SLR Housing - first use a success:D

Hey everyone, I've been around these boards for the past few months just reading, but this is my first actual post here. I've been using my Canon 40D and Ikelite housing for the past couple of weeks in the Red Sea, and using all the tips and advice here, I was able to take some awesome pics - I'll definitely share when I'm back home with a faster internet connection.

Anyways, I had a few questions on the housing now that I'm done using it that I'm hoping everyone here can help out with. Sorry it's a bit long and sorry if any of them are stupid lol, just wanted to make sure everything is ok so here goes:

- I've heard the best way to store it until my next trip is to remove all the o-rings and put them in a ziplock bag. Does this include the ones from the ports and strobes as well? Any other tips on storing everything - should I leave the clips on the housing open or closed?

- I can't seem to detach the port extension from the 8" dome - as far as I can remember, I only ever assembled it once or twice and left it together, which I'm guessing will cause a problem in the future if I need to get at the o-ring in between the two. Any advice on this? Should I leave it together or is there something I can do to separate them?

-One of the buttons on the housing (specifically, the one used to illuminate the display on top) has a slight discoloration - sort of like an orangy-yellow stain, but it doesn't look like it's rusting or anything - is that a problem or is it ok? I rinsed the housing after every use and gave all the buttons the same attention, so I'm kind of confused about why this one doesn't look as happy as the others.

-Lastly, on a couple of the dives, my strobe (Ikelite DS-125) was a bit funny. I was able to change the Exposure compensation on the bottom of the housing when I turn the strobe on, but once I made any corrections, if any, I wouldn't be able to do any more unless I turned the strobe off then back on again. I don't know what caused that, but any incites would be great.

thanks so much for your help - glad to be a part of this community and I look forward to sharing some pics soon.

Hey Andrew

Sounds like a good trip. Congratulations.

I don't usually remove any of the o-rings from my system between dive trips - although I do sometimes take out the main housing o-ring and store it in the housing. But not usually in a ziplock. I don't leave a port on the housing so nothing is under any pressure. I leave the locks closed so that they are not lose with the potential for being damaged.

Not sure about the discoloration or strobe but I'm sure a Ikelite user can advise.

On detaching the port and extension ring, this was the subject of some discussion a couple of weeks ago. Several Wetpixelers recommended a strap wrench. Have you tried putting the port face down on a towel and then putting all your weight on it while trying to rotate the ring?

I haven't really tried anything with the port/extension because I'm honestly afraid to break it. Is that amount of force ok? I guess I'll give it another try though. Thanks for the tips.

Use a trap wrench to unscrew the body from the dome. It is quite difficult to do it by the hand, but you'll find it suprisingly easy using such a wrench.

You'll find many of them on ebay. The cheapie ones are more than enough for what you need.