Subal Housing V3 or V4?

Good morning! I'm in the market for a used Subal housing for my Nikon D800E. Does anyone know how to determine whether a particular Subal housing is V3 for V4?

My sense is that V3 housings would be pretty old, but I'm not certain when Subal moved from V3 to V4.

Thanks!

Hi!

I think the change was made about 2012. If I remember rightly, the D800/800e housings were at the point where you could choose to have Type 3 or Type 4. I've seen both ports sizes for sale on ND800 housings. 

The only way to be absolutely sure is from the width of the port opening. The Type 3 is smaller than the Type 4. The Type 4 came about as the circumference of lenses was increasing.

Looking at the Subal port opening from the front, so one can see the 2 lugs, the opening is about 100 mm for Type 3 and 110 mm for Type 4. 

5 hours ago, TimG said:

Hi!

I think the change was made about 2012. If I remember rightly, the D800/800e housings were at the point where you could choose to have Type 3 or Type 4. I've seen both ports sizes for sale on ND800 housings. 

The only way to be absolutely sure is from the width of the port opening. The Type 3 is smaller than the Type 4. The Type 4 came about as the circumference of lenses was increasing.

Thanks, Tim. Do you think it's safe to assume that if the housing is less than 10 years old, it probably has V4 ports?

9 minutes ago, ridgebackpilot said:

Thanks, Tim. Do you think it's safe to assume that if the housing is less than 10 years old, it probably has V4 ports?

 

Hmmm, I'd like to say Yes but, honestly, it's not certain. 10 years old is 2012 and it was around then that there was the option. I don't know when Subal turned that off. Maybe they didn't for the production run of the ND800 and then the ND810 was Type 4 only?  For sure the ND500 was Type 4 only and that was around ?2016. 

If you take a look on the Backscatter website they are selling an ND800 housing with a Type 3 port. I didn't see mention of a manufacturing date.. 

I'd suggest if you are looking for an ND800 you need to specify that it's a Type 4 you want; and get the seller to confirm it is that specification when it's offered. 

There have been one or two for sale on the WP Classifieds in recent months.  

To find if a given Subal housing has a Type 3 vs 4 port, it is easy is to measure the diameter of the port' rings opening, 100 mm for Type 3 and 110 mm for Type 4.
Both Type 3 and Type 4 ports are used by both old and new Subal housings, and for both it is easy to exchange the port ring between Type 3 and Type 4.