NA-EM1II Housing for Olympus OM-D E-M1II issue

I recently took my new Olympus OM-D E-M1 mkii camera + Nauticam housing on a maiden voyage to Puerto Galera and Anilao. It's a really nice upgrade from my previous EM-5, but I did experience an issue I want run by the community. This might also be good information for anyone new with this setup, in case you come across the same problem.

On day 3, during the first dive on that day, I noticed a strange behaviour. All of the sudden none of the directional buttons seemed to work. Initially I didn't think much of it, but after taking the first photo I also noticed no preview was shown. I went back to test the directional buttons, which still weren't working. Turned the camera off/on, but the issue persisted. Most of the dive was spent on trying to figure out what was happening, but due to strong currents there wasn't much to be done and I assumed I had installed the camera incorrectly the day before. Perhaps something got misaligned. While back on the boat, I gave it another go and to my surprise everything was back to normal. Started suspecting the vacuum valve, a new feature to me, and that perhaps the buttons got stuck on the inside due to too much pressure. Conditions on the boat weren't such that I felt i wanted to open the housing, so went into the water for a second dive. This time everything worked fine the first 15 minutes, but then the issue was back - most buttons on the front did nothing, no preview after photo was taken etc. Dials seemed to work. Very frustrating, and another lost dive.

That evening I spent trying to see if too much pressure could recreate this problem, but I wasn't able to. As a software engineer, nothing gets me more frustrated than an "error" you can't recreate . The next day I went into the water with just enough pressure for the green LED to appear. During the first dive I had no issues - great! During the second dive however, about 10 minutes in, the issue was back. Very frustrating! Too much pressure seem to not be the issue, unless the pressure sensor was off and only showing green at much higher levels than it should. Back at the hotel room that evening I went back to troubleshooting. My theory this time was that perhaps one, or a couple, buttons don't get released properly, cancelling out the preview and making the directional buttons unresponsive. After about 10 minutes of pressing different button combinations I found one that did exactly this - keeping the shutter button pressed half way down. I have decoupled the focus from the the shutter button, but keeping it half pressed still seem to be registered by the camera and the effect is exactly what I experienced while diving - most front buttons do nothing, and no preview is shown if you take a photo.

The next day I went diving again and during the first dive, about 10 minutes in, the issue reappeared. This time I checked the shutter release on the housing, which by looking at it seemed to have gone back to its initial position. To make sure I gently pushed the release in the opposite direction you normally would, and it did in fact move ever so slightly. I rechecked the camera - working! The rest of the week I spent diving without being too bothered by this - once the the issue resurfaced I just made sure to push the shutter release back into it's initial position.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm considering to send the housing back to the shop, as it's still quite annoying even though I now know how to deal with it.

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!

Patrick

It sounds like something in your shutter release mechanism is sticking. I would definitely have it serviced, as one possible explanation could be an o-ring that is binding (either misaligned or not sufficiently lubricated) and that could cause bigger problems. Or there might just be some gunk in there somewhere that could be easily cleaned. It should not happen on a new housing, of course, but should not be a big deal to solve.

FWIW, I've been using the same camera and housing for the last six months, after also upgrading from the E-M5, and have had no such issues. But my previous Nauticam housing did develop a sticky shutter lever one year that was fixed through a simple service of the o-rings.

Mine doesn't do it, makes sense that buttons don't work as halfpressing will send you back to live view. Might be the return spring not installed correctly or even the little rubber tip on the lever too thick or something like that that keeps it half pressed. I would be taking it back! It is something I would imagine would be hard to pick up in QC.

Hi Patrick

Looks like i am having similar issues, yeaarrday i posted basicaly the same question...seee topid nauuticam housing buttons not woring at deppth..

I was wondering if since december u have found more data.

Pier

The way to test would be to see if you pulling up on the shutter release gets the buttons going again. Also check that the lever inside activating the shutter fully retracts. when released, it might be tight or the spring pressure might not be enough to pull it back. I have not seen this on my housing.

If you look inside the housing you'll see there is a return spring - if this is installed incorrectly it may not return the lever. Likewise if the lever is bent too much it may retain pressure on the shutter button to release it fully. I just installed my camera in the housing and had a look, at the right angle I can see the lever and it has 1-2mm of travel prior to touching the shutter button and springs back instantly when released.

I would note that because this is a lever activated through rotation, excess pressure from being too deep shouldn't have much impact, though if perhaps the o-ring was a little tight to start it may bind a little more at depth???

Chris i think you are right, thank you for your help, i will try tomorrow if i manage to do a deeper dive...thank you so much

Great, report back on how you go. If you find that you need to pull the lever up to get things going again, I would talk to your dealer as I'd regard that as a defect.

Chris, I can confirm that indeed looks like after 25-27m the pressure brings back the shutter leave about 2mm blocking the rest of the function. Manually need to pull out the leaver from the insite, just slightly. I will let reef photo know that looks like perhaps Nauticam needs a stronger spring on the lever. Thank you to put me on the right track.