wow, lots of info, thanks, I appreciate it
a couple of (maybe stupid) questions. Port? What exactly do you mean? Is this what you mean by electonic vs manual controls, or is this something entirely different that I did not catch?
The port is the optical element on the front of the housing. Often it's contains lens elements with some magnification. I may've confused you in my prior post since I used the term LANC
port also. It's really a LANC
jack, I've just always heard it referred to as a "port". Corrected my previous post.
Various port configurations are available depending on what lens you are using on the camera. The simplest is a flat port - it's just a piece of clear glass. Used mostly for macro work with a macro lens installed on the camera pre-dive. It's also good for general shooting using the camera's zoom as needed. More expensive housings sell with a standard port - typically with some magnification. The wider the field of view, the more a port costs.
Ports costing the most $$ are the wide angle and super-wide angle ports - used for what they're named for. Often in conjunction with an add-on w/a lens.
Most housings are sold with a port good for general use. I've captured seahorses at under a foot and dolphins at 60-70' away clearly with mine. It has 0.55x magnification and 70° coverage. I believe it's a full zoom-thru also, meaning it shouldn't get "soft" when zoomed out. But most of my stuff is shot under 20' away so I've really never noticed.
As far as a view finder, if your camera has one you can use without flipping it open (my home camcorder you have to do this), will it usually be sufficient or do you need an auxillary viewfinder I have seen sold on some sites?
Want to house your home camcorder? You probably can. If you buy the right housing, it might work with a future camcorder purchase also. Especially if it's a Sony.
These are my thoughts, others may have differing opinions. I currently shoot with a housing that just has a small window to view the camera's viewfinder. It works for me. But I've shot a lot of video so instinctively know what I'm framing. Most of the time I shoot with the camera set to wide angle and the housing out in front of me at arms length. Works surprisingly well. If it's really critical framing, I look through the viewfinder.
Otoh, my buddy borrowed my camera once and shot footage of the bottom 2/3rd's of some turtles and cut the heads off a couple angelfish....
In some housings, you can open the LCD screen entirely inside, others have a limited view of it through the back glass and some let you fold it back flat and use a mirror to view it. Ikelite and Seatools do this, but Ikelite only provides "reversing circuitry" for certain Sony models, otherwise it pans backwards.
Most manufacturers sell add-on monitors, they either replace the back of the housing or mount on top. Top mounts have the advantage of being able to still be seen when filiming an object slightly below you. There's also standard definition monitors and a couple of pricey hi-def monitors. For really critical focusing with a hi-def camera, you need a hi-def monitor. For general framing not as much - if you can set the monitor to 16x9 format when used with a newer HDV camera that shoots in 16x9 also.
I would think you would want to get an electronic control, because if you upgrade your camera, I really would hate to have to buy a new housing (with my photo camera the housing is more than the camera itself). Is my thinking right on this?
That's my position. Video housings are the same, typically cost 1-1/2 to 2 times more than the camera they house. As posted previously, port$ can double that cost.
I've upgraded cameras twice in 5 years. Although I also upgraded my housing when I switched to HDV, my old housing would've still worked with my new HDV camera - just not as well. Because all my cameras were Sony and all had LANC jacks for control.
Go to
Amphibico's website and look at the EVO Elite models. Notice that they're all the same basic design? (Actually
I think they're all
exactly the same housing - just marketing imho.) The only difference I see between their new EVO Elite and my 4 year old EVO is the back mounted monitor. The models listed represent 3-4 years of Sony camera introductions.
