Got my Sea&Sea DX350 - Problems with 1st dive

Hello everyone,

I finally got my housing:

Sea&Sea Housing with External TTL for Canon 350D

Macro port for Canon EFS-60

2 x Sea&Sea YS-110

Sea&Sea Arms

Fantasea focus light

(Still waiting for the glass dome port)

Very excited with my new "toy", I went diving yesterday in the South of Netherlands (Zeeland) where I could test the camera with the macro lens. On land put everything together, checked o-rings, checked the strobes to see if they were firing and there I go to the water. In the water the problems started. The housing is extremely negative under water. So much that I could not keep my buoyancy proper. My legs were going up all the time with the weight of the camera. I never have any problems with buoyancy with the drysuit... but with this housing it is too much. To add to this, underwater my strobes did not fire. Tried to switch on and off both the TTL converter and the strobes but nothing. When I get out of the water, the strobes started working again.

Second dive of the day I didnt even try to take the camera with me.

I am kind of disappointed at this moment with the results of my first dive with this housing. I really hope I can find a solution to make the housing much less buoyant. Also I still dont understand what happened for the strobes not to fire.

Regards

Nuno

Hi Nuno,

I am sorry to hear you didn't have a good time taking your housing the first time to the water. As for the dry suit problem, check this topic with lots of useful tips:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7725

Also, there are some people having trouble with Sea&Sea's TTL converter, check this topic:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16446

I would try the strobes in manual connected directly to the housing just to see if they work. But remember that in manual they should be connected by 3 pins only.

Luiz

Yeah, sorry to hear about your less than auspicious first outing. On the bouyancy front, these small housings, armed with macro ports are a real problem. I get the same sort of thing with my 5D rig on macro. I went for a set of ULCS buoyancy arms in the end, and avoided the copact macro ports, favouring the standard port, to include more air in the housing as a whole. It is tempting to add some incompressible foam to the housing if it remains a problem.

On the strobe problems I'm puzzled as you are. I doubt it has anything to do with the problems the Nikon folks have been having, since those would appear to be a batch issue that once they break, just won't do TTL at all anymore. They don't fix themselves once out of the water.

Any idea if the YS110s were completely dead underwater, or did the aiming light work OK? As you turned the TTL converter off and back on, did you get a "glitch flash"? Hopefully we can help you work out at least which bit is malfunctioning.

Martyn

Nunomix... sorry to hear about your problems... As Martyn said, with the strobes on, if you turn the TTL converter on, did you get a flash? Hopefully its not a bad TTL converter. Maybe recheck all the cable connections again and do a topside and pool test.

As for the negative buoyancy, yes that's the trade off of having such a small dslr housing like the DX350 (plus a small macro port). I've got 2 Inon's which make things worse. But it didn't throw my trim off too much. I did use some foam pool noodles on my arms. Doesn't add that much buoyancy but at least it tends to stabilize the camera rig in a more upward position. Anyways, I'm sure as you dive it more, you'll get comfortable with it.

Nuno,

Re your buoyancy problem, I suggest you to try Camera BC made by Patima(see benner on top) & I have been using it for few years now.

Please, e-mail me your mailing address if you like to try this BC & I will send you a sample. no obligation to buy or whatsoever.

Sam

Hi Nuno,

I suppose you dive with a dry suit, since you dive in the Netherlands at this time of the year. I had the same problem in the beginning. Do you use anckle weights? If you don't use them, it will help you a lot by getting a pair. I use 0.5 kg per foot and it makes a big difference. Furthermore, i have heavy negatively buoyant rubber Scubapro fins.

For the rest: i know how it is to crawl over the dyke with a big rig and dive in cold murky water with lots of current: it's just not so simple and you most likelly will have to deal with it. Once you're better used to your rig things will go better, i'm sure. But if you know any elegant solution for getting the camera more neutral i'm open for it.

Re your buoyancy problem, I suggest you to try Camera BC made by Patima(see benner on top) & I have been using it for few years now.

 

Please, e-mail me your mailing address if you like to try this BC & I will send you a sample. no obligation to buy or whatsoever.

 

Sam

Does that count for me as well?

cheers, Udo

Udo,

O.K. I will send you my last sample....

Sam

Nuno

Regarding the boyancy of the rig, and getting to know the camera.

I have a similar rig S&S 350 + compact macroport + 2 ys-60 with ulcs arms.

I fo feel that the rig is slightly negative underwater but it does not bother me that much, it is infact heavier with the glass dome...

But I have a few tips regarding getting to know the rig. First I would suggest that you do the first test with your new housing in a swimmingpool with a thin wetsuit. This way you can leqarn to handle the basic functions in a secure environment and not having to bother so much about diving technicalities.

After I had done a few pool dives i took a last minute flight to egypt to do my fist oceandives with the camera... When I got back from egypt I fealt myself ready to dive with my drysuit in nortern norway.

Hi Guys,

Thank you all for your support and advise.

Drysuit buoyancy - I always dive with squeezed drysuit and always use the wing for buoyancy compensation. I guess I will try to use gators again with the camera to see if it helps.

Strobes not firing - the strobes underwater were not dead. meaning, the focus lights were working as well as I had the red light in the power button on the whole time. They just wouldnt fire. I also tried to put the TTL converter on manual while underwater but the strobes would not fire anyway. I tried it later on in the bathtub and the strobes worked properly but in the tub there is not a lot of pressure.

Housing Buoyancy - I am going to try the Patima BC and see how it works. I will probably also try to get some uncompressible foam tubes to put in the arms although I still need to find a place to get them.

Any additional advise for this "novice" UW shooter will be highly valuable and appreciated. Thanks!!!

Cheers,

Nuno

Dear All,

First of all Merry Christmas!!! I spoke with my LDS and he mentioned the problem to Sea&Sea Japan. They explained him that cases like this happened already in the past and asked for me to send the housing back to check the connections. They did not ask the TTL converter. This looked strange to me since the problem I have read about was the TTL converter and not the housing connector itself.

As soon as I get back to the Netherlands, I will send him the housing and the TTL converter (just in case)

Cheers,

Nuno

I finally got my housing back. I was still not able to try it underwater but made a Tub test and looks okay.

I tried the Patima BC that Shchae kindly gave me and it seems to work. In the tub it was neutral. Thank you so much Sam !!! I put some foam tubes in the housing (around the port) and it helps with balancing the housing.

I will try it this weekend and I will let you know.

But if you know any elegant solution for getting the camera more neutral i'm open for it.

Somewhere in the coming week I'll try and put a little review online of some custom made buoyancy arms that are for sale now. In short..they rock.

Cor

Somewhere in the coming week I'll try and put a little review online of some custom made buoyancy arms that are for sale now. In short..they rock.

 

Cor

aha... I've been waiting to hear more about these "secret" arms... I think your better half mentioned she was trying them over in scubaboard...

The patima BCD looks a bit bulky and might be a PITAS to inflate/ deflate...

aha... I've been waiting to hear more about these "secret" arms... I think your better half mentioned she was trying them over in scubaboard...

Nothing secret about them Hence the little review soon. And I wanted to make sure the maker of them doesnt mind

Cor

Cor - You mention the same arms Monty and Michelle are using, no? Are there any issues with overall strength with some of the larger strobes (or in holding the housing by looping something around the arms, as is common in some cases)?

Cor - You mention the same arms Monty and Michelle are using, no? Are there any issues with overall strength with some of the larger strobes (or in holding the housing by looping something around the arms, as is common in some cases)?

Same arms yes, although they have an early prototype. And I think they never really use them much, at least not until Julie and I decided to use them for a month

In using the prototypes for a month, and now having my own set and using them for about a week, I havent noticed any strength issues. Granted, we have light strobes (YS90s and now 110s), so maybe if you have a really heavy strobe that could be an issue. But honestly, I doubt it. I just picked up the largest arm and tried to bend it with my hands and i couldnt do it. They seem pretty solid. But, I will mail the guy that makes them and ask, especially if he started using a different material for the arms themselves (he did for the ball ends, as the prototype showed some problems).

Cor

I just tried this btw, added long arms, Subal D2x housing with D2x, YS110s, added two 2 pound weights, then picked it up like you describe. No problem. Feels the same as with my normal ULCS arms.

Btw, Julie did a little DYI on a very easy to make handle for SLR housings. If anyone's interested i can post about it After I saw her use it for 1 dive where we had to walk for about 100 yards, I asked her to make me one

Cor

I just tried this btw, added long arms, Subal D2x housing with D2x, YS110s, added two 2 pound weights, then picked it up like you describe. No problem. Feels the same as with my normal ULCS arms.

 

Btw, Julie did a little DYI on a very easy to make handle for SLR housings. If anyone's interested i can post about it After I saw her use it for 1 dive where we had to walk for about 100 yards, I asked her to make me one

 

Cor

cor, yes, i'd be very interested in the arms and your special setup

/paul

The patima BCD looks a bit bulky and might be a PITAS to inflate/ deflate...

I still didn't try it underwater but I am not thinking about inflating it underwater. I hope to get at least some lift since the housing with the camera without arms and strobes is already negative.

This patima BC was used by many divers for few years maybe not in US but, in other side of world. It has a valve & you can inflate & deflate if you know how to do but, most of time you do not need to play with valve. Once you put air by mouth to inflate before dive & deflate when diving is done. It took a year to come up with the size of BC after test with many different housing.

Sam