13 replies to this topic

[scottleslie]

Anyone here try using an Ikelite housing and the 7d's live view lcd screen instead of that joke of a crappy housing viewfinder ? I know the AF is a little slower and it is harder on the battery while on, but I use it all the time topside doing close-up WA on my floating blind and it's great. Is there a good reason I haven't thought of why it won't work underwater? (I haven't gotten wet yet with my new housing- first time digital). Thanks.

Edited by scottleslie, 14 December 2010 - 11:17 AM.

[Otara]

Anyone here try using an Ikelite housing and the 7d's live view lcd screen instead of that joke of a crappy housing viewfinder ? I know the AF is a little slower and it is harder on the battery while on, but I use it all the time topside doing close-up WA on my floating blind and it's great. Is there a good reason I haven't thought of why it won't work underwater? (I haven't gotten wet yet with my new housing- first time digital). Thanks.

It will work for stationary or very slow moving subjects where it can work fairly well, but anything moving it gets bad pretty fast. One other major problem doing it with an Ike housing is you cant move the focus point around as you need the 4 way controller to do that which isnt available in that housing.

Otara

[Aussiebyron]

Isnt someone making an adaptor to fit Nauticam viewfinders to Ikelite housings???

Regards Mark

[Alex_Tattersall]

Yes, Nauticam make an adapter for this.

[DuncanS]

Yes, Nauticam make an adapter for this.

I have one on my housing (30d), however, i do remember a post on here that it wasn't possible to fit to the 7d housing as a button interferes...

[Otara]

I have one on my housing (30d), however, i do remember a post on here that it wasn't possible to fit to the 7d housing as a button interferes...

Thats correct it wont fit because of the button placement. I found out the hard way.

Otara

[hyptest]

Anyone here try using an Ikelite housing and the 7d's live view lcd screen instead of that joke of a crappy housing viewfinder ? I know the AF is a little slower and it is harder on the battery while on, but I use it all the time topside doing close-up WA on my floating blind and it's great. Is there a good reason I haven't thought of why it won't work underwater? (I haven't gotten wet yet with my new housing- first time digital). Thanks.

Aside from the fact that you lose one of the major advantages of the 7d (the very good continuous AF servo focus), I don't personally know of any way to move the focus point around in live view on a 7d when in the ikelite case. Outside the case this is done with the joystick thing, but that's the one control the ikelite housing does NOT have.

[ileiman]

Anyone here try using an Ikelite housing and the 7d's live view lcd screen instead of that joke of a crappy housing viewfinder ? I know the AF is a little slower and it is harder on the battery while on, but I use it all the time topside doing close-up WA on my floating blind and it's great. Is there a good reason I haven't thought of why it won't work underwater? (I haven't gotten wet yet with my new housing- first time digital). Thanks.

I use both the optical viewfinder and the liveview.
The optical viewfinder works reasonably well with a very low volume "thin" mask that allows you to get your eyeball close, but you of course can never get it quite as close as you'd like.

Is the viewfiender more "diving mask friendly" in other housings?

With lieveview be sure to select the AF "quick mode". This way the autofocus uses the phase detect sensor instead of slow contrast detection. In quick mode the mirror slaps up and down quickly while the camera focuses. This doesn't of course work too well with a moving target. With a static subject AF "quick mode" on liveview works quite well.

For shooting 8 frames per sec you can't use liveview, but even the fastest strobes will not recycle that quickly anyway, so 8 fps applies only when you don't use strobes.

[RedSeaDiver]

With lieveview be sure to select the AF "quick mode". This way the autofocus uses the phase detect sensor instead of slow contrast detection. In quick mode the mirror slaps up and down quickly while the camera focuses. This doesn't of course work too well with a moving target. With a static subject AF "quick mode" on liveview works quite well.

Will that mode work for reef scenic images with lots of anthias flitting about etc?

Can you point me to where it is in the 7D menus?

[scottleslie]

It's pretty bad using the viewfinder the way the two knobs stick out on either side of the viewfinder. It's a poor design. So, I took a small grinder and trimmed the two knobs down until they're just about (being careful not to effect the set screw in any way) flush with the outer viewfinder flange. Now, I can put the glass of my mask right against the viewfinder. It makes a huge difference. Now I can see about 3/4's of the camera's viewfinder instead of about half.

Edited by scottleslie, 16 December 2010 - 08:24 PM.

[Steve Williams]

Can you point me to where it is in the 7D menus?

Try "Menu" fourth red box from the left, second line, AF Mode, select then pick your choice. If I was going to try live view and W/A with a bunch of Anthias , I'd think about prefocusing on my hand and shooting with the focus locked.

Cheers,
Steve

[RedSeaDiver]

Try "Menu"  fourth red box from the left, second line, AF Mode, select then pick your choice.  If I was going to try live view and W/A with a bunch of Anthias , I'd think about prefocusing on my hand and shooting with the focus locked.

Cheers Steve.  I'm leaning more and more towards using the 7D's live view for wide angle - I wasn't sure how well the AF would work with anthias but prefocusing was going to certainly be the option if it didn't work - prefocusing with the 10-17 should just about have everything in focus.

[finwiz]

Just returned from 2 weeks in Cozumel using 7D w/Ikelite and new low volume mask - TUSA Visualator. Viewfinder was great with this mask including good view of focus points, info displays, etc IMHO.

[scottleslie]

Just returned from 2 weeks in Cozumel using 7D w/Ikelite and new low volume mask - TUSA Visualator. Viewfinder was great with this mask including good view of focus points, info displays, etc IMHO.

If you've ever used a film camera like an F90 with a housing or even better an F4n Nikon with an action finder in an Aquatica you'd be spoiled forever against using the peep hole viewfinder on most of today's dslr's. That said, I'm glad you're happy with the Ikelite and the 7d!

Edited by scottleslie, 19 December 2010 - 09:30 AM.