Dave_Hicks

I designed and printed out the Nikon 24-50Z zoom gear for Nauticam today. This lens is typically used in combo with the Nauticam WWL-C wet lens. I dove the 16-35 zoom gear I made last week on the weekend. This one took a few attempts to get right; too tight, too loose, finally just right! It's posted on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6460615 The gear works well, and it all fits very cleanly, turns easily. I used a PLA+ hard plastic for the gear and a TPU sleeve for the lens. Remove the rubber grip from the lens, and put the sleeve on in its place. It should slip on with a little effort and grips well. Place the rim down of the sleeve toward the camera. The gear slides over the sleeve, rim first with gear side away from the camera. The 24-50 lens has a sort of "twist to lock" feature as the element telescopes out of the body when in use. The gear has enough grip to lock/unlock it, and then turns easily from 24-50 when in the housing. Set your slicer to use 10mm walls when printing the gear. This will ensure that it prints the base of the gear in rings rather than lines. This will probably work much better than the default.

Don't add more things to complicate the situation. It looks like you have some vignetting, but it's angled. Make sure the shade is completely aligned with the port once it is settled. You generally need to loosen and tighten the shade once your mount is fixed. Also make sure the lens is flat on the port if you have a hinged adapter. It can be easy to bump it up a few millimeters when you dive.

Nauticam Zoom Gear for Nikon 16-35mm lens I've posted a Thingiverse project for a Nikon 16-35mm zoom gear, for use with a Nauticam housing. I dove it this weekend and it worked great. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6460301

Yes I do. Two KISS Spirit CCRs for my wife and myself. I've had this unit for about 8 years, and dove the Sport KISS model starting in 2007. Most of my diving is CCR, and all of my local PNW diving.

I have posted a Thingiverse project for the Hollis BOV 2nd stage regulator purge cover. Mine failed a few weeks ago so I made a replacement regulator part. Works great! https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6460250

Buy some contact cleaner and use it. Monthly.

This is a picture of my D500 hotshoe from a few years ago. It was not used in a housing, but as a surface camera on a dive boat for about a week. After the trip I put it in a dry cabinet where my cameras live. Sometime later I found it like this! An extreme case, but the point is that buildup and corrosion can form even if your gear is well cared for and not directly exposed to water.

Ahh, I missed that part in your description. The other option is that there is a short on the trigger board. Either moisture or a physical contact. Try putting some black electrical tape over the trigger and then insert it. If you can sort of lightly shield both sides with tape you can prevent any errant contact. Additionally, clean both the cameras hotshoe contacts and the hotshoe cable connector with contact cleaner and Q-Tip. A weak connection could be a transient issue. I've actually had hotshoes spontaneously form visible corrosion from exposure to sea air. One of my topside cameras that spent a week on a dive boat got totally encrusted.

Sounds like a fiber optic cable failure to me. The cable could be deformed under pressure and if there is a crack or break it may not work under water when it does in air/low pressure. I would try a couple of things: * While at depth unplug and reconnect each cable end point to ensure there is no bubbles between the connectors. I have had this prevent a strobe from firing on occasion. * Swap out for a fresh set of multi-core fiber optic cables. See above.

I just started diving my Z8 this week. So far I am using my F-mount lenses but I should have a Z24-50 to put behind a WWL-C in a day or two. As for the 105mm, I really can't image how much better the Z version could be. It's already an extremely sharp and fast lens. Replacing it just seems unnecessary and conspicuous. (as if replacing my D850 system wasn't already...)

Curious as to why you are getting rid of the strobe and 105mm just because you got a Z8. You can still use all of those with the new system. I also just got a Z8 and Nauticam housing, but I'm not going to dump my F-mount 105mm lens or the others anytime soon. The Z versions might be new and improved, but not by much.

I have not received my Nikon Z 24-50mm lens yet, but I do have the 16-35mm with a Nauticam gear. Very similar to the one pictured above in the previous post. In anticipation of making a 3d Printed gear for the 24-50 I decided to replicate the 16-35 gear. I decided to make the gear itself out of a rigid PLA+ material. I made the sleeve out of TPU, printed in a ring. I then cut the ring so that it had about a 5mm gap when wrapped around the lens zoom collar. Surprisingly, I got the gear dimensions just about perfect on the first try. I left some wiggle room in the inside diameter that will be taken up by the sleeve. The sleeve took two prints to get it right, but I cheated a bit by cutting off some ribs/ridges that I added and turned out not to be necessary. I updated the design to remove those for the next gear I make. I also made some Cura parameter changes to the Gear that will make the next print a bit cleaner. (10mm walls so the gear base prints in rings rather than lines.) I will upload and share designs of all my Gear sets after I dive them and validate their functionality in the real world. Below are some photos of the 16-35 gear.

I have been using Duramic TPU which also has a shore hardness rating of 95A. It's a lot cheaper at ~$20/kg and seems to work pretty well for everything I've printed with it to date. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

It never hurts to carry a spare strobe with you. These days a bring two Inon 330s and a Backscatter MF-2/Snoot along. I nearly always use the MF-2/Snoot when shooting macro with a single 330 for fill light. But if one of my big strobes dies, I can always use the MF-2 for Wide Angle as the fill or spotlight role. If you dive a lot, I suggest investing in a 3rd strobe for redundancy.

I won't have the lens in hand until Sunday, so I'll make a gear next week. I have a good design template but need to get the precise measurements and try a couple of material options. I will post the design on Thingiverse once I've tested it out. I dive a couple times a week, so it won't be long.

Welcome from a fellow Seattle diver! Looking at your website I see lots of great images, but I am not seeing any Pacific Northwest photos! What's that about? You live in one of the best diving regions in the world. I'd love to meet you on the beach here in Seatle anytime you get the urge. Cheers, Dave

I use the first one. It's very well made and works exactly as expected. I use it on a Nauticam housing with the KRL-09 and SubSea diopters.

Try Reef Photo in Florida. I have used them for many years. Purchases and service for Nauticam. They are very responsive. They also don't charge sales tax for Washington State.

That is vignetteing. The port is too long or diopter-gap too big. The field of view is getting clipped. This is what happened with my 60mm & SubSea+5 when i accidentally used it with the longer 105mm port.

Thanks for details. I just bought a WWL-C to shoot on a Z8. I hope to give it a spin in a week or two.

I think you should discuss this chart with Bluewater. This looks like an error at best, and poor advice at worst.

Well, I accidentally shot the 60mm yesterday in the Port 87 intended for a 105mm and the KRL looked like crap behind that port. When first got the KRL-09 port I tried it with a 105mm + Port 87 in the pool and it looked very bad, worse that was happened yesterday.

I looked at the Kraken website and it does not show anything like that I could find. It mentioned 60mm or 30mm on m4/3.

This port is designed to work with a 60mm lens. Anything other than that and you would expected diminished results. Period. Interestingly enough, I went diving yesterday and used my 60mm + KRL-09 combo. But I screwed up and had my 105mm port installed! Opps!! I took a few shots with the KRL-09 and they were not horrible, but also not anywhere near a sharp as I get with the proper port installed. Below is a 100% crop and the image is fuzzy, even after some Lightroom tweaks. It just doesn't work well outside the design parameters.

Do you know the brand of TPU that you have used? I'd like to compare to my brand, which I don't really think of as being all that firm. I am about to design and print my first gear in the next week once I get a newly ordered lens. The Nauticam equivalent is a two-piece design. With a hard plastic gear and a flexible sleeve. Cut o-rings sit in grooves for some grip between lens, sleeve, and gear. (see below) I thought I might use a similar two-piece design, but with a TPU based sleeve. However, if the whole thing were TPU that might be a cleaner solution. Any thoughts? [Nauticam screenshot]