Thanks Ike! New 20D housing has arrived...!

Christmas has arrived a few weeks early in Hong Kong...many thanks to Ike for rushing a new 20D housing to me in time for my trip to Irian Jaya!!!

As everyone else has ranted and raved about, Ikelite's customer support is fantastic.

The housing has arrived at the dive shop, and I'm picking it up in a few hours. Now when is that 10-22 EF-S going to arrive?!?!? :?

Ben

20D in Ikelite housing + DS125 + Canon 10-22 EFS + Tamron 28-75 XR LD. And a Nik V of course...not giving that yet for a while.

Top notch Nexus/N90s setup for sale (see classified section)...need to raise some cash to pay Ike's bill!

Congrats - Mine shows up tomorrow in time for a trip to Turks and Caicos

I will share you enthusiasm in, oh, 12 hours...

~Matt Segal

Matt - it looks like you and I are the first two to get the 20D housing! I've just assembled mine today. I'm still getting used to Ikelite as my only experience with SLR housings has been the Nexus for my Nikon n90s.

My first impressions, both pro and con -

1) I'm no longer concerned at all about the fact Ikelite is a plastic housing. It's a VERY solid chunk of plastic and seems as bulletproof as any aluminum housing. While it doesn't fit the camera like a glove like the Nexus does the N90, it's still smaller than some metal housings.

2) I like the transparency...a lot. I like being able to inspect the o-ring after closing the housing.

3) Installing the camera is much easier than in the Nexus. No fiddling with knobs and aligning gears. Everything just falls into place. Nice!

4) I'm not comfortable yet with the port system - it seems a bit loose. I can still wiggle the port around after it's been secured. Is this normal? Both ports that I ordered wiggle a bit when installed. I do miss the screw-in method of the Nexus, which seemed more secure.

5) The housing was certainly fresh off the production line - it was covered in plastic dust left over from the machining/drilling. Took a while to wipe it all off, and I'm paranoid that some of the dust has made its way into the control glands and will cause trouble 100 feet down.

Time to go to bed now - will test some shots in the bathtub tomorrow!

Ben

4) I'm not comfortable yet with the port system - it seems a bit loose.  I can still wiggle the port around after it's been secured.  Is this normal?  Both ports that I ordered wiggle a bit when installed.  I do miss the screw-in method of the Nexus, which seemed more secure.

This is absolutely normal, and has happened on every Ike SLR housing I have had any experience with. Get underwater and the ports/o-rings compress down into the o-ring groove, then you can't move it. The o-ring on the back of the port needs to be nicely supple and kept lightly greased so that it can slide down into the o-ring groove.

When Archimedes and I were in school together, we proved a housing that was too small was very heavy and difficult to manipulate underwater.

Eureka!

While I'm posting a response to a msg from Ike, let me say thanks for replacing my double synch cord so quickly.

The problem emerged just three weeks ago. I had almost no hope of having 2 cords on the trip I'm leaving for tonight, But new friend who was staying here after diving in Sulawesi offered to carry the cord back to the US and ship it to Ikelite. They immediately sent a new cord back to him, which he sent back here. Got it last week, all seems well.

Synch cords are one area where I really like to have one complete level of redundancy.

Frogfish

Eureka!

While I'm posting a response to a msg from Ike, let me say thanks for replacing my double synch cord so quickly.

The problem emerged just three weeks ago. I had almost no hope of having 2 cords on the trip I'm leaving for tonight, But new friend who was staying here after diving in Sulawesi offered to carry the cord back to the US and ship it to Ikelite. They immediately sent a new cord back to him, which he sent back here. Got it last week, all seems well.

Synch cords are one area where I really like to have one complete level of redundancy.

Frogfish

Ike - point well taken and I probably wouldn't have thought of it till I hit the water. The Nexus housing is like a ton of bricks underwater - when I dive with it, I don't use any weights, even with a 5 mm wetsuit.

Can't wait!

I'm in Turks & Caicos right now - can't be on too long...

Spinner - I had the same issue with the dust from the machining, but I used to do some work in that and I understand how difficult it is to control it from getting everywhere - I just took the time to wipe it off everything - the o-rings, the grooves, the ports, the housing (inside and out) - no big deal.

Ike - One issue on the first day was that for some reason, the camera tilted imperceptibly forward the slightest amount - not enough to affect any of the camera controls, except for the aperture. So about halfway through the day I lost aperture control ...I was able to fix it by backing the control knob out a touch (with the set screw), it should work. There is some "flexibility" of the camera forward and back even when tightened down on the tripod screw in the base. I'll keep you informed.

Other than that, the eTTL2 is working great. I'm getting used to using two strobes as well, and I think I'll be shooting macro exclusively tomorrow. Slow connection here, so no chance to upload any pictures until I get back...

BTW - The ports go on a lot easier when the lens caps aren't on the lenses :wink:

~Matt Segal

Dust issue confuses us because housing is carefully cleaned after testing. May be a static cling situation with dust from the styrofoam packing material we use. We will look into using something like a sandwich bag.

Lens should be centered in the port. Tray on the 20D should not move because of its thickness. I can suggest an easy change if you feel tray is the problem rather than control length too short.

Ike,

Just FYI, when I got my 6870.1 a few days back it too was covered in white dust which I assumed was from milling. Not a big deal, I spent some time and wiped it off before putting everything together and doing a tub dive.

Otherwise I am thrilled with the housing so far even though it has only been in the tub and taken some really boring pictures. Next week though it will be visiting West Palm Beach and spending time with the manatees.

Regards,

Craig

My 10D housing was covered in white dust too - I thought it was from the styrofoam.

I'd concur with the above comments about Ike's excellent customer service.

However, I think it's pretty unfair that 20D owners got their housing about a month after the camera was released, and 10D owners had wait like a year and a half. I think it should be the same wait for everyone. 20D owners can have access to a housing in late 2006 sometime.

So how about a 1 series housing, Ike? I'm sure there's enough 1Ds, 1D, 1DMk2 and 1DsMk2's around to make it worthwhile.

Interesting how many housings we have sold with no mention that they were covered with dust. This should be an easy problem to correct compared to the difficult things people persist in finding............

My d100 housing also was covered with the dust from the packing. It was soon off set by the finger prints from looking it over. Very easy to clean off.

John Lowther

I can suggest an easy change if you feel tray is the problem rather than control length too short.

It's definitely not a control length issue (which I thought it was originally). I dove with the 100mm macro today in the #5508.45 (?) flat port w/ focus knob. In this instance, the lens is centered in the port hole because of the fact that the port itself is "supporting" (putting pressure) on the lens, pushing the camera a few millimeters backwards such that the aperture control works correctly.

It wasn't an issue today, but I am slightly hesistant of using the 18-55 in the dome port (not that I was looking to use it too much anyways, shooting more macro )...by "easy change" do you mean here or once I get back?

Other than that the housing and ports are rock solid, easy to use...

~Matt Segal

On thinner tray housings, we installed a 6/32 nylon screw in the tray that would touch bottom of housing. The tray with eTTL2 circuitry is so thick and secure that it should not be able to move.

So when is the Nikon Dttl version comming out?

John Lowther

It's iTTL that I'm waiting for.

DTTL is really only any use in the D1 series (including the D100). Hopefully Ike can make a converter that works for these cameras and the newer D70 and D2 series iTTL. That would be grand, particularly for macro.

Roger, our brilliant engineering type, remains shackled to his computer, oscilloscope, and dart board until Nikon iTTL is deciphered............

All sounds very scientific!!

Can't wait til Roger finds the grail