Interview with Tom Leys from Hugyfot/GREENFORCE at PHOTOKINA 2004

digideep.com: Tom, please introduce yourself and your companie(s)?

Tom Leys:
My name is Tom Leys. I am one of the owners of Greenforce. It manufactures diving lights with unviersal fittings since 1998. Recently we also took over the business of Hugyfot, which is well-known for producing aluminium housings for photo cameras.

When did you start underwater-photography?
It was by coincidence that a good friend of mine, a diver and photographer, asked me to join him on a trip to the Red Sea. And just for fun he gave me a camera and said, while I am shooting pictures, you can do your own ones. That is how I got interested in the matter three years ago. And from the very start I had a Hugyfot housing and a Nikon F-80. I am still not digital and stick to my analogue camera.

So when did you start diving?
I started diving when I was 15 years old, so that is about 25 years ago. My father was a diver, and he took me and my brother with him on a diving trip.

When exactly did your company [Greenforce] buy Hugyfot and what has changed for Hugyfot due to digital underwater photography?
We bought Hugyfot 1.5 years ago. The former Hugyfot owner René Hugenschmidt was 74 years old and wanted to sell the company to someone who could continue to produce his famous housings. What has changed for them now is that we mill all the housings in 5D. So we are the only ones on the market who are building housings in this professional way.

What impact has digital photography had on Hugyfot? Do you plan to produce any analogue housings in the future?
No, not anymore. They are certainly not on our list. We will start building camera housings for the most popular digital cameras. So we will go 100 percent for digital cameras.

You don't have a digital camera yet, but how do you think digital photography has changed underwater photography already? I think, we will all go to digital photography. The reason that I am sticking to analogue is because we are often going with about ten friends on diving trips mostly in the Red Sea. And in the evening we develop our own films, and are having a beer while doing it. We cut our films, have projections in the night. That is my only nostalgic reason for sticking to film. When you shoot digital, you just come back to the surface and scroll through the pictures. It is the computers that have to work. So, it is simply a part of my hobby. It is the extra dimension for me.

Which of your products would you recommend for beginners and which one for professionals? And why should photographers choose a Hugyfot housing?
Well, our products are unique in several points. As I already mentioned, we are the only ones who mill the housings in 5D. The second point is certainly the round shape of Hugyfot housings. The housing fits in your hands, it is more compact, so that you can even take pictures with one hand! The trigger is a lot finer and you can take our housings down to 90 meters without any problems. This is absolutely impossible with the plastic housings. But our housings are certainly not a beginners choice. It is used by pros or semi-pros, who want to invest in their hobby.

Are there any preferences for on certain brand or a certain price range for that you produce your housings?
As the housing is not very cheap, we have to focus on the top range of the cameras. It was very enlightening for us that we could work together with a company like Leica. They introduced the Digilux 2 to the market. The underwater market was completely new to them, but they wanted to give the customers an extra. Therefore they have made contact with us and asked us to develop a housing for their Digilux 2. They were really satisfied with our housing. Of course the Digilux 2 is not a cheap camera. But as I said, we produce only for cameras such as the Canon 300D or the Nikon D70. These are the start of the top range cameras.

All your housing fit in one hand, but will we ever see a housing for the Canon 1Ds, which might be to big for such a slim design?
The disadvantage of the weight of the camera is something that you loose under water. The camera can be as big as you want, and the housings too, as long as their buoyancy is neutral. So even for a big camera as the Canon 1Ds we can build a housing which is quite neutral buoyant underwater. Years ago Hugenschmidt designed housings for very big betacams which weight a ton above water but where completely neutral as soon as they were in the water.

Where can your products be found on this Photokina? Do the manufacturers know that Hugyfot can provide housings for their cameras?
Yes, of course on the Leica stand. They are not on public site, because they do not want to show anything else than their products. But in the room for the dealers you can see a Hugyfot housing. They do promote it there. There is also a four page article in the Leica world about our housings. All the Leica dealers like it very much.

In the digideep.com database for digital cameras are 588 products listed, but only 308 do have at least one under water housing. That means 42 percent of the market do not find a manufacturer that provides a housing for their digital cameras. On the other side up to 15 manufacturers want to provide a housing for the D-100 for example. What do you think you can do to position yourself on the market?
I am very aware of that. But the developing costs for a housing are rather high. You cannot develop a housing in a few weeks, it takes much more time. Due to the Nikonos system and the RS system 75-80 percent of the market is in Nikon hands, so we all focus on the Nikon cameras. That is the place where the market is. We consider all the cameras without housings as a very small market. As a manufacturer of aluminium housings we are devoted to more expensive camera.

Apart from Leica, are other camera manufacturers interested in Hugyfot as a provider for underwater housings?
It seems to me that they are not very interested. They think, that they are not going to sell more than three or four housings. They do not know the market at all.

Which new camera on this expo do you recognise worthy to produce a housing for?
That is difficult question. You always see cameras which are worthy of making a housing for. There are some cameras, but I always stick to the same cameras like the Nikon D70 and the Canon 300D. The Nikon D2X for instance, that will be a very small market, but there used to be a housing for the Nikon F5 too, so why not build a housing for the D2X ?

Which is the next product, we can look forward to from Hugyfot?
The next one will be the housing for the Canon 300D [DIGITAL REBEL]. We should be ready to introduce it during the BOOT EXPO 2005 in Düsseldorf, Gemany.

Interview by Andreas Voeltz