Aquatica focus gear trouble for nikon 12-24

I am having a devil of a time with the "massive" aquatica focus gear for the nikon 12-24. first of all it is impossible to insert the camera into the housing with the lens a gear attached because the lens release lever will not clear the gear. I did manage to mount the lens to the camera via the front of the housing after a lot of futzing, but it was a bit difficult and I did not like the crunchy grindy sounds produced as I rotated the lens on the camera mount.

I did get it installed but it does not mesh very well with the housing gear and tends to slip when nearing the 12 mm range.

no instructions were included with the gear other than a note explaining how to trim the O-ring if the gear would not slip onto the lens.

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated

Chris

PS: that is one nice lens!

I've faced several problems with their gearing too... too much one end and not enough the other! Also to fit the 14mm Nikkor one has to strip out the MDC assembly.

When fitting the lensed cameras into the housings I've found alignment much easier by installing the tray onto the camera first, then dropping it slowly in on the two locking pins.

Thanks Bob

will give your method a go next time!

for now, back to shooting stuff I can't see!

Now hunting shrimp and crabs on starfish and sea cucumbers! Then on to the big challenge, Wire Coral Gobies!

Chris

Are you talking about the Zoom gera or the focus gear, you mentioned 12mm?

For the zoom gear, I cut the o-rings into 4 pieces each having 6cm in lenght (better more and trim down) and positioned them in the grooves on opposite sides, i.e. 0 and 180 degrees for 1 and 90 and 270 for the other, I glued them in place with superglue when I got the lenght right.

The front of the zoom gear aligns with the end of the rubber zoom ring in the lens and you will be able to see the gold lettering in the back of the lens "Nikkor 12-24..." and the line above it.

Works perfect, doesn't slip and don't have to hammer it into place. One + thing when you trying to find the right lenght use something (i used mastik) that can keep the piece in the groove without fixing it for good. Worked for me.

Jorge,

Nice tip. Can you post a photo of what you did? I can picture it but seeing exactly how you did it would help. I'm getting my Aquatica in a few weeks and may fix the gear as you suggested. Thanks.

Mar

giftie

Oops! my bad! Zoom gear not focus! :oops:

very early in the morning and the coffee had not kicked in yet!

the gear slips onto the lens with a bit of rocking back and forth but It is not to tight. I may adjust the o-ring later as required.

thanks for the alignment tip. that was one of my major concerns!

one more question, how do you position the teeth of the gear to allow full control. not a big issue as the gear seems to allow a lot of variation due the the amount of teeth.

I had the same trouble with my 12-24, what I found was that depending on were the orings are placed, the gears will shift apart as you zoom the lens (if not cut into four pieces and placed equally around the gear, Nice idea)

What I did was watch with the dome port removed how the gears shifted away or closer to the drive gear when zooming the lens and adjusted the o-ring accordingly..

The other thing that I noticed was that there is a couple of set screws on the housing used to keep the D-100 in place that can be adjusted if there movement in the camera when zooming/ focusing.. (I'm not sure how different the housings and cameras are) one of my set screws was missing so there was alot of movement, they are covered with a little piece of black plastic.

It can take some time futzing with these screws putting the camera in and out a couple of times, but I found is that it also took care of some of the binding and sliping of some of the other gearing for the dials.

Hope this can help you out

Toddo

Nikon D-100

Aquatica housing

12-24, 17-35, 105 macro

Ike SS-200 and DS-125

Chris is undoubtedly talking about the zoom gear. This is what he gets for getting up at 5:30 am every day to go diving. Perhaps excess N2 loading of the brain as well...:-)

The lens and gear will not come out of the front of the housing half through the port opening with the lens and gear mounted. The gear runs up against the arm holding the MSC control. I also noticed the scraping feeling when I rotate the lens into place on the lens mount. If you look closely, there is a slight wear mark just next to the lens M/A-M switch.

Besides that small scratch on the lens, there is no damage that I can see and once the lens is locked onto the mount it works fine.

Perhaps part of the gear can be machined off so that the teeth at the front remain, but the back part of the gear is smooth. With a little "wiggle room" in the back, I bet you can get that gear out through the bayonet port opening. Something to ask Aquatica about...

Cheers

James

Hello Chris,

I took the lens release lever off my Aquatica S2 housing. I am too much of a clean freak to put a lens on a camera without the camera pointing down and also making sure no debris is inside the camera or on the inner lens surface. Without the lens release gear attached, the installation of the 12-24mm DX is a bit smoother.

The S2, Aquatica housing and the 12-24mm DX lens is a great combo.

Scott

Thanks for the great tips!

after using giftie's gear alignment advice, the slipping has stopped.

Aquatica may have done some retooling as I can mount the lens through the front of the housing but I may remove the lens release lever because like Scott, I do like mounting lenses with the camera body face up!

6 am and off the the beach. got to dive early to shoot my macro because I have to do my tourist gig at 10 AM!

happiness is living somewhere where you can put in dive before going to work!

Bob, no need for a drysuit or even a wetsuit, The water is 29C :wink: