Still having problems with the zoom gear

Hi, after being diving the Aquatica housing, I'm still having problems with the zoom gear.

In two different dives the zoom stops working near the end of the dives. I made some tests on land and I know what is happening.

I'm moving the zoom wheel beyond the limits, I mean the 10mm and 17mm limits. If I do this a few times, the zoom gear moves away and stops working.

I now that I need to be more careful but my left hand is my clumsy hand and I'm diving with thick gloves.

Is there any way to avoid this to happen? other than being more gentle with the zoom wheel?

i have the same setup, D7000 and Aquatica Ad7000.

Just curious, how snug or tight is the gear on the lens? I ask because mine was so tight it was hard to get it pushed on the lens to the point I thought I might break something.

The instructions for the gear said to take the o-rings out of the gear and cut them in smaller pieces to get a looser fit only using enough pieces to get the fit you are looking for.. So I did just that and I feel my gear is snug enough not to fall off and when I get to the end of the zooms travel the gear will slip on the lens. I have two o-ring grooves in my gear and have three 3/4 inch pieces in each groove.

Gloves are a bitch, I have drysuit gloves to deal with in the Great Lakes. Pretty hard to have any dexterity with fine controls.

I have the same outcome with my zoom gear when using the 1.4X and 10-17 if I am not careful. For me, its the alignment PRIOR to diving. In my Nexus housing, it is possible to have the zoom gear engage but not have it totally lined up perfectly. It will zoom correctly to both ends but will slowly 'screw' itself off the lens during the dive if not lined up accurately. Its easy to tell with my setup, looking into the housing with the dome removed - zooming in/out, the teeth will stay lined up exactly all the way in both directions when correct.

When not correct, the teeth will not match perfectly the entire way. This means the zoom gear is at a slight angle and with time will thread off the lens.

I hope I explained this well enough to make sense.

I do not know if you are having the same issue with your housing. You might take a look.

i have the same setup, D7000 and Aquatica Ad7000.

 

Just curious, how snug or tight is the gear on the lens? I ask because mine was so tight it was hard to get it pushed on the lens to the point I thought I might break something.

 

The instructions for the gear said to take the o-rings out of the gear and cut them in smaller pieces to get a looser fit only using enough pieces to get the fit you are looking for.. So I did just that and I feel my gear is snug enough not to fall off and when I get to the end of the zooms travel the gear will slip on the lens. I have two o-ring grooves in my gear and have three 3/4 inch pieces in each groove.

 

Gloves are a bitch, I have drysuit gloves to deal with in the Great Lakes. Pretty hard to have any dexterity with fine controls.

I think that my problem might be related with the orings in the zoom gear, it's not hard to move it beyond the zoom limits.

I'm using the orings as they came from the factory, I have near to 2 cm of free space in the orings grooves.

Maybe I need to get more oring to fill the gap.

I have the same outcome with my zoom gear when using the 1.4X and 10-17 if I am not careful. For me, its the alignment PRIOR to diving. In my Nexus housing, it is possible to have the zoom gear engage but not have it totally lined up perfectly. It will zoom correctly to both ends but will slowly 'screw' itself off the lens during the dive if not lined up accurately. Its easy to tell with my setup, looking into the housing with the dome removed - zooming in/out, the teeth will stay lined up exactly all the way in both directions when correct.

When not correct, the teeth will not match perfectly the entire way. This means the zoom gear is at a slight angle and with time will thread off the lens.

I hope I explained this well enough to make sense.

 

I do not know if you are having the same issue with your housing. You might take a look.

I understand what you are saying, in fact I've been careful to have the zoom gear correctly aligned, it can happen the same thing that you described with the Aquatica gear.

I think is a problem of how snug is the zoom gear, as Paul mentioned.

I just made a test with teflon tape, and now the zoom gear is really snug, I need to push hard to move it beyond the lens zoom now.