Anyone ever modify a housing to fit another camera ?

[phillybob]

I saw an Ikelite PHOTO housing for dirt cheap. Brand new ! It's for an 0.8 mp Sony Mavica digital still camera that's discontinued. After looking at the specs and taking a few measurements I noticed that with a little bit of work, my Hitachi VIDEO camera could probably work in it. Nothing needs to be done to the seals, so the 'sea-worthiness' isn't a question. The way it looks from here, a few control rods need to be removed or moved out of the way and one or two need to be 're-routed' slightly. Doesn't look too hard to do, and for 29 bucks, I not going to lose my ass if it doesn't. I 've used Ike housings for years so I know my way around them a bit. Has anyone else 'modified' a housing ?

 

[phillybob]

Just bought the last housing B&H had for $29. Gonna give this retro-fit a go. If worse comes to worst, I can use the tray and handles on one of my other housings. They're worth about $90 on their own.

 

[diversteve]

I read a post that indicated they are really hard to re-bend as I believe they're hardened.

A better option might be to buy new straight ones from Ikelite and bend them yourself: Camera Control Parts

Report back on how it goes, I've read of others asking about this but no one ever does.

How does the port line up? You'll need to be sure the center of your lens is centered in the port both horizontally and vertically or you'll likely get blurring.

 

[phillybob]

You are right about the hardness of the rods. I was thinking about your suggestion of replacing a few with new ones. Maybe a little 'blacksmith-ing'. The rods I won't be using I'll probably just Dremel off and put rubber tips on. As far as the port goes, it looks like I'll need to move the mounting screw to the left about 3/4 of an inch. Height looks pretty close. If anything, the camera will need to be raised a hair. That should be a lot easier than having to lower the mounting platform. I won't know till I get this thing in my hands. The port is a flat glass lens with no optical qualities to it, so being a hair off center shouldn't effect the focus. I don't know. I'll need to experiment a bit. I'd like it to be functioning (if possible) by the time I go to Socorro in March, so I have a lot of time to fart around with it.

 

[diversteve]

I removed a gland once on an old poly back cover - not an Ikelite.

To seal the opening I bought a solid brass compression plug at Ace Hardware.
Re-tapped the hole and it sealed till I sold it. You just have to be careful not to overtighten.

The port is a flat glass lens with no optical qualities to it, so being a hair off center shouldn't effect the focus. I don't know.

It shouldn't if it's flat glass. And that little bit probably wouldn't matter even if it weren't. I just mentioned it as a consideration.

 

[cjfox]

I,ve modified 2 housings including an Ikelite. I plugged the old control holes with acrylic doweling and glue, and re drilled holds for the new controls. Works great.

I modified another Aquatica housing made for an old Sony TRV with electromagnetic controls, by removing the circuit board and soldering the redd swithches to the remote of my Panasonsonic camera. When the time comes to upgrade the camera, I just have to re solder a new remote. One touch MWB!

 

[cjfox]

That should be "magnetic reed switches" my speling sucks

 

[phillybob]

I've stripped off the handles, tray and all the control rods. I need to use the housing up side down for the camera lens to line up with the lens port on the housing. Not a problem. They line up perfectly and it'll actually make it easy to mount a light above the camera. I'm going to use a regular dive light, like a Light Canon or something. This project is on the cheap. And the housing is big enough for me to have the screen on the video camera open and viewable. That'll save me 30 bucks for one of those stick on mirrors. The housing has six control rod holes in it. I only need three and I'll be able to use existing holes, so I don't need to drill. I'll just be going with power on-off, record on-off and zoom. Since the holes are threaded, I'll probably use brass or stainless bolts with some sealant on the threads and an o-ring to plug the unused holes. I'm going to West Marine tomorrow to check that out. I have three bendable, cutable six inch control rods on order from Ikelite. All I need to do in the meantime is stick the camera mounting tray to what was the roof of the housing. I'll use the same method Ikelite used. Rails glued to the sides of the housing with the tray slid underneath. Piece of cake.

When I saw this still in the box housing for $29 at B&H, I couldn't resist trying to reconfigure this thing. But this is just a fun project. Besides, this thing is pretty big and heavy. I'd never travel with it. I'm still going to get me one of those HeroHD cameras mentioned in one of the other threads in this forum. I'm going to wait though, till someone else gets one and posts something about the video quality underwater. But I must say, the base jumping video shot with the Hero is pretty impressive. I could easily mount the Hero right next to my digital still camera and have both still and H.D. video at the same time. Sweet !! We'll see.

 

[cjfox]

If your camera allows, rig it to manual white balance.

 

[phillybob]

I need to check on that white balance amongst other things. I'll be doing a bunch of testing once I get it together and take it down empty to about 100 - 130 fsw. I am using stainless bolts to plug the control rod holes that I won't be using. West Marine didn't carry the thread size. I ordered them today from a place called 'Bolt Depot'. How funny is that ? 'Bolt Depot' ! There's a 'Depot' for everything, I guess. My bendable rods will be in by the end of the week. They'll cost $35 each. I should have a functioning Ikelite video housing for about $170 total. Not bad.