PATIMA PDCH-G11 housing for G11

[oyoroi]

Hi, does anybody any experience with PATIMA's PDCH-G11 housing for Canon PowerShot G11?
I am just fishing around for some housing for this camera and it seems to me that this one may even communicate with my S&S TTL strobes.
I would appreciate any comments, advice, pros, disadvantages, ....anything that will help with the decision.
Thanks in advance.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

I have the Patima G11 housing but i use a optical triggered slave strobe.
Whith the right cable the housing should be able to communicate with your S&S strobes and it can have a Nikonos 5-pin or Patima 6-pin bulkhead. Mine with the Nikonos bulkhead have a 5-pin hotshoe while i guess that the Patima bulkhead uses a 6-pin hotshoe.
To be sure that it works as desired you may verify this with the shop of your choice.

Regarding the housing:
+ very sturdy
+ 2 ports included
+ excellent quality and detail solutions
+ electrical and optical bulkhead
+ 67mm tread on WA port for wetlenses ( i use my Inon UWL-100 WA)
+ simple but sturdy 2 latch closing
+ all functions acessible
+ water drains for the buttons (a problem at Ikelite housings)
+ strap for hand included (but not very good quality, easy to fix)

- heavy and very negative boyant
- pricey regarding other non-aluminium G11 housings
- no way to take pictures with the internal strobe
- zoom locking screw will seize due to galvanic corrision (easy fix)
- hotshoe is difficult to store when using optical triggered strobe
- position of the weel knob not very confortable if using the included hand strap.

Remarks:
The position of the knob moving the rear wheel is in the right side exactly there where your palm is if you hold the camera with the included and useful hand strap. So for moving the wheel you have to slip out of the strap what may be unconfortable. Holding the camera on the handle(s) of a tray this will be not a problem anymore and considering that the right handle has to be enough distant from the housing to access the knob, you might be able to use the knob for the wheel with your thumb.
The zoom locking screw is made of stainless steel what leads after a few dives to seizing due to galvanic corrosion. To avoid that you may unscrew it always after the dives or wrap some layers of teflon tape around the screw what will isolate the two dissimilar metals.

The housing is itself already very heavy and with 2 strobes it will need big floats to be neutral. I am not sure if normal float-stix will handle this weight and you might check that before you buy floats.

I am very happy with the housing and the problems i see are easy to fix.

Chris

 

[oyoroi]

Thank you Chris very much for your comments.
This should be my first "big" camera so I am grateful for any advice.
The negative buoyancy - is this a big thing to consider?
Also, can I see some pictures you've toke with this set?

Radek

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Hi Radek,
i is a pleasure to help you.
The G11 Patima is a great little camera!

The negative boyancy is boring and for a confortable use has to be cured.
I made some experiments with fishing net buoys, but they have not enough lift. Stix floats may be a solution, but i can't get them here so i have to experiment (what i like and my frinds call me McDiver for that).
Air is the best way to make things buoyant, so i thinking of air filled ruber hose or a air filled aluminium bar fixed on the tray or used as tray.
There are float arms ready to buy and this may be the easiest way to go,
as you can buy the ready.
Look here to get a idea: INON Arm
The only thing is to weight the housing under water to see what size the float arm has to be.

I will upload some of my G11 pictures and send you the link later. Don't expect too much from them, i am still in "beta test phase" as i have the camera a month and when i dive i work and can't loose too much time with experiments. But soon i will be back in Italy and there i will have time to explore the secrets of the G11.

Chris

 

[HerraduraDivers]

OK, here we go: ScubaBoard Gallery - G11 Pictures

Sorry that i have no more uw-picts, but i made 5 dives with the camera, from them on 3 i could not use her because of the clients or bad viz/current and on the remaining two the conditions where more then inappropriate for photographing. Also i have to do some tests with my Inon strobe as it don't work very well with the camera in Automatic setting. Tv,Av,P will/should work fine (as it works fine on the S90 what is basically the same camera), but i need more time to experiment and follow Nemrods hints and tricks about the settings of the camera and the strobe.

Chris

 

[oyoroi]

Thanks again Chris for the picts.
It seems that besides the weight the vigneting is the concern with this housing.
How does it be with some other lens...

Radek

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Radek,
both is not a concern i just mentioned it because i noticed it.
No underwater housing is nativly neutral buoyant and this can be corrected easily.
The vignetting is almost normal as well and can be easily corrected zooming in a tiny bit. If there is still vignetting, i crop the picture afterwards...

Other 67mm tread wet lenses may be:
Macro Lenses
Subsee magnifier: ReefNet Inc. | SubSee Magnifier and Adapter
Woody's diopter (to verify!): http://www.nexusamerica.com/Misc/Misc.html
Inon UCL-330/UCL-165M67: ???? Close-up Lens Line up
Epoque DCL20-67DR: http://www.epoque-japan.com/e-digitalacc-macro.htm

Wide Angle Lenses
Inon UWL-100: INON Wide Lens UWL100 Type1/Type2?[TOP]
Inon UWL-100 Dome: INON Superwide Lens Dome Lens Unit for UWL-100 [TOP]
Epoque DCL20-67DR: http://www.epoque-japan.com/e-digitalacc.htm
Zen 105° WA: http://reefphoto.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=4379
French company Dyron build some 67mm lenses: Dyron

As on this housing only the WA port is treaded there may some vignetting using the Patima Wide Angle Port but this has to be verified.

While researching about this argument i discovered that Austrian UW Photo shop unterwasserkamera.at is constructing and selling a slip-over 67mm adapter for the Patima G11 zoom port.
unterwasserkamera.at - DIGI&DIVE Adapter Patima G10
This adapter should exclude any further problems with vignetting as it enables the use of wet lenses on the Patima zoom port.

I may buy this and a macro lens when i am back in Europe and keep you updated.

Chris

 

[oyoroi]

Chris, have you tried these Inon float arms?
INON Arm

Radek

 

[HerraduraDivers]

Radek,
no unfortunatly i don't as i live here the uw-photographic desert...
Good for taking pictures but not 1 shop selling gear so i have always go to Miami to buy stuff like that...
I use my old fantasea flexarm this moment as i use the camera for my work and it should be as small as possible.
I have to weight the camera in sea water to have the parameters for choosing the right float arm. As my rig is/may be different as yours you should do the same, to know the boyancy of the arms.

Anyway, float arms are a nice thing and i belive that they are the way to go, but this ones from Inon look a bit "fat" and i think that they bother while closing the arms. ULCS and Ikelite have float arms as well and they are longer, but "skinnier" what looks better to me.

Chris

 

[oyoroi]

Well, if that will be of help you can contact me if you will be looking for anything made in Japan.
Since I live here it may be easier and probably cheaper to look for thinks in here and ship them to you directly.
Cheers,

Radek

PS: Thanks for the other float arms tip.