bad housing

Last fall we were taking off for 6 months backpacking. So I didn’t want to take a bigger camera with me. Panasonic came out with a small 3ccd camera (nv-gs) so I thought I try that one out. The only housing available was one from equinox. I read a few reviews about it, called and talked to them (they were very nice over the phone) so I got the propak 6. For a pal camera. Did not have time to dive with in back home. After the 1st day of diving I sat down in front of the tv to check it out. The only thing I saw was a reflection. A BIG round ring just in the middle of the picture. (Oh I forgot to say I had to use foam to keep the LCD open, and I could only see silhouettes...) I called equinox before I left about the LCD. And the guy said that he had the same housing and did not have that problem, (like I give a shit about his, mine was the one not working).

I contacted them about the reflection. They said send it back to them and they would fix it, only I told them I’m in Asia!!! and are not gonna send it to them that would cost a fortune ( I guess they knew that...) I taped the front lid with black masking tape and used a marker pen to blacken (as I was informed to do, I started to believe they sent me a kit -assemble it yourself!) The wide angle lens (the lens they sent with the housing was crap so I had to get a new one, and it was not because of the new one. the old one was even worse!)

O well, I had to wrap a safety sausage around the whole thing if I wanted to shoot up. It looked really professional, maybe I should attach picture of that!

I used ikelite, light&motion. & gates before. Will not go for this crap again.

So if you think of getting housing from them, think again!

I did about a 100 dives with it, started to know what I could film and what not. You are VERY limited with this housing.

It was so frustrating when there was something you really would like to capture but knew that it was no way due to the stupid housing! Man it makes me angry when I start thinking about it.

Well, anyone else had the same problem? Or similar?

Is there anyone else that uses the equinox?

I know all housings need small, SMALL, adjustments in the beginning. But not 10 dives to find out in what situations you can use it in due to where the light comes from. x amount of hours to prep it.

I done more than a 1000 video dives and used a few different setups, this is by far the worst one.

tom

http://www.scubatoe.com

Hi

I would like to ad to this prob of the reflection ,i have the Equinox pro pak 8 and using the Canon GL1 ALSO KNOWN as the XM1 anyways i get the reflection too and that really sucks especially when doing film for clients not only that but the on/off switch is the real hassle when im not filming i switch off without any probs but try switching it back on F*@K A PAIN what a mission ....so i contacted them with this and there reply was make switch longer which i did still no improvement ,then they tell me to bend it a bit still nothing..so i reply to them again and again and now i get no reply as to what to do next .OHH and i live in SOUTH AFRICA so to send it back cost almost the amount of the actual housing..

Cheers

hi,

i sold my housing... got sick of using my surface marker...

but are buying a new for my xl2. but this time it will be a gates. anyone have any info about equinox lights? i´m very restricted equinox products but they are halv price compared to Green Force

http://www.dive-equinox.com/housing-lights.shtml

You will like the Green Force lights. Better to spend a bit more and be happy than to go for cheap and be pissed off all the time at your lights or housing.

Steve

Do you think they're new design of the front panel will help? It's not clear any more. See this forum post with pictures of the new design.

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...indpost&p=60575

Other than the lens reflection issue (which is a huge issue, granted), is the housing any good? Does it feel like a quality product? Any flooding issues? Someone said that you're too limited with this kind of design. How so?

I'm in the market for a housing right now, and that's why I'm asking. Thanks in advance!

Scott

THE FULL STORY (Sasha/Tom)

I think it is important to know that Equinox has stood behind their product and offered to fix the reflection problem at no charge to any customer. Equinox admits to the reflection issue with their particular units and has done everything in their power to accommodate the customer.

Equinox offered to fix the problem and cover standard shipping of the product. Would another manufacturer do that?

All housing manufacturers experience a hiccup from time to time. It is important on how that company deals with the problem tells whether that company is worth dealing with.

I welcome all questions and concerns about our products and stand behind our products.

We have offered an affordable underwater video housing solution for 14 years and have thousands of satisfied customers and we have always tried to do right by our customers.

TJ Mansfield

EQuinox

Equinox admits to the reflection issue with their particular units and has done everything in their power to accommodate the customer.

 

I welcome all questions and concerns about our products and stand behind our products.

Yes, this is very true. You guys have been great answering my questions on the telephone, and via email. Very accomodating and knowledgeable pre-sales support.

We have offered an affordable underwater video housing solution for 14 years and have thousands of satisfied customers and we have always tried to do right by our customers.

An Equinox representative (I won't mention the person's name) told me the problem was because of the clear front panel, and that's why it's not clear any more. Was the clear panel a new design (that failed I guess)? I'm asking because it seems that if they were always clear then this issue would have come up a long time ago.

Thanks a lot!

Scott

actually what had happened is the our domeport mold shop changed material on us, with out telling us, this new material made the domes more sensitive to reflection than in the past (we didn't find this out until we started having the occasional call about reflection, I then called the mold shop and that is when I was informed about the change). The clear front plate was a staple of the equinox product line for 13 years but when the new batch of domes came in is when we noticed this on occasion so we went through a series of tests to figure out what would eliminate the problem. Changing from a clear to solid worked, going to a black lens as opposed to a silver helped as well. For the future, we are changing our mold shops to go back to our old material and puting on an anti-reflective coating so we never have this problem again. We like the look and benefit of reduced light with the solid front so we will keep it.

Thanks a lot TJ. Much appreciated.

Scott

ps. I like the look of the new solid front panels too.

i'm sure this housing is ok for a ones a year-oneweek diver. but i dout that the new front will help. i might be wrong. and its a ok housing for what you pay. i would not recomend it thou

Scubatoe,

You said, "you are VERY limited with this kind of housing". How so?

Scott

hi scott,

this is how it was for me. i feel the controls are in bad positions. unless you put the housing on something you can't use the zoom while filming, as you have to let go of the handle to reach it. for personal use maybe this works but if you want to sell your footage, then no, as it is basically impossible to hold the camera still with one hand and zoom with the other. it's not at all balanced, if you let go with one hand it "falls" to one side. you have to have a super long thumb to control the start stop/on/off. the rubber ring that holds the red filter is not very firm (very flexible) and 95% of the time the filter itself falls out of the ring when you take if off the domeport (when i was using my lights instead of filter), so i had to remove the filter from the ring and "hold" (sticking it my mask strap turned out to be the only way not to scratch or lose it) onto it some way until it was needed again. thus, it was nearly impossible to have fast or smooth transitions from filming with filter to using lights or the reverse. also, in the housing the lcd could open less than 75% so every time i tilted it it closed! i had to use a piece of foam just to keep it open. the good side of my experience with the housing was that you can disassemble it easily and i like the color! Also, the people at Equinox were friendly when i called and talk to them.