lanyard pin alternatives

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SkipperJohn

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Sealife, I read here that the lanyard pin on the DC800 housing can fail causing your tethered camera to liberate itself. I am genuinely frightened at this prospect. Are there any suggestions? I have been batting around a few ideas but would like to hear what you guys have to say on the subject. My favorite idea so fat is to use the tripod mount to screw in something I can pre-drill to accept a backup theater of some sort.
 
I don't have a DC800, but judging by this photo:

sl180.jpg


...it looks like the metal loop the lanyard attaches to is pretty beefy (lower left of grip, from the front), and should easily bear the weight of the camera. If you think the OEM lanyard is too wimpy, just replace it with something beefier... even some cave line and a bolt snap, or perhaps a nice coil lanyard.

coillanyard_aqutcl.jpg


Otherwise, adding a handle and tray (and perhaps ideally, a strobe) will give a MUCH more solid attachment point, although in essence it's using the same idea you had, the tripod mount point, to make the solid connection. ULCS makes some nice handles and trays if you don't like the Sealife offerings.
 
Sealife, I read here that the lanyard pin on the DC800 housing can fail causing your tethered camera to liberate itself. I am genuinely frightened at this prospect. Are there any suggestions? I have been batting around a few ideas but would like to hear what you guys have to say on the subject. My favorite idea so fat is to use the tripod mount to screw in something I can pre-drill to accept a backup theater of some sort.

You might try popping the pin out and replacing it with a loop of wire used for fishing leaders. Or just using a completely new tether and ditching the factory one altogether...
 
Alas, if it were only that easy...

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sealife-station/235055-sealife-dc800-24.html

...on our second dive, the little metallic clip on the housing, which holds the lanyard just slipped right off the camera. Thankfully the camera is somewhat bouyant; just enough so that my husband noticed it floating away and retrieved it.

It seems to me that it should have been molded into the housing somehow, but apparently it's held in with a pin which slipped out.

I was pretty disappointed by this design flaw in what seems to be otherwise a great product.



...
My only issue at all with the camera is that the lanyard came off during a dive. The metal part that attached to the camera body somehow came loose, and I came close to losing the camera at San Clemente Island. I don't think I pulled it too hard - it was what I would consider normal use of the camera. I pushed it back in place but never fully trusted in after that.
...
- Chris
.



That is the EXACT same problem I had with the housing. I contacted SeaLife and they are shipping me a new housing. I hope the problem doesn't repeat itself with the new one. Other than that defect, I was very pleased with the performance of the camera.


It's not the lanyard itself that is breaking. It is the metal "d-ring" that connects to the housing; it is held by a pin. It is the pin that falls out, leaving the camera housing to float away with the lanyard still neatly attached to your arm or bcd, as the case may be.

Just beware, no matter what lanyard you might be using, the pin could come out. Keep an eye on your camera. ;)

I dont want to lose this very expensive camera after I've been warned!
 
Skipper John,

The best thing to do is to give this lanyard holder a real good tug. Any of those, only a few relative to the amount of cameras out there, that have come off are because of a missing pin or pin that was too short. The pin is inserted prior to the completion of the armor on the camera so if it is there, it won't come out. However if it was not placed in, a good yank on the lanyard when attached to the ring, would render it off.

If you can yank till you are blue in the face, figuratively speaking, then you are good!
 
OK, thanks. but I'm still working on something that will attach to the tripod or flash mount... until I get myself an external flash anyway.
 
OK, thanks. but I'm still working on something that will attach to the tripod or flash mount... until I get myself an external flash anyway.

Take a stainless steel fender washer and drill an extra hole in it towards the edge. Put it in a vise to bend it slightly. tie a lanyard of your choosing to the outer hole. Put a S.S. bolt through the center hole and screw it into the tripod mount. Use 316 stainless if posible.
 
Take a stainless steel fender washer and drill an extra hole in it towards the edge. Put it in a vise to bend it slightly. tie a lanyard of your choosing to the outer hole. Put a S.S. bolt through the center hole and screw it into the tripod mount. Use 316 stainless if posible.

That is EXACTLY where I was going!
I'd like to find some sort of wingnut or large knob tho so I can put it on and off without tools.
 

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