Nauticam NA-Z7 Housing Conversion for Nikon Z6/Z7 II

In another thread I mentioned I managed to convert my Nauticam NA-Z7 housing to fit the newer Nikon Z6/Z7 II cameras.

I've been asking about that Nauticam and few dealers, but seems no one has tried to do it and Nauticam decided to release a newer version (which is expected as housing producer).

After measuring and experimenting with the position of the camera and the original slider I came up with a 3D printer top part of the camera holder/slider.
(If someone needs the STI file for printing - let me know by PM).

The original Z6/Z7 is 2mm thinner than the new Z6/Z7 II, but it seems that these extra 2mm on the newer camera are mostly in the back.

So I designed a new 3D printed slider that compensates for the new thickness.

I can confirm that all the buttons work perfect and as you can see on the pictures - they are aligned great to the housing push mechanisms.

One thing to consider is the top right rotating button on the camera. On the housing it has a spring mechanism, but it has around 4mm of travel thus it's also fine and you do not need to remove 2mm from its rubber to compensate.

Steps:

1. You need to remove around ~1.3-1.4mm from the top limiter rubber pins of the housing that supports the camera near the flash connector (I've included pictures)
2. 3D Print the new part for the Camera Holder/Slider (the blue one) - I used FDM print at 50% fill PLC material and it cost me 5€. You can use ABS material as well and/or 80-100% fill which should be stronger, but I doubt it's needed. 
   *) I've also ordered SLS print now (20€) and will post update here if it's necessary better
    
3.  Move the metal pin from the old holder to the new 3D printer one (picture included)
4. Remove the original top part of the camera holder/slider and install the 3D printed one.
5.  Enjoy and post feedback here! 

I have spare 2pcs from the initial versions of the new holder. They are not perfect, but can be used without a problem.

If someone is interested - PM me. (you can see then in the last picture)

Here you can see all the pictures and details of the result:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VrtpPggBuLzxIbv19X19sVbk_w00Hb-k?usp=sharing

I would much appreciate if someone that owns the new Nauticam NA-ZII housing and is willing to measure the distance from the camera flange to the end of the housing where a port should be connected.

This will confirm 100% that the fit is exactly as on the new housing. Or I can adjust the model of the new holder/slider. 

Fantastic project, Svilen. Well done!

Thank you. 

Next thing on the list - Zoom gear for lens that are not on Nauticam's catalog.

nice!! i’ve been pondering about this for awhile excellent work.

Thanks for posting..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Glad to be of help.

Yesterday I got the SLS print of the adapter.

You can see how it fits.

More good news on the topic.

With the help of @Moodog we managed to compare the distance from the Nikon camera flange to the top of the Nauticam housing on:

Nikon Z6 and my Nikon Z6 II with the new slider modification from above.

Though our measurements are not that scientific - the difference is only 0.5mm (e.g. 0.8% difference) between the 2 setups and it could be purely because of they way we measured on each end and/or measurement tools we used.

Which tells me that the new adaptor should work great.

UPDATE 22 Mar 2023:

After using my converted Nauticam box for several months and discussed the project with few people on the forum, reviewed my images (I must say they were great) I noticed that longer lens like Nikon Z 105mm Macro were a bit off to the top right corner if you look at the setup towards the lens.

So I went to debug this and got to the conclusion that the horse shoe on the Z6 and Z6 II camera is of different size.
 

Fix: One could just remove the top support bracket in the box or file a bit from it's center (see the images).

After that I can confirm that my setup is exactly as a Nauticam Z7II box.

Thanks to @Moodog we confirmed my findings as he made the measurements between the 2 cameras.