Olympus SP-350 and Ikelite

Hi, this question is mostly for Ikelite industry members (or users) out there. Our lab recently bought four Ikelite housings for the Olympus SP-350 and I was testing them today. The controls align perfectly except for one, the zoom control. I mount the camera and push the zoom control knob as far in as it will go, but it still doesn't reach the zoom control in the camera.

Am I doing something wrong? This happens in all four housings.

Thanks for any info,

Luiz

Luiz,

I can't speak to the Ikelite but I can tell you how the Olympus Housing works as it has to be similar. There is a notch in the Zoom button of the Oly housing. You have to align the cameras zoom with this notch. In the Oly housing if you're off to one side, the zoom will not work and the housing will flood because the camera can't seat correctly even though the housing appears to close.

Hope that helps,

Gary

Hi Gary, thanks for the suggestion. The Ikelite also has that notch, and I did align the zoom button with that. The problem with the Ikelite is that even with the camera and the zoom knob pushed all the way in and the button doesn't reach the notch. In short, I can't reach the zoom control with the zoom button in the housing.

By the way, we also have a couple of Olympus housings for them, and they work fine. We bought Ikelites to use them with SS50s, they are a lot more stable with strobes and strobe arms than the little Olympus.

Luiz

Ike? Anybody?

Luiz

The housings (2) and cameras (4) I have here work fine. and I don't see how you could screw this one up...

Luiz, I'm not familiar with those cameras or housings, but sometimes I fine tune the knob location on the shaft to get a better fit with controls, etc.

Karl

Karl, tell me more about that, is it possible to pull the knob further out and make the shaft longer?

Luiz

I'm not Karl, but...

You can loosen the set screw on the knob, move it slightly out on the shaft, and the set it back down. Don't move out past the indentation on the control, shaft, though...

There is no obvious screw in this knob... It is the same as the shutter release knob. Am I missing something?

Luiz

Unscrew the vinyl cover over the lever....the lever is the screw.....it will have an allen head socket in the end

Loosen and slide out slightly to change the setting

Karl

First thing to check is camera mounting to the tray. Properly installed and tightened sufficiently with a coin or screwdriver, the camera will function correctly with the housing buttons and controls. We have had a camera in every housing to check and adjust anything necessary. You can loosen the knob set screw and slide knob up slightly on the shaft or remove any washers we have installed under the knob so it applies more pressure to the case. But, remember, we had it right when it left here.

Ok, maybe I am not describing the problem correctly. The camera is installed correctly and securely fastened, I've done this before many times. The problem is that the zoom knob does not reach the zoom control in the camera.

Here are two photos showing the problem, the second is just a detail of the first.

Still haven't solved the above... No more suggestions?

Thanks,

Luiz

Only one suggestion. If you've tried everything else, send it back to the mother ship. However, if it is wrong in all four housings, it's still sounds a bit fishy to me. I had a similar problem with my old Olympus C5050 setup. The problem I had was that the tray (that the camera sat on and which was attached to the back of the housing) could "sag" just enough to not quite fit into the front properly. The outer ring of the lens would catch just a little on the inside of the housing port and the camera wouldn't quite make it all the way to the front. Judging from the position where your shutter actuator and your zoom control both end up relative to the camera I'd check to make sure that the camera is, in fact, getting all the way in there. I know it looks simple, but so did the -5050 setup and it took me a while to figure out what that particular issue was for me.

HTH,

Mike

Luiz,

Let me take a stab at helping you....

The zoom control outside KNOB has a long vinyl cover on the lever, which simply covers a long allen set screw. You can slice off the end tip with a razor blade knife, and SEE the allen wrench hole on the end. This KNOB on this control shaft is held into a scallop ground part on the shaft to make the lever operate the shaft without slipping.

This "scallop" has some adjustment room, and by loosening and re-tightening the long set screw you can gain maybe 1/8" MORE depth of the shaft into the housing. I'd try this first.

If your control shaft little black plastic part still doesn't go in deep enough to contact the ZOOM lever on the SP350, then loosen the set screw and see if there is a black plastic washer under the knob outside. This is a SHIM designed to bottom out the control knob limiting the depth a control shaft can exert pressure on a camera's controls. You can remove it and replace the control knob, and tighten securely.

One other thing you must remember on mechanical controls is to PUSH and then TURN when on the surface to simulate water pressure pushing on controls. Sometimes a control that seems to be SO CLOSE but still missing will be fine under water pressure.

Hope this helps!

David Haas

Ikelite Housing User

Luiz,

One more option.......Send me a ticket to Hawaii and I'll be out straight away

David Haas