Barry Guimbellot designs DIY small dome port for CFWA
Next I tried my Kenko 1.4 teleconverter with the Tokina lens and my DIY dome. Seeing the images using this combination was like I had upgraded my camera. I got really lucky in my port design since the port works great with and without a teleconverter.
Images taken on my first dive trip with the lens made a real believer out of me with what I had, so I came back to Dallas and talked to Kress Technologies again. With the help of Kress, we designed a one piece, all aluminum housing that is black hard anodized as well as a lens hood that is not only functional but sturdy.
First the machined housing had to be checked for vignetting
Tokina 14mm w/teleconverter
Tokina 11.5mm no teleconverter
Several friends decided they want one of these ports too, so I made some for them. Since I am building ports for someone else, I want to really make sure they do not leak at depths deeper than the 100 ft. depth I dived on my trip. A local dive store agreed to let me pressure test one of my newly machined ports in their pressure tank. A test to 65 lbs. sq. in. / 150 ft. depth proved the ports are water tight. The ports might be ok to a deeper depth, but that day the dive shop’s compressor was not working well so was only able to add 65 lbs. to the tester, so I just tell people they are good to 150 ft.
My finished port with removable shade finally done!