Which controls are the most useful underwater?

Hallo!

I am customising an a old Slr housing to fit a eos 20d. I am trying to keep things as simple as posible so i will put in just the basic controls. Controls that are working at the moment are: shutter, front and back wheel, zoom, and autofocus selection. Which other controls do you think i should add? I am planing to use this for push buttons: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22663

Any other suggestion?

Thanks!

Other buttons I've found myself using (granted I'm on an Olympus, so I'll talk function instead of actual 'actuator' since your layout is obviously going to be different) include:

Metering mode (spot, center/weighted, etc...depending on subject FOV sometimes)

That little button that alters the function of the back wheel (e.g. between exposure and aperture in full manual mode)

On/off switch

Auto-exposure-lock button

INFO button (to turn on or off histograms or otherwise modify what's displayed)

One thing funny I just noticed - seems the Ikelite housing has a control for the little button that releases the lens pin! Why the heck would I ever want to do that inside the housing????

One thing funny I just noticed - seems the Ikelite housing has a control for the little button that releases the lens pin! Why the heck would I ever want to do that inside the housing????

When you want to change from WA to macro without taking the camera out of the housing - hook the port off - lens off, using the lever as you will not access the button without - new lens on then replace port with the new one. All without removing the camera from the housing.

Quite useful IMHO.

Paul C

Don't know Cannon, but I really like having a button for the AF that is separate from the shutter button.

The ability to change ISO underwater is too me perhaps the biggest improvement that digital has over film.

Actually, the ability to change anything that you forgot to change before you put the camera in the housing. I use my D300 above water, too, and often forget to change things such as White Balance.

When you want to change from WA to macro without taking the camera out of the housing - hook the port off - lens off, using the lever as you will not access the button without - new lens on then replace port with the new one. All without removing the camera from the housing.

 

Quite useful IMHO.

Very handy.

I also use it when assembling the rig as I put the lens on after the camera is in the housing and often remove the lens before the camera. This is especially so for my Tokina 12-24mm which is so large that the zoom sleeve won't fit over the front. I have to put the zoom sleeve on the lens before I put it on the camera and the camera has to be in the housing already. I can't remove the camera from the housing without taking the lens off.

When you want to change from WA to macro without taking the camera out of the housing - hook the port off - lens off, using the lever as you will not access the button without - new lens on then replace port with the new one. All without removing the camera from the housing.

 

Quite useful IMHO.

 

Paul C

Funny, I never even thought of that...makes perfect sense now you say it. I think I even assembled that way (lens-on-last) for my first assembly, but then after that I carefully threaded the camera out the back thru the zoom gear/sleeve thingy to remove the card or take it off the TTL assembly to swap batteries....and to take the lens off to move it to my above-water body for the afternoon walks thru town etc. It never even entered my mind to re-access the lens from the front. Talk about tunnel vision!