Udo van Dongen

It also seems to work better than Rain-X on your dome port

Hi Chris, i can get you in contact with at least two persons in the UK who have a 2nd hand housing for the D90 for sale: one is a Nauticam and one is an Aquatica, i don't expect them to be expensive. Udo

I use a few drops of silicon oil which is sold as 'seal saver' and rub it in with my fingers.

I normally make the vacuum until the red light changes to green and not more for the reasons you mentioned. According to the manual this is -200 mBar (so actual pressure in the housing will be approx. 800 mBar). I guess there is still a tolerance in this vacuum as temperatures and atmospheric pressure may differ too (a larger pressure difference then a volume decrease of 2-3 drops). When i wanted to see whether i could see water leaking in, i made the housing as vacuum as a the vacu-vin pump allowed me to, and that worked, because i saw a drop of water hanging on the pin of the button when i pushed it. I never did a pressure drop test with an accurate pressure gauge. Possibly something would be visible a week ago, but hopefully now not anymore because i replaced, cleaned and greased most of the O-rings myself now. Cheers, Udo

The Hugycheck indeed isn't flawless! When i put my housing under a vacuum the green LED blinks and keeps on blinking, also overnight or longer. Last week i was using my housing in Spain and almost every day after a day of diving i discovered some tiny drops inside the housing. I emailed the manufacterer about it, and (as usual) they said it's most likely that the drops of water fell from my hair or that they are originated from the wet outer edges from where tiny drops spash in when you take the 2 halfs from the housing apart. But later that week i discovered that after a day of diving my camera body was wet too! Especially around the AF-ON button there is a rim around the button on the camera and with a balloon air blower i could blow out salt water. Fortunately my camera body still works fine, because it's weather sealed (advantage of a pro-body?). More accurate examination of the housing showed that the AF-ON button was having a slight leak. I put my housing under a vacuum without a camera and via the port i could see a small drop of water on the inside of the AF-ON button (the housing was still wet on the outside from the rinsing); no doubt about it, a leak. The Hugycheck always indicated that the vacuum is still present. Apparently a few drops of water in the housing do not cause a detectable pressure increase, which makes sense to me because the pressure increase is indeed minimal. BTW, an overnight green blinking Hugycheck was still green blinking the next morning, so based on hugycheck my housing was always perfect. Anyway, Pascal from Hugyfot was so kind to send me a few new buttons, O-rings, spacers and some extra strong replacement springs which they sell for tech dive photographers who want to take photos up to 150 metres depth. My personal belief is that stronger springs put slightly more pressure on the O-rings, which will make them close better. Pascal denied it would make any difference, but i feel a little more confident about it this way. Fingers crossed the next trip! My housing is now almost fully equipped with extra strong springs except for two buttons (he didn't send enough springs...) cheers, Udo

If it's only salt residue you want to remove i'd first use a wet microfiberclothso salts dissolve. And afterwards i'd clean it with a microfiber cloth. Udo

I was stupid once too, and did the same mistake. However, i managed to polish out the scratches on the inside of the dome, so i'd recommend you to give it a try before spending another $150. good luck! Udo

to make the analogy to car racing: to my opinion it would be something like an old-timer race with crippled modern cars, not something i'd be interested in.

Same for me except that i don't need 'shooting modes' (Single, multi/2 s delay), 'mode dial WB' (i'm shooting RAW, but for video necessary), Flash up/down (electrically wired strobes) and AF-ON (via the shutter release), but i do use AE-/AF lock occasionally, the AF-/M focus selector and the P/A/S/M button But the need for full accessibility is with me also very depending on the type of diving. During wreckdiving at the Northsea with a visibility sometimes of less then 2m at average depth of 30 m with a lot of current, some buttons become more relevant then others. Absolute necessity to me: ON/OFF, aperture, shuttertime, ISO, focus modes, rear dial and auto- or manual Focus and shutter release. I think that's about it.

That's also my experience. The old 60 mm is working with it though

Adapter two looks exactly like my Hugyfot adapter.

You can set the camera to DX mode manually and otherwise you get the full resolution. But after seeing some comparisons with the Sigma and the Nikon FE-lenses the Tokina was clearly providing the worst quality (not to speak about adding a TC), so i sold it. But as long as you don't do comparisons you probably will be satisfied. Udo

Hi Fred, Thanks for your reply. Actually greater magnificaton is the purpose of adding a TC in my case. There are many ways to do so and i agree with you that less glass is in general better for the quality. But I don't use macro rings since they only allow you to come closer to the subject as far as i know. Right now i use the 105 with the +5 or the +10 Subsee and i'm very satisfied with the quality so far. But an even higher reproduction ratio could be nice in some cases. I actually do own the Nikon 5T and 6T, but i doubt whether the quality of those 2 close-up lenses stacked together will be better then with a Nikon TC. Besides that, with 1 or 2 diopters inside the housing you're also stuck with a narrower focal range. But i found a 2nd hand Nikon TC-17E II allready and topside the AF works quite OK with the 105 VR. I still have to get the proper extension ring to make it fit properly in my housing, but then in theory the 105mm + 1.7TC + +10 Subsee combi should provide me a magnifcatioon radio of 4.6 : 1! Udo

If it works on a D7000 it should also work on a D800. Thanks for your reply! BTW, Nice shot! I have that combination too and i know it works, but the 1.7X TC is an older generation, and that was my main concern. Best, udo

Does anyone have experience with this combo? It works with the TC-20E III Teleconverter, despite the fact that Nikon states that AF won't work, so my guess is that it then also will work with the TC-17E II, but i'm not sure. Anyone? Udo