30 Days to House my D300, in Bangkok

Hi. I need to house my Nikon D300 within the next 30 days in time for a dive trip to the Philippines. I am currently living in Bangkok. I have the D300, the 105 Macro and the 10-17 fish eye.

I think my best bet is to go to Singapore to purchase. Can anyone suggest other options, that might be cheaper or more reliable or in anyway better?

If Singapore is the answer, can anyone suggest a good dealer there to speak with? I have a Sea & Sea YS-110, so I am tempted to stick to the Sea & Sea housing, but am certainly open to change.

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

Mike

Hi,

As you are in Asia, I suggest to contact Yuzo at ;

info@naturephoto.co.jp & he is loacted in Japan & was recommanded by

several members here. He usually have S&S housings in stock.

Sam

Hi Mike

I found Thailand way to expensive to buy UW photo stuff. Check out Rainbow Runner in KL as they were cheaper than the prices I got quoted from SP or HK. They also do discount for Instr/DM.

Spen

Hi Mike

 

I found Thailand way to expensive to buy UW photo stuff. Check out Rainbow Runner in KL as they were cheaper than the prices I got quoted from SP or HK. They also do discount for Instr/DM.

 

Spen

I was going to suggest checking out HK as an alternative to Singapore. Nikon cameras and lenses certainly sell cheaper in HK. I heard good things about www.chinesediver.com for UW photo stuff.

Anyway, thought you won't be able to get a housing for d300 until April the earliest. Good luck

Hi. I need to house my Nikon D300 within the next 30 days in time for a dive trip to the Philippines. I am currently living in Bangkok. I have the D300, the 105 Macro and the 10-17 fish eye.

 

I think my best bet is to go to Singapore to purchase. Can anyone suggest other options, that might be cheaper or more reliable or in anyway better?

 

If Singapore is the answer, can anyone suggest a good dealer there to speak with? I have a Sea & Sea YS-110, so I am tempted to stick to the Sea & Sea housing, but am certainly open to change.

 

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

 

Mike

I have the Sea & Sea with the dome port, and it seems like a good choice.

They really worked on the ergonomics of this housing a lot.

Only issues I have are

- no tripod mount

- manual did not mention taking off the LCD cover of the camera (otherwise some buttons can not be operated correctly)

- I tie a boltsnap to one handle, and already it has removed some of the black anode layer

- only rated to 200

only had it in the water once though. With the dome and sigma 10-20 lens it is slightly positive in salt water and biased toward dome up. This is way better than negative, as its easier to add lead than buoyancy.

Hi,

I've just got a Sea&Sea housing in HK. Let me know if you need help (It would be very cheap for you to fly here as well). Another alternative is www.divervision.com . It's a Taiwanese seller, they have very good stuff. I found that Japanese items are cheaper compared to other places. I ordered from them and the goods were delivered to HK within 3-4 days. Very good costumer service as well.

alex

I love Wetpixel. 6 responses in 12 hours. Wow...

Checking on Rainbow in KL - looks like a general scuba store, rather than specialty camera.

ChineseDiver.com - site is all in Chinese, alas, i can't read Chinese...

www.divervision.com

Is this the complete package? (for the VR 105 and the Tokina 10-17) ( i read it off the D200 system chart)

housing

ttl-converter III

VR 105: DX Macro Port 50

VR 105: Focus Gear

VR 105: DX Macro Port Base

Tokina 10-17: Zoom Gear

Tokina 10-17: Optical Dome Port

Tokina 10-17: SX Extension Ring

Arm VII Basic Set x1

YS-110 (already own)

Thanks for all your help. A trip to HK or Taipei would be easy for me to make...

Cables- Can Cost up to $75 for each strobe,

The DX Comes in two parts.... you could go the Athena Route with their 105VR Port which IMHO is better/lighter with less Orings too.

Make sure the arm set has all the necessary parts to join to the handles. If not, each ball joint and clamp can cost $25 to $35 each.....when you have 6 clamps, It adds up to a lot.

Divervision is the way to go. I would email in advance first to make sure they have all the items in stock. Ask for Sam. Tell him Kay recommended that you speak to him. He is good with his replies and will be even able to do you a package deal.

since the budget airlines are so cheap these days, try going to singapore to pick it up and get a feel for yourself.

if you're going to singapore, you can check out the following u/w photo dealers:

scubacam.com.sg

oceanicfocus.com

www.seanseacamera.com --> the local distributor for sea&sea in singapore. but they're not very flexible with prices. you should get better prices with the first 2 choices.

alternatively, you can call orpheusdive.com who's a dive centre that specializes in underwater photography as well. they might be able to fix you up with some good deals.

PM or email me if you need any help in singapore!

OK, I do not exactly now about the availability for D300 at the moment....

Try ones to contact Khun Jakrin Kittisarn at Professional Diver getting off BTS at Chidlom Station (Exit 2). Located diagonally opposite to Central Chidlom Department Store in Sukunvit Road, its a NEXUS distributor, service is very good there. http://www.prodive-imaging.com/home.asp

The other address I recommend Khun Ladawan Suphantharida at WaterWorld located at Asoke CourtGF1, 16Sukunvit 21 (Asoke), the shop is next to dive master very close by BTS Asoke. Service is also very good there, (different brands)

Sea&Sea is available in BKK at http://www.wahoodivingcenter.com/equipments.asp?catID=8

Not a lot of time you got left, since most shops will not have the things on stock.

Hope it helps,

I got my D300-rig from DiverVision www.divervision.com

D300 housing, TTLIII adapter, Fisheye Dome

Quick delivery, nice price.

/T

I can second the recommendations for:

- Yuzo (info@naturephoto.co.jp) in Japan (Nexus and Sea&Sea housings)

- ScubaCam (speak to Sanah or David - info@scubacam.com.sg) in Singapore (Seacam, Aquatica and Ikelite housings)

- Sea&Sea (speak to Andrew Yeo - seansea@pacific.net.sg) in Singapore

Let them know Colin introduced you.

ps. I'm based in Bangkok too so PM me if you need any further info.

I have been using Sanah in Scubacam for all my dealings even though I'm in Thailand also. Apparently they are also the distributors for Huygfot and Subal.

If you are buying in Baht, buy the housing in the US and ship it in. With the VAT at 7% and custom duties, you'd still spend less than an airticket and hotel to Singapore or KL or HongKong. Especially Ikelite since it's US made and the US$ is worth toilet paper against the Baht now.

Singapore is not the cheapest place in asia and you cannot get back GST from the 2 stores as they are not GST refund stores. That's another 7% gone. Singapore also has higher costs to cover so you won't have the best deals. It is also very important that you know what you want to order as I've had a problem with one of the stores not knowing their product and selling me something that didn't work with my camera. Andrew Yeo of Sea and Sea I've dealt with for many years and he can be pretty slow at service because he's a one man show.

Hong Kong is probably a pretty good deal even with their higher rent. The HK$ sits in the toilet with the US$. Just order it from the HK store, fly in in the morning and fly out at night. I think CX has got a deal now out of BKK. HK is easily connected via the train and within 30mins you're in Central and a short MTR ride to Wanchai where ProDive is the dealer for S&S and other brands.

Do a comparison on price and tally up the budget including flights and tax refunds etc. Also note that if you have any trouble, buying locally will be the fastest way to fix things.

Good luck.

Thanks guys for all the helpful posts. I really appreciate it. I have got my gear, and want to post an update.

After a lot of thought on the matter, i decided to not house by D300 after all, and instead, house my video camera. Don't want to get into all the messy details, but i just decided that for now, i would be happier with video.

Since i already owned a Sony HDR-CX7, all i had to do was house it, get some lights and a wide-angle. I have done that now, my kit arrived yesterday, and i am off to the Philippines this Friday for 10 days.

After pursuing many of the suggestions here, I ended up buying from Fun-In in Taiwan.

I emailed several vendors in Singapore and Hong Kong including the ones mentioned here (although not Andrew), and got no response. I did not contact Japan.

I emailed BackScatter, ReefPhoto, and H20 in the States and got responses from BackScatter and H20. Unfortunately, even with the miserable state of the US Dollar, these vendors simply could not compete on price. Their quotes were 25-30% higher than both quotes out of Taiwan, which amounted to 800 to 1,000 dollars.

I did get a nice and competitive, but awfully slow, response from divervision, and would have pursued them more if they had been more responsive. I will certainly try them in the future.

Sandy at Fun-In was very responsive, offered the best price ($3,000), and was very helpful. She's on Skype, so easy to chat and talk. They promptly ordered the housing for me from Japan, and had everything ready in a week. Payment was made via PayPal, and they delivered the package to a shipping agent i know near the airport outside Taipei and I had everything in hand 48 hours later (Shipping, including all customs/import taxes/VAT, was US$165). A wonderfully smooth transaction.

I really appreciate all the help from all of you.

With video, I hoped to reduce costs, but more importantly, reduce complexity. There just seems to be so many moving parts (figuratively and literally) with DSLR underwater photography. I have such tremendous respect for the photographers who produce all the stunning images we see here. I realize how tricky it can be... especially after reading all the forums on TTL, lens choice/focus, etc. etc. etc. Just in the last couple days, not the mention the last year i been following them...

Anyway, thanks again for your help, and hope to see some of you on the video forums.

So then, what's all this chatter about white balance? (there's always something, huh?)