Housing advice for Nikon D70?

Hi all:

Total newbie here, decided to take the plunge into UW photography after borrowing a friends camera on a dive... it's easy to get hooked

I'm planning on getting a Nikon D70, and I see at least two housings available: Ikelite and Sea&Sea. Anyone have any advice as to which is better, and why. Any other housings that I haven't discovered yet?

Also, any particular favorites as far as online stores?

J

Another housing to consider would be the Nexus D70 housing. I was playing with one at SeaSpace yesterday, it was extremely compact and felt/looked extremely well finished. Cost wise, the housings currently out for the D70 would go Nexus>Sea & Sea>Ikelite.

Aquatica will have a housing on the market soon/by the end of the nothern hemisphere summer (or so they appear to hope), and I am sure that Subal will have one soon too, if they don't already...

If you are a total newbie, you need to consider the cost of the ports to go along with the housing, which again would probably go Nexus>Sea & Sea>>Ikelite. I started out with an Ikelite housed film camera, and had a lot of joy with it.

Oh yes, every time you buy something on line a fairy dies :shock: :twisted: :shock:

B&H, Adorama, KEH... I have had good experiences with all of these. I use B&H most frequently, have bought film from Adorama when B&H was out, and have bought a couple of lenses from KEH's secondhand store.

Craig pretty much covered it. Some things to consider when purchasing a housing are:

How long do you intend to keep it for?

Can you get good service in your country, for example if you damage the housing and need it repaired.

How much does the housing/camera/strobes weigh underwater? On land?

How is the viewfinder? Can you see the whole thing with your dive mask on? Is it tiny?

How easy is the housing to work on? Is it easy to change lenses, batteries, memory cards?

The best way to find out this information is to call a store that sells a wide variety of housings, actually DIVES with them, and knows what they are talking about. Reviews here at Wetpixel are also good, but we haven't done much w/ the D70 yet, since it's new.

Cheers

James

am pretty much in the same boat. One thing to consider is strobes. If you already have strobes, than that could be a factor in your housing choice. Right now, Ikelite only supports ikelite strobes! I am awaiting word on the Aquatica housing for the D-70. I think that there is alot of bang for the buck but the release date scares me. Last I heard they were shooting for mid-August. The Sea & Sea housing is huge! Here is a shot comparing the Sea & Sea Housing for the D-70, the Aquatica Housing for the DR (I expect the A-70 to be similar in size) and a Tetra Housing for the 5050 (it was put in for my benefit...I used one for awhile and am familiar with the size). FWIW, expect to pay ~$1,000 US more for the Subal & Nexus than the Sea & Sea. The Aquatica is about $600 less than the Sea & Sea and the Ike is about $1,000 less than the Sea & Sea.

Not sure where DBH got his information, but Ikelite D70 housing allows use of any Nikonos or Ikelite SubStrobe; even Inon or Sea & Sea as per following URL. All operate as manual strobes.

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2dm100strobes.html

Thanks for the quick replies and good advice, all. I'm leaning towards the Ikelite housing, due to cost and availability consideratons. I'm starting from scratch, and need to keep at least a little bit of an eye on the budget ;-)

Next question, of course, is strobes. I gather that the D70 doesn't support TTL strobes -- is that a permanent thing, or hasn't the TTL protocol been reverse engineered yet?

I'm thinking about geting 2 strobes, because it's pretty murky in Puget Sound, even on a good day, and I want to be able to bring out the colors without getting a lot of shadows (unless I want them, of course). I'm thinking about a pair of Ikelite DS-50 substrobes... but that's just a first guess. Any suggestions?

Not sure where DBH got his information, but Ikelite D70 housing allows use of any Nikonos or Ikelite SubStrobe; even Inon or Sea & Sea as per following URL.  All operate as manual strobes.  

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2dm100strobes.html

My bad Ike. It seems like I would have heard, hanging around here & digitaldiver, that the long awaited cord has finally been released. I guess that one slipped through the cracks!

I retract my statement!

Ikelite makes cords for:

(Housing to strobe)

Ike to Ike

Ike to Nikon

and now Ike to Sea and Sea or

Ike to Inon

Cheers

James