makeshift housing for beach photos

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I need advice on making a housing for my P67 so I can get knee deep in the surf.Also does any one know the cost of the Asahi marine housing? Mike Walker

-- mike walker (walkerm@pacbell.net), March 08, 1998

Answers

Pentax makes a housing for the 67? It doesn't show up in my new(ish) brochure. Maybe it's not listed because they sell so few, but hey, how many 800/f4's do they sell? :-)

-- Benson (btw@vnet.net), March 19, 1998.

As far as I know, the marine housing is no longer made. It is a massive aluminum housing that would only be comfortable to carry underwater. I have seen it used a few times for $3000-4000. Very pricey.

-- Morgan Bond (mbond@cats.ucsc.edu), June 03, 1998.

Try http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~jrf/p67marine.html for some pics and info on the marine housing.

-- Morgan Bond (mbond@cats.ucsc.edu), June 03, 1998.

I have one of those housings. You don't want one for the purpose described - with the Pentax in it, it weighs about 20 lbs. Try hand- holding that. Any tripod sturdy enough to hold it is too expensive to put into saltwater. I suggest you check out the EWA Marine bags, one of them might be big enough to put the Pentax in, and they are waterproof to reasonable depths. Even if a wave came over the tripod, the camera would still be dry. If you wanted to make a housing, the next best thing might be to make a plexiglas box out of plain sheet material and plexiglas glue, with a couple of rubbermaid gloves so you can reach into the box to operate the controls. Awkward and ugly but it will work as long as you don't drop it and pop the joints.

Following is more information on the housing for those interested:

For all those interested, I've found some info on the housing. Two sources for Pentax Marine support: CameraTech - San Francisco, CA Backscatter - Monterey, CA

The people at Backscatter will service them and occasionally have a housing for sale. The people at CameraTech bought out the remaining parts and ports from Pentax (so I'm told) and can also service them.

There are three ports for the camera - Standard (takes 55, 75, 105), Fisheye (only 35), and Macro (takes 135, 175, 200). This info is from the Pentax Marine housing manual. There is no mention of the other lenses (45, 90, etc) so I don't know if they can be used. Two gear rings are needed for each (focus and aperture). For the 55/3.5 only, there is a special correction filter for underwater use. I don't believe the later 55/4 can be used.

The TTL prism finder can't be used. The standard prism finder can be used or there is a special mirror finder for the Marine housing. I'm told by a pro that uses this mirror finder that he found the left- right reversal bothersome when chasing fish and switched back to the standard finder.

The flash connector takes Nikonos III sync cords. In fact, the whole camera can be regarded as an oversize III in operation. You need to light-meter the scene, set focus and aperture, and then fire.

As for the total number made, one user said only 30 were made and a rep from Backscatter said 200 were made. In either case, they are very, very scarce. The original retail price was $11,500, wholesale was over $6000, and used ones vary from $2000 to $4000, depending on the seller.

-- Clint O'Connor (clint@argonauta.com), January 17, 1999.


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