Unfortunate design, latest crop of Canon housings

Most DSLR shooters need either autofocus lock, or the ability to move focus to a separate button while shooting. On Canon bodies, this functionality ends up being tied to the "*" button (and optionally, the button just to the left of that button on the 1D/1Ds).

The UK Germany D60 housing is small enough that one can grip the side of the housing and hit both the shutter release and that button at the same time (making the right-hand handle useless for those of us who shoot this way), and the Sea & Sea housing has a thumb-lever in a convenient location for one-handed operation.

However, some of the newer housings don't seem to account for this. As users, we need to communicate with housing manufacturers to let them know that one-handed support for shutter release and the * button is absolutely essential. Otherwise, we are crippled by having to re-lock focus on something every time we shoot.

Thoughts?

The wheel on 10D housings causes similar headaches because you require it to control the focus field and the aperture in manual mode. Because the * is located in the upper right it's not that critical, but having to reach a long way to the wheel with your thumb can be quite annoying when you have action in the water.

So generally I agree... but I am not sure if I fully understood your point.

Here's a photo:

On the Nikon bodies, it's the AF/AE lock button.

On some of the housings, there is a lever for this control. Here's a photo showing Deb pressing both AF/AE lock and the shutter at the same time w/ the Jonah D100 housing:

Cheers

James