Advice for D70 planning on Sea & Sea Housing with 105s

[stevemahon 0]

I've spent the last couple hours going through the posts in this forum, and I am really impressed with the amount of information. I'm a total newbie to DSLR, having purchased a D70 yesterday. I'm leaning toward the Sea & Sea housing because of good past experience with VX2000 video, and I think I can borrow some ports and lenses from friends with NX setups. I've also had really good experience with L&M's Tetra and Oly 2020 thru 4040, but it doesn't look like they will have D70 in time for my trip to Raja Ampat in Oct.

 

I have 2 Nikonos 105s that I'm hoping will get along with the Sea & Sea system. They were often a bit much with the Tetra, but I'm thinking the F-setting range on the D70 are much broader. Have people had success with 105s? Is this a compelling reason to wait for L&M ROC?

 

I suspect I will shoot primarly Macro in Raja. I was really frustrated a few years ago in PNG and Puerto Gallero trying to shoot pigmy seahorses with the tetra. Does anyone have a lense/port suggestion that will capture the little buggers well? I really like the shot ssra30 shot in Puerto Gallero displayed at http://www.damnam.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=706.

 

My feeling is a 60mm and a 2Xtele-converter will handle the small stuff and the tiny stuff. Does this sound reasonable, and will I be missing opportunities without a 105mm? Money is of course a major concern. My next trip in Cocos next May. Hopefully I will pay the credit cards down enought to get a really good wide setup by then.

 

One final question: What port gets along with the 18-70mm lense that comes with the camera? I don't see it listed on Sea & Sea's charts.

 

Thanks, Steve

[hge54_old 0]

After announcing that they would be housing the D70, and causing many of their loyal customers to hold off on housing their D70s, L&M has decided not to house the D70, which I find unfathomable. So, using the ROC is not an option. I have purchased the Sea&Sea housing. I will try it with the Sea&Sea YS-90 strobes that came with my tetra kit, but will probably need to upgrade to YS-90DX strobes to get more control of strobe output without the ROC.

 

Cheers,

 

Hal

[stone 0]

I got the following reply from Sea & Sea.

 

For kit lenses, you need:

#30103 NX Compact Wide Port (L)

#56201 NX Compact Macro Port Base

#31121 Zoom Gear for DX Zoom Nikkor ED 18-70mm F3.5-4.5G IF

 

 

Cheers,

Stone

[Ryan 48]

Sea & Sea's suggestion is workable, and won't require the use of a closeup diopter, but I would expect ugly corners caused by the flat front port at 18mm.

 

My suggestion would be to purchase the Fisheye dome port or compact dome port for the lenses you'll be using in Cocos, and use the 18-70 behind it with a +4 diopter.

 

This will give the lens its in air field of view for fish portraiture, and your macro work will be better served by the 60.

 

Re: the 60mm and teleconverters, I have no personal experience with this combination, but am confident in saying the 105mm was the best money I've spent on lenses.

[NitroLiq 0]

Don't mean to hijack this thread but will the Sea & Sea compact dome port work with the 12-24, 60mm, and 105? Would one need a diopter for any of these? What else would be needed? Just curious as to what would be the "budget-conscious" way of putting together the S&S setup.

[gadip 1]

Let me start and say, cheap is not going to be, prepare to spend at list 5k-7k$ between housing ports, lenses once you have everything. When I start I thought its going to be cheap, but no…..

 

• D70 Camera + Kit lens – 1300$

• Sea & Sea Housing – 2000$

• Dome Port (Fish Eye) ~600$

• Standard Flat Port (~300)

• Nikon Lens 12-24mm – 900$

• Nikon Lens 60mm – 300$

• Arms & dual cable (Y) ~400$

• Zoom Gear for 12-24mm also work on 18-70mm - ~200$

• 2* Strobe sb105 ~700$

 

I have the same setup, D70 in Sea&Sea housing, with two SB-105, 60mm in standard flat port, 12-24mm Fish Eye Dome Port, 18-70 Fish Eye Dome Port (with Ext ring 40). I really like the Sea&Sea housing, strong, great design, easy to use, very intuitive.

I used it in Red Sea last July, and few dive with the Macro lens here in New England (Cape Ann).

In two weeks I’m going to Galapagos, and I hope to be able to tell you more after I’m back regarding the WA lens setup.

 

From what I learned till now the 18-70mm lens with the fisheye dome port, should take +2 diopter, for the 12-24mm some people say they used it with no diopter at all, some other recommend +3/+4.

I will let you know once I come back from Galapagos what I used for the big whale-shark :-)

 

For the 60mm I used the standard flat port with no diopter at all, I can tell you I used it here in Cape Ann with 10 fit visibility (in very cold water) set to Auto Focus, and it works great with the SB105 half full power.

 

Good Luck.

Gadi

[NitroLiq 0]

I know it's not a cheap endeavor but was just curious about using multiple lenses with just the 8" dome port rather than buying a flat port right away. I know you can do that with Ike's 8" dome...at least as far as the 18-70, 60mm, and 12-24 go. I was curious as to whether you could do the same thing with the S&S. Otherwise, I may just lean more towards the Ike housing (or see Aquatica's when they finally release it). I'm not really in any rush...just constantly researching.

[ssra30 0]

I suspect I will shoot primarly Macro in Raja. I was really frustrated a few years ago in PNG and Puerto Gallero trying to shoot pigmy seahorses with the tetra. Does anyone have a lense/port suggestion that will capture the little buggers well? I really like the shot ssra30 shot in Puerto Gallero displayed at http://www.damnam.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=706.

 

I used mostly the 70-180 macro lens for most shots I posted on damnam.org. Personally I think it is the most flexible lens for macro eventhough it is quite a bit slower than the 60mm macro as far as autofocus is concerned ( I perfer the 60mm macro lens for night dive).

The pgymy seahorse picture was shot with the 70-180mm lens with focal lenght set at 140mm. I also used the Nikon 5T macro lens and wetmount Nexus macro lens on top as well for that shot. the lens was a few inches away from the pgymy seahorse.

 

With the 70-180 lens, I can be relatively close to the subject and shoot anything from about 4-5 inches like the solar powered nudibranch (sorry, forgot the exact name right now) to less than 1 cm like a pgymy seahorse. I think the 60mm with 2xtele converter probably would do a nice job with the pgymy seahorse but the range of subjects would be a bit limited.

[stone 0]

Hi

 

Can I use the 18-70 to shot some macro?

If yes, what port(s) is/are best choice for macro?

 

Thanks a lot!

[james 0]

It's not really a macro lens in that it will not do high magnification. You should perhaps look at the Nikon 60mm or 105mm Micro lenses as they can do 1:1 (35mm equivalent) and greater.

 

Cheers

James

[stone 0]

Hi

 

Just got my 60mm Nikkor, which port configurations I should go for??

Please help to give some suggestions.

 

- NX Custom Flat Port

- NX Standard Flat Port

- NX Zoom Port

- NX Compact Macro Port + Compact Macro Port S

( in Sea & Sea System Chart)

 

Thanks a lot!

[The Hamburger 0]

Go for the standard flat port.