Aquatica D2X Review?

[sbelbin 0]

Has anyone tried the Aquatica D2X housing UW yet? I have not heard anything since Jean's last postings in August. Any comments about the viewfinder as compared to the Seacam or Subal housing- are they worth the extra $. Thanks

[yahsemtough 0]

I think it is just in the test stage now so there should be some answers very soon. Just a few out right now.

[handlerphoto 2]

Hi guys...

The Aquatica D2x is being delivered as we speak and the response is overwhelming.

Since I am with Aquatica, I will refrain from any reviews until someone in the field outside of myself does one. I can attest one thing though and that is that after diving with the initial prototypes, that the finder is very good and although Aquatica will eventually launch a larger finder to satisfy the need of many pros, it is unlikely you will need one as the initial D2x finder is good and when put in the Aquatica housing it shines!

This housing with all its features is Aquaticas best product yet!

I look forward to a review and coments from the many currently with housing in hand.

 

Mauricio Handler

[james 0]

I would be happy to review an Aquatica D2x housing for Wetpixel. The camera is available here in Houston on a rental basis.

 

Cheers

James

[Craig Ruaux 0]

The camera is available here in Houston on a rental basis.

 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

As it is here (well, in Portland...). But I have to say I would love to be a fly on the wall if a seal failed when using a rented D2x. That could be a mighty expensive paperweight you end up buying

[james 0]

Craig,

 

I'd either make sure that the camera is insured against water damage by the rental place, or put it on my DEPP insurance. What do you think I am - nutz? OK, don't answer that.

 

Cheers

James

[Ryan 57]

I really wish housing manufacturers would produce specs on their viewfinders so we could have a true measuring stick by which to compare these standard vewfinders.

 

Mauricio (or Jean), is Aquatica using the same reducing optic that has been used on the a70 & a20, or something different? I'm not picking on Aquatica, it just seems that unless there is something objective used to compare these, we'll be left w/ emotional taglines or cute trade names in place of facts.

 

t is unlikely you will need one as the initial D2x finder is good and when put in the Aquatica housing it shines!

I'm confused by what this means, since the housing will likely reduce the size of the D2x viewfinder (making it look smaller and farther away). If the viewfinder looks smaller and farther away, how is that better than the d2x viewfinder on its own?

[Poliwog 4]

Hi:

 

I've just recieved an Aquatica D2x housing from Blake and Norma on the 13th of this month. I live a few hours away in the Niagara Region at the other end of Hwy 401 from them in Montreal.

 

I have just done the push button test in the pool to test all the push buttons and levers that can not be tested in a pressure pot. The D2x is a very expensive camera as you well know, so I will be taking it slow introducing it to the water.

 

I have been using a Nikonos V with a single Sunstrobe 400 off and on for the past few years, so this is quite a step up for me.

 

My new setup consists of the Nikon D2x, Aquatica D2x housing, 8 inch dome port, macro port and various extension rings, two Sunstrobe 200s, TLC arms, 14mm, 60mm, 105mm Nikkors, and Peter and Alex's Magic Filters (not everything is new). I anticipate purchasing the Nikon 10.5 mm within the next week or two.

 

Diving here in the Niagara Region is starting to wind down for the winter. Unfortunately, I do not anticipate diving with the new rig here in the lower great lakes until Spring. However, I will be spending a week in Santiago de Cuba putting the the new rig through its' paces later in November. God willing, I hope to have some examples of what this setup is capable of doing at that time.

 

Since this is my first test, in a pool with it at that, there is not much more I can say about it, except I find the camera housing controls to be placed perfectly. The housing is slightly negative as has been said before, but is not a hinderance. One thing that really did make me feel that this is "the" rig (for me at least) is I now have all my wonderful knobs, dials, and levers like I have so sorely missed from my Nikon F4e. My most recent camera was a Fuji S2 Pro. I think electronic push buttons are great but find myself missing real aperture rings, shutter and ISO dials. I guess you could call me a knobby type of guy . I would love a digital camera about the size and shape of a Minox 35GT with a huge sensor, but I digress...

 

As this is my first post to the website, I would like to take a moment to say how much I have enjoyed reading the forums and viewing the simply spendid photographic images of the undersea world presented here in these forums. If I attain results that come even close to what I have seen on this website, then I will be one very happy camper . The sheer volume of practical, as well as theoretical knowledge presented on the website is simply superb. I don't know of any other underwater photography website that does it so well. Kudos to Eric, Alex, James, and all the other administrators for a job well done.

 

Hoepfully I will not become too much of a chatterbox now that I have broken my silence .

 

 

Poliwog

[james 0]

Hi Poliwog,

 

Thanks for the kudos and your short report. Welcome to Wetpixel.

 

Cheers

James

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Charles Hood from Dive Magazine in the UK has his out in California at the moment. He certainly likes it very much. Last week he sent me a few images taken with it and the Magic filter and the Hood/D2X/Aquatica/Magic combination seems to be doing the business.

 

Alex

[handlerphoto 2]

Thanks Alex for the update on Charles D2x. I am confident that we will get some interesting feed back from Charles Hood in the UK. He has the knowledge, technical and creative ability to really put this housing through the grinder.

 

Responding to Ryans concern.

I am not an optical engineer and not sure if you are, yet all I know is what my eyes see when I am shooting underwater and the Aquatica D2X viewfinder was good enough for me without additional optics. As I said before, Aquatica will have a new finder available to current D2X owners who want to upgrade. Hopefully very soon. I am sure this will be at a fair price and will indeed enhance the current finder.

On another note. Last month I had the chance to use a Subal D2X with the large viewfinder and it was nice. But is it worth the extra $900 or $1100 ? For this price I would expected more from such a piece of glass. This finder has some draw backs that bothered me as well as others I have spoken to that are currently using this housing. The problem comes when th image is completely obscured and/or blurred when not viewed exactly straight on.

 

I have not had a chance to use a Seacam or Nexus D2X housing but am looking into them.

I did advise Blake at Aquatica to look at the Subal finder but to try and improve on the short comings of this particular glass.

 

Mauricio Handler

[randapex 0]

. The problem comes when th image is completely obscured and/or blurred when not viewed exactly straight on.

Mauricio Handler

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Mauricio-

 

I've shot with the Subal ND2 housing with the eyepiece for 8 months and never experienced this issue. Not saying it isn't possible to obscure the image by looking at it from a certain angle, just that you state this as a problem no one else has mentioned. So, I'm curious if anyone else has it?

 

 

 

Rand

[Rocha 0]

I heard someone complaining about Subal's magnified viewfinder, but I think it is just a problem of getting used to it. Having said that, I don't have one and I am perfectly happy with Subal's standard viewfinder, which looks very similar to Aquatica's viewfinder.

 

By the way, if similarity to Subal is a good measure of quality, I think the Aquatica will be an excellent housing (as the Subal is). All the controls in the Aquatica are in a very similar position as in the Subal, the ergonomics should be great.

 

Mauricio, what are the dimensions (size and weight) of the Aquatica? Forgive me if you posted this before, but I haven't seen it.

 

Luiz

[scorpio_fish 5]

when th image is completely obscured and/or blurred when not viewed exactly straight on.

 

I think it just a wording mess up. It is not completely obscured.

 

The optic is circular. The size of the circle just covers the rectangle of the view finder. If you look through the otpic at an angle to the viewfinder, part of the viewfinder is not within the circle, rendering it unreadable or blurry. This is no different than image circle coverage on large format cameras when you shift the lens.

 

Although I got better at it using it, I found it still annoying after 20 dives. Perhaps it will be less annoying for macro.

[randapex 0]

Hmmm, I guess there is some benefit to being ingnorant of what it "Should" look like, thanks. Now it will bug me too. Damn eyepiece...

 

Rand

[pmooney 6]

feet first again,

 

I'm with scorpio fish on this one.

 

I have 2 Subal ND2 housings - one with the Grand viewfinder and one standard unit ( GF wasn't available at time of purchase ).

 

My opinion is that while the view is nice once you get the distortion from non square alignment undercontrol - but I decided it wasn't a must have on the second housing.

 

Aquatica have shipped my nice shiny black D2X housing to me and it's due to get out here to the colonies late next week. Then I will be able to have real comparison as to which viewfinder suits me the best.

 

At this time I enjoy the GF viewfinder for macro and the std for wide angle - still I am not completely sold .... we will have to see. ( excuse the pun )

[loligo 0]

I received the Aquatica D2x housing a week or so ago, am quite pleased with the product, but have only had the chance to take it out on a couple of shakedown occasions. At first I was a bit concerned about the weight with the whole housing/camera/strobe(s) package (usually only a mob informant has that much weight attached at any one time) -- but all seems quite manageable once in the water. All of the buttons were within easy reach, even with thick gloves . . .

 

The viewfinder I found quite sufficent, though I admit that I still miss the DA-20 sportsfinder of my housed Nikon F4. I was happy to hear that Aquatica was thinking of upgrading the optics of its D2x housing; though, having had a recent chance to check out the Subal version, I still find the Aquatica standard viewfinder superior . . .

 

Does anybody have a time-frame about the Aquatica upgrade and whether it will simply be installed by the customer or require a dealer? Didn't Seacam also offer a couple of different viewfinders for their D2x housing?

 

David

[Alex_Mustard 0]

There is a pretty thorough review by Charles Hood in the latest issue of UWP magazine.

 

Reading between the lines he seems to be saying it is very similar to the Subal, but cheaper.

 

Alex

[james 0]

Ding ding ding ding! I just downloaded the new issue of UWP and I'm glad to read that Charles echoes my thoughts.

 

Both housings are machined from solid, have excellent controls, and great ports. But one is much cheaper. It makes me wonder if Aquatica is just more efficient, or if the mark-up on Subal housings is just extremely high.

 

Cheers

James

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Well someone in the UK who has seen the Aquatica said to me that it looked like a pretty close copy of the Subal. Maybe this means Aquatica have lower design costs

 

Being a bit more serious I would imagine that the strong Euro and the weak Canadian Dollar have a bit to do with it too.

 

Alex

[james 0]

Well, Aquatica's been making machined-from-solid housings since they did the Coolpix 5000 housing way back when. So I'd hesitate to use the word "copy" now that they've done another...

 

Agree RE the strong EU vs Can $$ though.

 

Cheers

James

[Rocha 0]

It makes me wonder if Aquatica is just more efficient, or if the mark-up on Subal housings is just extremely high.

 

Cheers

James

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

To be fair, I think the same can be said about Seacam.

[randapex 0]

To be fair, I think the same can be said about Seacam.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

[Alex_Mustard 0]

He was actually referring to the layout of controls rather than the materials. But this line of gossip is probably best left alone!

 

Alex

[handlerphoto 2]

Hi again.

 

Here are some comments sent to Blake at Aquatica from Udo Stensitzky,

one of the first users of the Aquatica d2x housing. Blake asked him what he

thought of the viewfinder and this was his answer:

 

It is perfect. Honestly spoken I had some doubts before my first dive with

the new housing, since I could remember the old days with the sports finder

on my F3 and the view finder on my Nikonos RS. Before I contacted you the

first time I was first intersted to stick to the D2 housing made by Seacam

with their huge S45 view finder. But after the first dives with your D2

housing all doubts are wiped away. I just came back from the first macro

dive today. Handling is perfect, better than with the RS. Autofocus works

fast, very fast, the housing is well equalized and operation is intuitive.

Good job. I only have to work on my Hartenbergers for neutral buoyancy.

 

Udo Stensitzky

 

 

Mauricio Handler