First video using my homemade camcorder housing!!!

Used the Camcorder housing for the first time last week (Wakeworld Low Income Housing Project) I had a blast filming it from the tube, but had the tube placed in a very turbulent part of the wake which made the filming much more difficult then I had expected. I also did not know my camcorder had a wide angle function. This will make the next video much easier as it will allow me to get the rider more centered. Eric Bell was the rider and we were both laughing our butts off through the whole ride. I was beaten up in the tube while trying to hold on the the camcorder and stay in the tube while we hit rollers. I used rain-x on the front lens of the housing and it proved to work perfect. The housing did not leak at all and all the levers functioned the buttons on the camcorder perfectly. I even took it underwater to film the bottom of the boat, but it was a boring part of the video and I did not include it. here is the link to the video. http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=7572

That's awesome. I want to build the same housing. Do you think you need the levers, or can you just push play, put it in, and leave it running? The levers look like they're high maintenance to do...
Nice work.

Hey, very cool angle. How about zooming out a little so as to not cut off so much, or was that all the way out?

The wide angle should help in that regards though. Does your camera have it digitally, or is it one of those screw-on lenses?

I have a screw-on wide angle lens for my Sony dv, but am not that impressed with the results as it sometimes screws up the focus.

The levers are REALLY nice to have. That way you are not wasting film. There is a lot of downtime while filming and I would hate to be filming it all. Also, I can keep the camcorder in the housing all the time. I shoot all my video with the housing now. They are zero maintance too. If an o-ring goes bad, I can replace it in a matter of minutes and do not need any tools to do it. It is nice not having to worry about the camcorder getting wet in the boat. I can zoom out, I just did not know it when I shot the video. The zoom was in the middle setting, and I can go really far back. I just did not know that at the moment. Was too excited to get some video and did not play with the camera features. I will do it on the next one.

That is cool, I can't wait to see some new footage with the lens zoom pulled back. I can see why you were busting up. We talked last week about doing something similar, but were a lttle sketched on trying it. Might have to go forward now with it.

Cheers

You might want to purchase a wide angle or fish eye lens. From the tube it gives you a cool and different perspective and the fish eye lens enhances it. And they aren't too expensive either, around $60 for a decent one. And the nice thing is that they wider the angle the less apparent motion, meaning that they video quality will be higher.

Only problem with adding a wide angle or fish eye is that I made the housing to fit perfectly with the camcorder. Adding a lense will add an inch or so to the front of the camera, therefore none of my control levers will line up with the camera buttons. I will try with the zoom backed off and see what happens. While reading my instruction book, they say that the camcorder is set to record in a wide angle format and adding a wide angle lens or fisheye will cause vignetting and focus problems. I will keep you all posted with new video as I tweak the settings. It is so fun to be in the tube and watch the rider.

hey i cant get the link to work, if possible can you put a pic on this thread.

It's not a pic, it's a link to a video (you can't post videos here on Wakeworld). It looks like Wakepics.com is down right now though...

Yea that would explane it, i have been trying for the last 2 days, its killing me, i wan to make a housing i saw one in Parker Memorial weekend, but he said it cost $800 and i wanted to see if i could make one cheaper