on the dome. The rear element is glass while the dome itself is acrylic. The 67mm threads on the dome are metal tho, and I do not deny that the Meikon dome does feel a little flimsy, I had to tighten the screws on the sunshade as it was loose. Regardless, I will probably try to convert it to ad mount if possible as I also have a 67mm subsee that's already ad converted. Screwing the 67mm threads is not something I want to do underwater!

Sent from my SGP321 using Tapatalk

You probably should disassemble the dome and verify that the rubber gasket is installed right, as per the 2nd video.

Good thing the thread is metal. Although from some video I saw, the sound it made while they were mating the threads sounded like plastic, though that could be the resonance of the hollowness of the dome unit. The metal thread is one part I am relieved about. I thought the thread was plastic based on the review here:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7362232450/meikon-underwater-housing-for-sony-dsc-rx100-review/3

Given that I had a circular float on my last housing in which I had to thread the wet lens blindsighted and alot of the initial turns were just to get the threads to meet up. A plastic thread would have surely caused them to strip, especially if it has to be re-done underwater due to it not having venting holes for the air to escape. Plus having an extra heavy wet lens with a dome port on it, the rough handling of cameras when you hand it over to a crew when getting onboard is always a concern.

I believe I am the first adopter of Meikon aluminium housing. I got one for my RX100III. It is well built with high build quality. Personally it is much better than any other plastic Meikon camera housings I have. Just came back from a two day dive trip in Cebu, I am quite pleased with it.

How tight does the lens sit behind the port glass? I am asking because i want to use wet lenses and too big spacing results in vignetting/poor iq. I would like to get the mIV, but i guess the mkIII housing is more or less the same as the mkIV.

I believe I am the first adopter of Meikon aluminium housing. I got one for my RX100III. It is well built with high build quality. Personally it is much better than any other plastic Meikon camera housings I have. Just came back from a two day dive trip in Cebu, I am quite pleased with it.

I can't speak for the aluminium housing, but I've got the black/clear mk4 housing for my mk3. Main reason being the meikon acrylic housing for mk3 is the "all clear" type which I've read is less reliable. From what I've read, the mk4 camera is so slightly wider around the buttons that it wouldn't work in a properly made mk3 housing, that's why most manufacturers had to retool a new housing, with fantasea making a mk4 housing that would also fit a mk3 camera. Have only managed to do a pool test this far and all functions seem to work(less rear dial since it lacks one).

With regards to the housing, the space between the lens at widest setting, is arpund 2-3mm from what I can see. Without any means to measure accurately, I folded a small piece of paper 3 times and inserted it into the housing and it seems right smack against the glass.

I've tried to mate it with my old ufl-165ad with adapters and it was vignetting quite badly even when the port and rear element was really close. Zooming in doesn't help, so one must crop afterwards. I'll be picking up a uwl-h100 later today to see how it performs.

Edit:

The meikon dome on the other hand is not as well built as the housing. My unit came with a loose lens shade and a missing screw. As the other screws were a little short to begin with, there's no way I can lock the shade with the plastic shades that flex when I tighten the screw. Seller is asking me to ship it back before sending a replacement [emoji21]

How tight does the lens sit behind the port glass? I am asking because i want to use wet lenses and too big spacing results in vignetting/poor iq. I would like to get the mIV, but i guess the mkIII housing is more or less the same as the mkIV.

 

From the little experiments I did, it doesn't seem to be how close the lens sits to the housing that is the only factor to whether it vignettes or not. It seems to be also based on the rear lens diameter of the wet lens and how big an image it can project to the camera's lens.

I have a UWL-100 w/dome and no matter how close I bring that lens to the RX100's 28mm lens, it will vignettes (it looks like it is dome port or front of wet lens vignetting). Pulling it outward, maybe up to 10cm does not change the vignetting much, and zooming in to get rid of the vignetting does not affect the angle of view compared with the lens butting together.

I put the same UWL-100 w/dome onto my old Oly c5050 w/35mm lens, the angle of view with the 2 lenses butted together is only a tiny bit wider than when the above lens setup when they are 10mm apart.

I also tried a UWL-100 28AD, which has a smaller rear llens, with the RX100 and it goes from no vignette to vignetting before I could pull the lens 10mm away from each other, thus requiring zooming in and incurring a lost on angle of view. It was similar but slightly less so with the c5050.

I had a panny w/24mm, and effect is similar to above scenarios.

So in effect, zooming in slighly (from 28mm to 32mm) doesn't always cause you to lose 10% of your angle of view. Result could be different if I took the dome lens off, and I do in fact lose angle of view when the lens are farther away and I have to zoom in, but then if this test was performed underwater, the angle of view would be narrower and vignetting by the dome might become irrelevent, and water between the 2 lens more or less makes it an optical coupler, decreasing the angle of view of the camera's own lens, thus reducing vignetting.

All you have to do is set your memory recall mode for it to zoom in just enough so it doesn't vignette.

I suppose we need to he clear which version of rx100 we are talking about, and perhaps also which version of the uwl? I did a quick and dirty test by directly mating the h100m67 directly to the front of my rx100m3, and there was vignetting at 24mm. Vignetting was gone by the time I zoomed in to 28mm.

To be sure, I'll post some proper photos from within the housing when I get home.

What I meant with all the gibberish above is that a camera with a 24mm lens zoomed in to remove the vignetting will not get you a wider angle of view than one with 35mm, nor should a housing with the lens butted right up to the housing's port. The only inconvenience is that one has to slight zoom in from the widest setting.

Alright, its dark here, so I had to adjust the exposure on some of the photos really quickly.

I've also took some photos with the camera from within the housing:

With the h100m67(type 2) screwed directly to the meikon housing port, the vignetting almost disappears by 30mm. I next unscrewed the h100 and placed some step up/down rings to simulate a bayonet adapter. results were not good. I had to zoom in ALOT before the vignetting goes away, and clearly(pun unintended), the quality and clarity of the image becomes almost unusable. In fact, I had to zoom in until it was close to the FOV of the 24mm flat port without wet lens, so it renders the additional wet lens almost useless.

This test/result demonstrates that the distance between the housing port and rear element of the wet lens also plays an important role.

As the h100 I have is a m67 type 2(rear element flush with m67 threads), I will be ordering a type 1 screw ring(rear element protrudes out from m67 threads) to see if I can get the rear element even closer to the housing glass. I would eventually like to adapt the h100 into a LD bayonet mount.