1D MkII and Seacam Housing

Anyone care to speculate if you could just throw a 1D MkII into an 1D Seacam Housing and make it work? It appears the only change is to the rear button layout.

Also to the thousands of Seacam owners out there :wink: , do you routinely use the "Menu, Select, Display, view, and Trash" buttons underwater? (my guess would be yes to review your images and delete as needed). Usefulness of the White Balance button would be questionable.

Keith

Stephen Frink was in Thailand last I spoke with him. I'm sure he'll have some updates/info when he returns.

Cheers

James

Seacam had hinted at something new, but no details. So my guess is that they changed the housing. Harald already told me that he was going to incorporate "proper" * button support into a new version of it, so maybe they are timing it with the release of the new camera.

White balance isn't so important, if you are shooting RAW. But if you are trying to get some good jpgs out of the rig (for a shootout, for example), it might be.

Not to digress too far off. Eric, how did you like the Seacam handles versus other housings? They seem a little wierd, but you never know what they are like until you use them underwater.

I haven't had one in the water, but I really like how the rear command dial is accessible with your thumb. On a Nikon-based slr, I'd flip/flop the command dials, and control aperture with my thumb & the eye to the viewfinder.

Nexus does this, too, as far as I know these are the only D100 housings that do.

A similar treatment is done with the canon rear command dial on this housing.

The only complaints I've ever heard with these housings are heaviness in the water, and lack of travel money after purchase.

I'm not Eric, but I know he uses ULCS handles w/ his Seacam setup. He has a photo of his setup on his site.

Good comments so far! The Seacam S2 housing has the same thumb controlled command dial and it's very nice.

The weight of the Seacam S2 setup w/ the 105 and the S-180 was literally only a few ounces in water (without strobes or arms) Macro strobes and buoyancy arms would add about zero ounces.

Haven't used the handles on a dive, so can't comment there. Note, the curved seacam handles aren't made for mounting strobes.

Cheers

James

I read somewhere where advice was given on how to straighten out a bent Seacam handle. The handle in question was bent inward after a fall (ouch). the solution was to cover a cresent with a towel and use it to pry the handle back into position.

If the reviews come back favorable, I will be looking to house 1D MKII. I think I have narrowed my housing search down to either a Subal or Seacam (of course if they will accomodate the MKII).

Keith

If the reviews come back favorable

Interesting that everyone who has used a pre-production version is enamored with it. Few more weeks and we should start to see image samples and some initial reviews.

, I will be looking to house 1D MKII.

You and a few others I imagine. I suspect that it's going to be tough to get a MkII for a while initially. Hopefully it will be long enough that the housing mfrs can catch up!!

Sorry for the tardy reply to this thread as I've been on the road. Yes, the EOS1D MkII is going to be a very formidable imaging tool. See http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/eos1dm2/html/menu.html if you needed any further convincing.

I've already ordered mine and am totally confident it will fit in my existing EOS1Ds Seacam housing. Of course the three buttons below the LCD will not be accessible in the current generation housing, but none of those functions are terribly important to me.

I'm very much looking forward to getting my EOS1D MkII as soon as possible, although I doubt it will be much before mid-April.

Can't Seacan just make a new rear door available - seems like the most practical option?

Can't Seacan just make a new rear door available - seems like the most practical option?

There is in fact an easy solution, for which we are simply waiting for a production camera to make final tweaks. The housings are now machined from a solid block of aluminum, so things that might have been easy and obvious in the old days of lost-wax casting have to be considered in the light of new manufacturing technology.

Steve

With regards to ability to delete images under water with this housing/camera combo- sadly I don't own a Seacam/1DMkII, but it has occured to me that this will be increasingly unnecessary as CF memory sizes seem to be outpacing camera file size increases. File size hasn't increased generally over the last year or so (1Ds still has largest Canon file size, 6-12 megapixel is still the range of sensor sizes as it was a year and a half ago). However, if an 8 gig CF was annouced at PMA (as mentioned on this site) - that's big! It's probably expensive, but not overly so in proportion to the U/W setups we're talking about here. I easily fill a 1 gig card and wish it was bigger, but I think 8gig would be plenty and with an 8 gig card I think my delete button would gather dust.

I had the opportunity to play with a Mark II as well as the 1Ds this week at PMA. They share identical bodies and control layout with the exception of the 3 buttons under the rear LCD which I hope Seacam will hammer out a control for in short order. All I can say after seeing some 20x30 prints from the Mark II and playing with it is....UNBELIEVABLE!

Hi all,

I'm in the process of ordering a 1D hosuing for my 1Ds, and will be looking to the MkII as well !

You folk that have the 1Ds housing ... is it ONLY the 3 buttons (on the MkII) that will not line up ? I had assumed that given the images of the housing that I can find, the 'quality' and 'WB' on the existing 1Ds housing are no accessible anyway (there are no button on the housing or are there ?)

Can somebody take a picture of the inside of a housing and post it (are the controls straight plungers or a more complex arrangement) ?

The 4 buttons on the left of the housing LCD window - which buttons do they line up to on the 1Ds ?

How soon will Seacam announce what their plans are ?

Thanks.

I had assumed that given the images of the housing that I can find, the 'quality' and 'WB' on the existing 1Ds housing are no accessible anyway (there are no button on the housing or are there ?)

quality and wb are on a rocker switch at the very bottom rear of the housing. http://www.stephenfrink.com/seacam/sc-albu.../inc-eos1ds.php

Seacam needs to physically have a camera in hand to make final refinements to MKII housing, which to my knowledge can't happen until April.

Just received this update from Seacam Austria regarding the Canon EOS MKII:

"the housing is already in production – with all differences"

I don't expect finished housings for several months yet, but it is a comfort to know that the new housing will accommodate the control placement specific to the new camera.

Great news Steve! I anticpate placing my order within the next two months. I am almost done liquidating my Canon FD equipment. Thanks, Keith