Sightlines Profile is Up for Your Reading PleasureSorry it's been so long since I updated this blog! Arg! I'm bad at this!
Death Valley Photos at Prizer Gallery through August 8th.
First look at the Meikon Underwater Housing for the Fujifilm X100SHow I got here... I love shooting near the water. I love the water, I love shooting, I love how people look wet, so hey, let’s do a shoot near the water! But when you’re carrying a few thousand dollars worth of camera and lens, there can be an element of risk assessment about whether the shot is worth it. Being the type who feels cameras need to get used, my answer is generally, “Yes!” But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had some close calls. With that in mind, I’ve looked at housings or dry bags for my Nikon DSLRs several times, and always come away disappointed... the bags leave a lot to be desired in terms of easy access to controls or getting clear images through their optics. The true housings... well, they seem great, if a bit hefty, both in size and handling, and also in price. The good ones exceed the cost of my camera itself... So last week, when I once again was looking, I had the thought... I wonder if anyone makes one for my Fuji X100S? It seems like a natural fit for underwater photography... great image quality, small size, manual controls that are easy to access for all the major functions, and if anything, the fixed wide angle lens is great, since you generally need to shoot wide underwater anyway. But weirdly, when I searched, I could find almost no references or information about using the beloved X100 underwater. But... I did find one custom housing, made by Meikon, a Chinese company which seems relatively new. So new there were no reviews or even mentions of it... Hmmmmm. A couple of their other housings did have decent reviews, and it was only $200, which for a real housing is almost too good to be true. So, I decided to take a chance. Ordering was through Amazon, and shipped from China, so rather than wait the several weeks for shipment, I went ahead and paid the extra $40 for speedy delivery, and less than a week later, it arrived. The box was a little beat up, but everything inside looked to be in good shape. Next was just a matter of getting to the pool and testing things out.
Next was the water test... first off without the camera. Rather than filling the bathtub, I made use of the sunny day outside and the pool. The housing closed easily and sealed well on the first dip... I took it down to the deepest part of the pool, dragged it around, in front of the jets on the sides and kept it under for a couple minutes. Then I took it out and dried off the outside completely, so that I'd know for sure that any water inside came from a leak. Everything looked great, so now it was time for the real test - going under with the camera. Once again, everything seemed to close up well, and the housing has what seems like a solid locking mechanism to keep it from being opened accidentally, or if it bumps up against something.
How does it feel?
In Use. Okay, there were a couple issues... After a while, I did start to have occasional problems with the Macro button, which serves as the left arrow in the various menus or when trying to adjust the focus point. It would work the first push, then subsequent pushes would sometimes not work. That's a little annoying, but it's also an easy workaround... the center menu button is also a dial, and between that, and the wraparound action of the focus points, there was nothing I couldn't get to, even if that macro button stopped working completely. I think my outlook on this is relative... If I'd paid $500 or the price of the camera for this housing, I'd be pissed if I started having problems, but as it is, I feel like I got a great deal on a solid piece of equipment, so one small issue which may eventually solve itself as the whole thing breaks in, or which I could fix with a dab of hot glue, or by using the controls differently, is not that big a deal. Do you Need Flash? The one other issue is that I feel like the built-in flash may not be super useful, as it's partially obscured. I can't tell for sure, as I was shooting in bright sun and clear water, but while the flash definitely came through, I have to wonder if it's going to be strong enough when it's needed. The housing has a hot shoe (?!) but no other ports or connections to trigger external flash units, so hard core divers may consider that a deal breaker, however for my uses, shooting in shallow and clear water, and as someone who rarely uses on-camera flash, it's not really a concern.
Conclusions...
©stephen pruitt/fluxion photography 2023
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