Ike 300D housing modification and Custom Port. Good Job Ike

If I remember corectly my first post here at wetpixel(or at least one of my first posts) was regarding my 300D housing and two problems I was having with my new Ikelite 300D. First I could not figure out how to MF with my 100mm macro lens. The other problem I was having was changing the aperature via the AV.

The 100mm macro lens has to great of a diameter to work with Ikelites standard zoom/focus gear system. The lens just barely fits into the port and leaves no room for a gear. Back in febuary Ike promised me that If I would send him my lens he would make a port of it. A few weeks ago I took him up on his offer. His solution is a port that has a knob on the end of it that controls the foucus. It is so cool the way it works I cant explain it but it does not involve a gear. You just push the port over the lens and it works. SWEET.

Ike was dissapointed that he couldnt rig up a way to access the MF/AF button and the AF range button but I think that it is still very usefull. With the new firmware Hack enableing OneShot AF mode, Full Time MF lenses now work so you can lock focus, adjust focus and then take a picture. So long as you can hold the trigger half way down for a while you dont really need the AF/MF switch to use MF underwater. I wont get a chance to try it out underwater untill August but on land the trigger lever gives enough feedback that it is easy to hold the tirgger half way down while you adjust focus.

Here is a picture of the new port next to the old non Manual focus one.

And a picture of the new port on my 300D housing.

The problem with the AV button was harder to pin down. At first I thought that the AV button just didnt reach far enough and just needed to bent so that it would reach the camera. It turned out to not be that simple. The real problem was that the weight of heavy 100mm lens was too much for the base plate which is only supported on one side to handle. The plate would bend down and move the back of the camera farther from the housing thus the button didnt reach. Again Ike came up with a ingenious fix. He installed a screw on the front of the baseplate to support the front of the camera. I havent had a chance to try it out but since it is a screw, I can adjust it to provide as much support as is needed.

Here is a picture of the new support on the baseplate.

Here is a picture of the support in action.

William: Thanks for the update.

I too have one of Ike's manual focus ports and I intend to write some praise about it when I get this D100 review finished. It's one of those "simple yet elegant" type designs that engineers rave about.

Cheers

James

I'm assuming we're talking about the Canon 100mm USM macro?

Ike, how would one go about getting one of these ports and how much would it cost? Another question, can you/have you built a similar port for the Tamron 90mm macro.

Thanks!

Port is described on following URL: http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/can105lens.html

We have not seen the Tamron 90mm, but Tamron 90mm for Nikon operates in our port system.

Yes it is the Canon 100mm F/2.8 USM macro. I noticed today that Ike added the port to his site. So I would assume you can order one from your dive shop. It is now part #5508.45

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/can105lens.html

Another note about the port. It is shorter than my old non-MF port. I guess this is a good thing.