Sea and Sea DX30/60 Housing

fyi, the Sea and Sea DX30/60 housing for the Canon D30 and D60 DSLR will be available September 1, 2002. Expected delivery date is September 15, 2002. Please click here for more info.

There are more info on Sea & Sea's Japanese website (www.seaandsea.co.jp) Launch Sep 1 at 198,000 yen.

Cool now all I need is a 1d housing.

Actually, I miss my SLR, I am thinking I will be selling the G2 setup and getting a d60 body/housing.

My wife is gonna kill me

Yes, it's really cool and i can't wait to get my Nikon D100. Yes, I took the plunge and decided to go with the D100 instead of the D60. I should have the D100 by tommorrow and expected release date for the Sea and Sea DX100 is late September.

Hi Allen,

I'm just curious, how did you decide upon the D100 as opposed to the S2? What factors were important to you in your decision.

Cheers

James Wiseman

Click where? I was unable to find any link.

Bill

James,

You asked what factors were important to you in your decision?

Nothing in particular, I have always been a big Nikon buff when I used to shoot film and plus I still have some existing NX Dome port and flat port that I can definitely use with the Sea and Sea DX100 housing. I also have some Nikon and Sigma lenses that I decided to keep 15mm and 16mm FISHEYE lens perfect match for the NX Fisheye Dome Port.

As far as strobe compatibilty is concern, I was told that the Sea and Sea DX100 housing will come with a Nikonos type synch port. I think any Sea and Sea strobes will work with the housing. Will i get TTL? Probably not. I think the YS90DX strobe is the perfect candidate for strobe because of the 12 step lightnig adjustment. Some Sea and Sea strobes like the YS350, YS120 or YS60 does not come with this lighting adjsutment features.

Bvanant:

Try this

link again..

OK, talking about strobe compatibility -- since the front of the Sea and Sea D60 housing is opaque, how does it work with flashes? Can I synch my DS-125s to the camera or would it have a "Sea and Sea connector" (Actually, I think Ike makes a cord to connect Sea and Sea housings to his strobes -- or better yet, maybe Ike is designing a housing that doesn't cut the LCD in half )

I'm just curious, how did you decide upon the D100 as opposed to the S2? What factors were important to you in your decission.

I am pleased to hear (Ike told me) that we can expect some Fuji S2 Pro underwater shots from you very soon... Concerning the buying decission: If I had to pick one of the great three (D60, S2 Pro or D100) now I would also decide on the Nikon. Here are my main reasons for it:

1. it has the best price for *similar* performance. For the price gap to the Canon or Fuji I can already afford my first lense

2. dpreview.com rewarded this camera already the best focussing speed, which is very important if you want to shoot naturals scenes with animals... anemone clownfish for example

3. It utilizes Adobe RGB, which makes it very convienient for post production, as this is the main tool.

VERY PERSONAL REASON FOR CHOOSING NIKON OR FUJI:

4. My strobe setups electronic was matched to the Nikonos TTL-Protocol and can be used with the old cp990 and the new one.

5. Most friends I have, already own some Nikon lenses which I could borrow some times.

Mike,

The DX100 has a Nikonos sync port plug that will allow you to directly wire the stobe via hot shoe connection inside the housing. Will you get TTL? I don't think so.

(Actually, I think Ike makes a cord to connect Sea and Sea housings to his strobes

Yes, you are correct. You can get a sync cord cable that will allow you to adapt it with the Sea and Sea housing.

My plan is to use a Sea and Sea YS90DX a the main strobe and hook the INON D-180 to the YS90DX via fiber optic cable as the second strobe.

Still contemplating whether to go with a Nikkor 50mm f1.8D or Nikkor 60mm f2.8 macro lens for macro work. What do you think? 50mm or 60mm?

Thanks Allan, but is it the same for the D60 housing? I'm a proud member of the Canon L-glass owners club and moving over to Nikon (or Fuji, for that matter) would be a stretch for me. Since the D100 has D-TTL and all those preflashes, it seems that manual is the only option there. However, the D60 has but one preflash so I was sorta hoping that my DS-125s could give me TTL for macro once I finally save up enough money to buy all this stuff. Being able to get an Ike housing would certainly reduce my costs as I already have the ports (from my EOS A2 housing). However, like I said before, I'm still a bit concerned about not being able to use the LCD. I've thought about it and have considered trying to use the histogram to judge exposure correctness as I think you might be able see that through the bisected display . . .

Mike,

Yes, I think it's the same for the Sea and Sea DX30/60 housing. Also, you can view the LCD on the DX30/60 housing. The back of the housing is clear poly.

You might want to check with Eric Cheng regarding compatibility of the Ikelite DS125 strobe. I beleive he is using a Ikelite DS125 on his UK setup.

Eric, any input on this one?

Hi Gang,

Just to clear up a few confusing points in this thread, I was asking Allen why he would choose a Nikon D100 over a Fuji S2pro.

Both cameras are based on the Nikon N80 body - the only physical difference is that the Fuji is about 1/2" taller because it takes the 4 AA batteries in the base of the camera.

Sea and Sea have said that they are going to use the DX case for both cameras (D100 and S2), NOT just the D100. So using NX ports shouldn't be a factor in decision making, since it will work for both. Same goes for strobe connections - they will both have a Nikonos 5pin bulkhead.

So considerations between the two cameras seem to be:

Price?

RAW conversion software?

Qimage Pro Support for RAW?

TTL or D-TTL?

Ease of Use?

Image Quality/Sharpness?

Color rendition?

I've tried both cameras and that seems to be the major differences to me.

Cheers

James Wiseman

James,

I also think you should consider existing lenses and ports.

Since the Nikon D100 and Fuji S2 take the same lenses and ports - I took that out of the comparison.

Cheers

James

I had a look on Sea & Sea's Japanese website and it doesn't mention that their new housing for the D100 also can be used for the S2. I will try to find out from Sea & Sea Japan if they plan some kind of adapter for the S2. Until now there models for the Nikon series of 35 mm cameras have been specifically for only one kind of camera so I wouldn't be too sure about the S2.

I asked Sea and Sea about it in a private email (I don't post those to a public forum) - their S2 housing is expected in October.

Cheers

James

Thanks! That's great James. I guess you are buying one? Sea&Sea will have a nice range of DSLR houses. I have an old NX60 set-up which I could take parts from for an S2 (which absolutely would be my choice) so I shouldn't have bought the E-20 when it was launched..

I have to address some of the issues that Andi brought up:

> 1. it has the best price for *similar* performance. For the price gap to the Canon or Fuji I can already afford my first lense <

There's not that much price difference between the D100 and the S2, if you match package contents.

> 2. dpreview.com rewarded this camera already the best focussing speed, which is very important if you want to shoot naturals scenes with animals... anemone clownfish for example <

Take a look at what Thom Hogan has said on this subject on dpreview. If you don't use the defaults, and match the cameras' settings, the autofocus speed is virtually the same. As they should be, since they both use the N80 autofocus system. It's the defaults that are different between them.

That said, I always use manual focus for creatures like anemonefish, so that I'm sure to get sharp focus on the eye, which is where you want it. I'm very particular about this, though.

> 3. It utilizes Adobe RGB, which makes it very convienient for post production, as this is the main tool. <

True, but if you care about quality, you would likely shoot in RAW mode, where the color space is irrelevant. This is what I plan to do, and conversion to other color spaces will be done in software. However, if you shoot mostly in JPG mode (I wouldn't, but I do see why others would), it's definitely an issue. Fuji should have supported Adobe RGB.

> VERY PERSONAL REASON FOR CHOOSING NIKON OR FUJI:

> 4. My strobe setups electronic was matched to the Nikonos TTL-Protocol and can be used with the old cp990 and the new one. <

The D100 doesn't support Nikonos TTL protocol. The S2 does.

> 5. Most friends I have, already own some Nikon lenses which I could borrow some times. <

The S2 takes those Nikon lenses.

Now, I'm not trying to talk you into the S2 over the D100; I just want to correct any assumptions that might mislead others. There are two other issues between these two cameras that influence my choice:

For shooting RAW, the S2 will buffer 7 images, where the D100 can only buffer 4. Also the write times for RAW on the S2 are better. This translates into more photos that I can take of that manta fly by or mandarinfish in their brief appearances.

The out of camera images of the S2 are highly regarded. This is subjective, but from everything that I've seen, the color and sharpness of the S2 as compared to the other two suit me better for what I want to see out of a camera. YMMV.

Now, the D60 is a closer contender to the S2 for my purposes than the D100. If Sea and Sea supports TTL with the D60 in their housing (they've done it before for Canon cameras), it would be worth looking at for me as well, in spite of all my Nikon lenses.

Just my opinions,

Linda

-----

__ >////*> __ http://www.dancing-fish.com __ <*< __

I didn't say I am buying a Sea and Sea housing - I just said they plan to make one for the S2.

I love the S2 - Fuji have truly mastered digital flash exposure control on this camera. Topsides "people shots" look beautiful and underwater TTL seems pretty reliable to me - at least from the ~400 underwater shots I took so far.

Cheers

James Wiseman