Need a Housing for the D70

Thanks for the suggestion to get a hold of Ryan. I will be talking to him today.

He has sent me an email with some very helpful info.

Aquatica is supposed to be coming out with one relatively soon also....I believe James said in late August...haven't heard anything, yet.

I took the advice of several in this thread and contacted Ryan from Underwater Camera Pros who was supposed to get me a quote for a Subal housing/strobe package. I contacted him in mid-August, just prior to him leaving for a trip to the Caymans (right around the time of Frances).

I have sent him several emails and voicemails but have not heard back from him. I hope he's ok.

I'm still trying to buy a housing before my trip to Mexico in mid-October. Any other dealers you guys feel comfortable with? This experience with Underwater Camera Pros is a bad way to start.

I'm now considering the Ike, Subal and S&S since Light and Motion have cancelled plans for the D70 housing. There is such a big difference in price between the Subal/Nexus and the S&S/Ike. Are they worth the difference? I don't want to buy a less-expensive housing now only to wish I had paid the extra $$ for a better unit.

I just purchased Nexus housing from Ryan with no problems.. couple emails back and forth and deal was done..

Nexus does not have zoom gear for 18-70..yet...Ryan says he has someone working on this for us..

Ike has all the ports you need for your lenses and price/performance and availability is good.

Not sure if Sea and Sea has port available for 18-70..seems like most manufactures are leaving this lens out of their current port lineups..

If cost is a factor go with Ike.. not sure what advantage (other than size) that aluminum housing will have over ikes housings..

I own both (aluminum and plastic) and bought the nexus housing with inon strobes for my wife. ) She does not know yet.. )) (smaller and lighter setup)..

In my experience, S&S has been slow to provide support for new lenses (officially), more so for Canon than Nikon. No big deal from a port point of view, as that can be tested, but zoom gears can be tough to get made if you don't have someone to help you out.

In your situation, if price was a concern, I'd pick Ikelite over S&S. If price was no concern, I'd think about Subal, but wouldn't rule out Ikelite either as their service is outstanding after the sale.

I'd definitely encourage you to try Ryan one more time, he's great to work with.

Just my $0.02

Tom

I took the advice of several in this thread and contacted Ryan from Underwater Camera Pros who was supposed to get me a quote for a Subal housing/strobe package. I contacted him in mid-August, just prior to him leaving for a trip to the Caymans (right around the time of Frances).  

 

I have sent him several emails and voicemails but have not heard back from him. I hope he's ok.  

 

I'm still trying to buy a housing before my trip to Mexico in mid-October. Any other dealers you guys feel comfortable with? This experience with Underwater Camera Pros is a bad way to start.  

 

I'm now considering the Ike, Subal and S&S since Light and Motion have cancelled plans for the D70 housing. There is such a big difference in price between the Subal/Nexus and the S&S/Ike. Are they worth the difference? I don't want to buy a less-expensive housing now only to wish I had paid the extra $$ for a better unit.

I am alive and well

After our phone conversation, I sent package pricing for the items we discussed on Aug. 27, and hadn't heard back with any further questions...

My personal email has been acting up (rc@ryancanon.com), but I don't know of any issues with info@uwcp.com.

Aquatica should be shipping the D70 anytime now. I wonder how so little threads have mentioned this. :shock:

I just got myself a D70 plus the 12-24mm and will surely wait a bit longer. Will be quite a drammatic improvement from my present A995 setup.

Lets hope that Aquatica will, once again, come out with a fab housing like all the others!!!

:wink:

Antonio

Images attached...

and one more...

As far as the plastic vs. aluminum housings go:

The aluminum housing are really sweet and handle well but other than price there are some advantages to the Ikelite housings.

1. There is no choice between S&S and Ikelite. Both are plastic but the service, port availability and options strongly favor Ikelite. The only thing that Ikelite doesn't have is an 8" dome. (hey Ike, here is a new request!)

2. Ike already has ETTL out for the drebel and will offer a retrofit. You stand a good chance of getting a TTL option with the D70 if you go with Ikelite. The way it works on the rebel lets you switch between TTL and manual and even has FEC. So there are a zillion ways to control your strobes. Not so for the expensive aluminum options.

3. Being able to see inside your housing is great. You can actually see how the buttons line up and do their thing. You also "might" spot water inside. Hopefully there will be no water inside.

4. The new DSLR housings are much smaller than before though not as small as the aluminum ones. They fit in my lowepro bag and are roughly neutral. A housing can't be both compact and neutral if the camera and materials are negative.

5. The plastic is very durable. You have to see it to understand.

6. price is an issue since any DSLR on the market today will be blown away by the newer ones comming soon and what is that about all underwater cameras being disposable? :shock:

7. The only disadvantage is with the ports. With ikelite you need a new port for each lens. But Peter has pointed out that you can use the same port for most of the lenses I want to use.

I was very happy with my nexus d70 I have something to told you I've use f90 nexus housing for 9-10 years without any service from factory and it still work well !!!!! I love control and gear of nexus another thing (maybe not much important) take a close look at David doubilet and NGS staff photo they all use nexus housing last month before I bought my new housing I was worry about TTL but after my lembeh trip I found that TTL is no need for digital I have use my old ss 200 setting at 1/8 and shooting on f-stop from f-11 to f-22 for macro most of them

are perfect

Can someone explain why for Ikelite housings eTTL (and possibly iTTL in the future) is a function of the housing as well as the strobe? My uneducated brain cannot make the connection, and I would have thought that the necessary electronics need to be in the strobe, making this function housing "neutral"!

We do/will include conversion with each housing for use with the common strobe systems that still works with film cameras like Nikonos, Nikon, Canon, etc. Some of our older SubStrobe models can be utilized with the new digital cameras, but preflash and sync circuit requirement changes by the camera companies don't make it easy. They may want you to buy a new strobe? The eTTL conversion that works with Canon 10D does not work with new Canon 20D or G6 for example. Our theory creates the most versatile strobe system that is portable between camera systems.

I went with the Ikelite housing for my D70 and couldn't be happier. I got it from Ryan at underwater camera pros. He is extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. I've only done a few dives with the system, but so far so good.