Aquatica D200 sketches

[nordic 0]

The new D200 housings will ship ready for the new enlarged viewfinders which will be available this summer. Currently Subal and Seacam are the only manufacturers with add-on enlarged viewfinders that make it easier to frame your shots...

 

The D200's standard viewfinder can be replaced with the upgrade when it becomes available. Although pricing has not yet been announced, the hope is that it will be more reasonably priced than the current Subal and Seacam viewfinders.

 

Here are the sketches for the D200:

 

Edit:

The new housings will ship in the standard silver color however Aquatica will have black housings available as well (the black D2x and 5D housings look really sharp). This is a $175 option.

[james 0]

Hi Nordic,

 

Are you an Aquatica dealer? I only just learned about this stuff yesterday and Aquatica hasn't sent us these sketches.

 

Yeah! Aquatica has brought the control knob for the front command dial over to the right side of the housing! This is a welcome improvement.

 

From what I gather, these model views of the housing do not show the enjarged "hole" for the new Aquatica viewfinder. This housing will initially ship with the standard Aquatica viewfinder optic installed, but can be replaced by the larger finder when it's available. It sounds a lot like the Seacam finder system to me.

 

Cheers

James

[Jolly 3]

Housing looks great.

 

Currently Subal and Seacam are the only manufacturers with add-on enlarged viewfinders

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, there are some more enhanced finders. 1st was Seacam, 2nd Sealux, 3rd Subal (acquired the Sealux finder for their housings). UK-Germany and Inon announced 45° finders too. And now Aquatica as well. Looks like this is getting a year of enhanced housing finders ...

 

Julian

[Alex_Mustard 0]

Yeah, surprised these haven't been around before, given that so many underwater photographers are old! Ha ha! ;D

 

Alex

[manatee19 5]

Have a look at Nexus website, seems they will have one ready in August!!!!!

 

Everybody is joining the viewfinder fray... although I feel Seacam still has the edge... Eager to see what others will come up with.

 

Michel

[MikeVeitch 0]

So i wonder if Blake will send me one for a trial run!!!????

 

And of course he would have to package it with the camera....

 

You listening Jean?!?!

 

[Viz'art 24]

You bet i'm listening, package material should include yours truly, always wanted to meet girls with red dental work , and beside as i recall you owe me a Molson Canadian for that Scuba press magazine.

[MikeVeitch 0]

Excellent....did i mention our micro brew opened today?

 

Soo much easier to fly back to Canada without the housing and camera too! See, i am saving you money on excess baggage....

 

[Mike L 0]

I believe Nordic got that info from my post on Rebreather world last night

 

I received the info and sketches from Aquatica yesterday and have been posting them on forums since.

 

WE are full of excitement and cant wait to receive these housings at the end of the month.

 

Looks to be another excellent job by Aquatica.

[allen 4]

Hmmm, I wonder if this will make on to future housings ... like for the 30D ????

[giftie 0]

Looks ok, but has Aquatica corrected a number of minor weak points [apart from the optional viewfinder, which is a very welcome improvement]? for e.g.:

 

Imp#1: Replace the brand of Nikonos V sockets you use and the wiring in 2x bulkhead configuration. Why not use the Nikonos V sockets that Subal/Subtronics uses, these provide much better and positive contact with no matter what Nikonos cable one uses and they have a lower profile.

 

The Nik.5 Sockets Aquatica uses are a source of problems and it does not help to have 8 wires going into to primary bulkhead in a 2x bulkhead configuration. I had [and a couple of S2 users that I know] shorts inside the primary bulkhead due to the 8 wires, I had bad contacts with the floatings pins and the cable due to glue that found its way to the spring in manufacturing, I had wire getting rusted at the soldering point inside the bulkhead and breaking off because of a tiny amount of water [not even salt water] made is way in and so on. More often than not on a trip there is an aquatica user with problems with the wiring in the bulkhead.

 

I was fed-up of these things and just replaced the Aquatica Nikonos Sockets with the brand they use in Subal/Subtronics/Sealux, did the wiring and soldering myself and put shrinkwrap on every wire soldered inside the socket and voila, no bad contacts anymore, no more shorts, no problems. But these sockets use M14 thread which means that I had to remove some material for them to fit in the holes.

 

Also, why not revise the wiring, instead of having 8 wires going into the primary bulkhead [a recipe for problems sooner or later], get the 3 wires of the secondary to come from the hot-shoe [maybe it doesn't look so fancy but it is less prone to problems].

 

Imp#2: Make the zoom gear [inside the housing at the end of the zoom shaft] from thougher plastic. When in the rush of things one turns the zoom knob a bit too far the zoom knob [past the end the zoom for e.g.], the gear deforms and the screw that is supposed to keep it in place slides off and voila no zoom/af/mf control for the rest of the dive! Although this is something that can be fixed in secs at the surface, it is ennerving and upsetting how easy it is to lose the zoom UW.

 

Imp#3: Put alignment marks in the ports, extensions and housing so that user can visually verify that ports and extensions are fully turned [a positive locking thing would be perfect but I guess this is not so easy to do while maintaining compatibility with existing housings and ports]. Although I never experienced a port or extension poping-off in the rib or UW, it does happen often that the port/extension is already half way on its way to disengage. This opens more often with the dome port with cover, especially after a rough ride in the rib. No big problem here, just don't forget to check if they are fully turned before going under but it would be nice to be able to check this just by looking.

[ikelite 0]

Be careful with European style Nikonos sockets as some replace the two spring contacts with solid contacts. This may sound smart, but it destroys a correct Nikonos sync cord when installed.............

[james 0]

Good info and feedback there Jorge,

 

I agree RE the bulkheads - they should put in Ikelite bulkheads, right Ike? :-) I'm sure you wouldn't mind supplying those to Aquatica - hehe.

 

No, but seriously, either the original Nikonos or the backward Subal/Subtronic Nikonos bulkheads are problematic when compared to the Ikelite ones. To me, it seems like it's impossible to plug in the Ikelite cord and mess it up.

 

Cheers

James

[UWphotoNewbie 1]

The housings look great.

 

One interesting design feature I noticed:

 

It looks like (and having never handled many of these high-end housings forgive me) the spit between the front and back half is different on this housing. When opened, it looks like half of the camera will sit outside the housing. This is a good thing as the D200 has the CF card door access from the side not the back as in the D70/D100. I wonder if there is space to access the CF cards from other aluminum housings like the Subal. From the pictures it looks like its buried deep in the front half of the housing?

 

This change is a good thing for the Ikelite housing. One complaint was that with the camera mounted to the back of the housing you couldn't change the card or battery without un-mounting the camera. Now with a shorter mounting plate and the card door on the side, you should be able to change both battery and CF card on the D200 housing.

 

It looks like this isn't a problem with the Aquatica either. A good thing.

 

I also like the CF door on the side for topside shooting. Since on the D70 the door is right where I press with my thumb it adds a little bit of flex to the camera body. Its not a big deal but having it on the side makes the camera feel more sturdy.

[giftie 0]

Yes, over here there are 2 versions of Nikonos V bulkheads [as I painfully discovered recently] a fixed pins one and a spring loaded one, the spring loaded one does provide better contact between the floating pins and the cable than the Aquatica bulkhead due to the conical shape of the floating pin...and it is compatible with fixed pin and floating pins [Like Ike's cables] Nikonos connectors. The reason why I opted to replace again by Nikonos is that there are no ready made Ike cables [as far as I know of, with a ike connector on 1 end and Nikonos on the other] that carry all 5 wires [ikelite only needs 4 wires and there is a diode between SP and ground]. If one wants to use a SB800 housing all 5 wires must be present to communicate with the strobe .

I never had a problem with Ike's connectors and sockets they seem to be very much foolproof.

[Mark Graf 0]

Imp#3: Put alignment marks in the ports, extensions and housing so that user can visually verify that ports and extensions are fully turned [a positive locking thing would be perfect but I guess this is not so easy to do while maintaining compatibility with existing housings and ports]. Although I never experienced a port or extension poping-off in the rib or UW, it does happen often that the port/extension is already half way on its way to disengage. This opens more often with the dome port with cover, especially after a rough ride in the rib. No big problem here, just don't forget to check if they are fully turned before going under but it would be nice to be able to check this just by looking.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This bugged me as well on my Aquatica A100 setup, especially since I have 2 port extensions when using my 17-35 f2.8 with my dome port. I ended up using a paint pen to create the alignment marks myself.

 

I didn't know Aquatica offered stealthy black versions - will need to check that one out!

 

Mark