Quality of Nauticam housings

Hi, all -

How very timely, my 7D is arriving Tuesday, and I am already itching to get it into the water... I was intending to buy another Subal, as I have the ports and viewfinder already.....with almost every other brand angle I looked at, once you start adding it all up, the price difference isn't as much as my initial Subal sticker shock had me crying about... But there is certainly an undeniable difference, and everything adds up, right? After seeing the positive stuff here and hearing individually from Keri how much he liked his, I am waffling in the 11th hour... so I have a few questions - since there are quite a few Nauticam guys on this thread, your insight is really appreciated.

1) Did I get this right? To change ports, you have to remove the camera from the housing?

2) Can you leave the port adaptor on monumentally, then change ports as you go?

(for 1 and 2, I am basically trying to get a feel for what's going to happen if I shoot macro at dawn, w/a mid-day, then macro at night - how much pulling out the camera, changing adaptors, etc is going to be involved??)

3) R.e. the optical strobe sync - I shoot exclusively in manual and sometimes will use continuous mode for large/fast animals (my primary strobes are YS250's, and they are almost never set at more than 1/2 power) - I was intending to use continuous mode at times for an upcoming Bahamas shark trip - is this going to be possible with the optical system and the 7D's internal flash recycle rate? And how much faster can I expect the camera's battery to be drained compared to the electrical system I'm currently using?

Thanks so much - looks like this is going to be a huge success, so congrats!!

Allison

Hmm, it may be different on the Canon, but on my D300 this is what I found:

The gearing covers up the lens release. If you're using a prime lens without a focus gear, you can remove the lens. So to go from macro to w/a is easy. You can pull off the gearing from the front - if you don't have an extension ring- but I found it a lot easier just to pull the camera out. This is with an S&S Optical dome port and an SX extension ring, may be different with a Nauticam port and ring.

Yeah, I'm still sorting the recycle thing out on the D300s. I guess turning the flash all the way down will speed it up. For macro it's no big deal. For large animals, it slowed me down...but I wasn't thinking about it too much at the time either. Need to experiment.

I noticed no real battery issue, my D300 battery went all day (4 dives) and then some.

Jack

Thanks, Jack - I actually just noticed that the optical thing is being addressed (and has been mentioned as a potential issue w/the 7D). I shoot almost exclusively in cold water and don't want to take a chance on slow recycle times - guess I'll stick with my original plan

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...=34211&st=0

Im never a big fan of changing lenses while still have it mounted in the housing. All it takes is that one drip of water still lingering in a housing control or crevice, and it falling into the camera body during those few seconds the lens is off. Is it really worth the risk at all for the extra few seconds it takes just to remove the camera body from the housing? To me its not, and I always teach our customers to take the extra step and remove the camera.

But we have yet to see some objective reviews. The reviews so far have been of the "Nauticam have been kind enough to lend one to me to try" type, so naturally tend to not to be looking for faults. It is also hard to always get reliable opinions when people have just bought a new housing. Some, wanting to justify their purchase, can see no faults, others see only faults, having spent so much expect everything to be right.

 

Alex

I'm going to quote you as a rebuttal when I get flack on Yorkshire Divers about the veracity of my kit reviews!

JB

1) Did I get this right? To change ports, you have to remove the camera from the housing?

2) Can you leave the port adaptor on monumentally, then change ports as you go?

(for 1 and 2, I am basically trying to get a feel for what's going to happen if I shoot macro at dawn, w/a mid-day, then macro at night - how much pulling out the camera, changing adaptors, etc is going to be involved??)

 

3) R.e. the optical strobe sync - I shoot exclusively in manual and sometimes will use continuous mode for large/fast animals (my primary strobes are YS250's, and they are almost never set at more than 1/2 power) - I was intending to use continuous mode at times for an upcoming Bahamas shark trip - is this going to be possible with the optical system and the 7D's internal flash recycle rate? And how much faster can I expect the camera's battery to be drained compared to the electrical system I'm currently using?

Hi Allison,

1) Yes, generally you have to remove the camera for most lens switches. I tended to do this anyway with my Subal, despite the lens release lever. With the Nauticam, its pretty easy to do though. I remember doing lens switches with my Nexus and the 70-180macro... now that was a lot of work. As Jack said, with a wide prime, i.e. no focus/zoom ring, you can reach the lens release button and change it without removing the camera. And as Mike said, maybe caution dictates that it isn't a bad idea to remove the camera anyway.

2) Yes, you could do that if you don't lock the adapter. One of the very cool things about the Subal adapter, though, is the locking mechanism. Pretty cool to see the Subal port on the Nauticam - and it won't rotate. No more jumping in and seeing my Subal dome at a funny angle and puckering my you-know-what while I twist it back. If I was going to shoot my Subal ports on my Nauticam, I might be tempted to get an adapter for every port and just leave them locked on.

3) If you shoot mostly in manual using the YS-250's, I'm thinking that electrical sync cords are the way to go. Just get the optional Nikonos 5pin bulkhead. The fiber optic connectors are still available should you want to shoot TTL with a Z-240, for example.

Thanks,

Chris

[edited: corrected typo]

Chris -

Thanks so much for the detailed answer. With all the extras, the cost difference winds up not enough for me to justify the switch. I am sticking with my original plan. I do appreciate your taking the time to address my questions!

As an aside, I tend not to remove my camera from the housing every time I change a lens/port - in my mind, cracking 2 O-rings is more dangerous than cracking 1...potentially risking a flood that affects the body - as well as the lens AND electronics within the housing. But that's just my opinion...

Allison

The Nauticam housings do also have optional 5 pin bulkhead. A dual sync cord and you can trigger your strobes that way too.

Alex

Thanks, Jack - I actually just noticed that the optical thing is being addressed (and has been mentioned as a potential issue w/the 7D). I shoot almost exclusively in cold water and don't want to take a chance on slow recycle times - guess I'll stick with my original plan

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...=34211&st=0

Allison:

I am also shooting Subal with a 50D rigged up for optical strobes. Yesterday at Catalina it was 56 degrees or so and if I set my internal strobe to its lowest power, I could sit at the bottom and shoot the 50 D with Inon z240 strobes as fast as the 50D would shoot (until the buffer fills up) so fast shooting isn't a worry in manual mode. If you want TTL then it is a bit different but still I could shoot fast enough to track a visiting sea lion. The money question for you will undoubtedly be can the Nauticam use the Subal finder since that is the most expensive add on piece. The Nauticam can use your existing ports and strobes so that isn't an issue but you are still (2800 + 900 + 180) $620 cheaper to go with the Nauticam which might get you a new lens. The real advantage of the Nauticam for me is that it can do both electrical and optical sync (presumably concomitantly but that isn't clear) so you can run your strobes in TTL when you are shooting some of your tiny macro stuff.

Cheers

Bill

Allison:

I am also shooting Subal with a 50D rigged up for optical strobes. Yesterday at Catalina it was 56 degrees or so and if I set my internal strobe to its lowest power, I could sit at the bottom and shoot the 50 D with Inon z240 strobes as fast as the 50D would shoot (until the buffer fills up) so fast shooting isn't a worry in manual mode. If you want TTL then it is a bit different but still I could shoot fast enough to track a visiting sea lion. The money question for you will undoubtedly be can the Nauticam use the Subal finder since that is the most expensive add on piece. The Nauticam can use your existing ports and strobes so that isn't an issue but you are still (2800 + 900 + 180) $620 cheaper to go with the Nauticam which might get you a new lens. The real advantage of the Nauticam for me is that it can do both electrical and optical sync (presumably concomitantly but that isn't clear) so you can run your strobes in TTL when you are shooting some of your tiny macro stuff.

 

Cheers

Bill

Hi, Bill -

Good to hear from you! Glad to see someone else went out locally during the "giant surf/swells" over the weekend - we were out both days, shore and boat....what surf/swells??

Well, as you probably know, the water can be upper 40's in the spring off Point Loma, so there can be a big temp difference between San Diego and Catalina...and I am still left fearful after reference to "frustratingly slow" recycle times in cold water...that is really not something I want to find out the hard way. It is great that you have had a good experience with optics, though, especially with strobes having such a reportedly fast recycle time - that makes me a lot less dubious!! However, I still worry about draining the camera battery, and I'd like to hear firsthand about strobe triggering from a few more people who shoot a lot in cold water before I make such a major purchase assuming I'll like it. You'll notice that the response I got from many of the distributors above was that an optional sync bulkhead was available...indicating that there is a degree of uncertainty - if I'm dropping this kind of cash, I don't want that. Hey, I keep extra sync cords around, so that doesn't bother me. I also don't care about TTL - just not a big priority to me - I've never had it.

Finally, I do have three ports, two of which I use very regularly and often on successive dives - I'd want adaptors for all of them - this diminishes the price difference to the point where it is decidedly not worth it for me to take a chance on something so new and untested.

At any rate, my Subal is pre-ordered, so I am a done deal...

Hope to see you around v soon!! If you ever want to come down for some wrecks, let me know

Allison

Hi, Bill -

 

Good to hear from you! Glad to see someone else went out locally during the "giant surf/swells" over the weekend - we were out both days, shore and boat....what surf/swells??

 

Well, as you probably know, the water can be upper 40's in the spring off Point Loma, so there can be a big temp difference between San Diego and Catalina...and I am still left fearful after reference to "frustratingly slow" recycle times in cold water...that is really not something I want to find out the hard way. It is great that you have had a good experience with optics, though, especially with strobes having such a reportedly fast recycle time - that makes me a lot less dubious!! However, I still worry about draining the camera battery, and I'd like to hear firsthand about strobe triggering from a few more people who shoot a lot in cold water before I make such a major purchase assuming I'll like it. You'll notice that the response I got from many of the distributors above was that an optional sync bulkhead was available...indicating that there is a degree of uncertainty - if I'm dropping this kind of cash, I don't want that. Hey, I keep extra sync cords around, so that doesn't bother me. I also don't care about TTL - just not a big priority to me - I've never had it.

 

Finally, I do have three ports, two of which I use very regularly and often on successive dives - I'd want adaptors for all of them - this diminishes the price difference to the point where it is decidedly not worth it for me to take a chance on something so new and untested.

 

At any rate, my Subal is pre-ordered, so I am a done deal...

 

Hope to see you around v soon!! If you ever want to come down for some wrecks, let me know

 

Allison

Hope to see you soon. At Ship Rock there were some very interesting swells if you happened to get somewhere close to the rock at 15 feet deep or so. We were very disappointed to see lots and lots and lots of sargassum but not much in the way of macro life. I am sure you will be happy with the Subal so great shooting. As for the battery life in cold water, I really don't see an issue shooting at 1/128th power even at 35 degrees but if you were shooting TTL then I think it might be an issue. One thing isn't clear, (inquiring minds want to know) why do you need more than 1 adapter. In my view, the adapter is permanently mounted to the housing so it looks like a Subal as far as the ports are concerned.

Bill

Hope to see you soon. At Ship Rock there were some very interesting swells if you happened to get somewhere close to the rock at 15 feet deep or so. We were very disappointed to see lots and lots and lots of sargassum but not much in the way of macro life. I am sure you will be happy with the Subal so great shooting. As for the battery life in cold water, I really don't see an issue shooting at 1/128th power even at 35 degrees but if you were shooting TTL then I think it might be an issue. One thing isn't clear, (inquiring minds want to know) why do you need more than 1 adapter. In my view, the adapter is permanently mounted to the housing so it looks like a Subal as far as the ports are concerned.

 

Bill

Bill - per Chris (above) - If I was going to shoot my Subal ports on my Nauticam, I might be tempted to get an adapter for every port and just leave them locked on. - I had thought I'd heard that the adaptors went onto the port, not the housing, and this made me more certain...

Oh, the other thing that made my decision - I didn't want to be taking my camera body out of the housing every time - certainly not for the small savings I'd have had. But there are dissenting opinions on that here - this is just mine.

Just as clarification, there are two possible strategies for using Nauticam Bayonet Port Adapters for Subal V3, Subal V4, and Aquatica that have the locking set screw.

You can mount the adapter on the housing with the lock screw disengaged semi permanently using the red port locking lever, and leave it in place for the duration of a trip (or a housings lifetime), removing and replacing ports from the front of it as needed exactly as you would remove or replace a port from a Subal or Aquatica housing.

If you want to take advantage of the port lock, you don't necessarily have to buy an adapter for each port, but that would certainly reduce your chances of screwing up.

The Subal and Aquatica Port Adapter locks are simply a set screw. You attach the port to the port adapter, then insert a set screw that doesn't allow the port to rotate out of its locked position. This doesn't take a ton of time, but requires servicing the o-ring on the port, and servicing the o-ring on the adapter when attaching it to the housing.

Chris has done a lot of big giant strides off of Spree with a Subal dome, and is particularly sensitive to this rotation issue. I'm less concerned with it, but like the feature. Personally I'd probably never use the port adapter locking screw with a flat port, but would use it with a dome just in case. I know there someone on the Wetpixel Abernethy's trip last year that would have appreciated it...

We'll try to get some videos together to demonstrate this more clearly as quickly as possible.

You'll notice that the response I got from many of the distributors above was that an optional sync bulkhead was available...indicating that there is a degree of uncertainty - if I'm dropping this kind of cash, I don't want that. Hey, I keep extra sync cords around, so that doesn't bother me. I also don't care about TTL - just not a big priority to me - I've never had it.

I wouldn't call it uncertainty, just options...

There are 2 possible benefits of optical flash firing; ttl & relaibility. The cons that needs to be weighed against this are slower continuous shooting and lower battery life. Since YS-250 can not do optical TTL, one of the very attractive benefits of optical strobe firing is negated in that case, and electrical connectivity might make more sense.

I've used optical strobes extensively in Port Hardy, and did not experience any fogging issues in a metal housing with a glass dome. I only changed my battery once per day in the evening, but I'm sure i could have gotten away with 2 days of shooting with electrical strobes. I did run into some slowdowns, but my Nikon cameras are inferior in this regard to 7D.

This demonstration shows the 7D, set to 7 fps, with the internal flash deployed and Inon Z-240 fired optically. The camera's internal flash is set to M 1/128. The Z-240 are on their lowest power to avoid heat buildup, and could not maintain this performance at some higher power sesttings, but this demonstration is intended to illustrate the camera's continuous shooting ability with the internal flash deployed, and is independent largely of the underwater strobe used.

Smart looking rig, huh? Chris is in the water tomorrow, and I hope he'll have results to share soon.

Edward Lai of Nauticam International was shooting the 7D last week in the Philippines, and has posted his results here:

http://nauticam.com/sample-image.asp?id=48&pid=2

Hey Ryan ,

Good clear explanations, I tending to recommend 1 port adaptor per port.

Spoke to Berk this morning and he said he had few issues with the bulkhead assy but put them down to TEETHING PROBS.

All good down here.

Are you coming up to Tokyo next week ?

P

I know there someone on the Wetpixel Abernethy's trip last year that would have appreciated it...

It's only a matter of time before the lemon sharks learn how to pull the port release lever on the Nauticam housings, too. There's no tricking these snap-happy, toothy weasels!

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what the buoyancy is like on this Nauticam housing? A three hour dive at Blue Heron bridge can really put some strain on the wrist. Which leaves me to add: a wrist strap similar to Subal's is a very good idea in my opinion.

BTW -- On the top front of the housing's port side there's a really large knob-looking piece. Is that a hydrophone or something? Is the leak detector audible as well as visual per chance? And finally, any possibilities of seeing some shots of the inside of the housing??

There are 2 possible benefits of optical flash firing; ttl & relaibility.

I believe there is a third benefit, second curtain sync. The 7D's internal flash can be set to second curtain sync and the external strobes will fire at the same time so you should have second curtain sync. I believe this will only happen with the camera's internal flash set to manual control. My 40D/50D can be set to second curtain sync but it didn't seem to work too well because the of the pre-flash (internal flash of 40D/50D only has TTL mode). With the 7D's internal flash in manual control there is no pre-flash so second curtain sync should be possible. Hopefully my 7D housing will arrive shortly and I can put my theory to test.

I found the same as soon as I saw that manual setting too Gudge, and am quite sure it will work unless I stuffed up somehow, you can test it with a z240 pretty easily once you get the exposure right, I just exposed the optical sensor and waved my fingers around a bit.

Otara

Nice video. Im looking forward to seeing Chris' results and hearing about his experiences. Glad to see you guys have a housing in your hands to play with.

It's only a matter of time before the lemon sharks learn how to pull the port release lever on the Nauticam housings, too. There's no tricking these snap-happy, toothy weasels! smile.gif

Well, you can only do so much...

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what the buoyancy is like on this Nauticam housing? A three hour dive at Blue Heron bridge can really put some strain on the wrist. Which leaves me to add: a wrist strap similar to Subal's is a very good idea in my opinion.

It is so largely dependent upon strobe and port choice that it is really tough to say... The D90 Housing, D90 Camera, 60mm Lens, and Flat Port for 60 (no strobes) is just over a pound negatively buoyant in fresh water. All in all this isn't too bad. The large acrylic dome port is quite positive, but I'm not sure how much yet. The 200mm Zen dome is less than one oz negative in water, so it should handle similarly to the 60mm port.

The wrist strap is a really good idea, and it wouldn't surprise me to see one as an option soon

BTW -- On the top front of the housing's port side there's a really large knob-looking piece. Is that a hydrophone or something? Is the leak detector audible as well as visual per chance? And finally, any possibilities of seeing some shots of the inside of the housing??

That is the optional hydrophone. The three accessory holes can support electrical strobe bulkheads (n5, s6, and ikelite), hydrophone, remote release bulkheads, or monitor outputs.

The leak detector is both audible and visual.

Shots from the inside of the housing will come, we just haven't had time to shoot them yet. It is quite impressive

I believe there is a third benefit, second curtain sync. The 7D's internal flash can be set to second curtain sync and the external strobes will fire at the same time so you should have second curtain sync. I believe this will only happen with the camera's internal flash set to manual control. My 40D/50D can be set to second curtain sync but it didn't seem to work too well because the of the pre-flash (internal flash of 40D/50D only has TTL mode). With the 7D's internal flash in manual control there is no pre-flash so second curtain sync should be possible. Hopefully my 7D housing will arrive shortly and I can put my theory to test.

You are absolutely correct, I forgot about that. The Inon strobes offer rear curtain sync in both E-TTL and Manual Modes, and I believe the YS-250 would in manual mode, but I haven't tested it.