New a6xxx housing from Meikon

[CanadaDan]

I'm still very much on the fence about purchasing the Vacuum Leak VPS-100.... Can I get some feedback from those that own it or own the Vivid Sentinel????

I agree with others that I'm hesitant to use a vacuum check system that requires me to unscrew and remove it AFTER checking the seal and possibly compromising the seal... Please advise.

My thoughts FWIW...

I think the tester is more about checking the integrity of the lens port seal and somewhat the rear main seal. If those hold then all you're really risking is not reinstalling the plug on the test hole properly. Once diving the internal electronic moisture detector will let you know if there's a problem.

I thought about getting the tester but I have no plans on swapping ports (I do mainly wide angle work) so I haven't shelled out the money yet.

 

[Brad C]

My thoughts FWIW...

I think the tester is more about checking the integrity of the lens port seal and somewhat the rear main seal. If those hold then all you're really risking is not reinstalling the plug on the test hole properly. Once diving the internal electronic moisture detector will let you know if there's a problem.

I thought about getting the tester but I have no plans on swapping ports (I do mainly wide angle work) so I haven't shelled out the money yet.

This is great feedback! Any other feedback from others on whether or not to get the leak check system?

 

[LeeParrish]

This is great feedback! Any other feedback from others on whether or not to get the leak check system?

I used it in Hawaii on a week long liveaboard and did remove it before hitting the water but it was nice to know that all the other seals were good after opening the housing to change batteries and memory card. I tend to use two memory cards on each trip, swapping the when I change batteries, mainly so I can take my time getting the photos off of them and onto my tablet. So while now it seems some say you can use it underwater, I think it was still worth it to know I didn't have any issue with the main seal after opening everything up. And the nice thing is the whole vacuum system is pretty small, so it didn't take up much room in my photo bag.

 

[Hector1959]

Leeparrish, Thks for sharing you experience. I now think that while it should have been good to keep the valve on and use it as alerm, there is not too much risk of flooding when the cap is screwed again into the housing. In case of bad sealing of the cap, several threads plus O-rings would just allow a few drops of water after some time and leak detector would light and sound.

 

[Xavier Berges]

This is from my September trip with it, mostly shooting 10-18mm in a 6" dome, one dive with 7.5mm fisheye in 4" dome, and half a dive (I had to abort due to a regulator leak) with 16-50mm in a 6" dome. Planning to do some comparison shots of 7.5mm in 4" dome, 10-18mm in 6" and 8" domes and 16-50mm in the basic flat port and all three domes on my next trip, but that's still six weeks out.



I haven't tried it myself, but according to Meikon, it does. It should have the same dimensions as the built-in port on their older A6xxx housing, and I used that with 16-50mm and their wet dome attachment on several trips without issues.

They're really nice and helpful photos to have a gauge of what you can do with the camera. I just got my a6xxx with the 16-50mm lens. I ordered the 10-18mm and the threaded flat port. Since I live in the Carribben and can dive almost weekly, we can coordinate experiments on what setups to try and the quality of the photos.

Im looking to see if the famous tokina 10-17mm works and with what port. I've hear so many things about that lens that its hard no to consider. As well as how the 90mm macro lens works, since it's such an investment...

I'm going to try the 10-18mm on the standard flat port. Let me know what you think or if theres anything we can do.

Rgds,

 

[Barmaglot]

My thoughts FWIW...

I think the tester is more about checking the integrity of the lens port seal and somewhat the rear main seal. If those hold then all you're really risking is not reinstalling the plug on the test hole properly. Once diving the internal electronic moisture detector will let you know if there's a problem.

I thought about getting the tester but I have no plans on swapping ports (I do mainly wide angle work) so I haven't shelled out the money yet.

For the reference, I took the housing with the VPS-100 mounted and online on four dives over the last two days, to the maximum depth of 26m, and my camera survived. On the first dive, I think I didn't pump enough air out of the housing - the plastic flexes a little bit at depth, and this caused the internal pressure to rise which made the indicator start flashing red, even though there was nothing resembling a leak. On subsequent dives, I gave it half a dozen more pumps and it stayed green throughout.

 

[CanadaDan]

As a side note... I had a problem with the carbon fibre float arms from Seafrog/Meikon/KitDive (seems to be one company with three faces). The balls pulled out of two different arms. Had about 30 dives on the arms since buying them last February. I sent them a picture of the failure and they didn't ask any questions.. they simply offered to mail replacements to wherever I was diving.

Super impressed with the service from this company.

 

[Schwob]

As a side note... I had a problem with the carbon fibre float arms from Seafrog/Meikon/KitDive (seems to be one company with three faces). The balls pulled out of two different arms. Had about 30 dives on the arms since buying them last February. I sent them a picture of the failure and they didn't ask any questions.. they simply offered to mail replacements to wherever I was diving.

Super impressed with the service from this company.

I have a pair of Puluz (from some place on Aliexpress) float-arms (they sort of look very similar at least) and if I am not careful about having clamps sufficiently loose when re-positioning arms, the balls ends want to thread out at their "stilty" root (if I twist that way) where they seem to be threaded into the alu-endcaps on the CF-float tubes. I can just tighten them up again then. Thinking of using thread-locker.
In your case:
Did those balls pull out straight or did they turn thread out?

 

[Schwob]

View attachment 479802 I got my Leak Sentinel V4 from Miso and I'm happy with it!
So everything is ready for our trip to Siquijor Island/Philippines in October.

Curious: Did you dive with your Leak Sentinel in place yet?
How did it go?

 

[CanadaDan]

I have a pair of Puluz (from some place on Aliexpress) float-arms (they sort of look very similar at least) and if I am not careful about having clamps sufficiently loose when re-positioning arms, the balls ends want to thread out at their "stilty" root (if I twist that way) where they seem to be threaded into the alu-endcaps on the CF-float tubes. I can just tighten them up again then. Thinking of using thread-locker.
In your case:
Did those balls pull out straight or did they turn thread out?

Ripped the threads right out of the female portion of the joint on the arm. I could epoxy it back together for a temporary fix but they're no longer structurally sound. They acknowledged other clients having failures like this. Must have been a bad batch.

I just looked at the Puluz arms on Ali... they sure look like the exact same arms, right down to the markings.