Underwater Housing for VX2000
 

Hi,

anyone out there have an underwater camera housing for the VX2000
that they recommend?

I've looked at Ewa and Amphibico and find a three thousand dollar
difference. I don't want to spend much more than a grand, but the Ewa may
not do what I need.

I don't plan on going past 20 ft. deep, but plan on securing this "housed"
camera to a mono pod like shaft driven into the lake bed. I'll
hit record and hope my quarry comes into the scene in the next hour.
Ideally, I could rig a motion sensor or other means of putting the camera into record on command so that I could lay in wait for several hours and drop it
into record as the action is about to start.

U/W Housing
 

Build your own. There are many websites out there. go to underwater camera sites and chat rooms and follow the links.

Jim Wiggins

I was looking at home built plans and things, but I have personally
never had much luck at building waterproof stuff. However, I don't
want to pay for a set of plans to find out they are inadequate.

I would die if I came back to the site where I had the camera set up underwater to find my housing had swamped.

I may go with the Ewa marine bag.

More specific ideas and/or advice are both welcome.

post an add in the engineering buildings at your university and get a willing student to construct it. stuff the thing with kleenex to test it - if it works give him some money...

I'd assume you can rent these housings for a whole lot less than you can buy them. Try a Web search.

I tried the search terms 'vx2000 underwater housing rental' on Google and the list is very long.

Holy COW! The first site I checked is located on Portage Lake, MI. about
10 miles from Ann Arbor/my house. I may go there and see what's what myself.

Must be synergy. Thanks Mike.

I found this site. I think this is the unit I am going to buy.

http://www.epiccam.com/

Looks like a winner. Even cheaper than the Ewa bag and much more what I
wanted for my underwater set up.

Nice find Jim. If you get one real soon (I don't need mine until spring)
let me know how it works.

A little word re: EWA marine & other marine housings.
You get what you pay for. And having said that, there is no such thing as a failsafe underwater housing. Even your $3000 housing can leek. What you pay for is the risc involved.

Most EWA marine housings are graded to around 30 ft. making them suitable as wetcovers and surface work only. Take them any deeper than 1 ft at your own risc.

Put it in perspective to the cost you put on the camera. Do you want to put your $1500-2000 camera into a $200-$500 housing?

As for building your own, if you have the knowhow and the tools, by all means do that. But try to get it preassure tested at a professional facility and not by experience :) Also make the design as simple as possible. and add moisture alarms inside.

And if possible, get an insurance.. or a cheaper camera to go scuba with :) You do not want to know what saltwater does to camera circuits :)

What do you recommend?

I don't need to go deeper than 5 meters. I want to use our VX2000.

For a mid-budget i'd say go with a Ikelite (http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/vx2000.html). they are pretty sturdy and as long as you are careful with the o-ring seal they work fine down to 30 meters depth (100ft).

The Aquamarine guys also have a good rep (http://www.aquavideo.com) and is in the same price range.

And if $1300 is to much to spend on a housing, imagine how fun it will be to send the vx2000 to a repairshop because of a major flood.

The alternative would be to build a "polecam". Get a cheaper mini-cam, build a small housing and a O-ringed pullthrough for a videocable. run it up the pole and connect it to the VX2000. if anything is damaged, it will be the minicam, not the vx2000.

It would also present a smaller profile and be more agile to move around than a video housing on a pole.

Great info Henrik. I did a bunch of searches and surfing and never found
either of these sites. Though not "cheap," you do get what you pay for and
you are paying to avoid small problems like WATER.

The ikelite seems to have all the features and be very reasonably priced at $1300.

Thanks Henrik!

No problem Jacques. Ive done extensive filming with a Ikelite housing for a TRV-900 so i know they are good quality. Its like with all housings, treat it carefully and it will treat your camera well =) The most important part being to check the seals very careful before submerging it.

Good luck with your project and be sure to post some footage =)