ProfF

I have a Nauticam housing for my Olympus E-PL3. Recently, I have been mainly using a 4" wide-angle port, as it fits both the 12-50mm (multipurpose) and the 60mm (macro!) lenses as well as the 9-18mm (wide-angle) lens I originally bought it for. When using it with these newer lens, I wanted to add wet diopter. Recently, Nauticam came out with a product for this purpose (http://uw-foto.ch/im...ages/2484_1.jpg) , but I felt that shelling 220$ was a bit too much. Designing & printing my own solution was much more fun.

The final product is completely made of ABS, except for a single 72-67 step-down ring that provided the filter thread. Unlike the commercial solution, the "base" is not held by screws, but rather by a twist mechanism that locks it into place. It is slightly bulkier than the metal version, but works well. The ABS construction was surprisingly solid, and unlike the metal flip ring (which is heavy) this gadget has slightly positive buoyancy. All by all, after about 12 dives with it I am very happy.

The design can be found here - 67mm frame holder for Nauticam 4 inch wide angle port by nirfriedman - Thingiverse

If there is interest I can also upload it to shapeways and then you could order the printed version directly.

Happy Diving,

Nir

Hi,

I own a Nauticam housing for Olympus E-PL3. Recently Olympus came out with a 12-50mm zoom lens (equivalent to 24-100 full frame) that also can be shifted to macro mode. This seemed like a good all purpose lens when you are going down without a specific objective. Moreover, it is better quality than the 14-42mm kit lens. The problem was that there were no zoom gear for this lens. Nauticam came out with a special purpose port and zoom gear (costing $800 in the states) that also allows shifting to macro. This is one of the most complicated gears I ever run into (see http://reefphoto.com/kb.php?id=41).

I decided to use the new home 3D printer I bought for my wife (PP3DP Up!) and see if I can generate something that is a bit cheaper. I already own a port that is compatible with the lens, so the only issue is the zoom gear. Here is what I came up with. I call it V1.0, as I have ideas/plans on how to make a version that will allow the shift to macro. This shift requires pressing on a button on the side of the lens (no problem, the current gear is already pressing on it) and shifting the zoom ring forward (which is a bit more complicated).

Comments/ideas are welcome. Will be happy to share the design.

Cheers,

Nir

Edit: I uploaded the design here - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:36320