The Sea & Sea MDX series of camera housings represent a new era in design for Sea & Sea. The new MDX housings are made from machined aluminum and all controls have been ergonomically redesigned . My previous housing was the Sea & Sea D200 so I will be comparing the new housing to it. I have been diving my MDX-D3 for 1 month and now feel I have enough experience with the housing to list some of the pro’s and con’s of the system.
The pro’s:
All the important rotary knobs such as shutter speed, aperture and zoom are within (my) fingertip reach, which in and of itself is a major improvement over the D200. The buttons work smoothly and I like the tactile feel of them. Most of the buttons are clearly labeled as to their functions which I find quite helpful while getting used to a fairly new camera in a new housing. Muscle memory in my fingers ain’t great. The buttons on the left rear of the housing are angled so you can work them while still holding the grip. The information screen on the D3 and D300 is a wonderful addition, so easy access to that function becomes important.
The AF-on/AF-L (AE-L) lever opposing the shutter release, rather than a button system which would require taking your hands off the grip is fantastic and for the first time I am beginning to use that function instead of locking focus with the shutter release. The shutter release lever is a bit stiff and I find I sometimes accidentally shoot a frame while I am trying to lock focus. This may improve over time, or I might just need to be a bit less ham-handed. Also, due to the improved AF-L lever this will become a non-issue.
With a $5.000.00 camera body installed, early leak detection is of great concern to me. I’m not a particularly religious person, but I do find myself praying when I first jump in the water with the rig. S & S have heard my prayers preemptively it would seem. There are 3 moisture sensors in the housing. One in the bottom drip well, one on the bottom rear and one at the top rear. The leak alarm is visual only with the LED at the top left of the back glass next to the eyepiece. The battery has been moved from the bottom of the housing to the top next to the eyepiece, which was a very good move to protect the battery from a slight weep. The moisture sensors seem to be the same type as on the D200 housing and I found with the D200 if they do get wet, they take a long time to dry (days) before they reset. I have not verified this with Sea & Sea, but they look the same.
The housing is large but given the size of the camera itself, there is not much dead air space. It is also considerably lighter than some of the other D3 housings I have hefted in envy, which is becoming more and more an issue with airline weight restrictions.
The con’s
There are two strobe ports on the housing. One is for a single or Y cord, the other is dedicated for an S & S TTL converter. My wish would be that both ports could be strobe-friendly but that is not the case. I had a Y cord go belly-up in Layang Layang and only had 2 singles as spares (and no TTL unit). I tried to use the TTL port to drive the second strobe but the whole system locked out, as Sea & Sea claimed it would. So I spent the week with one strobe (Yes I tried the second strobe in slave mode... too unpredictable).
The eyepiece is a problem for me, but so was the D200. I believe it is the same eyepiece. It only allows me to view 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen at a time. On the D200 this was an annoyance, but with the D3 viewfinder layout it is truly painful. On the D3, I found I could not view the settings and the light meter at the same time, and would have to do a side to side dance to check my framing. The standard eyepiece is the Achilles heel of this otherwise well designed housing.
Fortunately, Mike Luzansky of H2O photo Pro’s (my loan officer) and Ryan at Reef Photo came to my rescue before I went completely nuts. I now have the Inon 45 degree viewfinder installed.
I had called Ryan a week ago and whined to him about my viewfinder problem (a patient man, by the way) and asked him point blank if the Inon would allow me to see the whole viewfinder in one glance. He assured me that it would, but the extreme corners might be cut off.
The package arrived today to the hotel where I am staying and I immediately broke out my toolkit (which consisted of a nail clipper) and changed the viewfinder. Seriously, a large rite-aid nail clipper handle was all I needed to get the job done. There is a more appropriate tool to use and I’ll probably stop by a hardware store before I throw the body in the housing and submerge, but I wanted to see what I could see, right NOW!
Ryan didn’t oversell the viewfinder. I can see in one glance the entire window, corners and all! The fit and finish is quite good as well, and perfectly matches the finish of the housing for the fashion conscious. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have cared if it was made out of pork rinds if I could see everything in the viewfinder. If you are going to invest in the D3 housing, I highly suggest taking a peek at the Inon. It’s worth every penny.
I believe there is a bit of a problem with the present crop of wide angle dome ports offered by Sea & Sea playing nicely with a full frame camera. I know little about the science behind dome ports but was finding that all the corners of my WA shots were FUBAR at my usual f stops (7-11). This was not the case with the D200 sensor. I jumped into a pool last week with every port spacer I had and the two S & S ports I own (fisheye and optical) and ran two WA lenses through the full aperture range in varying configurations. What I found is that with the 17-35 Nikkor, f14 is about as open as you want to get with both ports and the Nikkor 14 prime is about the same. I did find that f11 was workable using the 40 & SX spacer with the optical dome port on the 17-35. I’ve been edjumakating myself this past week on dome port science (thanks fully to WP members) so will be shopping for a solution when I get back. If anybody (probably you Canon FF shooters) can recommend a good WA dome for the S & S, I’m all ears.
Overall, I love the improvements S & S have made to their line of products. Bang for the buck is great and now with the Inon viewfinder installed, the MDX D3 will truly be an all-round joy to use.
I’ll post a full review of the Inon 45 degree viewfinder once I have a chance to use it for a while.
The D3 itself.
I love this camera. It’s big, it’s heavy, has a huge battery which can last all day without a recharge, takes 2 cards and has the best low-light capability I have ever seen in a digital camera. I cannot speak to how it compares to other dSLR’s but the reviews I have read seem to back up this claim. I’ve been shooting on land with the D3 since January and have not found a single thing I don’t like. I have been reading the WP post on possible D3 upgrades, but quite frankly, unless I hear about a revolution in dynamic range, more pixels won’t move me to upgrade any time soon.
