Pole cam and Nauticam

Does anyone know how to do a pole cam rig with nauticam housings? Specifically, the Nikon D4 and nauticam d4 housing?

Not to sure what your trying to do.?

Goose

Does anyone know how to do a pole cam rig with nauticam housings? Specifically, the Nikon D4 and nauticam d4 housing?

I cannot answer your questions specifically, but I can more generally.

There are two main concerns for adding a camera pole: 1. How will it be attached? 2. How will the camera be triggered?

There are two main ways of attaching the pole. One involves dovetailing to two attachment points such as the tops of the handles (one left, one right). One can buy a ready made camera pole like this here: http://www.cmdiffusers.com/product/cmpcam

I believe this was designed for Aquatica housings as it looks like the one they announced a few years back.

The other attachment method uses a center point attachment - typically a ball like those made by ULCS. I use this type with my Seacam housings. See: http://www.seacamusa.com/other-reference/seacam-polecam-instructions/

Scroll down until you see Stephen Frink holding the rig in the third vertical shot.

This type can also be used on a handle to do vertical shots like so: http://www.seacamusa.com/other-reference/seacam-polecam-components/

Scroll down to the last shot.

It is possible to make a cheap pole for the center variety. Just add a ULCS ball to the end of a long piece of anything handy. This will probably involve drilling a hole to fit the bolt fixing the ULCS ball. This needs to be secure for obvious reasons and more so if the water is moving as it is quite a drag (literally). I have used scrapped underwater camera trays for short camera poles (there may be a shot or two here on Wetpixel showing this).

Now for triggering the camera. I am using the Seacam system which uses a 3-wire release. The trigger has two stages like the release button on SLRs. Stage 1 turns on the AF and wakes up the camera if asleep. Stage 2 triggers the shutter. I also have an Aquatica release but it only has a 2-wire release so you have to short out the wires so that the camera is always on or have the release close both circuits at the same time, which is what I did. Using focus priority helps get in-focus shots but one might miss the peak of action or not get any shot at all. One could also use manual focus but I have not found this to be a successful approach for photographing salmon. My preference is to use release priority. I used the Aquatica release when I retrofitted my Seacam Nikon D1x housing for remote control over a decade ago. There are other third part releases as well but I have not used them

The Aquatica release uses Ikelite cables that are fitted to a Nikonos 5 pin bulkhead. I simply sacrificed one of the existing flash bulkheads on my D1x housing by de-soldering the wiring to the flash shoe and soldering in a Nikon remote control wire (has a plug on one end to attach to the camera) inside the housing. Seacam remotes use S6 fittings (developed by Subtronic for six wires such as Canon flashes). One needs to have an S6 bulkhead on the housing to fit the cables and thereby releases. Newer Seacam housings come with several bulkhead holes - four on my Canon 1Dx housing. I use the one that is on the top of the housing for the remote control bulkhead. I added it myself as it is easy to do plus I like having a bunch of loose cable on the inside so I can leave the camera attached when I pull the body out of the housing. This way I won't forget to re-attach it when putting the body back in! The loose cable gets "tucked in" before closing the housing - one needs to be careful not to jam any control and not block sealing the housing but it is my choice to have the spare length. This is NOT the way Seacam does it by the way. BTW I use the fourth bulkhead hole on my 1Dx housing for a Backscatter housing sucker: http://www.backscatter.com/sku/bs-alm.lasso?s2op=cn&s2=slr%20photo&s3op=cn&s3=parts%20%26%20accessories&s6op=cn&s6=photo&s13op=cn&s13=vacuum%20systems&sop=AND&sf=Price&so=Descending&ftn=youbetcha&

FYI the bulkhead holes in Seacam housings are M14 (a standard metric size). So the first question for you is what are the bulkheads in your housing? You may be able to swap them out. Bulkheads are available at some underwater photo retailers. If you already have a Nikonos bulkhead installed you may be able to get by re-wiring the inside to a Nikon release and use an Aquatica release. You would have to lose flash functionality for this bulkhead.

I hope this helps

Tom

Hi Triggerfish, I have been using 2 solutions for this- the first involves a swimming pool pole attached to the arms as Tom describes (I use an Ikelite system, and drilled a 1 inch ball to the end of the pole) then a simple cord to trigger the shutter. The other is more of a tethering affair, I have a 15 foot USB cable coming out of the back of the housing that extends up the pole to CamRanger.. (dry!) at that point all camera functions (focus, exposure, etc.) can be controlled with my iPad or iPhone from a distance away (150'?) . Most of the images in this Gallery were shot this way, and there is an image of the setup too https://ikelite.smugmug.com/Backyard-Photo-Studio/ an interesting note on this, the frogs and fish Im shooting seem to have no fear of the housing, even when I move it around.. for over/unders you can make your system into a "Boat" using foam cubes.

Steve,

Can you elaborate on how you attach the USB cable to the camera/housing? Can you still fire flashes?