Nikon D100 - Housing Possibilities?

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond100/

Hi Folks,

Let me preface this by saying I am a marine engineer by trade, so I really "dig" these kind of discussions. I hope I don't come off as too much of a gearhead - ask anyone who has dove w/ me...believe it or not I can give species names to 90% of the things I see on a dive...

After reading the Nikon D100 review at DPreview.com (see above link) I have been thinking about this camera system a lot and what it is going to mean to UW digital photographers.

What it means is that film afishianados (hehe) who have been shooting a housed N90s, F100, F4 or F5 will be able to use their lenses and dome ports in a new digital system. Lenses and dome ports are a significant investment, so this will make a switch to digital a LOT less painful. The Canon DSLR has been getting a lot of attention lately (and rightly so, Eric and Jim Watt's pix kick wrasse!), but let's face it, that's because they were first to market with an "inexpensive" DSLR. Unfortunately, there are very few housing choices for the Canon D30/D60.

Not putting out a DSLR like the D100 was a HUGE "booboo" on Nikon's part - no doubt about it.

So who's going to make a housing for this camera when it hits the streets (Hopefully in June)?

Just to confuse people, the D100 is NOT based on the Nikon F100 body. It is based on the Nikon N80 body and from what I can see from carefully studying the pictures in the review, the controls are VERY VERY similar. Like 90% similarity.

On the other hand - I doubt you could stick this camera in a housing made for the N80 and it would "work." On the front of the camera, the manual/autofocus control is different. On the top of the camera, the flash and +/- buttons are slightly different. On the back of the camera - well pretty much the whole back is different. But how hard would it be to intall a few more buttons and a "sightglass" in the back of a housing?

So, who makes housings for the N80? The two I have found so far are:

Ikelite: http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/slrnikon.html

Sea and Sea: http://www.seaandsea.com/NX80.html

UK-Germany: http://www.uk-germany.com/english/uwg_mult..._nikon_f80.html

My guess is that a couple of the European housing manufacturers (Subal, Hugyfot, etc) make one as well.

From looking at the housings, it looks like the Sea and Sea control configurations are the best. The UK-Germany housing does not look like it access all the camera controls.

So how hard would it be for one of these companies to take a housing shell straight from the mold and drill it for the new and VERY SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT controls on the Nikon D100? How much would that cost? Is it worth it?

Cheers

James Wiseman

[Edited on 4-19-2002 by jamesw]

[Edited on 4-20-2002 by jamesw]

Hi James,

it is nice to see that we have the same thinking again. I admit it, I am also tempted by the Nikon D100 -- but 3000 €!!! That really hurts the wallet... Also we do not own any lenses yet, but maybe some friends still have them from their other Nikons as you estimated in general.

However, I think that UK-Germany might manufacture a housing for it. Because as far as I know Uwe (the owner), he is an absolute "Nikon"maniac. Also their previous Nikon SLR housings are not that different from the design. So the marginal costs to produce a slightly different housing might not be very high for him.

Also, I think he finally quit the idea of leaving out certain controls, since we were not the only customers which wanted to have them build in after a while... The only question remaining is, will there be enough divers with a D100?

:cool: I already excited if I'll be one of them...

cheers, andi

Well it looks like Phil Askey won't even let people LINK to his website anymore. Thanks a lot Phil. Maybe next time I'll refer people to the Nikon website instead of yours...

Cheers

James Wiseman

James,

In all fairness, dpreview has not blocked linking to their site, but has blocked using their bandwidth for unknown purposes.

They have no way of knowing if you are using the image on their site to link back to them or as the 'ban image' cites, to sell a product at auction. They are not in the image hosting business.

Bandwidth bloat is a concern to all webmasters, and despite what you might see in advertising, there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth.... just ask Eric.

You certainly have a point. It's too bad, because that picture really was an important part of this thread. It made me say "wow, that sure looks like the form factor of the N80."

I guess I can just link to the Nikon page:

Cheers

James

I was at the Beneath the Sea show this year in New York and Aquatica told me

that they will be making an aluminum housing for the D100, and anyone who has either there A90, A100 or A5 housing will be able to use there existing dome

ports, macro ports, extension rings and all there focus and aperture gears.

They did not give me a final price but said that it woul be very competitive

for an aluminum housing. I also think that the camera will bepriced around

$2,000. I will start to save my pennies for this combo.

Yup. Need that Ikelite d100 housing.

I have all Subal equipment and will have to wait for a Subal D100 housing before I consider buying a D100. I would rather wait for a camera with a better focal length multiplier (say 1.25x vs. 1.5x of the D100). Having a Subal F100 housing and having compared it with all other housings on the market on various dive trips I can flat out say it is the best on the market. The Subal N80 housing is a direct derivative of this housing. Ikelite of course beats it on price.