D70, Sea & Sea Lens Choice

I recently took the plunge and purchased a Sea & Sea DX-D70 housing.

The decision was between an Ikelite and Sea&Sea Housing and I liked the following points:

1) Sync cable on top and not in face

2) No controls around viewfinder

3) Camera not mounted on backplate - quick hotshoe removal.

4) Individual port for each lens not required.

Anyway Since purchase I have been looking at the Sea & Sea system chart and they include a number of zooms which I am not really familiar with. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts about the usefulness of these.

35-80mm ED F4-5.6D

28-80mm F3.3-5.6G

28-70mm F3.5-4.5D

28-85mm F3.5-4.5S

(all Nikkor AF lenses)

They all seem fairly cheap and houseable using the standard flat port (+ extension).

I will be adding the 10.5mm and 105mm in due course.

Any info or opinions would be gratefully received.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Those are all "older" Nikon zoom lenses that were popular on 35mm film cameras. Sea and Sea has a pretty old port chart...

I would recommend you check out my article in the Still Photography section of the site about choosing lenses for your DSLR.

For the D70, I recommend the Sigma 15mm fisheye and the Nikkor 60mm macro lens for starters.

After you've mastered shooting those (and they will get 90% of the shots you want) then you might look at the 12-24, the 24-85, or the 70-180 macro zoom.

HTH

James Wiseman

I am not familiar with the older Nikkor zoom lenses but if you are looking for a medium range zoom for D70, the kit lens 18-70mm probably will suit what you need although I never had the inclination to get the port for the kit lens yet. Sea and Sea does make a specific port for it however. Currently I probably use the 10.5mm, 12-24mm and 70-180mm most often with the 60mm mainly for night dive. However I have to say that I am not quiet happy with the 12-24 in Sea and Sea compact dome port yet. I don't have the big fisheye domeport yet though.

hi ssra30,

Thanks for the response.

Have you tried using the 18-70 behind the dome port ? i know that Sea & Sea recommend a flat port but a dome solution seems better to me.

Can you tell me why you are unsatisfied with the 12-24 behind the compact dome port ? Are you getting soft corners ? Have you tried using a diopter with this lens ?

James: Would you recommend the 70-180 over the 105 ? Why do you say this ? I already have the 12-24 and the 60mm so I am going to start with these two, as long as the 12-24 is workable.

Mark

Hi,

If you don't have much experience shooting macro with manual focus, I'd get the 105mm first. The 70-180 is more versatile, but it's really a MF only lens, especially when shooting near 1:1.

Cheers

James

I find the 105 and 70-180 very similar in AF.

The 60 is much easier in AF.

I always use AF.

Cheers

I did try the 18-70mm behind compact domeport and a diopter is definitely a must. However I just don't feel that it is all that useful. Even with diopter, it still does not focus very close so it is not all that great for macro. At the wide end, it is not very wide either so just don't feel that it is very useful.

I use the 70-180 lens in AF exclusively since I don't have focus ring for it and really don't have much trouble with AF. Coming from Oly C5050, the 70-180 may be slow but still pretty good.

The 12-24mm behind compact domeport is not so great. I use 4+ diopter to get decent focus range and the cornor softness is very apparent most of the time. The 10.5mm seem to do better behind the compact domeport. I would imagine that the fisheye port might be better but have not try it yet.

Thanks, I was pretty luke warm on the 18-70 anyway so you have made up my mind for me. I was thinking it might be useful for larger things eg. eagle rays, small sharks, napoleon wrasse that sort of thing. But it is something I can live without at the moment.

Your comments on the 70-180 have definitely made me think about this. I was going to buy the 105mm as my next lens but the 70-180 must give more versatility and that's two opinions that the AF is ok. I'll give this one some thought !

James - Maybe the D70 is better with this lens than the S2pro ?

The dealer I bought the housing from recommended the 12-24 behind compact dome and 40mm extension with no diopter. I will give this a go and see how sharp the corners are ?? Though I am worried that it won't be so good.

There don't seem to be too many people with this housing on the forum but there must be a few around. I bought mine at the London Dive Show and the dealer said he had sold 7 that day alone !

Mark

With 12-24 , 40mm ext and compact dome no diopter CFWA is not really an option.

I think this is the weakest combination in the S&S set up.

I much prefer 10.5mm no ext no diopter compact dome.

Cheers

Without a diopter, compact dome port with 40mm extension and 12-24mm lens, you will need to be almost a meter away from any subject for the camera to focus. However edge softness is not so bad. If you want to get closer then you definitely will need diopter with quite a bit more soft edges. I was going to try the fisheye domeport and think that it might be a better much but now with D2X out and very little chance of Sea and Sea supporting it, I am thinking of switching housing brand so no more Sea and Sea stuff for awhile.

In our club, we have 5 people with D70s, 3 with Sea and Sea and 2 with Nexus. Since Sea and Sea was pretty much the first housing that became available, my dealer sold the first batch of about 7-8 housing in no time at all.