Ikelite D300 housing - anyone else have any issues?

Hi

I have had a couple of ikelite housings to date, first one for a Nikon D200 which served me faithfully on about 60 dives which I then traded so I could purchase a housing for my D300.

I happily received my D300 housing in January this year just before heading out on a research trip. I only managed a couple of photography dives during the trip and I was really disappointed to realise that the front command dial was not operating properly rendering aperture priority etc useless So I sent the housing back, only a couple of weeks old and it was sent back to ikelite who apparently fixed the problem? The housing came back I set it up and tried it out (not underwater) then for a variety of reasons (new baby, job) most of the rest of the year flew past without my getting a chance to take it for a dive. Anyway, finally an opportunity arose to do some research so I thought I'd better test the housing out before taking it into the field. I tried it in our swimming pool and was really disappointed to note that now the rear command dial friction pad was not working! So I contacted the retailer and sent it back to them once again, by which time it was too late for my research trip but the retailer endeavoured to repair the housing and when it came back sure enough the rear dial was working. I checked everything in the dry and a few other problems became apparent; the ISO selector was not adjusted properly so it wasn't depressing the iso selector, so I dutifully adjusted this with the alan key and got it to work once more. However, when I set up for another trip last week (only a week after the camera was returned) the front command dial control had stopped operating once again! So I am back to square one.

So in 1 year with approximately 5 dives the housing has failed to operate properly on every occassion Not to mention the hassle and expense of sending the housing back to the retailer and the time spent without my $1700 AUD housing!

It doesn't look like there is any way of manually adjusting the front friction wheel for the command dial so it looks like I will have to return the housing The real pain is that the retailer wants me to send my camera with the housing? not very practical given that it is Christmas! Such as shame as I have always found ike products to be high quality with good customer service up until now.....

Has anyone else had similar problems with their ikelite housings? Maybe I have just got a dud housing? Given the number of times it hasn't worked I am not very happy about continually accepting the repair option from the retailer / ike. At this stage I am seriously thinking of requesting a refund as the reliability problems are threatening a 5 week research trip in the New Year which requires the camera.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

cheers

Roger

check the front grip on the camera body, it could be effecting the wheel. common problem with nikons either trim it or get it replaced. i'll ask a friend if his is ok he's just back from a trip.

check the front grip on the camera body, it could be effecting the wheel. common problem with nikons either trim it or get it replaced. i'll ask a friend if his is ok he's just back from a trip.

Thanks Lou I have checked the grip and it appears to be fine? I can understand how this might be a problem as the wheel and the grip are a very snug fit, but if the control is fouled by the grip then this would seem to be a design flaw? Anyway many thanks for your response.

Roger

I can't answer your specific question. I have had a similar problem with my Aquatica command dial not working. Be aware that you can switch the functions of your command dials. When shooting aperture priority and the front command dial won't operate, just go into the setup and switch the command dials so you can use the rear command dial for aperture change.

I can't answer your specific question. I have had a similar problem with my Aquatica command dial not working. Be aware that you can switch the functions of your command dials. When shooting aperture priority and the front command dial won't operate, just go into the setup and switch the command dials so you can use the rear command dial for aperture change.

Hi Scorpio_fish, I was aware of that but couldn't remember how to do it during a dive! Bit of a pain but thanks for the suggestion as at least it would solve the issue if the issue can't be solved any other way

thanks

Roger

I have had a bad fit with the selector for my EOS 5D rear dial as well as the wheel connecting to the mode dial. Annoying as it may be, I simply attached a couple of layers of duct tape to the Ike housing wheels (the surfaces connecting to the cameras dials), and now everything works fine. In principle I guess everything should work out of the box, but if fixes are so simple I´d rather just do it myself rather than send the housing in for repairs.

Regards

Bent C

In my experince this is usually a problem with bad seating of the camera in the tray. Try this:

When you place the camera on the tray tilt the whole assembly forward (so the camera is pointing down) as you tighten up the Screw.

If you do this, I think you'll find the whole thing just works.

Hi

 

I have had a couple of ikelite housings to date, first one for a Nikon D200 which served me faithfully on about 60 dives which I then traded so I could purchase a housing for my D300.

 

I happily received my D300 housing in January this year just before heading out on a research trip. I only managed a couple of photography dives during the trip and I was really disappointed to realise that the front command dial was not operating properly rendering aperture priority etc useless So I sent the housing back, only a couple of weeks old and it was sent back to ikelite who apparently fixed the problem? The housing came back I set it up and tried it out (not underwater) then for a variety of reasons (new baby, job) most of the rest of the year flew past without my getting a chance to take it for a dive. Anyway, finally an opportunity arose to do some research so I thought I'd better test the housing out before taking it into the field. I tried it in our swimming pool and was really disappointed to note that now the rear command dial friction pad was not working! So I contacted the retailer and sent it back to them once again, by which time it was too late for my research trip but the retailer endeavoured to repair the housing and when it came back sure enough the rear dial was working. I checked everything in the dry and a few other problems became apparent; the ISO selector was not adjusted properly so it wasn't depressing the iso selector, so I dutifully adjusted this with the alan key and got it to work once more. However, when I set up for another trip last week (only a week after the camera was returned) the front command dial control had stopped operating once again! So I am back to square one.

 

So in 1 year with approximately 5 dives the housing has failed to operate properly on every occassion Not to mention the hassle and expense of sending the housing back to the retailer and the time spent without my $1700 AUD housing!

 

It doesn't look like there is any way of manually adjusting the front friction wheel for the command dial so it looks like I will have to return the housing The real pain is that the retailer wants me to send my camera with the housing? not very practical given that it is Christmas! Such as shame as I have always found ike products to be high quality with good customer service up until now.....

 

Has anyone else had similar problems with their ikelite housings? Maybe I have just got a dud housing? Given the number of times it hasn't worked I am not very happy about continually accepting the repair option from the retailer / ike. At this stage I am seriously thinking of requesting a refund as the reliability problems are threatening a 5 week research trip in the New Year which requires the camera.

 

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

 

cheers

 

Roger

It´s not a problem of the tray or anything else, It´s actually an issue with some models of Ike D300, solution is simple, just cut an small ring of rubber (1mm or 2mm) and superglue it to the front command dial. This was the way to fix this problem on mine.

Hope it´s helps.