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Canon G10 DIY Modifications For Macro and Wide Angle Underwater Photography
By Matt J. Weiss, March 1, 2009 @ 02:00 AM (EST)


By  Hiromi Harayama

 



Hello everyone. I’m a Japanese diver who likes taking underwater photos and doing DIY projects which helps makes my underwater photography easier and more enjoyable.



The Canon G10 is a nice digital camera. I especially like it for its 28mm wide angle, macro mode and because Canon provides an inexpensive and compact housing for it. However, in my opinion, the Canon housing can’t take great macro photos because the camera can’t get close enough to the subject due to the port length. Because of this I decided to modify my Canon G10 housing. I will introduce you to my modification, which hopefully will help you.



Because I usually dive with two U/W cameras, I made this modification as small as possible.



I) my Canon G10 modification:

I mounted:

1) A open-close type 67mm lens adapter,

2) A LED focus light,

3) A slave mini strobe and

4) A LCD screen finder on the housing.




At this photo, a DIY macro lens is attached to the lens adapter.

A: usually open the lens adapter and stand up mini strobe

B: when taking macro photos, close the lens adapter and bend the mini strobe forward. When the strobe is bent, it faces the object.



Here is how these parts are attached to the housing:




1: Three aluminum plates are fastened by very strong double-coated tape (3M Scotch KF-19). This tape is transparent and very strongly adhesive.

2: attach the 67mm lens adapter




3: attach the LED focus light which I made waterproof about 4 years ago. I've used it since then.

4: attach the slave mini strobe (SF-DG100 by KONICA-MINOLTA).



Making The Parts



1)    open-close type 67mm lens adapter

This part is the most important one in this modification. So I show the details.



1) Materials:








A, B: aluminum angles

C: torque hinge

D: acrylic plate 3mm thickness

E: acrylic plate 2mm thickness x 2. This size is the same as the square of the port window. Two 2mm thickness acrylic plates are fastened by acrylic adhesive.

F: 67->58mm step down ring




2) Aluminum angles A, B, hinge C and acrylic plate D are connected by screws and nuts.

3) Slightly bent aluminum angle A to be fitted to the lateral side of the port.




4) Put the Plate E inside the front of the port and cover the plate E with the plate D.

5) fasten the angle A to the lateral side of the port by the double coated tape carefully. This tape is very strong. After fastening, it is difficult to take the plate off the port by your hand power. To take it off the port, you use the small minus driver and insert it between the angle plate A and the port slowly and repeatedly.

Check if you can open and close the plate D smoothly




6) Fasten the acrylic plate D and E with acrylic adhesive.

7) The right figure shows that the plate E is fastened with the plate D.




8) File the projection of the step down ring down to be flat.

9) Glue the step down ring to the plate D with ‘Bond G17’ which is cheap but very strong rubber adhesive. Set carefully the center of step down ring just to be fitted the center of the port.




10) Cut off the outside of the step down ring.

11) Make a square hole on the plates D & E.




12) Glue the 0.3mm thick aluminum sheet outside the step down ring and glue the 0.5mm thick black rubber sheet inside the ring.



13) Accomplishment




A rubber strap is connected at the open side of the adapter.

The adapter is fixed at closing position by the strap at the hook which is at the lateral side of the port.



The inner square plate keeps the center of the attachment lens at the center of the port!

 

This shows the detail of the part of the hinge:




Left: outside view, right: inside view



2) Focus light

 



This DIY light was made before 4 years. The detail is uploaded at my HP. The light was made by being cut and sealed the head of the GENTOS PATRIO PRO 1W LED light. The reed switch is in the battery box. Thin (0.3mm) aluminum plate is attached to the battery case. Z form aluminum angle is fixed to the plate by screw. The light is fixed through the hinge to the Z form angle.

If you have any small UW light, it’s OK to fix it.



3) Slave mini strobe

I modified a mini strobe and made its housing. But it is
VERY DANGEROUS to modify the strobe!  It is difficult to use this strobe and the G10 can take a nice underwater photos in the most cases without this strobe. So I think this modification is optional.



1) Make a box with thin acrylic (3mm) and its arm.








2)






This strobe needs two AAA batteries. Cut the connection between the two batteries. Connect the wires from A and B with the reed switch which is fixed to strobe body by double coated tape.



3)






Rotator magnet is fixed to the strobe housing. The magnet approaches to the reed switch, the strobe starts charging.



4) See top of the figure.

Fix the strobe arm to the basic plate of the housing.

When this strobe arm is bent, the strobe faces the object.



4) LCD screen finder

This is also optional. If you see the LCD screen clearly, you are happy. This is essential for some senior divers.

The recent compact digital camera has larger LCD screen. So it becomes somewhat difficult to make its finder because the controls are quite close to the LCD screen.



1) Make the lens








Two cheap (100yen, about $1USD) magnifying lenses are faced each other in the PVC pipe and sealed with acrylic plates.



2) Lens holder

 




The screw pierces through the plate which is made with 0.3mm thick aluminum and double coated tape.








The lens is inserted in another PVC pipe for dioptrically correction.



Two base plates are attached to the housing by super strong double coated tape.



The lens is supported by two narrow and long plates to the housing.

The supporting plates are fixed with nuts to the base plates.

The plates are bound with plastic tape.

 

I think this mounting method is very useful to fix some problems of the housing.



The LCD is so bright that I can see the LCD well without a hood.



While I mount many parts on the housing, all the dial and buttons are still accessible!



5) Super macro lens




I made this lens 4 years ago and have used it ever since 



It has been made with two KENKO AC close up lens No.5. So it is compatible to No.10 lens. Its focal length is about 10cm.



II) Test of the wide angle attachment UW lenses for G10

My open-close type adapter has a 67mm filter thread. So any conversion lens can be attached with stepping ring.

I tested the W/A lenses which I have in the bathtub.




A: SUPER FISH EYE LENS 0.25x (not waterproof)

B: Sea&Sea WA lens (old type, waterproof)

C: KENKO SEMI FISH EYE 0.45x (DIY waterproof)

D: "GYOROME" :it's a very small circular fisheye lens made in Japan(DIY waterproof)

E: "air doom lens" (I made this 8 years ago. a simple acrylic hemisphere. This works as a field compressor under water. )



Result:

W/A effect was cancelled in 3 lenses (B, C, D) by zooming to avoid vignette. Only one lens (A) showed very slightly WA effect on land.



This shows the result of the WA lens B and B+E:




1: with no WA conversion lens. G10 only: maximal WA

2: with Sea&Sea WA lens. G10: maximal WA

3: with Sea&Sea WA lens. To avoid the vignette, zooming G10.

(To see the result easily, I show the photos with slight vignette)

4: with Sea&Sea WA lens + "air doom lens". zooming G10.

This combination shows a little wider angle effect than G10 only (compare 1 to 4).



 I think that the lens A+E (I have to waterproof lens A. I will do so next) may be useful. However at present it is not so useful to attach the commercial available WA lens to the G10.



III) Actual experience of G10 housing modification

 I dived on 5 Feb. 2009 at the Sado Island in the Japan Sea which is far about 50km from the Niigata city in Japan where I live. In this season the weather is very bad but this day it was exceptionally fine.






I mounted this modified housing of G10 on the DIY E-3(Olympus DSLR) housing.



Dive 1: site: Ogi, KOMA point, depth: max 10.5m, time:45min, water temp:10 degree C.

After 20min I found the water in the E-3 housing (oh, my god!) so we called the boat and the E-3 housing was picked up and I started diving again with only the G10 housing.

I was able to see the LCD screen fully and clearly. It was somewhat difficult to use the mini strobe. When taking a wide angle photo, it is too weak and at taking a macro photo, it is too strong.

 At the end of diving we found Aptocyclus ventricosus (Pallas, 1769) which was what we wanted to see. This fish usually lives in the very deep area and appears at the shoal only in winter for the breeding. We were very happy surprisingly to see 3 fishes!  I took their photos and we surfaced.



Dive 2: site: SIAWASE JIZO point, depth: max 20m, time: 40min, water temp: 10 degree C.

At this site there is a stone statue but little fish. We found a sea slug and took its photo. At the end of diving I could not push the shutter button because of finger coldness due to a hole of my glove. So we stopped the diving.



Here are some photos taken with the modified G10:

All the photos: contrast: normal, sharpness: normal, saturation: normal.

I took the photos in RAW + Large fine jpeg. The Photos shown are simply size reduced Jpeg files, no retouch.



My Guide







SS=1/60,uA¦=4.50,ISO=200, focus length=6.1mm



Aptocyclus ventricosus






SS=1/60,uA¦=4.00,ISO=200, focus length=6.1mm, macro mode 








SS=1/60,uA¦=4.50,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode 



The following pictures represent the ability of using the modified G10 at variety of focal lengths.



A starfish






SS=1/60,uA¦=5.60,ISO=200, focus length=6.1mm, macro mode 






SS=1/60,uA¦=5.60,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode



With macro lens






SS=1/60,uA¦=8.00,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode 



Dendrodoris denisoni (Angas, 1874) 






SS=1/60,uA¦=4.00,ISO=200, focus length=12.07mm, macro mode






SS=1/60,uA¦=4.50,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode



With macro lens 






SS=1/60,uA¦=4.50,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode



And lastly a Sakuraeolis enosimensis (Baba, 1930) with the macro lens



SS=1/60,uA¦=4.50,ISO=200, focus length=30.5mm, macro mode



The G10 is my first compact digital camera by Canon and with it I coud take photos from WA to super macro very easily and quickly. I’m very satisfied with my modification of Canon G10 housing. Next I will DIY a wider angle lens for G10.



I would like to thank the excellent guide Mr. Sakai very much. 


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