My only question then is...is it difficult to manipulate this wheel, due to the fact that the housing is wider than the camera? My hands aren't that big, and I wonder if my fingers could reach and if this would pose more problems than the side wheel of the Sea and Sea???
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Ryan, at Reef Photo, suggested I replace the stock Subal handles with Handles from ULCS. The ULCS handle mount is adjustable, in (nearer the housing) or out (further from the housing). This allows you to adjust the handle to the perfect control spot for your fingers. The aperture wheel can then be easily rotated with your index finger. The shutter wheel with your thumb.
The Subal is slightly negative with the 8" dome. More so with a flat port. I find it very easy to "One hand" the housing with any port attached. YMMV.
I also use ULCS handles with a Subal housing. The price for having this flexibility in positioning handles is that they must be mounted on the ULCS tray, which bolts to the bottom of the housing. The ULCS handles themselves weigh considerably more than the Subal handles, plus the tray (a cut-out) bar - the sum of it is that this adds quite a bit of weight to the rig, which can be an issue for flying and also if you have to shlep the housing any distance on foot.
There is another very important plus with using the ULCS handles on a tray, however. If you're shooting wide angle, you may well be using a 12-24 DX (or the 17-35) lense with Subal's big domeport. - which itself is one of the best reasons to go Subal, IMHO). If so, you need to use a 50 or 52 mm extension ring on the dome. The big dome port plus extension ring together make up a considerable volume, which translates into a lot of buoyancy forward, which tends to make the housing want to rotate towards a dome-up orientation. I found this very tiring on the wrists after a number of dives, and it was very difficult to "one-hand" the housing. Keep in mind that with the Subal handles, you will be attaching your strobe arms to the top of the housing, so the strobe arms and strobes will contribute to the problem.
Using the ULCS tray and handles puts some additional weight down low, and also positively changes the balance of the entire rig. The axis of rotation moves lower to near the bottom of the housing. The upshot is that this significantly reduces the "torque" of the turning moment I mentioned, making the housing much easier to handle. For me, that's worth the additional overall weight. If I were shooting the 10.5, it might be worth going back to the Subal handles, but changing handles seems a bit too much bother.
Another (less important) factor is that moving the strobe arms to the tops of the handles keeps the top of the housing clear and makes it easier to look at the data window and access the controls there.
Frogfish
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