G16 - No Zoom deeper than 10ft/3m

[DHDiver]

First off great forum, thanks for the help in the past. This is my first post.

I bought a Canon G16 and an Ikelite TTL Housing in December. There is no water in the housing or moisture. I am very picky about that. The problem I am having is recently there is no zoom once I descend past 10ft/3m. Everything else works fine and when I ascend to shallower than 10ft/3m it works again. I can not duplicate this concern on the surface. I have contacted Ikelite with no solution and waiting to hear back from Canon. I am curious if anyone else has had this issue with this or a similar setup.

cheers

 

[Ran Mozaik]

Sounds like an issue where the housing controls are either not contacting the zoom switch when pressure goes up, or the opposite - another button presses itself due to pressure and prevents the zoom function from operating.
Are other functions getting stuck at depth as well? Are you noticing any other weird phenomena?
Try to check if the camera is positioned firmly in the housing, or if anything is interfering the controls. Are you aligning the zoom control before placing the camera in the housing?
I suspect the zoom control lever is getting misaligned due to pressure...

 

[DHDiver]

Thanks for the reply. I can see that the controls on the housing are engaging at depth with the zoom control on the camera. I thought the same thing at first as well. All other functions of the camera are operating normally. The camera is secured properly in the housing and installed with all the switches pulled back.

 

[Deep Water Dan]

I had an Ikelite TTL housing for my G16. I returned it as there was just no end to the problems with the controls. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't, sometimes they stuck, etc etc. I wrote Ikelite a two page letter detailing all the problems I was having. I believe some of them were due to the fact that the camera was not held securely in position inside the housing, allowing it to shift. I also believe pressure had a little bit to do with some of the problems as well. During one dive, I was unable to take any pictures at all because a control was stuck, and every time I actuated the power switch the clock came on. Rotating the control wheel frequently cycled the flash and I was unable to reliably adjust either shutter speed or ISO. On another dive I was unable to deploy the flash. I think Ikelite rushed this housing into production without adequate testing. I went to a Nauticam. What a difference. On a positive note, Ikelite's customer service was top-notch. Good luck!

 

[DHDiver]

That's good to finally hear something back about these issues. I just came back form a dive with the hot shoe disconnected and flash and defuser. Barebones if you will. I had the same problem today. It would cycle through the flash and menu screens and changing all the settings on its own. Its now to the point I cant take any pictures. For the money I have spent and the reputation from both companies involved I am not really impressed with what I have.

 

[Deep Water Dan]

That's good to finally hear something back about these issues. I just came back form a dive with the hot shoe disconnected and flash and defuser. Barebones if you will. I had the same problem today. It would cycle through the flash and menu screens and changing all the settings on its own. Its now to the point I cant take any pictures. For the money I have spent and the reputation from both companies involved I am not really impressed with what I have.

I had no problem at all with the G16 itself, all the problems were housing-induced. Once I got it in a Nauticam housing, it was fantastic. Try writing to Ikelite and complaining. Worked for me.

 

[DHDiver]

Alright thanks I have been in contact with Ikelite and have just finished writing an email. I will be waiting for their reply as to what their next move is. Thank for your help and input. Cheers Matteo

 

[sunnyboy]

I've been playing with this the past couple of weekends, taking photos anywhere from 30fsw to 130fsw (China Creek off the migrant ship), plus lots at 80fsw.

At first I could not seem to get the zoom working at all. After some experimentation on land and more underwater, it appears the zoom knob is a bit finicky. It does not automatically center the camera zoom control when you release the housing zoom knob. This can lead to the camera zoom lever saying engaged. When that happens I can't take a photo. Just moving the knob a small bit back toward center to ensure it's no longer engaging the camera zoom control seemed to fix things.

The other thing you don't notice until you get underwater (I don't know why, it's the same on land) is the zoom speed for photo is much quicker than if you are taking video. Zoom under video is much slower to give a smooth zoom rate.

As of last week, my videos at any depth have been just fine, zoomed or not. Focus has been good even on full zoom for video. Video for photos is OK, but I find the camera does not find it's focus on max zoom at all - when I'm taking pictures of critters deep in holes (well, no surprise there!). What did surprise me is the focus tracked on video from none to full zoom (octo deeper in a den) but when I stopped the video and took several pictures (octo did not move, I did not move) the auto-focus for photos did not achieve focus at all, even though it "thought" it did. Manual focus would be an easy fix for that situation I think.

So I'm having decent success using the zoom, but I do have to remember to fine-tune the housing zoom knob after using the zoom to be sure the camera zoom is disengaged; then I can take photos no problem.

 

[Deep Water Dan]

As of last week, my videos at any depth have been just fine, zoomed or not. Focus has been good even on full zoom for video. Video for photos is OK, but I find the camera does not find it's focus on max zoom at all - when I'm taking pictures of critters deep in holes (well, no surprise there!). What did surprise me is the focus tracked on video from none to full zoom (octo deeper in a den) but when I stopped the video and took several pictures (octo did not move, I did not move) the auto-focus for photos did not achieve focus at all, even though it "thought" it did. Manual focus would be an easy fix for that situation I think.

Autofocus was the only real issue I had underwater with the G16 - it tends to hunt for focus when there's not a lot of contrast. I did resolve that by going to manual focus and locking that into the custom modes.

 

[sunnyboy]

Autofocus was the only real issue I had underwater with the G16 - it tends to hunt for focus when there's not a lot of contrast. I did resolve that by going to manual focus and locking that into the custom modes.

Great idea! I find that using a Sola 1200 video light on the second arm works really well for video focus. Also, if the critter is in focus when I start zooming, then the focus seems to hold very well.

Shot this short video of some wolf eels Sun Mar 8. The second clip is a wolf eel on eggs; that's where I zoomed in.

Tyee - Dolphin 2015-03-08 (wolf eels) - YouTube