Nauticam advice sort.

[Mark H]

Sadly I had a major housing failure a few weeks back that completely flooded my housing and camera. My beloved D500 is dead and it seems I can't repair my Sea&Sea housing. Fortunately my insurance are offering a fair recompense. However, while not wishing to moan, it leaves me with quite a quandary: I can't get another Sea&Sea D500 housing, and only second hand D500 s are available. I didn't want to switch over to mirrorless but it seems that getting a nikon dSLR housing is quite a challenge.

 

So it looks like I'm going mirrorless - whether I like it or not 😞.

 

I'm wondering about getting a Z8. I'll need some new lenses but at least my above water lenses can be made to work with this body - as opposed to switching to say Canon or Sony. However, Sea&Sea don't have a housing out - and I did have that failure, which has knocked my confidence. Nauticam do have a housing but I'm just not familiar with them. I seem to remember something about it being possible to get Sea&Sea ports to work with Nauticam housings. Is this still true and if so how good is it really?

 

What are peoples thoughts? Wait for a Sea&Sea housing or switch to Nauticam. Everyone seems to use them but I'm not sure why people believe they are better than Sea&Sea.

 

I apologise for asking these noob questions but I'm completely thrown by not being able to fix my existing housing but with a good pay out by the insurance. I loved my D500 and up until this point had no intentions of moving to mirrorless!

 

I'd love to hear your views.

Mark 

[JustinO]

Hey Mark 

Sorry to hear about the failure - must be gutting, particularly to lose a rig you're well used to. 

I'd suggest that as part of your research you get in touch with Alex Tattersall, the UK Nauticam distributor.  Alex has always been really open with me about what I'm considering, and his advice has always been straight up, not pushing me to buy. I guess that's part of being a photo instructor, not just a dealer. 

Alex will likely be able to tell you what the art of the possible is regarding your old ports.

Part of what I and others like about Nauti is the after sales service and support -which I guess is why I stick with it. 

Alex can be contacted below:

https://www.uwvisions.com/contact/

 

[hedonist222]

Why can't you repair your Sea&SEA? 

 

It's a case with buttons, o rings, and maybe some bolt-on electronics. 

 

 

[Dave_Hicks]

I would be surprised if you can't buy a second hand D500 Nauticam housing. On the other hand the Z8 is amazing. You could get a Z6 as well for a bit less. Either will work great. 

[Davide DB]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/AoMQf8oejRDarDQ5/

 

[Mark H]

15 hours ago, hedonist222 said:

Why can't you repair your Sea&SEA? 

 

It's a case with buttons, o rings, and maybe some bolt-on electronics. 

 

 

 

13 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

I would be surprised if you can't buy a second hand D500 Nauticam housing. On the other hand the Z8 is amazing. You could get a Z6 as well for a bit less. Either will work great. 

That was my thoughts. The zoom/focus knob broke off as the failure but this appeared to damage the whole of that rod. It seems that the rod (not the knob) is unique to each housing and Sea&Sea don't have spares of them?? I guess the D500 housing is quite old! Anyway I've been told it is unrepairable!

 

I also had to send the housing off to the insurance company to prove it was damaged etc. They have paid out the full new price but I'd have to buy it back at £1500 if I wanted to mend it. This is just a risk - I'm told it can't be fixed and then I've spent £1500 that could go to a new housing on something that is useless.

 

16 hours ago, JustinO said:

Hey Mark 

I'd suggest that as part of your research you get in touch with Alex Tattersall, the UK Nauticam distributor.  Alex has always been really open with me about what I'm considering, and his advice has always been straight up, not pushing me to buy.

https://www.uwvisions.com/contact/

 

That is a good idea and one I intended to follow - I just thought that with all the expertise here I'd maybe find out some of the silly things before contacting Alex. I've obviously done my own research and found out that the standard strobe control is manual but in review didn't work well up to the 1/200s max sync. So I wondered if others had seen things like that. Personally I shoot in manual all the time so TTL I thought was a waste but if I need to get that to see higher sync speeds then maybe it is worth it. I also thought people would know what ports are used and if it was still possible to use my dome port at least - buying a load of ports and especially an new glass dome seems a waste.

 

I'm looking at at Z8 as I'm not keen on the performance of the Z6 and it would only be a few hundred pounds to go from Z6 prices to Z8 given the money I've got from the insurance.

 

Thanks for the suggestion all. Any more knowledge and support is appreciated!

Edited September 12 by Mark H
Added extra comments :-)

[Mark H]

11 hours ago, Davide DB said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/AoMQf8oejRDarDQ5/

 

I'm not sure that I'm going to go back to a D500 - second hand cameras just always concern me! The insurance money would take me towards low pain transfer into mirrorless. I can sell my lenses and top side photo gear and move over with out having to worry about the cost of the new housing or camera as I have enough money to do that from what I've been paid out.

[canislupus]

Hello,

Sorry also to hear about the failure.

It is a luck that the insurance has paid the full new price for the housing, it has to be a very good insurance. I believe that doesn’t exist in Spain.

I am in a similar situation, after looking for some time for a second-hand housing for the D500. I’ve sort of give up and looking for an alternative in S&S. I was thinking about the Z6II, not the III. As far I know S&S won’t make housing for the z6iii in the near future. I don’t know if they will for the z8.

I am curious either why so many people hear have Nauticam housing and almost anybody S&S.

[Seacamera]

Hi Mark,

Sorry about your drama. Never nice to have a flood!

 

From a fellow Nikon shooter, that has been down the path you are looking at, I can add the following: I would certainly not look at getting anothe D500 and you will just have problems finding part, housings etc etc. Mirrorless is the future for now, and I would definitely suggest getting the Z8 over the Z6ii. I have both, and the Z8 is way better. I am even looking at upgrading my housing to the Z8. You will not regret getting the Z8.

 

With regards to housings, there are a few good options. Unfortunately I highly doubt S&S will be bringing out a housing for the Z8 - I would not wait. So you looking at either Nauticam, Aquatica, Marelux, Ikelite, Seacam or Isotta. Then it comes down to personal preferences: plastic vs aluminium, design, and of course, budget.

 

I have used most Brands at some stage, and they are all good. I had the Nauticam D850 housing and it was awesome. Unfortunately it got stolen and I couldn't afford to buy another Nauticam, so I now have an Aquatica, and it does the job just as good. Before my Nauticam, i had Sea & Sea, together with all the ports. I then got an adaptor for my Nauticam and used my S&S ports on the Nauticam and it was 100%. I even use my S&S ports on my Aquatica. It is obviously better to get the ports for each Brand from that Brand, but then again, it comes down to budgets etc. My S&S ports worked fine with Nauticam, and they work fine with Aquatica. When I have the funds to upgrade, I will buy Aquatica ports, but for now the dome from S&S does the job, using the port adaptor supplied by Aquatica.

 

Hope this answers some of your questions. Shout if you need anthing else.

 

Regards

Anthony

[Davide DB]

I know that Saga makes an adapter ring to use a Sea&Sea port on a Nauticam housing.

 

https://sagadive.com/en/producto/aro-de-extension-adaptador-seasea-nauticam/

 

 

[Mark H]

On 9/12/2024 at 12:35 PM, Seacamera said:

My S&S ports worked fine with Nauticam, and they work fine with Aquatica. When I have the funds to upgrade, I will buy Aquatica ports, but for now the dome from S&S does the job, using the port adaptor supplied by Aquatica.

 

Hope this answers some of your questions. Shout if you need anthing else.

 

Regards

Anthony

 

On 9/12/2024 at 12:42 PM, Davide DB said:

I know that Saga makes an adapter ring to use a Sea&Sea port on a Nauticam housing.

 

https://sagadive.com/en/producto/aro-de-extension-adaptador-seasea-nauticam/

 

 

Thanks guys really useful

I totally agree that getting the correct ports is the way to go. I'm just thinking at the moment that I don't want to spend more thousands on getting every port and every lens along with my new camera and housing. 

 

I've no experience of Isotta either and they seem to use the same port bayonet fitting as Sea&Sea. I don't mind the red colour housing but the curvy grips look hard to use. If only one could try out a load of housing and see what they are like before spending ~£10k on a new system! But life isn't that simple.

Thanks again for all the ideas and suggestions. The group is really friendly - I love it!💗

[Dave_Hicks]

If you get a Nikon Z8 you should buy a WWL-C and the 24-50Z lens (get it used, it's cheap). This combo is so awesome you will use it more than anything else. It's a compelling reason not to consider any other housing than Nauticam. Pair that with a Macro using one of your adapted ports, and you may be good to go.  Hit me up for a Zoom Gear on the 24-50Z, it will save you $250.

Edited Friday at 03:24 PM by Dave_Hicks

[TimG]

2 hours ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Nikon Z8 you should buy a WWL-C and the 24-50Z lens

 

Interestingly I've been talking to Nauticam about their housing for the Z6III and they recommended this combination. 

[Dave_Hicks]

13 minutes ago, TimG said:

 

Interestingly I've been talking to Nauticam about their housing for the Z6III and they recommended this combination. 

 

Sure, it's fantastic and the best option for Nikon Z Mirrorless cameras. I also have a Nikon 8-15 fisheyee, but that is for a more limited scenario with big reef scenes and very clear waters. The WWL-C with 24-50 will handle both wide and near-macro in more varied water conditions.

 

Here are a couple of shots with this setup I took last week at God's Pocket in BC, both during the same dive:

 

Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm @50mm, WWL-C, f18@1/200s iso125, Pair of Backscatter HF-1 strobes

 

 

Nikon Z8 w/24-50mm @24mm, WWL-C, f11@1/80s iso400, Pair of Backscatter HF-1 strobes

Edited Friday at 06:12 PM by Dave_Hicks

[canislupus]

I thought the WWL-C (Wet wide lens for compact cameras), was only, like the name says, for compact camera and M4/3.

According to the Nauticam webpage is what I could find.

Just asking.

Link WWL-C

Edited Saturday at 04:18 PM by canislupus

[Dave_Hicks]

1 hour ago, canislupus said:

I thought the WWL-C (Wet wide lens for compact cameras), was only, like the name says, for compact camera and M4/3.

According to the Nauticam webpage is what I could find.

Just asking.

Link WWL-C

 

Well, that is clearly not the case. Looking at that link, there is no mention on Nikon Z-mount as you say. Nauticam should update the page. The WWL-C does work with Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras. Just dig a bit deeper and look at the N120 Z-mount port chart where it is documented. The Port Chart shows the WWL-C configuration with the 24-50mm Z-mount lens.

 

The full zoom range is supported. It's a great setup, and pretty compact. The Port6 that it mounts to is very short, like a 20mm extension.  It ends up being smaller than the WWL-1B on Sony with the 28-70mm lens which requires a much longer port.

[Chris Ross]

Back to your original question, S&S ports can be converted to Nauticam just by changing out the lug ring.  An alternative is that Isotta housings can take S&S ports directly, they have the same lug ring.  These options would allow you to bring your ports across.

 

Nauticam have designed the Z8 housing to accept the Nikon F to Z mount adapter and use the same ports and zoom rings as would have been used with a Nauticam DSLR housing and Nikon F mount lenses - as a result the housing is thicker as the lens flange if located deeper inside the housing.  Designed this way to make it as easy as possible to upgrade for a Nikon DSLR/Nauticam user.

 

I'm not sure on the situation with Isotta, but as you are coming from S&S apart from housing thickness there is any difference that would impact you.  I think Isotta may be an attractive solution though - the housings are cheaper and you don't need to do anything to use your ports - though contact them for advice to see if a different  extension ring might be needed.  If you plan to use your old lenses then an FTZ adapter is also needed.