Quest housings

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H2O lover

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I have the opportunity to get a Quest housing for my SONY TR81. I just want to play around a little on shallow beach dives before I start to invest in a more serious video setup. It looks like Quest went out of business, are parts like o rings still available.. Does anyone have any opinions on these housings good or bad. I do like the Lanc electronic controls.

Thanks,
John
 
I have the opportunity to get a Quest housing for my SONY TR81. I just want to play around a little on shallow beach dives before I start to invest in a more serious video setup. It looks like Quest went out of business, are parts like o rings still available.. Does anyone have any opinions on these housings good or bad. I do like the Lanc electronic controls.

Thanks,
John

I am in the same situation as you, in that I want to try out underwater videography before I "sink" thousands of dollars into the hobby.

I don't know about the other parts, but o-rings should be available. I ordered O-rings for my Hypertech housing (probably older than the Quest, and also out of business) from Mcmaster-Carr. But I had an existing o-ring with which to check the size. If you can find out the sizes needed, the o-rings can be ordered.
 
I bought a Quest/Bentley housing for a TR101 about 4 years ago. Don't have it anymore. Should be the same housing you're looking at. Mine needed some work so I found the original lens and switch suppliers both of whom still sell parts.

I also have a bad xerox copy of a manual for the housing. It says that the housing is:
Depth rated to 350'. Individual housing tested to 150' for safe scuba.
Not sure what the difference is but I've had mine to 80+ fsw.

One problem mine had was that the fitting on the front of the housing had a hairline crack in it. The original seller didn't notice it, nor did I until I tested it. There's a really thin o-ring embedded in the mating surface of the lens/port but this crack occured in the threaded fitting that the knurled ring screws onto. I think it happened because someone overtightened it. I was able to make mine work anyway with a little custom engineering (filed it flat) and another o-ring that mated to the flat part under the ring. Something to check before you buy it.

The other thing to know is that the port is only good to about 50% zoom, beyond that it loses focus fast. Wide angle works fine.

Quest did go out of business around 2001. Sometimes housings/parts of housings show up on eBay.

I liked the housing, it worked and never leaked during a week of diving. One quirk mine had was that when you plugged in the LANC cable, the jack had to be oriented vertically down or sometimes the controls wouldn't work. I got used to starting the camera on the surface to check this. Also with that big flat thick backplate, I'd think they're more susceptible to leaking if smacked during entry so I always had it handed down. The o-ring is grooved into the plex, but it mates to a 3/8" wide flat poly surface. Not the best design I've ever seen.

hth, PM if you need the parts supplier info or copies of the manuals.
 
Look for your local Grainger www.grainger.com, mcmaster www.mcmaster.com, www.fastenal.com, etc... These guys have locations all over the place, and will usually have somebody behind the counter very willing to size up the o-rings for you. The o-rings are very inexpensive, and can usually be bought in bulk for under 10 bucks. If you want, I am at mcfadden-dale almost every day. If you sent me the o-ring I would be glad to drop in and buy you a few so you will have a several year supply.
 
I bought a Quest 350 from a friend of mine and it was a GREAT housing combined with my TR81(s). Bought a set of lights just before they went under. I've got about 4 grand in total tied up and now the propriatary magnetic switch is fouled up. I am so irritated that I can't even get myself motivated to try to figure out some way to fix it. Sorry, I get carried away. The housing is great, the TR81 takes great video inside it, if you can keep it going I think it rivals digital, but digital is smaller and is getting pretty cheap.
Good Luck, if you get it and have any questions, I'll try to help.
bill buehler
bill@45plans.com
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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