Yesterday I bought a secondhand Sony SPK-TRV1 sports housing. I think that it may be up to ten years old although it is as new. I'm delighted to say that with a modification to the baseplate it will fit my Sony A1E.

I'm posting this in case anyone else has been down the same road as me ie trying to figure out how to film on board a rolling yacht in mid ocean (or some similar environment).

The SPK-TV1 seems to be the solution if you can find one for sale.

It gives you lanc controls for on/off, record and zoom. You can fix it to a tripod, fig rig or mount too.

I bought a Ewa marine bag but found that it didn't work well in this environment. It would be fine if shooting handheld but not when using mountings and microphones. It was too sloppy and you can't fix it to a tripod or mount.

I did look at the modern sports housings from Sony but they are too short for this camera. I even considered buying one and chopping the end off but that seem a bit extravagant.

A plastic bag gave some protection but was too much hassle to set up and take down (I cleaned the camera and put it away after each use - didn't want to risk rendering it unserviceable on a 20 day trip).

I made up my own housing from neoprene and clear plastic but it was too time consuming getting the camera in and out and it was too difficult to operate the camera in it too.

So I missed a lot of the action when the weather was rough.

One regret is that I can't fit the camera inside the housing with the wide angle adaptor fitted. But that's quibbling.

Richard,

I also have one of these and it has worked very well for a couple of years. I also had to do the base plate mod, but the only quibble I have is the viewfinder is a little out of alignment with the viewing window with the modification. It is still useable, but just not as easy as to see as I would like.

However, as you said a very useful find. I used mine in Antarctica in a raging blizzard and the footage was great with no problems at all - unlike my fingers which were not so good!

All the best,

Hi Graeme

Thank you for your reply.

I am sitting at my kitchen table working out the best way to make up a baseplate modification. It looks pretty straightforward but I wonder it you have any advice or suggestions having been down this road already eg best material to use for the adaptor plate; best way to secure it to the plate in the housing?

Good to hear that it worked so well in Antarctic cold.

I take your point about the viewfinder being off centre. Do you also use the mirrored side attachment that shows the LCD? I suppose it might fill up with snow in the conditions you were shooting in.

For anyone else reading this and dealing with similar issues it might be worth pointing out two advantages of using this housing over a plastic bag or similar:

1 it comes with a waterproof stereo mic. This may not be up to much in itself (I haven't tried it but am not expecting fantastic quality) but could be a useful fallback and to produce a guide track for synching to if recording separate sound.

2 it has a good solid metal plate to which a tripod plate can be attached. You can therefore slot it onto a tripod, Fig Rig or clamped mount in seconds.

Horizons and possibilities are opening up now that I have got one of these things!

Richard,

I use a small sheet of 5mm aluminium and some very short screws (6.5mm diameter). I screwed the plastic standard plate to the piece of aluminium sheet which I attach to the camera first. The screw heads were countersunk into the aluminium base plate to allow the plastic and aluminium pieces to butt together. The whole lot is finally slipped into the plastic guides and clicks into place as if the camera was directly mounted on the plastic. I went with the thinner aluminium so that it would not raise the camera too much inside the housing. It is very secure, and I have had it under Iguazu falls without a problem - it was very shaken but not stirred!

I was surprised that the microphone worked reasonably well. Its no Senn 416, but it did produce useable sound from some pretty extreme situations.

All the best,

Graeme

Thanks for the tip Graeme.

I decided to get on with it over the weekend and drilled holes directly into the plastic sledge/base plate itself. I used an ordinary tripod plate screw and made up two aluminium spacers/washers so that it pulled up tight onto the plastic and so the load was spread.

I pulled a bit of aluminium out of the rubbish bin that I had just thrown away that day (a broken sailing dinghy burgee - it was just the right diameter) and used this to make the locating pin. The hole for this was so close to one of the webs on the sledge plate that I didn't need to glue it. It is slightly offset and jams tight when the screw is done up.

However your set up sounds more secure and professional so I think I will follow your example.

For anyone else doing this I would say that measuring the position of the holes accurately and drilling a small pilot hole first is important in order that the camera lines up straight.

Also I positioned the camera as far forward as possible so that none of the housing would be in shot. But if it was a bit further back it would be possible to see through the viewfinder better. It is too far away from the eye to see the whole picture.

Apologies to any readers if this is too technical and boring. However for the one or two to whom this housing is a godsend I hope it's been useful.

Sorry to hijack the thread but by any chance is this the Richard Gooderick I met on the XL wildeye course last year? If so hello sir, hope your well!

Hi Matt

Thanks for the post. It is the same me. Hope things are good with you.
I've got a sailing magazine to take the Atlantic film as a covermount DVD _if_ I can find a sponsor.
Am looking forward to doing the Chris Watson sound course with Wildeye on 7 December.
Have just bought an XH A1.
Have a commission to make some short music films and have some corporate stuff lined up.
Will look out for you on DVi

Hi Richard,
been reading this with interest - I have just acquired an A1e as a backup HDV cam. Do you know if the case will hold up for short periods underwater at say 1m depth? - or is it only splashproof?
And, if I may be so forward - got any pics ?

Cheers!

Rob

Hi Rob

I understand that it is rated to 6 feet deep.

No problem putting up photos once I have worked out how to do it. Doesn't seem very obvious ie no insert photo button on the posting form.

I'll have to fit it in with other commitments so it may take a day or two.

I've searched the site and as far as I can make out an invisible hand of god marks you out as a lucky individual who can post photos.

Being and atheist and impatient with it I took some photos and posted them to my temporary .mac account.

Am not sure if I am going to take up Apple's kind offer to pay for an ongoing subscription. So if they have gone by the time you read this: sorry.

Here's the link. First time I've done this so fingers crossed:

http://web.mac.com/gooderick/Site/Sony_SPK-TRV1_Sports_Housing.html

Yesterday I bought a secondhand Sony SPK-TRV1 sports housing. I think that it may be up to ten years old although it is as new. I'm delighted to say that with a modification to the baseplate it will fit my Sony A1E.

I'm posting this in case anyone else has been down the same road as me ie trying to figure out how to film on board a rolling yacht in mid ocean (or some similar environment).

The SPK-TV1 seems to be the solution if you can find one for sale.

It gives you lanc controls for on/off, record and zoom. You can fix it to a tripod, fig rig or mount too.

I bought a Ewa marine bag but found that it didn't work well in this environment. It would be fine if shooting handheld but not when using mountings and microphones. It was too sloppy and you can't fix it to a tripod or mount.

I did look at the modern sports housings from Sony but they are too short for this camera. I even considered buying one and chopping the end off but that seem a bit extravagant.

A plastic bag gave some protection but was too much hassle to set up and take down (I cleaned the camera and put it away after each use - didn't want to risk rendering it unserviceable on a 20 day trip).

I made up my own housing from neoprene and clear plastic but it was too time consuming getting the camera in and out and it was too difficult to operate the camera in it too.

So I missed a lot of the action when the weather was rough.

One regret is that I can't fit the camera inside the housing with the wide angle adaptor fitted. But that's quibbling.

Richard,

The Century .55x 37mm attachment works in this housing last time I checked unless they changed the design. It is really small, about the size of a filter, and works great.

http://www.schneideroptics.com/ecommerce/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?CID=1069&IID=1754

Ryan Avery
Regional Sales Representative
Schneider Optics

Thanks Ryan

You have just reminded me that it is my Century C124877 .65X HR Wide Angle adaptor that I was thinking might be too long to fit into the housing.

However with the smaller battery fitted to the camera and the housing moved backwards it might work. I have mounted my camera further forward than it needs to be.

That is a zoom-through adaptor.

As you are selling Century you may not thank me for mentioning another adaptor that I had forgotten I had. That's a Raynox QC-707 0.7x clip-on adaptor which is also very slim and is dirt cheap and pretty good quality.

This is not a zoom-through adaptor. Well, you can zoom a bit before the focus is messed up.

Thanks for the pics - they worked fine!
I'll keep my eyes on ebay and try and track one down, I've been meaning to do some shallow fresh water stuff and some kitesurfing action for a while and this should fit the bill precisely.

Cheers!

Thanks Ryan

You have just reminded me that it is my Century C124877 .65X HR Wide Angle adaptor that I was thinking might be too long to fit into the housing.

However with the smaller battery fitted to the camera and the housing moved backwards it might work. I have mounted my camera further forward than it needs to be.

That is a zoom-through adaptor.

As you are selling Century you may not thank me for mentioning another adaptor that I had forgotten I had. That's a Raynox QC-707 0.7x clip-on adaptor which is also very slim and is dirt cheap and pretty good quality.

This is not a zoom-through adaptor. Well, you can zoom a bit before the focus is messed up.

I am not on these forums to say that other stuff doesn't exist or work. I am sure the Raynox will do an acceptable job. We simply manufacture a higher quality piece which may or may not be exactly what people are looking for. I hope to provide the most accurate information regarding our product.

Which ever way you go, I hope you get some great video out of it.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

Thanks for the pics - they worked fine!
I'll keep my eyes on ebay and try and track one down, I've been meaning to do some shallow fresh water stuff and some kitesurfing action for a while and this should fit the bill precisely.

Cheers!

I have the lens, is not a zoom trough and on top of this the moment you plug in the LANC control from the housing the picture gets blurry regardless your zooming position. I have an Sony spk-dvf5 and I know that the same thing happen with the new spk-hcc. But you can try. I have a Raynox snap-on, is not zoom through but works with LANC.
Paul

I am not on these forums to say that other stuff doesn't exist or work. I am sure the Raynox will do an acceptable job. We simply manufacture a higher quality piece which may or may not be exactly what people are looking for. I hope to provide the most accurate information regarding our product.

Which ever way you go, I hope you get some great video out of it.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics


Hi Ryan
Sorry, I appreciated your post and I wasn't trying to insult. Just being objective.
I've got a Century wide angle adaptor, and used it for just about every shot on my Atlantic film, which is an endorsement of your product.

I am not on these forums to say that other stuff doesn't exist or work. I am sure the Raynox will do an acceptable job. We simply manufacture a higher quality piece which may or may not be exactly what people are looking for. I hope to provide the most accurate information regarding our product.

Which ever way you go, I hope you get some great video out of it.

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics

I have a Century Optics zoom through wide angle lense that is just terrible. It is this model:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/287710-REG/Century_Precision_Optics_DSHR6537_0_65x_Wide_Angle_Converter.html

Your post has me wondering if maybe I just got a bad one.

Hi Laurence

I remember reading your posts after I bought my Century adaptor.

I don't have any previous experience of wide angle adaptors and don't know what's normal.

Here's a photo of a trellis that I took a year ago. It was just a test and I didn't white balance it. Hence the weird colour.

http://web.mac.com/gooderick/Site/Century_.65X_Wide_Angle_Adaptor.html

There is some distortion and the image seems soft away from the centre. It's more noticeable in this still than it is when shooting moving images.

I recently bought a Canon XH A1 with wide angle adaptor from another manufacturer. In a test shoot the distortion at the edge of the image was very noticeable in some shots eg doors bending. It seemed a lot worse than A1E and Century adaptor but I have not had time to test this further yet.

Richard,

I just purchased the housing and need to make the same mod. Would it be possible for you to add pictures of the mod itself to your .mac image page or email them to me. I too am doing this to shoot on a rolling deck and a rough sea.

Warren Fraser
sv Voyager of Yokohama

Richard,

I just purchased the housing and need to make the same mod. Would it be possible for you to add pictures of the mod itself to your .mac image page or email them to me. I too am doing this to shoot on a rolling deck and a rough sea.

Warren Fraser
sv Voyager of Yokohama

Hi Warren

Here are the photos.
http://web.mac.com/gooderick/Site_2/Welcome.html
My modification is very basic. It does work but I think it would be better to make up an aluminium plate with the screw and pin fixed to that and then attach it to the plastic sled somehow (pop rivets?).

I marked it out carefully and centrepunched the holes before I drilled them (actually I used the tip of a modelling knife to make the pilot holes. Was worried a punch might break the plastic).

The third photo shows the upper surface of the sled plate with the screw and pin protruding through.
The other two show the underside of the sled plate.
You can see that I have made up two rectangular washers. These spread the load of the screw. They also act as spacers because the thread does not run the full length of the screw and the spacers are required in order for the screw to do up tight when mounting the camera.

I think that you can see that the pin is very close to the web. So close in fact that it is offset from the vertical (you can see this in the third photo).
Therefore if you locate the pin in the hole on the underside of the camera and then locate and tighten the screw, the pin is forced upright and locks in place as it is forced against the web on the undersurface of the sled plate. I didn't plan this. It just happened that way.
Both are a push fit in the sled plate.

The pin is made from an old dinghy burgee that I had kept for years in case it might be useful and literally threw in the bin that morning in a fit of tidyness. It is just the right diameter.
I made a spare pin and taped it to the underside of the sled. Hence the white tape in the photo.

To be honest Warren it is a bit of a lash-up. I am no engineer.

Two things to consider when marking out.

1 Getting the holes in the plate in line with the housing so that housing and camera are pointing in the same direction.
2 The fore and aft positioning of the camera. I have placed mine right up against the glass at the front of the housing. It is too far forward.
I think it would be better moved back. Partly so that you can get a wide angle adapter into the housing. Very useful when filming on a boat. Also because the view finder wants to be close to the glass at the rear of the housing so that you can get your eye close enough to see through it.

By the way. Whilst we are talking. A very useful bit of gear that I made up before my atlantic trip was a manfrotto superclamp with brass connector with a universal joint (lockable at any angle) with a tripod plate mounted on that.
I could clamp this to grab handles and stanchions and mount the camera on that for interviews. It worked well.

http://www.videogear.co.uk/index.php?searchStr=superclamp&act=viewCat&Submit=Search

Sound was an issue. I used a Seinheisser G2 radio mic, Sanken CS3e shotgun mic and a Rode NTG1 simultaneously. I used an HHB MDP500 for recording separate sound (the two shotguns).

The G2 was excellent but I cracked one of the mics early on in the voyage. It still worked but did not sound as good so I was glad that I had a back up in the Sanken.
I used the Sanken as a second mic for interviews. It was superb.
I used the Rode for ambiance eg waves, rigging. It was not the right choice. The result was OK, not brilliant.

The MDP 500 worked well (although it eat batteries) but I have had problems with it since. I recently recorded seals fighting on a beach with booming surf in the background. The minidisc compression could not cope and distorted horribly.

I don't know what your budget is but I would use a Fostex FR2 LE if I was doing it again.

And I really, really wish I had a stereo mic to catch the ambiance of the boat underway.

The separate sound was not time coded but it was easy enough to sync up in editing and took a long time to lose sync.

Hope this helps. Have a fantastic trip wherever you are going. I'd love to see the film.

Richard,

Thanks a lot for the information and photos. I too am no engineer, and find visuals help immensely.

I purchased my housing on eBay and expect it to arrive this week. I found a place here that sells the tiny screws and aluminum plate that Graeme Fullick mentioned in a previous post and will try his method, as you recommend.

Thanks for the info on the Manfrotto clamp. I am particularly interested in getting unusual camera angles by rigging the camera and housing to, say, the end of the boom/spin pole for outboard shots, up in the rigging, and using available halyards to raise the gear up high, or even something like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGupz_9mGc&feature=related

I'm in the process of putting a mic set together and will be using a Sony portable DAT for external recording. Mics are another step up in the steep learning curve for me, so thanks for the audio recommendations.

So, thanks again for your help

Warren Fraser
sv Voyager of Yokohama

Yes, have seen the kitesailing video on YouTube too. Amazingly effective but I'm not sure if I want to risk an A1E on the end of a string.
I was going to put it on the end of a pole too and tried to buy a windsurfer mast in the Canaries without luck. However the rolling of the boat was so great for the first two weeks that I think it would have been difficult.
One of the most effective sequences that I shot was an interview at 03.00 about night sailing. Used the infra red for that.
In fact I did buy an IR security light in order to light the boat up at night (the IR of course does not have to emanate from the camera) but the retailer sent me a narrow beam light (I asked for wide angle) with no mounting bracket and it was too close to my departure date to return. Could be interesting though.
Another thing I would say about microphones: wind protection. A Rycote windjammer with big cover going to be essential if you want to get sound in rough weather. Luckily I ignored professional advice that a softie would be sufficient. It was for only some of the time. Rycote is expensive but worth the money. The Rode deadcat is not very effective.
I think that I may be going slightly off topic but I don't think that a new thread about using an A1E on a sailboat would be very popular.
I won't say any more on the matter unless asked!