Upgrade: D80 or D200, Nexus or Sea&Sea

I currently shoot a D70 in a Nexus housing, and my girl friend shoots a D70 in a Sea&Sea housing. We're looking to upgrade to 10 MP cameras, so I've been considering the options. Since we're heavily invested in both S&S and Nexus ports, the most logical choice would be either the D80 or the D200, with one of each housing.

I've read all the comparisons between D80 and D200, and am leaning toward the D200.

The question is: Does anyone have any major (or minor) positives or negatives for any of these housings that might help tip the balance one way or another? I've retrofitted a Heinrich's converter into the Nexus, and it works great with YS-90s and YS-120s, so the S&S TTL converter is not a required option.

Ease of use, functionality, available (or not) controls, all those would be items I'd be interested in.

Mahalo

Dave

I currently shoot a D70 in a Nexus housing, and my girl friend shoots a D70 in a Sea&Sea housing. We're looking to upgrade to 10 MP cameras, so I've been considering the options. Since we're heavily invested in both S&S and Nexus ports, the most logical choice would be either the D80 or the D200, with one of each housing.

 

I've read all the comparisons between D80 and D200, and am leaning toward the D200.

 

The question is: Does anyone have any major (or minor) positives or negatives for any of these housings that might help tip the balance one way or another? I've retrofitted a Heinrich's converter into the Nexus, and it works great with YS-90s and YS-120s, so the S&S TTL converter is not a required option.

 

Ease of use, functionality, available (or not) controls, all those would be items I'd be interested in.

 

Mahalo

Dave

Hi Dave,

Having used a Nexus D70 for a couple of years (diving most days) and i felt it was time to upgrade too, to the D200.

I have had the Nexus ND200 for about a month now and have done one weeks diving with it. I was hoping that there would be some minor improvements in the housing design... But i am yet to find any.

It has the new 2 viewfinder design, but i felt that made things more complicated not more efficient. In fact, i'm not even sure i got my viewfinder set correctly for any of my dives!

I loved my D70 housing, but this d200 housing for me has been a disappointment, it has less useful controls (no msc switch and you cant reach the AE-L AF-L button without taking your hand off one of the grips.

I would love to list a bunch of positives but i cant find too many.... I like the focus light holder / hot shoe

I should point out that the housing already has the holes drilled in it for many features, so i guess you can buy the msc switch as an add on. I'm trying to find this out at the moment from my local dealer.

I heard a rumour that nexus were releasing a kit to allow the use of a D80 in a D70 housing. Maybe wait for that if it's going to happen.

The Sea and Sea housing looks great, im sure they have some dealers in Hawaii (if thats where you are!), i'd go and take a close look before you buy anything.

If theirs doesnt look so good either, maybe go for aquatica, i hear that they are constantly making developments in their releases, unlike Nexus...

I shoot a D200 in a Sea and Sea housing, from what I understand, the biggest difference between the D80 Sea & Sea and the D200 Sea & Sea housing is that the D200 housing is all aluminum vs the half plastic for the D80. This is important to some, not to others, but worth considering if you're going to stay Sea & Sea.

I personally love my setup.

Take care,

John

I shoot a D200 in a Sea and Sea housing, from what I understand, the biggest difference between the D80 Sea & Sea and the D200 Sea & Sea housing is that the D200 housing is all aluminum vs the half plastic for the D80. This is important to some, not to others, but worth considering if you're going to stay Sea & Sea.

 

I personally love my setup.

 

Take care,

John

John

Thanks for the comments. I have been much less impressed with the S&S D70 housing than the Nexus housing. We had an issue with the aperature adjustment gear set-up in the S&S housing - it's a series of four bevel/straight gears, that don't mesh very well, and that basically locked up during a trip to PNG. It was replaced with a similar gear set, hopefully better engineered. The housing itself was also much larger than the Nexus. The new S&S housings look like tighter fits to the cameras, and hopefully the controls are better engineered.

Any issues with missing control functions?

Thanks

Dave

Hi,

To me, m-s-c & AF-L/AE-L is not important & I do not use it most of time. I heard Nexus decided not to put it as they found less & less people use it. On D70&D80, it is not even msc but auto/m.

One thing I miss on D200 Nexus housing is push lever for lens opening which I had on D70 Nexus housing. I now have a difficulty to change fat 105mm VR lens as there is no space to put my finger in.

Feature I like most on Nexus housing is 105mm VR focus gear which I can manual focus over AF while I am holding the housing.

Re converting D70 to D80 housing, Nexus japanese website has information saying project is on hold as they found it requires a extra hole to drill.

Sam

Any issues with missing control functions?

The Sea & Sea DX200 has all the controls that I tend to use, except perhaps a control for rear curtain sync. I tend to just leave it in that made, the only time I use shutter speeds slow enough for it to have effect, I want it on. Problem is I tend to forget to pre set...

My only real gripe is that I have to take my hand off the trigger to adjust aperature, otherwise no complaints.

I have little experiance with other housings for comparison, but am very happy with Sea and Sea.

John

Feature I like most on Nexus housing is 105mm VR focus gear which I can manual focus over AF while I am holding the housing.

looks like S&S has released the new DX ports to house the 105VR and focus ring. Ryan at Reefphoto is selling them already.