Seacam or Subal

Marty - Sorry to say that to my knowledge, Seacam has no plans to house the 10D. Having said that, Harald Hordosch of Seacam in Austria has surprised me a time or two.

But realistically, I think resources are devoted to keeping up with the stream of orders on the current digitals ... EOS1Ds, D1X, S2, and D100 ... and being poised for quick development on housings for the new cameras introduced at PMA in March '04.

Thanks for asking though.

Steve

I've also been seriously shopping for housings. I'd be curious to know more about the experiences that Nikon/S2 shooters have had shooting the 12-24 behind the domes. I shoot it behind the Aquatica dome, and often I think it could benefit from a diopter when shooting CF/WA. I think diopters are needed with subal and nexus, and that lens doesn't perform well with a diopter, right? It seems like the Seacam big glass dome would be ideal for anyone wanting to shoot this lens.

I handled a Nexus D100 housing last week and was very impressed with its build quality and finish. Can anyone tell me more about the modified 16mm fisheye from nexus? How wide does it go? How big are the domes available from Nexus?

The 12-24 works OK with the Nexus 170mm dome (the standard one). It works poorly with even a +1 diopter added, though my lens works poorly with that diopter above water outside the dome. For me, anyway, the 12-24 doesn't like diopters. Without the diopter, the Nexus 170 dome produces acceptable pincushion with limited CF capability but is sharp.

Nexus has glass domes and a very large dome as well. I'm sure the huge dome would be best for the 12-24 but I don't care to travel with it. I tried the lens with the smallest Nexus dome but it was not acceptable.

I also have the 4" glass fisheye dome and modified Sigma 15mm fisheye. The manual focus ring is lousy (but hardly necessary) but the rest of the package is awesome. Amazingly wide and really compact with great optical performance and close focus to, like, 3-4 inches. I regret having no wide opportunities on my last trip. I can't recommend it highly enough but it is very expensive.

P.S.

Didn't notice you asking about specific dome sizes. Nexus offers a 9" dome. Here is a webpage of their ports. Not listed is their Athena glass dome and their new fisheye dome. I own the 170 and the WP-4 (called the WP-7 now I believe) plus the fisheye dome.,

I was diving with Woody Mayhew of Nexus America for 2 weeks and he was using the 12-24 behind what I think is the 170mm dome. He got some fantastic CFWA shots.

Get a hold of him

woody@nexusamerica.com

Stu

Closest focus without a diopter using the 170mm dome is soemwhere between 12 and 16 inches I believe.