Nike D70 in Ikelite housing - subcommand dial not engaging

We just got our new Ikelite housing today, and are checking out all the control connections. Everything seems to be working OK except for the subcommand dial. The rubber ring inside the housing spins OK, but doesn't quite touch the control ring.

Anyone else experiences this? Any fixes?

joe

Hi Joe...welcome to Wetpixel

We had that problem on one of our housings. The fix was pretty simple.

First, I unscrewed the gear from the housing. Sounds scary, but it's very easy. I wanted to shim out the gear so that it would engage better. I went to Lowe's and bought a package of #3 stainless steel flat washers and put approx. 4 or 5 washers in the space behind the gear and it lifted the gear away from the housing a fraction of an inch.

Works great and is even smoother than before!

Give it a try

Karl

Sounds easy enough. I'll pick up some washers today and give it a try.

joe

Karl reccomended the same process for my D100 housing. Everything now works great.

John Lowther

I had a similar problem with my Subal housing for Fuji S2, which is based on same Nikon body as the D100. I stole the teflon bushing from an UltraLight clamp and used it as a shim under the spring that tensions the wheel that engages the sub-command dial.

I told Subal what I had done, and I was cautioned that if the wheel is pushed out too much, it could interfere with closing the housing and cause a leak. A warning worth keeping in mind if you're making this kind of adjustment.

Part of my problem was that the sub-command dial had become a bit stiff, and the serrations/grooves had worn down, presumably through use in the housing, making the dial smoother and more difficult to positively engage.

I took the camera to Fuji and asked them to clean and lubricate the mechanism and replace the dial. Initially, they were saying they would have to replace the entire top half of the camera, which would have been big bucks for what is really a 20 cent piece of plastic. In the end, they were able to get a new sub-command dial from Nikon and replace it at a reasonable charge. Worked much better after this.

The controls work on our camera before shipment, so you might check how camera is positioned on the tray. Make sure tripod screw is tight and camera is secure. Another possibility is tray may be sagging with a very heavy lens, requiring a shim at its front that touches housing bottom. Understand that the knob may need to be pushed in while turning? Water pressure does this when diving. We tend to err on the safe side to keep from putting too much pressure on the camera dial. You can always move knob out slightly on the shaft.............

Ike, it's the knob/control dial on the front of the camera that slips....adjusting the rear knob shaft and shiming the tray would only work for the command dial on the back of the camera....

Karl

Do you have the same problem on both D70's Karl? Mine seems to engage fine but have only had it out on one trip so far.

Tony

Karl's suggestion worked great for my D70/Ikelite combo. I ended up at a marine supply store (we were visiting BackScatter in Monterey). They didn't have any #3, but I got some #4 and #6. Ended up with 5 washers back there, because the first 3 just filled in the back of the gear. Very smooth operation.

joe

Tony, I only had the problem on one housing....the other works fine

Karl

I had the same problem. The #3 washers did the trick.

Ike, it's the knob/control dial on the front of the camera that slips....adjusting the rear knob shaft and shiming the tray would only work for the command dial on the back of the camera....

 

Karl

I am just back from Sharm el Sheikh where I did my first dives with the d70 / IKelite housing and I noticed the same problem. Being pretty new to both diving and digital I did not try to fix it there. The camera was tightly fixed to the basis. I also had the small screw which locks the lens zoom knob axis inside the house go loose resulting in that there were no chance of changing zoom more on that dive. Carrying no tools for screws of that size it was luckily fixed using one of the wifes steel hairclips! I also had the battery go empty on a dive (missing an opportunity with a free laying Moray and some Unicorn doctorfish) but log that as user error... :-)

Apart from this I am extremely happy with the kit; it is much easier to handle uw than I thought it would be, even for a newbie. The transparent case is brilliant for checking for leaks to ease the worrying mind! And digital has so many advantages. Got to plan next holidays now!