Dan,
I have just returned from a dive trip to Cozumel, Mexico where myself and a number of videographers where we went to video the dive sites around the island and visit some of the cenotes on the mainland. Of the 6 divers on the trip I was the only person with the ISD housing, all other videographers had either the Amphibico, Light & Motion or Gates housings. Without exception, I was the only person who had major problems with a housing. I suppose that this e mail is the culmination of a number of minor to major problems I have had with your AQUARIAN VX housing since I purchased it about 18 months ago. For the record, I list the following problems I have encountered:-
1) On/Off button working intermittently - I had to remove the cover plate from the left handle, use a fine file and remove excess plastic from the base of the button to bring the magnet nearer to the handles body.
2) Record On/Off button working intermittently - I had to remove the button from the right handle, remove the excess plastic from the button to bring the magnet closer to the handle.
3) Lights On/Off button working intermittently - I had to remove the button from the left handle, remove the excess plastic from the button to bring the magnet closer to the handle.
4) Screen batteries give only 40 minutes of run time, despite bring advertised as 2 hours. I have charges and discharged the batteries as advised in the instructions on many occasions, but this has not helped in the slightest.
5) Poorly fabricated left hand lights socket (looking from the rear) resulting in water ingress into the socket area, I have had to file some excess plastic away from the plug to enable the sealing ring enter the socket and produce a watertight seal.
6) Hit and miss charging of the main lights, poor connection to the left hand socket, I have to rotate the socket many times to ensure that there is correct connection. This is despite ensuring that all plug surfaces are clean.
7) Water leaking into the main lighting head via the cable connection. I have repaired this using silicone sealant.
8) In warmer condition the LCD screen fades to mear shadows and is useless.
On this last trip, I was left after the second day with an inoperable housing. I was not able to turn the camera on whilst in the housing, when tested outside the housing and turning the camera on using the camera controls, the red power light is on, the blue record light did not flash and the yellow light (lights on light) is continually on. None of the buttons on both arms did not work, the LCD screen was showing was the was pointed at, with no information on the screen such as battery life, tape time etc, just the picture.
Having done many trips abroad where the rooms or cabins are air conditioned and the humidity high outside, I am fully aware of the problems with condensation when bringing cameras and units from cold environments into hot humid environments, so the camera and housing were left in the outside environment to ensure that this did not happen. For the first time ever I took the black plastic cover plate off the inside rear of the housing to see if there was any possibility of condensation, there was none. I checked each of the plugs that connected the screen, left and right handles and the lights on/off for corrosion or loos connections. I found none, however, what I did find was, if I disconnected the left handle (Looking from the rear of the housing) connection socket from the circuit board the right handle functions (Record, Zoom) buttons worked. If I reconnected the left handle (Looking from the rear of the housing) connection socket to the circuit board the right handle functions did not work, in fact, no buttons worked on the housing as before.
Therefore, to obtain any images I was reduced to leaving the left handle socket unplugged, placing the camera in the housing with just the right handle working. To prevent the camera automatically switching off I had to continually switch the camera into record mode every few minutes. I had no control over white balance. The images captured are of low or poor quality as I use a blue filter screwed directly to the camera and cannot be removed. I have had to use this filter option as this filter was not supplied with the housing and they are not made anymore due to the manufacturer going into liquidation. For semi - professional use the adjustment of white balance and use of filters is essential to achieving high quality images.
In short, I am wholly unsatisfied with this housing, I have had to do many running repairs to this unit to keep it working, but I am now left with a waterproof box that does not operate the camera in any meaningful way. My advice is DON'T BUY IT!
CD_Diver
