Wide angle lens substitute

[ronscuba]

I think water will leak in between the lens elements and in between the lens and your port. For your sake and the lens, I hope I am wrong.

You could test this in a bucket, garbage can or pool. Let the cam record. Granted, it will not be the pressure you have at depth, but if it fails the bucket test....

 

[Cousinducky]

yeah good idea.

I'll pool test it first to 15ft at the YMCA :d

 

[diversteve]

Let us know how it works.

 

[nautilusvideo]

I have an Opteka wide angle lens thats typically used for skateboarding, skydiving and extreme sports, etc

This lens will screw on to my Stingray housing.

Do you think this lens could work as a substitute to $900!!?? ripoff that LM offers?
I can screw it onto the housing with my adapter....might try it, cant hurt.

Please let us know the total cost after you destroy your lens, flood your housing and ruin your camera. There are a hundred reasons why this is a bad idea. All of them obvious.

 

[BDSC]

Please let us know the total cost after you destroy your lens, flood your housing and ruin your camera. There are a hundred reasons why this is a bad idea. All of them obvious.

I'd venture to guess the cost would be well in excess of $900 don't ya think!

 

[diversteve]

Ok, I missed something...

You're planning to screw this on the front of the existing L&M port or replace said port entirely with your lens/adapter? If the latter see above...

My earlier comments meant that if your lens implodes, I hope it doesn't take the L&M port with it.

 

[Cousinducky]

no, I have a custom adapter that works with the LM housing that will allow me to screw on my lens.

I'm not screwing into the LM housing. I have a custom adapter that will accept my lens that works like the LM lens that comes with the Stingray.

I'm not diving deeper than 40ft. (cant actually)

But I'll test it in the pool first. And then dive down with the lens ONLY and watch it shatter into a million pieces at 40ft, like everyone seems to think. Maybe I can have someone video that...?

Opteka seems to think the lens wont shatter or crack at that depth. (per phone call)
But we'll see how things go and report back.

 

[diversteve]

I think water will leak in between the lens elements and in between the lens and your port.

I had an old poly housing once, made by Quest. It had internal threads on the port that screwed onto external threads on the housing body itself.

It had a perpendicular hairline crack across about 4 of the threads. When tightened as hard as I could without stripping it, it still leaked. I determined that water was getting into the threads from the back. My solution was to get the right i.d. o-ring and compress it between the back surface of the port and the flat surface of the mount.

Assuming I'm right and the lens has gas in it to minimize fogging, I would think that the biggest risk would be surface tension on the outside surface of the lens. But even if that shatters, the back lens element may not go with it, saving the camera anyway.

But if the mfr. thinks it will work...let us know what happens.