D80 and Sea & Sea - AF/AE lock missing

I'm looking at housings for my D80, but am somewhat limited by the fact that nobody within 200 miles apparently has any housings to look at (you people in Florida and CA have it pretty good). Based on internet research, the Sea & Sea seemed like a good mid-range choice. However, just found out it has no AF/AE lock button. That seems like a showstopper to me; I use that all the time in spot-metering situations topside, and I definitely want the ability to focus and recompose, and/or lock exposure and recompose. I'll generally be in manual mode, so think I might get both focus and exposure lock manually by putting it in AF-S (so focus would lock when I depress shutter halfway), and turning AE on in the command menu, but then I lose the ability to use AF-A and stay focused on moving fish, panning shots, whatever. Am I missing an obvious workaround, or making a big deal out of not much, or should this legitimately give me pause?

Thanks,

Tim

hey Tim, I just got a Sea & Sea housing for the D80, so let me know if you have any questions about it. I've testing it on land, and hope to take it underwater this week.

Being new to these various focus mode options, I can't really answer your question, but I have one of my own (perhaps a naive question):

- What's wrong with just keeping the camera is AF-A mode (its supposed to work for stationary objects and moving objects), and just pressing the shutter halfway down when you want to lock exposure & focus, reframing, and then pressing the shutter the rest of the way?

Scott

hey Tim, I just got a Sea & Sea housing for the D80, so let me know if you have any questions about it. I've testing it on land, and hope to take it underwater this week.

 

Being new to these various focus mode options, I can't really answer your question, but I have one of my own (perhaps a naive question):

 

- What's wrong with just keeping the camera is AF-A mode (its supposed to work for stationary objects and moving objects), and just pressing the shutter halfway down when you want to lock exposure & focus, reframing, and then pressing the shutter the rest of the way?

 

Scott

How do you like it? Any fit/finish issues?

I outlined a similar approach in my note above. Thinking about it, the big problem is multiple exposures using the same values - you can't keep AF/AE locked for multiple shots using only the shutter button. It's also harder to keep the shutter pressed halfway than the AF/AE lock button mashed with your thumb.

How do you like it? Any fit/finish issues?

 

I outlined a similar approach in my note above. Thinking about it, the big problem is multiple exposures using the same values - you can't keep AF/AE locked for multiple shots using only the shutter button. It's also harder to keep the shutter pressed halfway than the AF/AE lock button mashed with your thumb.

it seems fine, although I have nothing to compare it.

I don't like it. Its big and heavy, as are all dSLR housings. so I wouldn't like the other housings any better! I would rather have a dSLR the size of my point and shoot, but they don't seem to make them that size

Scott