Zen and the Art of Sulking Equipment

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I’m a coffee devotee - some would say a coffee snob. Some years back I bought a pretty expensive espresso maker and grinder which I use several times a day. After lots of practice and tweaks, I can pull a pretty decent espresso 95% of the time. But….. if I am away for a few days, the next time I make coffee, it’s not, well, it’s not the best. I swear the machine sulks. I talk to it, frankly, plead with it - and batch 2 is usually back to full form.

What has this to do with underwater photography? Having lost all my camera gear, I’ve been on a rebuild with an OM-based M43 system and, a first for me, a Nauticam housing. I was 26-years a Subal man.

I bought a new Nauticam flatport but went for a secondhand Zen 100 domeport, in excellent condition, from a totally-trusted member of Waterpixels. He hadn’t used it for years and was happy to sell it on. When it arrived it was the final piece of what is always a complicated jigsaw of equipment.

I was delighted. Put the camera in the housing, a little lube on the port o-ring and pushed it into place. It wouldn’t fit. Odd, I thought. Remove clean, replace, push. I could not get the port with the o-ring far enough into the housing throat so the Nauticam locking mechanism would engage. Let me say at this stage that, over 26 years, I’ve fitted loads of ports: domes, flats, megadomes, Zen, Subal…. my Nauticam flatport. I like to think I know what I’m doing.

Remove o-ring, try without o-ring, no problem. Fit o-ring, slight lube again. Nope. Wouldn’t fit. Frantic WhatsApps to the seller. Loads of helpful ideas, photos, images. Nope, It would not fit.

Email to Zen. Head scratching all around. Leaving for a dive trip in a few days time, I was facing the possibility of no wide-angle capability. Argh. A call to my nearest Nauticam/Zen dealer - Onderwaterhuis. Bring it in, they offered. 90 km drive.

Their Nauticam specialist took one look, removed the o-ring, lube, placed it back - and pushed. Nope. More head scratching. Fitted without the op-ring. Clearly nothing wrong with the port, nothing wrong with the housing, nothing wrong with the o-ring. One more time, talking to the domeport - come on, you can fit - and bingo, in it went. It’s now as easy to fit as it should be. Push and lock.

So what happened? The domeport hadn’t been out of a cupboard for some time. Was it sulking? Talk to your gear nicely. Be wary of sulking domeports. They cause panic.

Big thanks to Onderwaterhuis.nl! (one of our supporters)

Espresso, anyone?

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John E

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September 8Sep 8

It could be sulking but maybe a tiny difference in the o ring thickness, such as between metric and imperial can be an issue ...

I had an Isotta OM-D EM 1 mark ii housing and used an Inon 45 degree veiwfinder.... worked great.

Then I bought an Isotta Sony A7Rv housing and when I used the same viewfinder it had a couple of drops leak in past the viewfinder o ring. No harm done, but I thought there must be a fault with the round hole machined in the rear clear window on the Isotta housing.

I happened to be visiting near south Lake Garda so I visited the Isotta factory with my housing. They tested the housing and Inon viewfinder together and identified the problem. The housing was perfect but the o ring on the viewfinder from new-to-me was actually not the correct size. It was original and in good condition but I had bought it from an on-line retailer. Somehow it was very slightly the wrong thickness (too thin) but the correct diameter. This was a small enough tolerance to work fine in one housing and not the other.

Isotta also have Inon viewfinders as an option for their housings and very kindly tested and put a new correct o ring on the Inon part and re-tested. Despite the hassle and time, and the housing itself being perfect, and the Inon viewfinder not being bought through them or one of their dealers, they did not charge me anything. An added bonus was a really interesting tour of their small artisan factory. Lovely people with great products. Many hundreds of dives later it is still working perfectly.