The Sealux housing for the Sony PMW-EX1 Camera is a full manual camera with electronic controls for a few basic operations.  You can see spec sheets for the housing here:  http://sealux.de/s1e.htm

Why did I choose the Sealux housing for the EX-1 over a Gates housing?

The first reason was the extortionate price of the standard optics for the gates housings, the prices for their macro dioptre was almost 2x the price of the century optics dioptre that it is based upon. There is also the standard wide port, which apparently cannot have a sony/century wide angle adaptor placed behind it inside the housing… on the Sealux I could fit the Century Dioptre and the Sony W/A adaptor without too much effort, and significantly less cash. Also the option of having electronic controls as well as full manual was very appealing… So I settled on the Sealux.  It is not to say the Gates is bad, i'm sure it is wonderful.

Sealux HQ in Germany were very helpful when I called with questions about the housing/camera combo and that convinced me they were the correct people to call when it came around to buying this set-up.

Upon unpacking the housing, the first thing that struck me was the OEM lens cover on the flat macro port- it doesn’t actually stay on the port! I will be designing a new one of those shortly.

The housing is light, and easy to travel with due to its removable handles. It can easily be packed into a small roller and taken as carry-on for flights. The instructions are not in booklet form, but are stapled together sheets of paper, the text referred to images (on another bundle of paper) that were supposedly numbered (I couldn’t find any numbers) and appeared to me to be in the wrong order when I followed the steps to setup the housing. Getting the camera into the housing is a bit of an ordeal, with so many push buttons and control rods that need to be manoeuvred around you will definitely want a flashlight and lots of time so you can go slowly, otherwise there is the possibility that you might damage the camera.

The sliding tray for the Sealux, is OK, but having spent a lot of time with the Amphibico cameras in the past I can definitely see room for improvement in the Sealux tray.

One thing that I think is great is the use of IR remote protocol to control the camera electronically, as many people believed electronic control of this camera would not be possible due to it not supporting the lanc protocol. Kudos to Sealux on that point.

On the outside of the housing, I am quite fond of the manual zoom control, manual focus switch and manual focus knob. However the supplied manual focus ring kept working loose during the dive, so I had to wedge some wadding in between the ring and the camera to make it a tighter fit - seems to be working for now.

Caution must be exercised when opening the housing - the operator must be aware that the control rod designed to access the Assign button, is perfectly placed to rip off the sliding door that covers where the SxS cards are mounted.

The second problem relating to the controls is the Iris adjustment knob. When you are in auto iris, the geared iris ring on the camera rotates around as the camera changes the iris to maintain exposure. This means that the motor on the camera has to work overtime to drive the iris control adjustment knob as well as what it’s intended to drive (the iris alone). This can’t be good for the camera in my opinion, and I’d hate to know how much it costs to replace the motor drive for the Iris. With this in mind I made a small shim that fits behind the control knob to disengage it from the camera on the inside; I can then remove the shim when I want to go into manual iris mode.I will adapt this creation  to make it smaller, and probably make it from a different coloured dustpan handle!

I have encountered a minor problem with the electronic controls – I’m sure I’ll get used to it in the end, but it appears that my thumbs are too short to press the buttons efficiently, I may try make the buttons which are further from the handles fractionally longer to compensate for this or ask for some longer buttons from sealux. The viewfinder on the housing is quite large, just make sure that when you ‘swivel the viewfinder slightly upwards’ as stated in the manual, that it is swivelled to the correct amount!

Finally, my biggest gripe with the housing so far: Buoyancy and Balance.

The housing is naturally buoyant, and its natural balance is to float almost upside down, which isn’t very useful for filming a steady shot.  I tested the buoyancy to calculate how much lead would be required to sink the housing, then smelted some lead weights to make it somewhat neutral. I made several weights between 100g and 200g, and have attached Velcro to them and glued mounting points on the inside of the housing.

The adjustment of buoyancy is still a work in progress, however it is markedly better, I’m currently tweaking the location of the lead to ensure the housing sits in the water column without a tendency to pitch or roll. I have a feeling that the housing was designed to have a specific light system in place, no doubt with batteries mounted on the housing.  But even so, without a counter-weight on the starboard side of the housing, it will naturally roll starboard side high as the housing has an uneven shape, with more airspace and buoyancy on that side. This tendency to float right side up is more irritating than the positive buoyancy, but with some velcro and some lead it can be made to have neutral buoyancy and good balance, it will just take some time and effort.

A quick note about my setup, i am currently diving without any battery pods attached to the housing, as my Light and Motion GAS adaptor for their lights isn't compatible with the housing at this moment in time.  Once i have mastered buoyancy with the camera, macro port and lightheads alone, i will make some new weighting kits for use with the camera configured in wide-angle  and with the pods attached.

Overall I am reasonably satisfied with the housing, and I'm blessed to be living in a location where I can spend the time tweaking the housing to make it work for me. I would be sorely disappointed if I had taken delivery of the housing prior to an important trip or assignment, as I believe that the housing isn’t ready to use right out of the box. I would be interested to hear from other users of the housing as I am sure that I am not the only person with this housing, although I feel like I am one of the very first consumers to test this housing.

I will be reviewing the optics as soon as I have a neutrally buoyant setup with good balance, which should be in a few weeks when I have the time to take a look at the housing and go diving again.  I am sure that on a per $ spent on optics basis, the Sealux will fair very very well, as being able to use the SONY - VCL EX877 lens will be very useful for wideangle work even though it does not have full zoom through.

If you would like to send any feedback please use the form on the website, or contact me directly through ‘simon’ at the above domain.