Problem with Bonica housing

[Fish_Whisperer]

This past weekend at Vortex Spring, I was trying out my digital cam with Bonica housing. The problem was, when I'd depress the shutter lever, often it wouldn't take a photo. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I missed a lot of great pics and I'm a little frustrated. The camera has a block that screws to the bottom of it, that allows it to slide into the housing. I'm wondering if I need to put a shim in between the mounting block and the bottom of the camera, or if there's some other way to make this thing behave the way it's supposed to. The camera is a Mercury CyberPix E-550V, 5.0 MP.

Thank you for any help or insight on this.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Okay.... Well, thanks. I guess I'll mess with it and come up with my own solution.

 

[justleesa]

From what I have been thru with my P&S, I would say it could be a couple of things:

1) it isn't sitting 100% correct in the housing and the button isn't getting pressed as it should. Has happened to me once before i.e. the silica gel packet causes the camera to be off a tad

2) The camera (a point and shoot, right?) is having a hard time focusing and/or deciding what the correct settings should be to get the picture. I have to press the button several times and move around a bit to get different angles before I get the picture.

Hope something sounds familiar

Aloha,
Lisa

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate it. As far as I can tell, everything was lined up. Maybe the camera was having a hard time focusing, as you mentioned. (This is discouraging, because the whole setup was kind of expensive...)

 

[justleesa]

what were the conditions when you had the trouble?

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Diving Vortex Spring, FL. Good viz, sunny day, calm water, depth between surface and 45'. Nothing terribly taxing, as far as I can tell...

 

[justleesa]

well if it is a focusing problem you will hear the camera trying to focus and if it doesn't get it - it won't take the picture. Sorry I can't say more.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

That's okay. I appreciate the help, Lisa. I'll either get this thing to work, or else I'll buy something else. It also has a funky delay to the shutter that I'm not real happy with.

 

[justleesa]

oh, one more thing. If your camera has the setting, go for sport or something like that...it will be a bit of a faster aperature/shutter combo. If I may suggest, if you are going for a new camera, look for one that offers the possibility to adjust the settings manually....it over rides that problem a bit.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Thank you, Lisa. Very good suggestions. I've seen cameras with "shark mode" on them. I think something like that is what I'm looking for. Before that, I'll pore over the owner's manual and see if I can override the current settings.