Canon WP-V1 Housing!

[gunsrunner]

Sorry Farnsworth!
We have the Epoque lens now, I'm not sure what vignetting is, but i don't see any of the lens when zoom is set to full wide and i do lose focus around the edges when zoomed in.

 

[scipionems]

Hi Gunsrunner,
Thank you very much, i will do
Scipione

 

[Farnsworth]

Sorry Farnsworth!
We have the Epoque lens now, I'm not sure what vignetting is, but i don't see any of the lens when zoom is set to full wide and i do lose focus around the edges when zoomed in.

Thanks Gunsrunner,

by vignetting I mean the dark corners or even tunnel effect you get when the objective lens isn't matched properly to the field of view that the camera is capturing. I know it is an issue with my still camera when I use a Sea & Sea wet mount lens - I need to zoom in slightly to avoid the four corners getting blacked out - but wanted to find out if the WP-V1 has a similar problem with any of the wide angle wet lens' that fit the 67mm mount.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[sguft]

Hi Farnsworth

The turtle video I posted back in #104 is shot with the Ikelite W-20 wideangle-lense attached and no zooming.

 

[Farnsworth]

Hi Farnsworth

The turtle video I posted back in #104 is shot with the Ikelite W-20 wideangle-lense attached and no zooming.

Thanks, video looks great - I'm happy with the Canon, just want a wider angle shot.

Mike

 

[ggeorgie2007]

Hello. Thank you very much for posting the modification of the wp-v1 video. It was really good. I have a question for you. How did you drill the self priming holes for the wide angle lens? Did you start the hole from the outside of the lens port, or on the inside through the threads? Also do you have any tips that make the drilling easier. Thank you.

 

[aquaspider]

I used a hand held hobby drill chuck. It is about 1/2" dia with a knurled grip. You drill into the area behind the threads just before the face of the ring. The hole has a slight angle as you can't get completely perpendicular to the surface since the threaded area protrudes and interferes with the drill chuck but there is enough metal there to keep from compromising the sealing/mating surfaces. It is slow going even with a sharp bit. I may have used a hand crank drill on one side after starting the hole about half the way through. The small bits are flexible and you can bend the drill slightly to follow the hole you started. It would be difficult to drill from the outside without a good jig and precise measuring tools. I did this priming trick on an adapter ring for an Ikelite housing a few years ago where there was more room to work. It worked so well that it was a must do on the WP-V1. I don't see why it doesn't come that way from the factory.

 

[Tom2020]

I have just enjoyed watching your video and was glad to finally see some reference to the fact that the focusing distance is altered in underwater mode. A fact that I have been unable to find any reference to in the Canon advertising literature, which had I known about prior would have changed my purchase of this camera or at least made for serious recalculations about the need to purchase extra equipment(ie filters, lights)
Thank you.
I have tried an Inon macro lense above water and it made about 10cm difference. We or should i say my wife has decided to go wide angle instead. I recorded a couple of vid's in priority mode and fixed the colour while editing, turned out good close-up shots!


ggeorgie2007 Does anyone who is using this canon wp-v1 video housing for the HF20 know if a standard Ikelite tray will fit on this housing in order to attach an Ikelite pro-v8 light? If not does anyone know of a tray that will attach to this housing that will enable me to attach my pro-v8? Thank you.
[/QUOTE]

Hi guys,

This huge minimal focal distance of the Canon HF20 has been bugging me since I bought it several months ago. I contacted Canon about this and this is what they said:

We appreciate your continued correspondence regarding the HF20.

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, increasing the focal distance was intentional.

2. The minimum focus distance is increased so that it will focus BEYOND the front lens of the underwater housing and beyond any debris, bubbles, or water ripples that might be stuck to or occur on the surface of the front of the underwater case.

3. This is not a problem with the camera as it was specfically designed to be this way.

4. Since it is not a problem I do not expect a fix.


We hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your HF20.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Christopher
Technical Support Representative

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

Hi Deva,

I do know all settings that were adjusted with the Underwater mode. I do
understand that the Underwater mode was designed to be used with the
Canon
WP-V1 underwater enclosure. That is how I use it and always in full wide
angle. But what does that have to do with the problem at hand? The
enclosure
only adds about 4 cm distance and does not have a lens in it. Why would
using the enclosure justify adding 30 cm to the focal distance?

I have four very specific questions for which I hope I can get direct
answers:

1.- Was increasing the focal distance for the Underwater mode
intentionally
done by Canon?

2.- If so, what exactly was the purpose?

3.- Does Canon acknowledge that this is a problem?

3.- Is a fix for this planned?


I have attached a video that I made to show the problem. I have uploaded
it
to YouTube so other users can know about the problem.

Thank you very much for your help!
Tom.


-----Original Message-----
From: Canon Support - 2 [mailto:carecenter2@cits.canon.com]
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 5:39 AM
To: Tom
Subject: RE: Response from Canon - SWSS Web Escalation
(KMM10527352V2731L0KM)

Dear Tom:

Thank you for writing, I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties you
have experienced with the underwater mode on your HF20 camcorder.

When using the underwater case, this camera was designed to have the
camera set to the Underwater Mode. I have confirmed that the minimum
focusing distance is about 75 cm (2.5 ft.) at full telephoto and about
30 cm (1 1.8 in.) at full wide angle (from the lens window).

Also note, the following settings are adjusted: white balance, image
effects, light metering. And the following functions are not available:
mini video light, flash, face detection, Instant AF, auto slow shutter,
AF-assist lamp, manual audio recording level adjustment, microphone
attenuator, zoom speed adjustment (zoom speed is locked at Speed 3).

I have forwarded your comments to Canon USA through our Customer
Feedback process. This process allows us to capture important feedback
from our valued customers. As we constantly strive to improve our
products and services, your comments are vital to our continued success.

I am sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you, if this does
not answer your questions, please contact me again with the more details
so we will able to further assist you with your Canon HF20.

Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Deva
Technical Support Representative


Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

No, the zoom is completely out (in full Wide setting). Of course, I do
understand that if the zoom was being used, even a little, that would
cause the lens not to focus when extremely close to the object. So I never do.


By the way, all I need to do to see the problem is to set the camera to
any mode other than Underwater (for example Shutter Priority or Aperture
Priority), then put the camera very close to the subject (at this point
the camera focuses perfectly), and then without moving the camera away from
the subject, simply change to Underwater mode. The image will become out of
focus until I move the camera away from it about 1 foot. If I then move
the camera any close, it will not focus... until I switch the mode back to
any other of the modes. Then it goes back to perfect focus.

To find the video I made and posted in youtube, search for "Canon HF20 underwater mode".

youtube.com/watch?v=iBmWSgD_gaQ

Maybe if enough of us complain, they will correct the problem. I can't believe they said it was for "debris, bubbles, or water ripples" !!

 

[gunsrunner]

Thankyou for posting your correspondence with canon, It's pretty stupid that they chose 30cm to be the focal distance when 10cm would have been plenty. I have been using our camera in priority mode instead and doing colour adjustments later in editing which i have found works good.
I did have a problem with this the other day when using a wide angle lens, as we swam though a bit of weed some got attracted to the lens and the camera focused on the weed on the lens, as soon as i tried to video something with good contrast it refocused on what i wanted. So I can understand why they would think it could be a problem, but i think they got a bit carried away with their distance.
Here is a link for the video above,
YouTube - Canon HF20 Underwater Mode focus issue.wmv
I hope we can get them to release a firmware upgrade to re-adjust the focal distance in underwater mode!!!

 

[MSPDiver]

What if you used P mode with a color filter? My understanding of uw mode is that it changes the color setting to comprimise for the lack of color. I am very close to purchasing this set up. Are all of you relatively happy with this set up?