SCUBA Diving is an expensive activity, and the price can shoot up dramatically if you’re keen to do some filming or photography underwater. But have you ever wondered just how expensive it can get for a fully loaded top of the line underwater rig?
Our underwater camera setup is just a few grand total, less than just the body of some of the top cameras out there, but while at DEMA we wondered what was the most luxurious camera setup available, and we think we found it at the Gates Housing booth.
Pictured here is a fully loaded Deep Weapon/Deep Dragon by Gates Housing which is built for the Epic Red line of cameras. These bodies are beyond our comprehension, capable of 8K resolution high definition video, with separate monitors and controllers which also require durable housings to operate underwater.
This particular setup is also equipped with a pair of Gates Housings GT14 Underwater Imaging Lights. Capable of up to 14,000 lumens of brightness each, the COB LED chips on them also give a CRI as high as 90 for excellent color rendition in your underwater videos. The pair of these lights plus mounting arms and all the cables cost $5,000 alone!
These housings are machined from solid billets of bulletproof grade aluminum, with comically huge dome ports and beefy adjustable handles. All said and done this camera rig adds up to about $90,000 and at this size, this is a camera rig that you practically ride while diving underwater.
When we really started inspecting the Gates Housing Deep Weapon for the Red Camera we knew we were looking at the Bentley of underwater camera setups. Surely the olympus mirrorless is not even worthy of photographing this upscale of a camera setup, but we hope you enjoy seeing what the underwater camera of the hardcore professionals looks like. [Gates Housings]
