New a6xxx housing from Meikon

[Schwob]

I just looked at the Puluz arms on Ali... they sure look like the exact same arms, right down to the markings.

Same "suspicion" here.
I will look at my float arms and the loosening thread carefully when I go at it with loctite.
I suspect my "vendor" won't stand behind the product as well as "yours"... but hope I can avoid catastrophic failure in the first place.

 

[CanadaDan]

I think I was partially to blame. My carry strap was attached to the float arms. I'll swap the arms so the girder ones are first off the handles so the stress of carrying the rig out of water is moved from the float arms.

 

[Schwob]

View attachment 504793
I think I was partially to blame. My carry strap was attached to the float arms. I'll swap the arms so the girder ones are first off the handles so the stress of carrying the rig out of water is moved from the float arms.

Good to know as something to be avoided...

 

[Barmaglot]

VPS-100 saved my camera today. I set up my rig in the hotel room, with 8" dome and 10-18mm, pumped out the air and hauled it to the boat. The way to the dive site (Hin Muang in Andaman Sea) takes about three hours, and two hours in, I noticed that VPS-100 has started flashing red. Took the housing apart, cleaned and re-created main and dome o-rings, vacuumed again, and this time, it stayed green, no issues on the dives.

 

[Hector1959]

Ripped the threads right out of the female portion of the joint on the arm. I could epoxy it back together for a temporary fix but they're no longer structurally sound. They acknowledged other clients having failures like this. Must have been a bad batch.

I just looked at the Puluz arms on Ali... they sure look like the exact same arms, right down to the markings.

At least one of my two arms "has tried to unscrew" and you can see underwater some kind of gas (white in water) spilling out. I screwed again and thy are functional but evidently the fixation is not perfect.
regards

 

[Hector1959]

For the reference, I took the housing with the VPS-100 mounted and online on four dives over the last two days, to the maximum depth of 26m, and my camera survived. On the first dive, I think I didn't pump enough air out of the housing - the plastic flexes a little bit at depth, and this caused the internal pressure to rise which made the indicator start flashing red, even though there was nothing resembling a leak. On subsequent dives, I gave it half a dozen more pumps and it stayed green throughout.

Very good information. Thanks for sharing tests results. I just used my new rig yestarday. I will share first impressions in separate post.
regards

 

[Hector1959]

I received muy new gear.
A6300 + kit lens 16-50mm + Seafrogs Salted Line housing + Short port + 6" dome port + VPS 100 leak detector.
I used yesterday for the first time. As my tray was too short for this housing, and also to test the rig with a simpler configuration so I just used one Strobe (YS-01, my other strobe is a bigger Nikonos 105), with one float arm + a long ball to YS adapter.
I used it with the short port + Inon UCL-165 (+6) + Evolva Focus lamp.
This simpler rig is sligthy positive, so with a second float arm (300 g positive) + the Nikonos 105 which is positive itself or the 6" dome, the complete rig will be too positive. I will have to make some adjustmens or changes to compensate bouyancy.
Water conditions were not optimal. Some suspension and some current.
Maybe I would need to get familiar with the camera but my first pictures are not "astonishing", even compared with those taken with my G7X.
-Water in pictures looks greenish with practically no blue in it ( checked it in HSL/Lightroom )
-I was trying hard to shoot a small blenny with not results. It's true current made focusing hard and my vision was limited. I use a graduated mask but with my G7X in Fantasea housing I had a 2.3X magnifier that made the display screen look like a cinema. (I wish I could adapt it or find something similar, does anyone has a sugestions?)
I haven't decided which lens to buy. I had thought of Sony 10-18mm and Sony macro 90mm. But now I think I will avoid the 90 mm since it could be to hard to work with it (for me). So, meanwhile, I would continue to get familiar with this camera / Housing with the kit lens.
Next dive I will use to use the 6" dome port. Will let you know about the experience.
And maybe, I will leave the VPS-100 on the housing (as barmaglot has already done).

Regards

 

[Ibrahimm]

Hello Im new here. I have salted line +a6000 system. My quesiton is which combination should I use for fishe with 6inc dome port. Is it okay viltrox ef ii or sigma mc adaptore with tokina 10-17. Samyang 8mm f3.5 lens look okay with 101mm 6 dome port on the site. My Adaptore and tokina lens 98mm. what do you think about it? I wonder does ıt work very well or not? If you have any advice please let me know. Thanks a lot.

 

[Screwball]

I recently got the VPS100 for mine, took it on a dive to 36m for 45 min and surfaced with about a tablespoon or 2 of water in the housing. Vacumn indicator still showed green. I can only assume one of the buttons is the issue. Any thoughts on best way to find the leak? Read about using talcumn powder to show where drips are falling but putting anything dusty in my housing sounds like a massive pain.

 

[Barmaglot]

Hello Im new here. I have salted line +a6000 system. My quesiton is which combination should I use for fishe with 6inc dome port. Is it okay viltrox ef ii or sigma mc adaptore with tokina 10-17. Samyang 8mm f3.5 lens look okay with 101mm 6 dome port on the site. My Adaptore and tokina lens 98mm. what do you think about it? I wonder does ıt work very well or not? If you have any advice please let me know. Thanks a lot.

Samyang 8mm is a manual lens, so you won't have aperture control, and focus control will require DIY'ing. Tokina 10-17mm via adapter should work, although I have no personal experience, but you'll have to make your own gear if you want zoom to work, and adapted lens AF is usually inferior to native, particularly on A6000 (as opposed to A6300/6400/6500). In the challenging conditions underwater, the near-instant AF on the Sony 10-18mm f/4 is a considerable advantage. If you're after fisheye rather than wide-angle, then perhaps 4" dome + 16mm f/2.8 + VCL-ECF is a better option.

I recently got the VPS100 for mine, took it on a dive to 36m for 45 min and surfaced with about a tablespoon or 2 of water in the housing. Vacumn indicator still showed green. I can only assume one of the buttons is the issue. Any thoughts on best way to find the leak? Read about using talcumn powder to show where drips are falling but putting anything dusty in my housing sounds like a massive pain.

IMHO, you don't really need to know which exact button is leaking, just whether it is the front or back. The front has seven potential water ingress points (shutter, on/off switch, c1/c1/c2 buttons, pistol grip mount in the bottom and the port mount), while the back has a lot more. A hand towel inside the housing should be good enough to tell you which general area the water is coming in from, and then you can contact Meikon for a replacement. In fact, it may be a good idea to contact them before doing any tests - they might opt to just replace the whole housing. By the way, was it the first dive for that housing, or did you dive with it before getting the VPS-100? Did it leak before?