Nauticam D7000 Housing - Handle Brackets!!

I shoot a Nauticam D7000 housing. Love it.

Well, love most things about it. I did a huge ol' review here: Linky

I mostly love it.

What I'm not loving is the how when I have strobes on the handle-mounted ball arms, the strobes are essentially on springs... wobble wobble wobble wobble. Especially using my W/A set up with very long arms, in current or surge. I'm using Ikelite strobes... not the smallest or lightest strobes. Its a bit of an annoyance to have these things bouncing all over.

This is a known and reported issue - and I get it. Nauticam, in an effort to make the housing as travel-friendly as possible (and it really, really is!) made the arms merely bullet-resistant. They're not the super solid rock solid bullet-proof aluminum columns of my beloved Titan D2000 housing.

Ryan at Reef and I have talked about this for awhile. He told me he was machining a solution. It arrived on Monday. I'm so excited!!

Ryan and his team have created brackets that brace the wobble city handle-mounted ball mounts to the immovable housing-mounted ball mounts - the result is rendering the floppy handle mounts immovable!

When I received the package, I was thinking, "why are these two brackets different sizes...." - I've had my housing since February, and it turns out the left handle is a different distance from the immovable housing-mounted ball mount than right side. Who knew??

The package came with everything a person needs - whether they're running handle-mounted ball mounts, the housing-mounted ball mounts, or no ball mounts at all (say, you just want the handles more stable!) Very cool!

Mounting these was literally a 4 minute operation. 4mm T-handle hex key, a small crescent wrench and some black tape to wrap around the housing-mounted ball mount (to keep the wrench from digging into the aluminum)

Step one: Pull off the ball mounts. Handle mounts come off with the 4mm. Housing mounts with the wrench.

Step two: Select the correct size plate, and align it

Step three: re-mount the handle-mounted ball mount (the screws you have been using will work... the ones that come with the kit are the same size) and the housing-mount ball mount (or, use the large black screws and washers provided if you're not using this second mounting system)

Step four: Admire the stable rigidity that is your new handle brackets from Reef Photo!

I could not be more pleased with the simplicity of this solution, or the workmanship of the product. Perfect sizing, excellent machining, and packaged with all possible configurations in mind - to me this is a must have for anyone who is using the Naiticam D7000 housing.

Thanks Ryan!!!

-Ken

Hi Ken, Thanks for the excellent report. We merely passed along the feedback, the credit for the accessory parts belongs to Nauticam. These will be available as an accessory from all Nauticam dealers worldwide in the near future.

That looks like a great solution, let us know when they are available.

Hi Ken, Thanks for the excellent report. We merely passed along the feedback, the credit for the accessory parts belongs to Nauticam. These will be available as an accessory from all Nauticam dealers worldwide in the near future.

That's a pretty cool solution.

That's looks pretty cool, I may need to get that for my T2i housing. A problem I have is the screw that holds the mounting plate in the handles tends to loosen so I have to remove the ball then retighten the screw between dives. This solution might help that.

That's looks pretty cool, I may need to get that for my T2i housing. A problem I have is the screw that holds the mounting plate in the handles tends to loosen so I have to remove the ball then retighten the screw between dives. This solution might help that.

That was my biggest gripe with my beloved L&M Titan D200 housing - the ball mounts on the handles use a single hex key right down the center. I can't think of a worse way to affix a ball mount that will be torqued within an inch of its life by a heavy strobe at the end of nearly 3-feet of fulcrum arm. Of course its going to eventually loose and spin.

That's one of the things I love most about the Nauticam housing - TWO hex keys affix the ball to the handle. This ball mount is solid.

And now, my handles don't go boing boing boing....

So happy!

-Ken