climb-ski-dive

Selling my Acratech Ultimate ballhead with the optional right side controls. Acratech makes some of the absolute highest quality ballheads money can buy, and the Ultimate is what started it all. Great ballhead, made even greater by its completely open and greaseless design. Super easy to rinse out any sand and salt, with no detrimental effects! The open design also significantly limits any trapped air bubbles to make this perfect for underwater use. This one is in good user condition, functionally it works well but there are definitely some marks to the finish, particularly on the Arca clamp. There is also a nick on the “spine” and some marks on the bottom of the base from attaching to tripods. Action is smooth save for a slight jerkiness with the Arca Swiss -style clamp knob. This didn’t particularly bother me but it should be an easy thing for Acratech to fix. Happy to mail this to Acratech on your behalf for them to put it back in tip top condition, contact me for details. Full album of images: https://ibb.co/album/PcT3My Asking $250 including fees and shipping in CONUS.

Nauticam build quality is indeed impressive. I had an Olympus-made housing before my Nauticam and there is just no way I could go back! Can you assign the front command dial to operate the aperture on your X-T3? With my X-T1 the command dial can only be used if the lens doesn't have an aperture ring.

@froop I am very much looking forward to your report! I am in love with my X-T1 and would love to bring it underwater with me but lament the lack of wide angle options, and the loss of the use of the aperture ring. I am currently teetering precariously on the edge of picking up an E-M5 Mk1 to use the M43 fisheye lenses. @tobyone Those are quite nice!

Thanks for the welcome, and for that beta! Lenses are definitely one concern since the officially supported Nauticam options are pretty limited (though to be fair to Nauticam the Fuji lens lineup is pretty sparse to begin with). Hopefully lots of new lens options will become available in the coming months as Fujifilm are finally opening up the X-mount to third parties. For wide angle I have an N85 port that should work with a manual focus fisheye such as from 7artisans or Nikkor that I plan to just preset the focus and aperture on before jumping in the water. For macro I have an N85 port that should work with the Fujinon 60mm 1:2 macro lens. That port should also work with the 18-55mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens with the 16mm extension tube which would give 0.97x magnification at an effective f/5.3 and it would definitely work with the 11mm extension tube which would provide 0.69x magnification at an effective f/4.5 (if my calculations are correct). I also have the E-mount N85 Nikonos adaptor, which may or may not work (the internal diameter of the E-mount is significantly wider than that of the X-mount). Another concern is the aperture rings on XF lenses. If I was using a zoom lens I’d have to shoot in program-shift mode to get any say in the aperture while maintaining zoom functionality (short of buying a port extension that has its own focus knob). Or I could use the XC lineup of lenses but it seems silly to get entirely different lenses for use underwater. How much inconvenience am I willing to put up with to use my Fuji underwater? Lots to think about!

Hi all, I’ve been reading WP for about a year now (since I got interested in UW photography to complement my diving) but just formally joined up today. I don’t have much experience shooting UW (I’ve pretty much just used an old “Faux”-Pro) but I shoot a Fujifilm X-T1 on land. Hoping to find a good housing for it though I know there’s not a lot of Fujilove in the UW community. I also have a Sony NEX-5N with Nauticam housing but I have yet to take it underwater. It’s really small but I kind of hate that camera so I am definitely wanting something for my Fuji. Jake