The first anodized aluminium SONY F-828 housing is under construction. As we know that this has been long awaited by many of our visitors, we’d like to take the chance to involve everyone who is interested in using a SONY F-828 underwater. UK-GERMANY is currently constructing it’s first prototype and invites everyone to actively participate in the process of creating a mass production housing. It’s up to you to decide, if you want tou have support for functions as SONY’s “night-shot” mode. Should the housing be small and tight with a socket for operating housed SONY system strobes and sacrifice the internal pop-up flash? Or is the pop-up flash in the front-port mandatory to attach fibre-optic cable for digital strobes? Join this forum thread to participate in UK-GERMANY‘s request for comments…

I have an F828 and am eagerly awaiting to house this camera.  I have been using a Sony DSC 85 in an ikelite housing for the last 2 + years. Some suggestions for the housing include:

1)Allow the pop up flash to work.  In this manner your fail points will be reduced (no wet connector) and it allows a variety of strobes to be easily attached to the housing.  A housing will be less attractive if you have a limited number of strobes to use with it.

2)Develop a dependable way to use the zoom on this camera.  Sony changed this camera to strictly zoom by the ring on the lense, instead of having a dedicated button for it.  Though zooming is not suggested underwater most of the time, for sonys it has an application with respect to macro mode, in that you turn the macro mode function on and zoom all the way in to achieve a nice magnification.

3)Make it as tight as possible.  This is for a variety of reasons. The camera body is almost as large as a video camera, so it is big and bulky already.  Ikelite’s housing gives you full control of the camera, but it is a huge box you bring down with you, not easy to swim with and not easy to get close to anything with, tight spaces, macro shots, close ups, etc.

4)I don’t personally believe the nightshot is an entirely important feature, but the red focusing beam needs to be able to have an unobstructed view of subjects, so the camera can focus properly at night. Most people are searching for color in their shots, so the infrared night framing won’t really have any use underwater.

5)Make the buttons, especially the scroll wheel, easy to access and use.  This sony is annoying in that in order to change settings you must hold down the dedicated button (for example toggling the flash on and off) and scroll through the options at the same time. A poorly streamlined housing will almost certainly require both hands to do this, while an economically built housing might allow for a one hand operation on some of the features.

6)Make the switch between memory stick and cf card available. This will double the amount of memroy you are able to access on a dive.  While most memroy sticks are quite large and this may seem unnecesary, this sony has fantastic video resolution of 640 * 480 and this eats up a LOT of memory.  Though you are taking pics 99% of the time, you never know when a whale shark or school of dolphin might come by for a bit of a swim. Switching to video mode and having a dedicated cf card for this mid-dive will allow you to record quite a bit of video and still alow you to take pics when the moment eventually passes.

7)Definitely try and make it wet lense capable. Though you should try and go down with one type of picture styl in mind, wide angle, macro ext, it helps to have options. You never know what you might run into down there and being able to swap lenses underwater will only help. Just in case you were planning a macro dive and a nice saltwater crocodile decided to make a few passes. Now the dive boat might actually believe you because you were able to adjust on the fly.

8)Develop a double O-ring system like Olympus.  This is one expensive camera and a flooded housing, while inevitable, will definitely ruin a dive trip.  An extra $5 O-ring seems as if it would go a long way to sparing friends of the diver a bad trip.

9)Depth rating to 300 feet would be nice too =)

This is all I could think of right now but I think it covers most of the issues one might have with this sony underwater.

Hope this helps,
Zaid

Zaid36 -

4)I don’t personally believe the nightshot is an entirely important feature, but the red focusing beam needs to be able to have an unobstructed view of subjects, so the camera can focus properly at night. Most people are searching for color in their shots, so the infrared night framing won’t really have any use underwater.

Hi Zaid, thank you very much for the massive input! The manufacturer just called us this morning and said he is going to take it into account. I hope we can push him to give some final replies in this forum soon.

About the nightshot,… I agree - but also would like to argue that this feature might make the camera somewhat unique for science purposes. I have seen species research on tv where they could not video certain fish because they only hunt in darkness. The nightshot mode would make this camera a very handy-tool for these conditions. However I do not know how the night shot feature is made possible. Does Sony use infra-red? I heard that it is not stable underwater.

Last but not least, I’d like to raise the price issue: How much is everyone willing to pay for such a can-do-all housing? And Zaid, what will you use the housing for? Are you a tech diver?

Hello,

My preferences are for
1. Tight fitting housing - Strong preference for a streamlined unit reducing drag and keep the whole setup compact for transport.

2. Dont worry about the internal flash. - My DSCP5’s flash is fairly useless in most conditions except close up in clear water. And the popup window just looks poxy. Just give us a port to connect a strobe to.

3. Like the capability to add in a wide lens. The format of the sensor already adds additional unwanted zooming (*1.5) to a regular lens, plus the magnification from water, we end up with a 28mm lens being more like a 50mm or worse (Dont check my math, Im guessing). Wet sounds like a good idea to keep the unit small when you dont want it.

My 2c worth.

I am not personaly against the night shot if there are some real uses for it. It is infrared light that is used to illuminate the subject and I have no idea how it would work underwater. You might want to ask anyone who has a recent model sony video camera housed to try it, since most have the same capability. For me, the more options underwater the better. Personally I am a techie but there is no limit to the diving I like to do.  I like to go deep and explore wrecks (hence depth rating), I love cave diving (hence compactness), and I still love to just grab a tank and go in for the marine life big and small. I am an amateur photographer but I am working on getting recognized by the magazines. I didn’t mean to write such a long reply, but I have been really researching the housings on the market and what I would look for ideally in a Sony f828 housing.  I have been using the camera a lot lately and I really can’t wait to get it in the water. As for the price, you pay for what you get.  Ikelite’s housing is less than a $1000 US, but you get what you pay for.  There is a question of reliability against leaks, ikelite is notorious and I have had two floodings myself. Also the housing is a box, bulky as hell, and quite negative.  They do however make every feature on the camera available except for pop up flash, and the wet ports only support ikelite strobes and certain nikonos. Having said this it is a great way to get into underwater digital photography because they make housings for any camera, and for a first time user, it is good one to beat up. If they make the housing end all be all, comparable housings are in the $3000 - $4000 range such as Subal’s for the Nikon D100.  I suspect if the right housing came along and allowed people to fully take advantage of the features of this camera, they could easily ask in this price range. This camera allows you to take both high quality video and 8 megapixel pictures and should catch the attention of consumers who might like both. Sony is also attempting to convert other camera users by allowing this camera to support both memory stick and compact flash (including microdrive) so storage of this massive amount of data is a non-concern. Everything else on the camera you can read about, but this camera seems to be designed to convert other people as well as impress loyal sony customers.  The right housing for it would make this an easier switch.

Thoughts on Cost....

For me a housing must be US$1000 or less. Features that drive the cost up will put me off buying one. Mainlly because I figure if I am going to spend thousands of dollars on a housing, I am definately going to want to put an higher end SLR styled camera in it with interchangeable lenses and a changeable dome port on the housing.

I view this as an upgrade for my DSCP5 with Sony marine pack, so please, keep the housing price down, and help ween me off my Nikonos film camera

PS, I almost bought an Ikelite housing for this camera, but found that they dont have a Sync cord to attach my Sea & Sea YS120 strobe for the housing yet.

My opinion is that this housing should be as small as possible.  I would provide connectivity for external strobes rather than worry about the popup flash.  I normally use a halogen video light for night shooting, so I don’t think the night shot capabilities are that important.  Zoom would be nice but not critical.

Forget about the internal flash, two ttl bulkheads please!
Design the housing so that the vieuwfinder is at 45 degrees I love this feature of my Subal CP5000 housing !!!

Make sure the can use a wide angle adapter.
Made sure we can use a macro adapter.

Infra read will be absorbed by the water so the night focus thing want work.

After the first round of discussions, I have to admit that I am surprised!
I did not expect the opinions to be that mixed. Especially not on the strobe topic

I therefore suggest that everybody who voiced up or planned to drops a few lines naming the strobes which are planned to use on the SONY and what thoughts he/she has about housed SONY strobes (for macro). Please also name your country. Maybe we can identify a preference pattern.

I will also push the manufacturer to post here and announce the final decision.

So far thanxx, for the great input! This
is certainly not the last time we will
open a threat like this for hot items.

I want to use two small strobes offering as manny manual steps as possible.
TTL could be nice as long as the camera has a decent TTL ciquit with a +/- correction on the strobes.

I work and live on Bonaire as a assistant manager of a Dive Centre. I see and hear digital underwater photographers all day. And take my camera down at least 3 times per week.

The mayority of divers have a PT plastics housing and hardly know what they are doing beside having fun taking snapshots under water
Allmost alll the advanced photographers go manual on the strobes and want to go as small a possible regarding the power setting of the strobes. And almost all want to trigger the stobes via a ttl cable.

Offering at least a (super) wide angle option is from my point of view essential.

Hope this helps

http://homepage.mac.com/pa1z

Sorry

http://homepage.mac.com/pa1zz/Menu8.html

Hi,

I am a buyer of a housing for this camera, so I’m keen to see a good outcome Please build this soon

Strobe wise I have a Sea & Sea YS 120 Duo with a nikonos connector. It works GREAT on TTL settings through the Nikonos for up close or night shots. I understand there is not this capability with the F828 though. Someone please corect me if im wrong.

I’ve tried using this strobe with a Sony P5 and marine pack, and not surprisingly, on anything up close it is WAY too bright even at 1/2 power setting, so I use my hand to obscure the flash for macro. Low tech, but works sort of if you dont ming taking a few shots.

I would be prepared buy a new strobe for this camera & housing if it allowed me to do TTL.

I don’t particularly like the fibre optic sensor setup to trigger the strobe, which is why I prefer a connector for a cable (more secure) and remove the inbuilt flash bubble to keep the unit small like the housing 10bar has for the F717 camera (minus the flash bubble). Also if the camera can? support TTL, then you need a cable right.

Located in Australia.
Cheers, Todd

I use the Sea & Sea YS90DX.  I have the optic cable but would much rather use the TTL sync cord with this camera/housing.

I am an active buyer for a good quality aluminum housing.  I bought the DSC-F828 because Amphibico mentioned making a housing for it at DEMA.  They now say that’s not going to happen because the lense moves in and out with zoom.  I’ve already ordered the Ike housing but would sell it at dealer cost or less if I could get the following features in an aluminum housing that is:

IKE or Nike bulkhead (I currently use dual Nikonos SB-105’s and I have both NIke and Ike cords.)

Compact and slightly negative.  Bouyant housings drive me nuts, especially in surge or shallow water.  Bulky housings are too hard to pack or push through the water.

I don’t necessarily need 300 foot capability because on most dives I do to those depths I prefer to concentrate on the dive more than I usually do when I’m photographing, but I’ve used Amphibico’s deeper than that, so I would probably get use out of the depth capability.

Dual “O” rings are a greeat idea.

I’m not at all sure that night shot or framing would work at all.  I beleive water soaks up UV real fast.  A small framing light would work fine for focus, and I sometimes use an HID for night and cave shots (but the beam isn’t wide enough.)

Make the port just far enough out to zoom from 28-70mm which appear to both require the same depth.  That’ll give some Macro capability.

Wet wide angle and macro.  Sea & Sea?

Make an accessory 2 battery pack.  My camera gives me a 512 and a 128mb CF and I still have batt left, but I don’t know if I’d get a full 1gb card if I did a lot of in-camera editing.  I would give up the small extra size addition for the peace of mink of lots of battery life.

BTW, what does anyone know about this housing mfgr?  I’ve never heard of them.

Hello,

I was wondering if we have any details on the housing yet.
It would be nice to hear back from the manufacturer.

Cheers,
Todd

Thank you all for so patient and the useful feedback you gave me here. Yesterday I finished the first prototype of the housing for Shark project. They had special requirements for their housing and the mass production housing will certainly look a little different. Enclosed are some images:

The final housing will have the following features:

:arrow: Support for the internal pop-up flash

:arrow: One or two bulkheads of your choice (N5 or Ikelite) to be specified when you order your housing.

:arrow: the zoom is already supported but limited to 100mm. We found that there is some vignetting if you want to zoom more then that. But I’d like to point out that I made a bayonet system as usual. So you are invited to experiment with wide angle lenses etc. on the long run.

:arrow: I did not manage to support the joystick yet at this early stage. I would appreciate if you let me know how important this is for you.

:arrow: The dimensions of the housing ...

width: 165mm
height: 130mm
depth: 160mm

without ports and handles.

I am now accepting pre-orders for a first batch which could be released within the next six weeks. Depending on the demand I might be able to offer the housing around 1600 EUR which will result in an equivalent price of 1600 USD (today the Dollar/EUR was around 1.18 which is near the German VAT).

So thanks again and I am looking forward to hear from some of you soon.

Uwe Kiehl
UK-GERMANY