Viz'art

Sea & Sea is metric, while Ikelite uses imperial, there are closes dimension wise but diferent enough, both in size and design that they cannot really be interchanged.

Keep in mind that unlike Canon who has electronically actuated aperture, Nikon uses a mechanical lever to actuate (closing) their aperture, once separated the lens is basically a stop down lens, so inverting a Nikon lens, not only do you forfeit the auto aperture linkage, but if doing it with a G lens with no aperture ring, well you have no aperture control at all There is a special mechanical adapter from Nikon that allowed the aperture to be closed by using a double cable release, but, I have considerable experience both in the field of camera repair and underwater housing and really can't see how you would be able to configure it to work properly, reliably... and economically.

Haring, great shot! and thanks for the compliment! :-)

Tursiops, first there was confusion on the description he was giving, turns out that the TTL converter was not a converter at all, which he taught he was getting and that is why he could not get it to plug as it should, once we had each opther on the phone, things got clearer, also having posted pictures of the components involved from the get go would also have made things clearer. In the end, its really not a pissing contest, I much prefer to have someone on the phone, work on resolving the problem and get them back in the water ASAP, even if in this case, it has nothing to do with the housing per say. Strobe connectivitty can and does get confusing at first, I would suggest, that if in doubt, contact the housing manufacturer or an experienced dealer to make sure that you get a properly working solution for your housing from the start. Divenwolf, about the D500, already in the work, no firm ETA yet,

OK, had the gentlemen on the phone and things are much clearer now, turns out he has a TTL compatible sync cord, compatible being the key work here, so in the end, TTL is not an option with is camera (a Canon 1DX) . This is a relatively frequent occurrence, TTL cords don't mean they are TTL, it just means that all their contacts are active, (sort of a throw back to the Nikonos and film cameras of heydays) there is not really any commercially available housing that would actually have requirement for such sync cords, housing with built in or external TTL converter would not use this cord anyway, unfortunately TTL with the Canon 1Dx n is case will not be an option. With digital cameras, unless there is provision to isolate the pins contact, or that the bulkhead are wired so that only the ground & sync are active, you should avoid these cable as they may conflict with the camera and freeze it. Ikelite has special two wires sync cord for digital cameras. In Haring's case, all he has to do is put all of the switches on the switchboard in the down position, that will block off any unwanted or confusing signals. Thanks for calling Haring, always here if you need more info.

Handing, the 4104.1 is a nikonos sync cord and not a TTL converter http://www.ikelite.com/accessories/4104.6-sync-cord.html

Tursiops, yes that is why is current 4301 won't work, these TTL converter come in two type, one for housing sporting a Ikelite strobe connectors, the 4301, which is what he seem to have, and he should have the 4302, which is designed for housing with a Nikonos type connector, I should mention that all pins must be actives in order to have those work properly, in the end, both converter do the same job, it is just the plugging part that differs, Hopefully Haring is in a situation where he can return this unit and get the correct one, if not he can always swap one of his Nikonos bulkhead for an Ikelite one. I presume he has a Nikon housing (hope so) and theses can be ordered with a variety of strobe connectors, the Nikonos type being pretty much the default one, but these are all modular and can be changed and adapted fairly easy

Tursiop, from the description, it is likely a 4301 Ikelite to Ikelite TTL converter, the male Ikelite part he refers to actually goes into the housing, when this later is equipped with a Ikelite type bulkhead, the female part on top of the little barrel is where the sync cord connects. my personal housing is equipped with Ikelite type bulkheads and I use the same TTL converter that he has presently for open water situation, mainly because it standarize the connectors, I can remove the converter and plug the sync cord directly and very importantly, for underwater studio situation because all my connectors across the board being identical, all my extensions cords and Pocket Wizard housings work and can be swapped between units.

I think that you might actually have a 4301 TTL converter which is meant to plug into a housing equipped with an Ikelite strobe connector, what you need is the 4302 (see picture) which has a Nikonos male connector on one end, and on the top of the small barrel is a female Ikelite in which you connect your 4103.52 Dual sync cord.

Just want to let everyone know that fellow Wetpixel member, and friend Chris Parsons has lost his brother in a tragic accident. My heart goes out to you Chris. I can only begin to imagine the pain you are going through.

Pedro, I have shot the housing in question in Belize, here are some pictures taken with it while I tested the internal Ikelite TTL converter. Obliviously as the individual in charge of Aquatica Technical department, it is not for me to comment on my own products line. Those images where all shot in TTL mode with either a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro or Canon 17-40mm f/4, the purpose of which was to test the reliability of the TTL converter. My personal cameras are Nikon D800e and in this aspect, I found the transition from Nikon to Canon quite simple (aside from the reversed aperture and shutter speed controls position). I found the camera to be quite pleasing to operate and the file it gave where rich in color and dynamic range. My impression is that with such a camera, the human element become the limiting factor in image quality, be it with an Aquatica or another brand of housing, the Canon 7D Mk II is definitely underwater friendly. and two more

Hi Aldijo2, the Aquatica A7r II, uses the standard DSLR ports and extensions and view finder, the port selection decision was based on the fact that the camera may be small, but the lenses themselves, including those from Canon used with a Metabone adapter, are designed for full frame sensor, and therefore are big lenses on average. Production is in full swing and early 2016 we will start delivering these housings, we had a few prototype field tested by various photographers, some of whom are likely to chime in here with their impressions. Me personally, due to my position as the individual in charge of technical support, and out of professional integrity, I will let others comments on their impressions of the housing and stick to factual information. The A7R II comes in 4 variants, 20079-OPT which include the Flash trigger as you mentioned 20079-NK which is equipped with two classic Nikonos strobe connectors 20079-KM which has a single Ikelite strobe connector All three variant above are priced identically, and there is also. 20079 which has no strobe connectors and is optimized for the video shooter, consequently it is slightly lower priced than the above 3 models The lens chart will be up for downloading in the next coming days, you can send me a e-mail at jean@aquatica.ca if you want to and I will e-mail it back to you (that goes for anyone interested in getting this info), but in a nutshell, the obvious choice are present on the chart; Carl Zeiss Vario SonnarT* 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Sony FE 28mm f/2 & Fisheye adapter Sony FE 28mm F/2 Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM Type II Expect the list to be expanding soon as more lenses are tested and approved. Regarding the A7 II, my understanding, from the information given to us by the people at Sony is that, both camera are identical apart from the rubber eyepiece design (which requires to be removed anyway) and the mode dial which has a lower profile, this means that shooting mode would not be accessible once the a A7 II would be in the housing, whether changing shooting mode underwater is a top priority or not would be for the individual to decide. This being said, I should state that we do not have an A7 II for validating this information at this time and this is based on the premise that if the Sony information is accurate, then that would be the only difference (we are however looking at making the previous A7 II model adaptable for use with this housing).

Jim, I did experiment with gel on the strobe, and found that using 80B gels along with a 15cc of green did the trick (swap the 15 for a 30 for subject further than 1.5m), these where hooked up on Ikelite Ai strobes which are somewhat warm to begin with, so you might need less blue with the sola, as well I have some old Tiffen Cyan filter for the Underwater Ektachrome film, these seem like 30cc cyan to me.

Valerio, I have been involved with Aquatica since 1991 and already that was the end of the line for the A80 when I started with them, with the trend shift toward AF camera with integrated film advance, as opposed to the previous manual focus and motor driven camera such as the Nikon F3 and Canon F1, it was decided to take advantage of the more compact design of the contemporary F90 cameras and switch over to a bayonet type of port. As for the Sport, while the model designation started as a A80 housing shell, it soon replace with a housing based on a A90 type bayonet housing, which was indeed marketed for a while. I am sorry to hear that this did influence your decision, but I understand, As with many a manufacturers, we do have to keep up with progress and sometime this ruffles some feathers, many of you will recall the Canon switch from FD to EF mount for taking advantage of the newer technologies.

Oskar, these are screw mount type ports and are not compatible with any existing housing (ours or other), Aquatica has been using a bayonet type mount for over 25 years now