Choosing housing for D70

Hi all i'm considering to find an housing for my new D70.

For the moment i'm using a Fuji S2pro in a Sea & Sea housing.

I'm looking for Sea & Sea DX70 but i'm also veri interested on news Subal's housing for D70. Anyone could help me? Sea & Sea with my ports or a new system with new ports, extension rings ect?

Thank!

ERIK

Personally, if you already have the Sea and Sea ports, I'd stick with that brand. That's just my opinion though.

The D70 housing is a bit smaller than your S2 setup, which is nice, but the viewfinder on the housing is the same size and the viewfinder on the camera is smaller. So what I'm saying is get ready to "peep" through a small viewfinder.

Or you could spend $2,200 more ($1800 for the Sea and Sea vs $3,000 for the Subal and another $1,000 for Subal ports) and get the Subal housing with its specially magnified viewfinder.

HTH

James Wiseman

I have the S&S DX-D70 and have been very happy with it.

Cheers

Thank you guys! I'm waiting for an estimate directly from Subal Europe...

Thank you for your help! I'll send news about costs of subal and S&S here in Italy in Euro.

ERIK

If you decide you want to sell the S&S S2 housing, let me know.

Given you have ports for the S&S, the answer seems simple. Stick with S&S.

That being said, the Subal is a very cool housing, but as James pointed out, very pricey when compared to the S&S.

Another point to review is longevity of digital camera equipment. Two years ago, everyone was gooey for a Fuji S2. Now, nobody talks about it. Canon's full frame or larger sensor cameras are all the rage. You will be buying another DSLR body in another 2-3 years. Why move to another housing manufactor when you have all the goodies to set up your D70 easily and conveniently.

I am facing the same sort of quandry. I have become dissatisfied with the 1/125 sync and average autofocus capability of my S2 and would like the D70 in regards to autofocus speed and sync ability.

All that being said, I bet a faster, badder, bigger viewfindered(is it really a word) camera will appear on the market in the next year or two and you and I both along with all the personalities that post on this board will all be beating a path to purchase the answer to all of our underwater photography equipment needs.

That's it...2 cents worth.

I have become dissatisfied with the 1/125 sync and average autofocus capability of my S2 and would like the D70 in regards to autofocus speed and sync ability.

 

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The D70 has a higher sync speed than the S2, but it's autofocus is not any faster. It has the exact same slow autofocus (CAM900) as the S2 and the D100, right now, the next step up is the D2x, that's why so many people are hoping for a D200. I do think that the D70 is better than the S2 in some ways, but I wouldn't consider chaging from S2 to D70 if I had one. If I was starting from scratch and had only these two choices, I would prefer the D70.

I don't think there is enough of an improvement in the D70 over the S2 to justify the switch. Everyone's budgets are different, but I think it would be wise to wait a while to see what develops.

If you have the money for the Subal housing, I would look at the D2x instead. Does anyone know if S&S will house the D2X? This way you can save on ports and come out at close to the same price while actually gaining something with a new camera.

I just don't think you will see much benifit in the D70. In addition to faster flash sync (better sunballs) you get faster startup, faster framerate, better flash system (topside only), smaller RAW files and a better battery. You loose the last and only TTL DSLR and better noise performance which are two important points to consider.

I agree with Luiz - I think the migrations from the S2 to the D70 are digital angst at its very best. If the D70 was a 3 year old body and the S2 was brand new, I think we'd see equal migration the other way! Really, the only thing that bugged me about the S2 was the green tint it gave the blue water - that was the reason I preferred the d100, and the d70 does even nicer blues. Sync speed is nice for sunrays but my choice has been to stop fighting digital's achilles heel and capture my sunrays on film. Even really fast ss don't produce great sunrays on certain chips - it just makes the blues turn blacker. Look at nikonos V shots with beautiful rays captured at 1/60s! For me, the big advantage of the increased sync is for shooting fast action in bright sunlight.

If you have the money for the Subal housing, I would look at the D2x instead. Does anyone know if S&S will house the D2X? 

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I posted this question before, and the few answers I received were that S&S probably won't be doing a housing for the D2x. It is a shame because I think that with the D2x's exceptional quality and Nikon's slow development on the digital front, this camera will be around for awhile, so it will be an excellent camera to house. I can see people buying used D2x 5 years from now.

Problem though is going to be that there will never be as many D2X as D70 or D20 use for underwater photography and since there are already at least 4 companies making the housing, I am not sure that Sea and Sea would want to risk losing money entering this market. I think Sea and Sea is pretty good but they do not have any specific selling point like big viewfinder like Subal or Seacam or relatively inexpensive aluminum housing like Aquatica or small domeports like Nexus and their price is not really any cheaper than Aquatica or Nexus usually so most likely they can only sell to previous Sea and Sea users only. Not to mention that at this point in time, they already are behind other manufacturers. Too bad though, they were very quick to get their D70 housing out but not this time around.

Thank you for helping me. Certainly D2x is a great machine but very expencive and is not enough! Also the housings are expencives, more than the same housing for d70, if i'm not wrong Subal , for exemple, sell the D70 housing at 2200 Euro differently the Subal Housing for D2x cost approximatly 4000 Euro....is right?

Anyway i'm very frustrating for this choice because i have also a D100 and i'm will need a second housing to use uw with a different set up to make some jobs, one with a wide angle (12/24) and another one with macro port (micro 60 mm).

D2x is a dream, is very expencive and with D70 or S2pro we can take good professionals photos too...

Thanks all for helping me :-)

ERIK

Subal , for exemple, sell the D70 housing at 2200 Euro differently the Subal Housing for D2x cost approximatly 4000 Euro....is right?

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Hi Erik,

I also don't understand the reason for this ridiculous price difference. The technology and materials of both housings are the same, and I certainly don't think the difference comes only from the different sizes of the cameras.

The price difference is about the same over here in Thailand as well, around $us3000 for D70 with GS Viewfinder and around $US5000 for D2X without GS Viewfinder (add around +/- $1000 for view finder).

May be the D2X housing is 2.5x bigger than D70!

Consider the D2X is around 5x more expensive than D70, the price inflation of the housing is not as bad :-)

My personal opinion is that the price come from camera prices and not from production costs, but is just my personal opinion...and i'm not sure about. The difference in dimension can't justify the difference of price....more alluminium? Yes but maybe 100 Euro no more! :-) And studies and costs to make prototipes i think that still remains the same . Sure this will be another problem and another difficulty to buy a D2x system...a very expensive camera and a very expensive housing, a lot of money and maybe after 1 year or less the D3x will be ready and totally different form D2x inside and outside..so it will be necessary to change the housing.

Thank you!

ERIK

The reason for the price difference between a D2X housing and a D70 housing has already been touched on in a post above. Profit on a housing is not determined on the sales of a single housing it's based on the anticipated production volume over time. As stated above there will never be as many D2X cameras used in underwater housings as D70 cameras. So the profit must be spread over a smaller production volume which requires a higher sales price.

While I agree that there will be less D2x than D70s around, I am sure that there would me more D2x housings sold if the housings were cheaper. I think that most underwater photographers consider the combined price when buying a new camera/housing, so if the combined price of a D2x and a housing were 7,500, I think that it would sell more than the price of 10,000+ that Subal and Seacam are asking now. I know some people that are reluctant in upgrading to the D2x not because of the price of the camera, but because of the combined camera/housing price, and I think a few thousand dollars less would make a difference.

If I were a housing builder, I'd be thinking "If they can afford to pay $5,000 for the camera, they can afford to pay X,XXX for the housing."

Then I'd think "Hmm...who else is going to be building housing, and how much will they sell theirs for?"

If the answer to that question is only Subal and Seacam, then you can start to get a feel for the price. Adding Aquatica into the mix helps a LOT.

Cheers

James

If I were a housing builder, I'd be thinking "If they can afford to pay $5,000 for the camera, they can afford to pay X,XXX for the housing."

 

Then I'd think "Hmm...who else is going to be building housing, and how much will they sell theirs for?"

 

If the answer to that question is only Subal and Seacam, then you can start to get a feel for the price.  Adding Aquatica into the mix helps a LOT.

 

Cheers

James

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Now this makes sense, and I think that's exactly what is going on.

Maybe Ike will get into the mix and prices will really be driven down on the housings. One can only hope.

Tony