Custom housing/housing mods?

So I have a Canon 10D now (pretty schweet so far, but a serious shake-down won't happen until the weekend) and it fits in my UK-Germany D60 housing (er, mostly), but not perfectly. I already sold my D60 on ebay, so keeping that just for u/w use is not an option. Given that the housing (never mind the ports) was $2400-ish -- now dwarfing the price of my camera body -- I don't fancy buying another one that fits better, or waiting a year plus for such an option to be available.

So, where would one go to get a housing modified slightly? I'd like the house to seal more easily and not smash its controls up against my precious camera body. I'd also like one or two of the controls that have moved relative to their placement on the D60 to be accessable u/w.

Sadly I'm a computer *software* geek and know little about getting my hands dirty in the real world with scary power tools that can remove precious fingers needed for working computers. I don't own manly toys like belt sanders or table saws or, uh, other stuff that I don't know the names of. But hey, before you mock me and my geekiness, know that I wrote my own image previewer/renamer/web gallery spewer/wallpaper randomizer and can handily cheat at video games. B)

Any suggestions? I live in the SF bay area if that helps narrow it down.

Thanks!

Sean

Hi Sean,

I may be totally talking out my *** here, but I'll give this one a shot. I have seen the UK-G housing but I haven't really examined it much. - so keep that in mind.

Your first question about the controls mashing - can the manufacturer "shorten" the parts of the buttons that are inside the housing? For example, if the little shafts that press the buttons on the camera are 1/8" long, have them cut down to 1/16th??? If so, that might help.

Your second questions about moving controls - that is different. I would look at your housing and decide if there is space to put NEW controls on there to press the buttons you need - and perhaps just leave the old ones in place???? Or perhaps UK-G can insert plugs in there... Who knows! A lot of it depends on geometry which I can't know cause I can't look at it.

The best person to do this is certainly the manufacturer. However, someone local might be able to help w/ shortening the buttons. Backscatter maybe? ??

Cheers

James

Thats Odd I don't have that problem...They must have made the D60 model smaller. The one I have purchased from Jim Watts was I think a D30 housing. Anyway quick fix, wait 30 days and buy a D60 for $800 on Ebay. If you find another option let us know....

Sean: I too have a UK-G D60 housing and my D10 is on the way. It would be just too ironic if the 10D will fit in the D30 housing but not the D60 housing.

If it turns out that the D60 housing needs to be modified to fit a D10, my plan is to start talking to small, high end, machine shops. I work in Burbank CA and there are quite a few such shops which support the entertainment industry, and what's left of aerospace.

I sent an email to UK-G, and as a last resort I'll return it to them, assuming they will mod it for me.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Eric: since you may have more than a passing interest in the resolution to this question, do you perhaps have access to a D10 that you could try in your UK-G D60 housing?

I do not have a 10D -- yet, anyway.

Someone local must have one for me to try. I'll do some research when I get back.

But I'm selling my UK Germany housing, anyway (STILL has not sold!), so it won't matter so much. I do, however, want to see if it fits in the Sea & Sea housing...

Hey, thanks for the replies. It actually hadn't occurred to me to send it back to UK-G, I love the housing but communicating with them is very slow and a bit rough as my German is sehr schrecklich. I guess I could ping that guy in Canada I ordered the housing from and see what he says, he gets back to you a lot more quickly.

The notion of just re-purchasing a D60 in 4-5 months had occured to me! It's deliciously evil.

This is the 'rev 2' housing, purchased last july, with the handle and t-bracket and more holes drilled for mounting various stuff on it. I recall having a conversation with the lady at UCLS about Eric's trouble getting an arm setup on his housing, so at the time I was glad to have waited -- now I'm all, yarg!

I think with just a tiny bit of machining on one or maybe two of the controls I'd be all set. I'd *like* to be able to use the ISO setting button u/w, but it's not vital. The trouble is I think the mounting bracket you screw the camera body to is just a bit too high and too far back, I'm taking 2-3mm. Seems like that would be trickier to fix.

I'm curious to see what other D60 owners with 10Ds on the way experience. These are all hand-made, ya? If so, might their tolerences vary just slightly from housing to housing, or at least between manufacturing runs?

Eric, if you'd like to do a geeky get-together to see if the 10D fits in your Sea&Sea housing, feel free to ping me. I live in San Jose. Plus I know the editor of Sport Diver magazine. B)

Sounds good! We can do a rev. 1 vs. rev. 2 vs. Sea & Sea compatibility test with the 10D.

But I'm selling my UK Germany housing, anyway (STILL has not sold!), so it won't matter so much.

The appeal of owning your housing may be greater if someone can drop a 10D into it.

I guess to answer Sean's original question, if you know what modifications you need, the bay area is full of machine shops that can do the modifications. You might try contacting Merlin Philips, who went with Eric and a bunch of us on the Kona digital underwater trip where we saw the UK housing for the first time. He is a mechanical engineer who also makes housings, I am sure that he can fix yours if it is fixable.

BVA

Thanks bvanant, I may do that. I sort of punted all last week and haven't yet followed up on trying to figure out how to get the thing to fit better, the main problems is it's so damn snug!

Hey bvanant (or anyone really), do you have contact information for Merlin Philips? I'm pondering either modifying the housing or just waiting until shortly before my next trip (in september ) and buying a used D60 on ebay. I'd really rather be able to use the 10D u/w though!

Thanks!

Sean

I will dig around and see if I have Merlin's contact info, but Eric Cheng or Dave B. should have it.

BVA

Merlin is the Chief Engineer at Advanced Design Engineering: http://www.advdeseng.com

The office phone number is: (208) 461-2394

Thanks Eric!