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David Grundy | all galleries >> Galleries >> Diving & Snorkelling > 2006.04 Underwater camera setup
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09-APR-2006

2006.04 Underwater camera setup

20060409 006.jpg

This is the rig as it currently stands. It's the result of a continuing process of
refinement: the challenge is to get everything attached to the housing but still keep
the whole thing light enough to handle easily. Altogether it's a few pounds negatively
bouyant, which can get tiring when you're holding it out in front of your face for an
extended period during the dive. The housing and the big light are positive, but
everything else is negative. (I have to remember to carry extra weights on dives where
I don't take the full kit with me.)

The housing is from Canon (for the Canon S70),
the lens adapter on the front is by Inon (custom modified by a German company before Inon started making adapters for the S70),
the base plate ("tray"), handle, and ball clamp system are from Ultra-Light Control Systems,
the aluminium bar across the middle is my own fabrication,
the flashes are from Inon, and they are triggered via fibre-optic cable by the camera flash,
the funny black thing on top is two wet lenses (a close-up lens and a ultra-wide lens) by Inon, attached back-to-back to a lens caddy, and
the white circle just on top of the housing is a home-made diffuser attached to the front of an Underwater Kinetics LED light.

The arms are made from loc-line tubing, and they squeak very loudly when adjusted! They
aren't strong enough to maintain their position out of the water, but underwater they are great.

The two yellow lights off to the side go on at night, or instead of the LED light,
as a backup. At night I also carry another light in my pocket in case of somehow
getting separated from the whole camera system, but that's unlikely because the
whole thing is always attached to my BCD with a metal clip on an elastic line.

This system needs 7 sets of 4xAA batteries to ensure I always have charged batteries
when I need them, in addition to any batteries needed for the camera.

I have to smile when I compare the size of the whole kit with the tiny little housing in the middle!

Canon EOS 350D
1/200s f/4.0 at 51.0mm iso400 with Flash full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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caveman_lee09-Apr-2006 17:35
Wow ! A cool setup. Look forward to seeing the photos from your gear.
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