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Biography of Underwater Photographer Shana Lyons
I'm a co-owner of PiratePro. We make underwater housings that allow photographers to use Nikonos lenses with commercially available digital cameras.
What I look for in a Dive Operator:
Snappy jokes during the surface interval. :)
Underwater Photography of Shana Lyons
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Latest Shana Lyons's Comments
Sep 10, 2009
Hi Peten1,
Initially, our product line is going to be comprised of 1 housing that holds the new Olympus EP-1 and a series of adapters to allow you to use the different Nikonos lenses with the housing. We're also probably supporting the Sea &Sea 15mm fisheye that was a popular choice for Nikonos users but we need to do some testing there.
We chose the EP-1 because it gets us around a huge issue with using Nikonos lenses with a lot of the DSLR's out there today- focal length. The challenge arises from the scale-focus design of the Nikonos cameras. This unusual camera design placed part of the rear flange of the lens mount around 28mm in front of the film plane, which is a very small distance when you think that Canon and Nikon SLR lenses are over 40mm from the focal plane. Nobody has made an adapter to put a Nikonos lens on a D700, for example, because the Nikonos lens would have to sit 18.5mm BEHIND the mounting flange of the D700 – and the D700 already has a mirror occupying that space.
The first digital cameras to leave enough room for a Nikonos adapter were the Micro Four Thirds (or MFT) cameras from Panasonic and Olympus. Of the MFT cameras that have been introduced, the Olympus E-P1 is unique because it has an image stabilization system built into the camera. So, PiratePro is building a housing that will allow photographers to combine the image stabilization of the E-P1 with the optics of Nikonos lenses. We hope this will allow users to take incredibly sharp digital underwater images.
We're still working out a lot of the final issues. We're also evaluating the new Leicas released yesterday-- they might offer interesting high end options. But, for right now, it's going to be a housing for the EP-1.
We've posted some photos of the CAD drawings for the housing on facebook.com/pirateprohousings .
How does that sit with you? I'm really interested in hearing how potential users like the choices we're making.
Sincerely,
Shana Lyons
shana@piratepro.com
www.piratepro.com
Initially, our product line is going to be comprised of 1 housing that holds the new Olympus EP-1 and a series of adapters to allow you to use the different Nikonos lenses with the housing. We're also probably supporting the Sea &Sea 15mm fisheye that was a popular choice for Nikonos users but we need to do some testing there.
We chose the EP-1 because it gets us around a huge issue with using Nikonos lenses with a lot of the DSLR's out there today- focal length. The challenge arises from the scale-focus design of the Nikonos cameras. This unusual camera design placed part of the rear flange of the lens mount around 28mm in front of the film plane, which is a very small distance when you think that Canon and Nikon SLR lenses are over 40mm from the focal plane. Nobody has made an adapter to put a Nikonos lens on a D700, for example, because the Nikonos lens would have to sit 18.5mm BEHIND the mounting flange of the D700 – and the D700 already has a mirror occupying that space.
The first digital cameras to leave enough room for a Nikonos adapter were the Micro Four Thirds (or MFT) cameras from Panasonic and Olympus. Of the MFT cameras that have been introduced, the Olympus E-P1 is unique because it has an image stabilization system built into the camera. So, PiratePro is building a housing that will allow photographers to combine the image stabilization of the E-P1 with the optics of Nikonos lenses. We hope this will allow users to take incredibly sharp digital underwater images.
We're still working out a lot of the final issues. We're also evaluating the new Leicas released yesterday-- they might offer interesting high end options. But, for right now, it's going to be a housing for the EP-1.
We've posted some photos of the CAD drawings for the housing on facebook.com/pirateprohousings .
How does that sit with you? I'm really interested in hearing how potential users like the choices we're making.
Sincerely,
Shana Lyons
shana@piratepro.com
www.piratepro.com
Sep 9, 2009
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to take a moment to let you guys know that my company, PiratePro, is in the process of finalizing a housing design that would allow you to use Nikonos lenses with a commercially available digital 12.3 megapixel digital camera. The Dive Photo Guide challenge caught our eye. We're a small company, but our lead engineer has a love of underwater photography, an engineering degree from MIT and a burning desire to get this problem solved.
We've been working on our prototype for about two months now. We're at the stage where we have complete CAD drawings and we're sourcing manufacturers. We hope to make our housings here in the USA.
We're currently seeking Nikonos owners and enthusiasts to give us feedback on what we've come up with so far. We'll be investing our own money into manufacturing and marketing these housings, so we want to get it right. If you have any interest in collaborating with us, please let me know. We'd love to hear what you think.
Sincerely,
Shana Lyons
shana@piratepro.com
www.piratepro.com
I just wanted to take a moment to let you guys know that my company, PiratePro, is in the process of finalizing a housing design that would allow you to use Nikonos lenses with a commercially available digital 12.3 megapixel digital camera. The Dive Photo Guide challenge caught our eye. We're a small company, but our lead engineer has a love of underwater photography, an engineering degree from MIT and a burning desire to get this problem solved.
We've been working on our prototype for about two months now. We're at the stage where we have complete CAD drawings and we're sourcing manufacturers. We hope to make our housings here in the USA.
We're currently seeking Nikonos owners and enthusiasts to give us feedback on what we've come up with so far. We'll be investing our own money into manufacturing and marketing these housings, so we want to get it right. If you have any interest in collaborating with us, please let me know. We'd love to hear what you think.
Sincerely,
Shana Lyons
shana@piratepro.com
www.piratepro.com
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