Ikelite Housing for Sony SR12

[lemon]

Would the Ikelite housing for the SR12 be a good option for a beginner videographer? It seems to have white balance, and at a pretty good price. Any thoughts?

 

[robint]

Digital Video Housing for Sony Video Cameras

It looks good to me, but I am an Ikelite user and fan. It has the reverse-circuitry for the mirror, and it has access to the touch screen for white balance. I think you will be very happy with it. I like the Ikelite housings for their price, clear housing so I can see all is well inside, and the fact they only weigh 10 lbs so carrying it around topside isn't quite as big a burden.

My husband has never done video underwater and on our last vacation I wanted to teach him with my unit - 10 minutes practicing topside holding it, turning it on and off, etc, then he was in the water with it for a whole dive. He did great and found it was very easy to use. He had no problems at all and actually thought it was fun!

 

[Scubasteve1950]

Robin

I have the ikelite housing for my HC9 that has the reverse-circuitry for the mirror, have you found it hard to see the image when it is very bright? I would like to get something to put around the mirror to block out the sunlight. I think it would help. Also on my 3rd dive of the day the housing started to fog up. I blamed it on the reverse-circuitry and turned it off for the rest of the week. Have you had any problems with the housing fogging up?

Thanks
Steve

 

[robint]

Robin

I have the ikelite housing for my HC9 that has the reverse-circuitry for the mirror, have you found it hard to see the image when it is very bright? I would like to get something to put around the mirror to block out the sunlight. I think it would help. Also on my 3rd dive of the day the housing started to fog up. I blamed it on the reverse-circuitry and turned it off for the rest of the week. Have you had any problems with the housing fogging up?

Thanks
Steve

Yes, I have found with the camcorder in general, that in sunlight I cannot see the screen and must use the viewfinder (topside) and there have been times when in shallow water that the sun keeps me from viewing the image on the mirror.

As far as the fogging, it has never happened to me. BUT I do keep my housing out of the sunlight when not in the water. I have a white towel that I travel with everywhere and put it overtop if there is no shade on the boat. There is plenty of airspace around the camcorder in the housing so heating should not have been the problem. I also make sure to open and close the housing (to change battery or tape, etc) in cool air, like hotel room or in a/c on a liveaboard. I never do it out in the open on a boat unless an emergency. I have 150+ dives with my Ikelite now so I think I have the system down pretty good.

The only time I have actually seen a camera housing fog wasn't with my Ikelite - it was in Calif (cold water) and my hubby with his camera (Oly 5050 in an Oly housing which is also clear plexiglass) and we surmised that he had been zooming in and out so much that he heated up the camera causing the condensation. NO damage to the camera, but he lost half a dive due to foggy lense. I have heard of other people having fogging problems with their cameras (not video) when they are in the clear plexiglass cases and after speaking to them, we surmised the same issue - leaving the housing out in sun and/or zooming in and out so much that the camera heated up producing the fog.

I hope this helps!

robin

 

[PPDC]

We have also had problems with some serious fogging but this was due mostly to our videographer not being able to turn the camera off while the reverse technology was enabled. However, we discovered that if the RT is turned off then the camera will turn off. However i am not impressed that we have to go through this procedure to turn of the camera. Anybody else had this problem?
To reduce the fogging we have also make an effort to keep the housing in a cooler with some ice between dives since we don't have any a/c on the boat.

 

[Birdman77]

From what I've seen with looking around the only SR12 housings that have mwb are the ikelite and the light & motion. Is this true or are there any other housings that have a mwb?

 

[diversteve]

Others are the Ocean Images HC series and the Aditech Mangrove MVD-L (Reef Photo sells Aditech in the U.S.) Aditech seems to do it electronically somehow. Seatool does what they call "White Balance Priority" which I think is a shift between the various modes. Ask Reef about that also, they're the importer for Seatool. Welcome to Seatool USA!

 

[bfowles]

I have the ikelite casing for this camera and have posted some thoughts on the casing in the following thread "thoughts sony hdr sr12 appropriate housing". Sorry I can't post a url yet (I haven't made enough posts).

Byron

 

[Scotttyd]

From what I've seen with looking around the only SR12 housings that have mwb are the ikelite and the light & motion. Is this true or are there any other housings that have a mwb?

I am looking at this same camera and housing. Equinox sells a housing with MWB, but it is an upgrade cost (I think $150) too add the extra controls needed.