I am new to filming and have a sony HC5 and an Equinox Pro6 housing.
I know it is not top of the line gear but I would have thought good picture quality would still be achievable?
Anyway I am having problems with my footage being severely out of focus. I have played around with the focus distance and it does not seem to have an effect.
I dive in fairly cold water in New Zealand and one of my dive buddies suggested that I might be getting condensation on the inside of the dome or on the camera lens due to the changes in temperature. This seems plauseable as it seems to get worse as the dive goes on. I have tried everything, even applying anti-fog to all surfaces.
Has anyone got any ideas that might help me?
Keep in mind I do not know the problem yet, so I am open to ideas.

Hi Herby,

if it is fogging then you should try silica packs.
But beofre you further explore that solution I
would try to dip the housing in a bath-tube.

There you can figure out if the optics act strange
once submerged. This is the first thing I would
try to investigate in your situation.

By the way… What optics are on camera and
housing? Any wide angle coverters? Flat glas
front port on housing or special optics? To know
that would already help us assisting you in this
forum. Maybe you can upload some photos of
your Equinox Housing and the front mount?

It just has a plastic dome as the front port. I thought about replacing it with flat glass and seeing if this makes a difference. I have a wide angle lens but I dont use it. I will try to upload photos in the morning (its bed time in NZ)!
Thanks for your input.

Hi Herby

One thing I’ve found with both video and digicam housings, is that keeping them out of direct sunlight when they are on the boat / shore helps alot.  If the inside of the housing warms up, I think any traces of water inside the housing turn to vapour, which then condenses out on the glass lenses and port when you take the housing into the sea, where obviously it cools down rapidly. 

If possible, try keeping the rig in a bin of water when on the boat / on shore, which hopefully should keep the whole rig at the same temperature it will end up at when underwater.

You may already be doing both these things - if so, my apologies!  Dessicant silica gel packs may well help, as Andi mentions.

Hi Herby, the dome explains it quite well.

If the camera optic is not positioned correctly
behind a dome you can run into two issues:

1. missing corner sharpness
2. vignetting (black edges)

I would investigate that road a little further.