Well despite losing a light cannon and some buoyancy control arms (which I just bought) on my test dive Saturday I was able to take my setup out for the first time today in Hawaii. I was able to get in 2 really great dives, The Sea Tiger(after getting shafted at the YO-257/San Pedro due to string current - my favorite dive of all time) and The Pipe which looks like a giant oil rig pipe. After soaking my gear in the tub in my hotel room for 1/2 hour I pulled out my camera and hooked it up to the TV. One word, DAMN! I knew this camera looked awesome topside, underwater it blew my mind. I'll put this camera against any HDV camera anytime.
With a party gel(bastard pink) taped on the camera's lens behind the wide angle adapter and being able to MWB, this camera looks nuts. Also being able to shoot in 24P(and panasonic seems to be the only company that has mastered the art of 24P) always makes a huge difference. I kept the ND filter off and bounced between f2.8 and f11 as the sky went from sunny to overcast several times during each dive. Even at 120fsw artificial light wasn't needed. I also decided to not adjust the shutter and that paid off.
This image looks so clean and the colors are true, I'm stoked! Now I just need lots and lots of practice to be able to keep this housing ultra steady. Luckily it's a really large setup so it's stability in the water is pretty exceptional.
There are 2 things that have to be adjusted though.
1) the housing is back heavy due to the large capacity batteries (10hr) I have for the camera and the 12v battery pack(AA'sx10) for the LCD module. I think I might make some kind of foam covered in fiberglass that I can attach to the bottom to lift it up a little, it shouldn't affect the buoyancy too much because it's slightly negative.
2) the plastic gears that drive the focus ring didn't engage all the way all of the time and might have stripped a little. I can remove one of the 2 plastic washers on the control knob to push it in another 1/8". Hopefully that will make a difference.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the hood made in time but I didn't get any reflections, even on this sunny Hawaiian morning. I don't have my firewire cable so I'll have to wait until I return this Saturday to capture my footage. Thanks for the help everyone!
Billy
