DIY Video Housing a success...

[willydiver]

Wanted to capture the diving adventures in Cozumel for family and friends, so I built this housing for my Canon ZR-85 miniDV recorder. 6" Schedule 80 PVC for the cannnister and lens rings. Used polycarbonate with a scratch resistant coating for the lens. The SS latches are the same as used on the DIY light cannisters. All parts were ordered from McMaster.com. My father turned the lens and lens retaining rings on his lathe. Thanks mddolson for the idea on the lens rings and the detailed drawings of your housing. No controls on this housing. Have to start recording before latching the lens down. Makes for a "complete" dive record, though. I was pleasantly suprised the thing didn't implode at 90' on Palancar Reef and the video was great. Next modification will be a mount for my HID light to help out with the color. I'm hooked on this UW videoing, now.

Thanks,
WD

 

[wayne2241]

That's a great looking housing and it seems very well constructed. Any plans or construction details you could pass along?

 

[Aquanaut4ata]

I'd love to see some plans on that as well

 

[RIDIVER501]

Excellent job.
Another idea for color correction is to ask an LDS if they have a broken seaview mask with the pink lens and use that for carribean color corection shooting.
I have an older ikelite rig for a hi 8 that was missing the collar that helped to black out light comming in and reflecting off the external filter. so the soultion was to duct tape the sea view lens straight to the camera. It gave me great color correction and eliminated the halo relection effect I was getting becuase of the missing collar.
still housing looks great good luck with it.

 

[willydiver]

Thanks for the comments! I'll work on converting my "cocktail napkin" plans into CAD format.

Forgot to show the reason why the camera is offset inside the housing. That's so you can open the LCD viewing screen. It makes it a little easier to see what you are videoing, although it is possible to see through the small viewfinder. The only drawback to using the LCD screen is the extra battery power it uses.

Also, didn't show the 2lb. lead weight I had to zip tie to the bottom of the handle for ballast. That made the camera slightly negative. That's what I wanted becasue I'd rather have it sink to the bottom than float up to the surface if I lost a grip on it.

Here are a few particulars on the housing:
-polycarbonate is 1/2" thick with a 1/4" step turned on the edge
-1/8" thick EPDM orings
-1/4" thick 5052 aluminum handle bracket
-1 1/4" diameter delrin handles with grip grooves turned on them
-the camera plate is 3/16" thick plexiglass/lexan


My dad used a lathe to turn the lens, lens retainer rings, and the delrin handles. I used a table saw, belt sander, router table, drill press, and drum sander attachment to make the other components.

WD

 

[MSilvia]

Very nice! Please do share the plans.

 

[jareddean]

Does it have a rec stop/start button and hown do you turn it off

 

[Mike7]

Very nice indeed, he said that you hit record before you close it up but still good work!

 

[Cold_Under_Here]

Looks awesome. I'd love to see some videos taken from it!

 

[willydiver]

Jareddean, that's correct. There are no external controls on the housing, at this point anyway. You have to push the record button before you latch the rear lens down. It would be nice to control the recording for the sake of conserving battery power, but this method gives you a "complete" record of the dive from backroll entry to handing the camera to someone on the boat after the dive. Leaves for alot of editing but I need the practice anyway!

I'm figuring the editing software out (Pinnacle v.9) and will get a short video posted as soon as I can. Please forgive the shakiness and poor "composition" of the footage, though. I'm definitely still learning! Next addition will be a light to help out with the color a little.

Thanks again for the comments!

WD