need video advice

[ScubaDuc]

Gates sells one. It's about 1/2 way down on this page - look for Gates Pole II.

http://www.gateshousings.com/accessories.html#hardware2

B&H (www.bhphotovideo.com) sells it for $550. A friend of mine is a swimcoach and was looking for something similar. We talked about modifying a pool skimmer pole as a more reasonable alternative, it's aluminum, hollow for the coax feed if desired, and could be drilled to accept the swivel mount.

Thanks for the link! Gates housings are so expensive though...I wonder if a cheap one can't be made....

It would be easier for your friend in a pool: angles and lights are somewhat fixed in the sense he is standing on a firm floor. Boats move up and down and so will the camera. Michel Rutzen of Shark Diving Unlimited in South Africa (He is the guy that appeared on the cover of Nat Geographics in 98 with his hand on the nose of a Great White) was thinking of putting wide fins on the casing so that it would be more stable in the water. Michel has taken out many professional film crews and he explained me a bit when I got to go out on his boat. Best money I ever spent...I learned so much about sharks and filming on that outing!

 

[ScubaDuc]

I found a site of an Italian video housing maker. www.controlnet.it
The housings look nice, they are rated to 100 meters (330 feet), and they will install the control handle with 8 functions LANC in other housings. Prices are about 1000 to 1300 eurobucks. I think the LANC is 500 Euros

More importantly, they custom make the housings to specs

 

[Groundhog246]

Had a discussion on camcorders yesterday and the subject of DVD vs tape came up. Another downside (probably the bigger one) of the mini VD type, the video is substantially compressed before writing to the DVD. MiniDV tape, when transferred to your PC is about 1G per 5 minutes or 12G/hour and your going to put 30 minutes on a 1.4G DVD. Somethings gotta get lost. Not only that, I can set my miniDV tape unit to LP and squeeze 90 minutes on a tape, so 2 maybe 3 dives without opening the housing and still better quality than your DVD.

 

[diversteve]

I found a site of an Italian video housing maker. www.controlnet.it
The housings look nice, they are rated to 100 meters (330 feet), and they will install the control handle with 8 functions LANC in other housings. Prices are about 1000 to 1300 eurobucks. I think the LANC is 500 Euros

More importantly, they custom make the housings to specs

Thanks for the link, I already had seen their website and have it bookmarked to add to the next housings list update. I'm trying to do them quarterly now since I think I have most of the manufacturers represented now.

I used Google to translate the pages to English. Look what it did to the text at the bottom of the page:

"I pray to contact the Webmaster for problems and suggestions"

Their webmaster must be someone really special...

Steve

 

[JRO]

Thanks for the link, I already had seen their website and have it bookmarked to add to the next housings list update. I'm trying to do them quarterly now since I think I have most of the manufacturers represented now.

I used Google to translate the pages to English. Look what it did to the text at the bottom of the page:

"I pray to contact the Webmaster for problems and suggestions"

Their webmaster must be someone really special...

Steve

How did you get Google to translate it for you?

 

[diversteve]

How did you get Google to translate it for you?

Google has translators to/from a lot of different languages. It's not perfect but it works well enough to understand.

How to do it:

Go to the website you want to translate.

Copy the URL from the address window for the page you want to translate.

Go here:

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

and paste the URL into the "translate a web page" box near the bottom of the screen, pick your from/to languages, and hit translate. If you start at the top page, Google will translate all the pages for you interactively as you click on the links.

You can also translate blocks of text by pasting it into the box.

The Google translation page is also available by clicking the Language tools link on the Google homepage.

AltaVista has a similar service using the Babelfish translation program. They might use the same technology as Google, it looks very similar.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

[diversteve]

Thanks for the link! Gates housings are so expensive though...I wonder if a cheap one can't be made....

It would be easier for your friend in a pool: angles and lights are somewhat fixed in the sense he is standing on a firm floor. Boats move up and down and so will the camera. Michel Rutzen of Shark Diving Unlimited in South Africa (He is the guy that appeared on the cover of Nat Geographics in 98 with his hand on the nose of a Great White) was thinking of putting wide fins on the casing so that it would be more stable in the water. Michel has taken out many professional film crews and he explained me a bit when I got to go out on his boat. Best money I ever spent...I learned so much about sharks and filming on that outing!

What you really need is an ROV on a tether. But they're about $7495 more expensive than the Gates pole.

I'm not sure putting wide fins on the housing would help the problem, except maybe to create more drag and slow the up/down motion. Like you said, if you're on the boat and holding the pole, the camera's now moving with the boat.

Some sort of almost frictionless pole within a pole might work, one piece attached to the housing and the other in your hand. Imagine one of those aluminum extendable pool cleaner poles twisted open so it's loose and ready to extend. Attach the housing to the end of the inner pole and weight it near neutrally buouyant at the depth you want it under the surface, including the weight of the inner pole.

Actually any aluminum tubing that slip fits within a slightly bigger size would work. Probably want to drill some vent holes in both poles to vent trapped water. Otherwise you'd have a piston-like effect. Although maybe that's desirable, it might damp the motion slightly, like a shock absorber.

Now as you hold your end, the other end moves up/down only when you get to the extent of the travel as there's almost no friction on the pole/pole mating surfaces. But it allows you to control the camera out/back and left/right. If you cut a slot down most of the inner pole, then put a matching pin in the outer pole, you could also rotate it by twisting the pole, the pin riding in the channel wouldn't allow the inner pole to spin so it would change direction as soon as you took up the slack between the groove and the pin and it would still be free to move up/down.

The housing maintains it's depth by proper weighting. Put a keeper on the bottom of the bigger pole so the smaller pole can't somehow be pulled free. And attach a flexible lanyard securing the housing to the top of the top pole in case the keeper fails. Although if they're weighted right, it would float on/near the surface if separated and could be gaffed. Make the weighting slightly negative and you could use the lanyard to pull the housing up while filming if desired.

Steve

 

[ScubaDuc]

Thanks for the link, I already had seen their website and have it bookmarked to add to the next housings list update. I'm trying to do them quarterly now since I think I have most of the manufacturers represented now.

I used Google to translate the pages to English. Look what it did to the text at the bottom of the page:

"I pray to contact the Webmaster for problems and suggestions"

Their webmaster must be someone really special...

Steve

Hi Steve,

I must say I do not need Google to translate from Italian. I gave them a call so let me summarize for you what I have learned.

ControlNet has developped a LANC Handle that is fully programmable, meaning that you can control all functions of your camcorder including contrast, white balance, etc. The unit can be fitted to any other housing so, if you change camera and you can just have the LANC handle installed onthe new housing. The price of the full-9 function remote LANC is about 500 Eurobucks. ControlNet will also install the LANC unit on any current housing, even round ones.

They will also make the housing for the camera. The housing will include a wide angle adapter (external); internal rotating filter, and an outside mirror for viewing (monitor is optional but can also be remote controlled). Price for a full cusom built housing start at around 1,300 Euros.

Too bad the Dollar is now almost wortless. I am quite impressed with their design: the housings are of professional quality at a very favorable price.

Let me know if you would like any other info or if there is anything you'd like to clear up from the Google translation. You definately do not need to "pray" the webmaster!

 

[ScubaDuc]

What you really need is an ROV on a tether. But they're about $7495 more expensive than the Gates pole.

I'm not sure putting wide fins on the housing would help the problem, except maybe to create more drag and slow the up/down motion. Like you said, if you're on the boat and holding the pole, the camera's now moving with the boat.

Some sort of almost frictionless pole within a pole might work, one piece attached to the housing and the other in your hand. Imagine one of those aluminum extendable pool cleaner poles twisted open so it's loose and ready to extend. Attach the housing to the end of the inner pole and weight it near neutrally buouyant at the depth you want it under the surface, including the weight of the inner pole.

Actually any aluminum tubing that slip fits within a slightly bigger size would work. Probably want to drill some vent holes in both poles to vent trapped water. Otherwise you'd have a piston-like effect. Although maybe that's desirable, it might damp the motion slightly, like a shock absorber.

Now as you hold your end, the other end moves up/down only when you get to the extent of the travel as there's almost no friction on the pole/pole mating surfaces. But it allows you to control the camera out/back and left/right. If you cut a slot down most of the inner pole, then put a matching pin in the outer pole, you could also rotate it by twisting the pole, the pin riding in the channel wouldn't allow the inner pole to spin so it would change direction as soon as you took up the slack between the groove and the pin and it would still be free to move up/down.

The housing maintains it's depth by proper weighting. Put a keeper on the bottom of the bigger pole so the smaller pole can't somehow be pulled free. And attach a flexible lanyard securing the housing to the top of the top pole in case the keeper fails. Although if they're weighted right, it would float on/near the surface if separated and could be gaffed. Make the weighting slightly negative and you could use the lanyard to pull the housing up while filming if desired.

Steve

I was discussing a similar design on the phone with ControlNet. The problem is that you are working at shallow depths - 1 meter - where wave motion is still very strong. It would be easier to take stills, I suppose, but I have not thought of a way to remotely trigger a camera in a case.

I must admit that the idea of travelling by air with an 8 foot pole is a bit far fetched though....You should see me when I head to the airport: I can barely move as is with all the diving gear and other "essentials" !

 

[diversteve]

I was discussing a similar design on the phone with ControlNet. The problem is that you are working at shallow depths - 1 meter - where wave motion is still very strong. It would be easier to take stills, I suppose, but I have not thought of a way to remotely trigger a camera in a case.

I must admit that the idea of travelling by air with an 8 foot pole is a bit far fetched though....You should see me when I head to the airport: I can barely move as is with all the diving gear and other "essentials" !

Skiers do it all the time. And I don't think the airlines even charge extra for it. Or at least they didn't use to.

What you really need to devise is some sort of universal housing mount with an adjustable clamp on one end. Then borrow a pole/gaff from the boat to clamp it to. Just deal with the up/down motion as best as you can. Saves carrying a pole...

I did see a video housing somewhere that had a port for a coax cable so you could feed the images remotely back to a video monitor on the boat. Maybe an armored cable version would work. Otherwise how would you know what you're filming. Of course if a Great White takes a liking to your housing, I'm guessing it's pretty much a write-off anyway.

I guess you could also try something like this: (maybe only once if you're chumming in the area - LOL) http://www.aquavu.com/av_spoolsc100.html

I don't know how you'd trigger a still camera either, R/F signals probably wouldn't penetrate the water. What about a really long cable release? I wonder if you could use a piece of braided steel rubber house (like the stuff used on h/p car engines) as an outer protectant and run the cable down through the center to a gland in the camera housing. Your end wouldn't have to be sealed if you could keep it out of the water. You can buy the glands from Ikelite.

Later Edit: I just happened to see cables/glands and a pole mount on the Equinox website:

http://www.underwatervideohousings.com/misc.shtml