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because once you modify your original case with a flat port, the case with the modified port can only be used underwater"
AFIK this is not true. Videos and images out of the water and taken with, say the gopro dive housing, are equally sharp as those taken with the plastic dome port that the camera comes with.
This weekend I set up my Ikelite housing on top of the SRP tray, you can find a place in the key slots that is 3" OC apart for the Ikelite on top and mount the GoPro onthe the bottom of the lip . Just flip the tray over for goPro or over again for bigger camera.
Pictures as promised. In working with the setup, found that would be better to move the Ikelite housing a little more forward for more gloved hand room. Made an adapter that has 1/4" threaded holes 2" apart on center and another in the senter. Then 1/4 hole plain 3" apart OC centered to mount the Ikelite housing to the bar, counter sunk the holes and got 24-12x0.5 Flathead SS screws from TriCity and mounted the Ikelite housing to the bar and then the bar to the SRP Tray plus a GoPro tripod mount on the underside.
The 2" OC threaded holes worked perfectly in the slots and keys and the center hole in the SRP Tray matched up with the center hole in the bar so have three points of attachment. The bar is still rough and will be polished and painted but better to explain in rough state. See pictures
PS: Looks like can use the bar to fit the Ikelite housing to a standard tripod mount too
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Some filing, polishing and a little paint
Make a man the engineer he ain't
The handles I have are Locline arms which I got from SRP but should be available at any SRP stockists or many shops that sell underwater camera gear. Any other flex arms with 1/4-20 threads will also easily mount into the handles.
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I have Intova Flex arms that I mounted on the SRP Tray handles for a heavy Intova Supernova light Will need to go to Lowe's and get some 1/8 + 1/16 " x 1" wide aluminum strips (couldn't find 3/16th) and take a little (~1/64") off the side counter sink a 1/4" screw and use a nylon nut to hold the 1/8+1/16 together (approx 1&3/4 inch pieces cut off the strips). Someone (hint,hint Intova) should make the adapters
see pictures
because once you modify your original case with a flat port, the case with the modified port can only be used underwater"
AFIK this is not true. Videos and images out of the water and taken with, say the gopro dive housing, are equally sharp as those taken with the plastic dome port that the camera comes with.
The flat port does not affect the focus out of the water but you do get a severe fish eye lens effect out of the water with a flat port. If that's not a big deal then by all means enjoy using the same housing in and out of the water.
The flat port does not affect the focus out of the water but you do get a severe fish eye lens effect out of the water with a flat port. If that's not a big deal then by all means enjoy using the same housing in and out of the water.
Not sure there is any change with SRP BlurFix since original GoPro housing lens is still in place. Also, haven't seen any difference in taking the GoPro camera out of the housing completely. It is a fisheye lens but the GoPro onboard computer flattens it out depending on the GoPro setting. Kinda like your eye that receives the image upside down and "fish eye" wide angle but your brain flips and flattens and merges the images from both eyes but GoPro has only one eye. All the different GoPro settings don't change the fixed lens but modify how the image is recorded from the CMOS via onboard chip.
Think about the flat port like a dive mask, see the same in and out of water except for refractive index.
The flat port does not affect the focus out of the water but you do get a severe fish eye lens effect out of the water with a flat port. If that's not a big deal then by all means enjoy using the same housing in and out of the water.
The actual fisheye effect of the gopro with the blurfix adapter is the same as in the stock gopro housing. The stock glass round lens does magnify the image slightly so it reduces fov or fisheye effect a little compared to no housing or all other flat lens options that dont retain the gopro round lens.
This I see as a big plus for using the gopro on land with a blurfix and cp filter in glarey conditions like snow or around water. I gave my sister 2 gopro cameras when she went snowboarding in whistler, a stock housing and one with a blurfix and cp filter. The one with the cp filter got much better results and the stock housing tended to be whited outby the snow and glare which was avoided by the cp filter.
Here is an example of using the CP to reduce reflections on a wet deck rotating the filter to adjust the effect.
I dont have any of my sisters snow footage uploaded as yet but here is a video showing someone else with the cp in snow, here the guy takes the filter off and puts it back on so it shows the effect of stock lens vs stock + filter.
The great thing about the Blurfix adapter is you can use it with or without a filter as it retains the stock lens and keeps the camera waterproof even with no filter and retains the stock round lens to give the same results as a stock housing. With a filter such as a CP you can even improve on the above water results whilst maintaining the same FOV image as the stock housing. Without a filter installed the adapter will work as a basic lens hood, the filter do need to be very low profile though to be vignette free on land with a filter attached in 16:9 wide modes and SRP do provided modified filters for this purpose. In some camera/housing combinations though even these may have a slight corner shadowing due to rather slack manufacturing tolerances by GoPro in the camera and housing.
The downside of the Blurfix is that you cant use it as a wet filter option underwater which may be an issue for some people, Its not too much of an issue for me though as I prefer to use a filter for all daylight dives shallower hen 30m. At 5m or less using a regular cyan filter this image may end up a little too red but this is easily corrected in post with a software wb adjustment. Most gopro underwater footage struggles with poor auto wb by the gopro so best results are achieved by adjusting this in post anyhow so it doesn't add any more steps to my workflow. Using a filter in good light gives you much more scope for software colour correction in post at depths below 5m and even at shallower depths I find the results using a filter vs no filter after correcting both is much better when a filter was used.
Only thing that can't be properly adjusted in post is above water red effected shots due to a filter being used, here I find I can get a decent result but skin tones end up looking rather sickly and orange so all land based shots are best when not recorded with an underwater filter. I can do without these shots though rather then having to install a filter underwater making sure to avoid any bubbles inside the filter. Using lights and a filter for regular daytime use is also quite easily corrected as can be seen in this video I shot in shallow water and lights.
The left video is all software wb adjusted filtered shots except for the first scene jumping into the water which was the clear lens footage. The right video shows both filtered and clear lens shots unaltered to show the effect of the raw video, at this depth the clear lens on its own did quite well except when I got closer to 5m depth with no lights on and most colours were lost. This I did just to test to see if I could get away with using a filter and lights with some correcting in post, I could have just used the clear footage as was but I think the corrected version turned out equal to the clear lens and lights in this case.
No filter is best if going into wrecks or caves with lights, as the filter is only reducing the light output of your light source. The red tint can be easily corrected in post though and I find reducing red is always much easier then trying to amplify it when no filter or lights were used to record the footage. Beyond 6-7m with a gopro and clear lens no lights there is very little that can be done to bring back reds, if a filter is used Ive had very good results at around 15m and pretty good still at 25-30m in good conditions.
@ Intercepter121 - The Delta wing shape allows for a more stable platform for the diver according to our testers. It naturally guides the diver to tuck the elbows in, allowing for more stability.
The Delta wing also allows you to adjust your lighting, closer or farther away to the subject without increasing the length of the arms. I see some systems with this little camera and these monster arms. It kind of defeats the reason to reduce the size of your system.
The other feature I enjoy the most is using the SRP Tray as a bipod as shown in the link below. SRP Camera tray
The Wing shape also allows the diver to change the degree of angle in the Bipod mode by adjusting the arms in and out. Making it possible to shoot the subject from below.
You can't do all these things with a straight bar.
The shape also allow the diver to be creative and configure multiple cameras in many different configuration. Marty is a great example of configuring the tray for his purposes.
The number 1 reason: If it's not different or of quality they just wont make it!
I'll bet community members can shed additional setups and configurations as well. Hope this help?
The tray looks nice and definitely this is a selling point but am not sure I endorse some of the ideas
The bidod is the most interesting option although I would like to check that kind of torque it takes before the whole thing flips
The option of stacking tray is also interesting (but you can do it with many trays to be honest with a bit of DIY)
Construction looks good and good rubber grips
Things that make me wonder
1. I don't get how this is better for lightning. Looking at the geometry of lightning beams around 60 degrees and considering that this camera only focus at more than one foot pushing the camera further away creates only need for longer arms. With two floods 60 the beams meet pretty much at one foot why bothering illuminating the water in front of the port where the camera does not focus? Plus you are now casting shadows of the camera in the beam if you have a wider light
2. The Gopro has a tiny LCD screen why would I push it further away?
3. The claim on the stability is only theoretical I am not sure how tucking elbows in really helps anything? Who are your testers?
Also you can stack multiple trays doing DIY with handles without problems
In use I haven't noticed any negatives of the wing design, the bipod option is a great little extra but this would only work with a GoPro camera as it has the hinged mount making it easy to bend down 90 degrees or more using an extended gopro mount making it useable in that upright configuration. A traditional cam would need a hinged mount to make use of this but that wouldn't be too hard to make.
Construction wise this thing is seriously well put together light weight but very solid so congrats on the build quality by SRP, even though the LCD screen is tiny you still dont need it to be right in your face and there is no issues seeing it those few centimeters further away.
There are lots of trays around and they are all pretty much the same flat piece with a couple of handles sticking out, its good that SRP made something different. This design doesn't hurt it in any way when used as a traditional tray but it also has so many different ways it can be configured that you can get much more use out of it then any traditional tray thanks to the slide grooves and wing design.
I guess its like everything else and the design may not suit everyone, if thats the case there are a million other trays that are all pretty much exactly the same and so people can go out and get any of those, the only difference between them is build quality and there will be others that may match SRP in that respect but I cant see any way it could be built better. After using the tray for a while now with a traditional tray id gain nothing but lose a few cool features so Im sticking with these especially for gopro use.
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so all land based shots are best when not recorded with an underwater filter. I can do without these shots though rather then having to install a filter underwater making sure to avoid any bubbles inside the filter. Using lights and a filter for regular daytime use is also quite easily corrected as can be seen in this video I shot in shallow water and lights.
