Got my housing. Big Kudos to Scubacam.nl and Mares Benelux (TopSport Diving)

So finally I got my housing. This has been a very long story for which I have to thank Ron at Scubacam and to Mares Benelux (former TopSport diving) for their great service.

Please find below a short version of the story.

Last year I bought a Sea&Sea housing for my Canon EOS350D at Scubacam. Since the beginning there were issues with the TTL. Ron at Scubacam always promptly tried to solve the issue and housings, TTL converters and strobes came back and forth from Sea&Sea Japan without any success. TopSport diving at that time ordered a brand new housing to try to solve the issue and kept the "old one" in their stock. Unfortunately also this one didn't work.

In between, I had a liveaboard to Honduras. Two days before I left to Honduras one of the strobes simply died. Once more Ron when completely out of his way and immediately got me a new strobe to replace the faulty one. Since the beginning I was very pleased with the level of service provided by both companies.

Unfortunately, after a long time trying to solve the problem, the housing came once more from Japan not working properly.

ScubaCam and TopSport immediately agreed with finding a different solution since this was not working out. Specifically, they agreed to replace the S&S D350 kit for the brand new S&S MDXD300 for the Nikon D300 without any costs from my side. I just had to choose which lens kits I wanted and everything was arranged. In addition to that, for all the troubles, TopSport kindly offered me one Mares product of my choice.

I must say I am very very pleased with how this case was dealt with and must say that these two companies are an example to any company out there in terms of customer service.

For all this, THANK YOU very much.

Below a picture of me and Ron with my new housing:

On my way to get my new Sea&Sea Housing

Getting out now to go to Scubacam and get my new housing. More details when I am back !!!

New Sea&Sea DX300 housing on its way

My Sea&Sea housing for the Canon 300D didn't work out. We were never able to make the TTL work properly. So Scubacam agreed to take this system back and get me the new Sea&Sea housing for the Nikon D300 without any additional payment. Although this whole situation has been a pain in the ass, I am extremely happy with the service provided by Scubacam and the important in the Netherlands. Thank you once more Ron... Looking forward to get my new housing !!!

When I get the housing, I will post the whole story.

Cheers

Nuno

New Decals for my Double-12s

Here are my new decals for my Double-12s. Aren't my doubles a beauty??? :)

Getting a new TTL converter

Good evening,

I am getting a new TTL converter from Japan. I was told they have developed a new TTL and that does not have the same problems as the other ones. I hope this time is for good since I am getting really tired with this.

New Uwatec Digital 330M

Scubapro Uwatec recently announced the launch of their new Digital 330m dive computer, which will be available from all authorised Scubapro Uwatec dealers.

The all new Uwatec Digital 330m is capable of displaying depth upto 330 metres, calculating the average depth during a dive, and will display the ascent rate in metres.

Designed to cater for the newer diver as well as the technical diver the Uwatec Digital 330m has a wide range of features for divers looking to maximise their dive information.

Sea&Sea DX400D Review

I have been experiencing some problems with my TTL connector in my housing. The Dutch distributor kindly offered to change the housing for either a new DX350D or for the DX400D.

I went to check the DX400D and see whether it was worthwhile to swap the DX350 for this new model.

In my opinion, the main new features of this model are:

- built-in TTL converter

- optional magnifying .8 viewfinder

Built-in TTL converter

The built-in TTL converter saves some space outside the housing and the slight additional weight that the external TTL converter puts on the left side of the housing.

There is a button inside the housing to switch between Manual and TTL. This can only be chosen before the dive. The other drawback of the internal converter is that you are not able to choose flash compensation as with the external TTL converter.

This TTL converter uses a flat battery which will be in stand-by when the strobes are off (will still consume energy even while you are not using the camera). I called Sea&Sea Japan and they informed me that under "normal" use conditions, the battery should last approximately 1 year.

The DX400D only has one strobe connector on top of the housing

Optional magnifying .8 viewfinder

The DX-400D uses a different viewfinder which allows you to upgrade to a .8 maginifying viewfinder instead of the .66. I assume that in the future there might be a 45 degree viewfinder for this model (just an assumption).

Buttons on the back of the housing

Until so far, I was more or less convinced on changing from the DX350 to the DX400D. The problem arose when I checked the buttons in the back of the housing.

To my surprise (shock?) a couple of buttons just disappeared in this new "improved" housing. Namely, the menu button and the delete is gone. Also the display button is gone.

This took away all the doubts I had whether to change to the DX400D housing. As an example of a big disadvantage, without the menu button you are not able in the 400D to select a picture to do custom WB. With a small adaptation of the DX350D housing you can use the 400D camera with all its features.

Conclusion

I cannot understand what made Sea&Sea develop a new housing where they take out such important buttons (they were there in the DX350, you just needed to put them to the side!!!)

The TTL inside the camera makes the camera more streamlined (also with less air inside the camera, meaning more negative) but gives you less flexibility in using the TTL.

IMHO, this housing is a no go, at least until the other buttons are added to the housing.

Any comments, please email me.

Fisheye FIX LED 48DX

Last post of the day. I am posting some pictures of my new focus / dive light for using in my housing. This light is great having a battery life of 4-8 hours and a knob to adjust light intensity.

I put some semi-transparent tape in the front of the light to act as a diffuser and get a more even light beam.

Canon EOS 400D on Sea&Sea DX350D Housing

Sea&Sea has announced some time ago their new housing for the Canon EOS 400D. Meanwhile, Wetpixel member Pakman has found a way to use the Canon 400D in the DX350D housing without any major changes. Indeed, only the buttons on the left of the LCD are in the different place than in the 350D. The solution is the use of wall anchors (specifically, wall anchors nylon size #4 worked great for me) in the place of the rubber buttons originally in place.


This solution is great because the housing can be retrofit to the 350D anytime, just changing the wall anchors for the original rubber buttons.


Also you can see completely the new 2.5 LCD in the housing. This nice bright LCD shows you all the camera settings without needing to put your eye on the viewfinder or on the old display.

Tokina 10-17mm FishEye DX - Adaptation to use S&S Canon EF-S Ring system

As I mentioned previously, I got myself the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye DX lens for my Canon. The main advantages of this lens are, additionally to the obvious wide-angle produced, the sharpness of the corners underwater and the close focus capability.

Unfortunately, there is no ring system for this lens, at least for my housing (Sea & Sea). Thus, I tried several alternatives to use the zoom of this lens underwater.

My first test was using some kind of foam tape around the zoom in the lens and then put my S&S 60mm focus ring system on top. This seemed to work since the Tokina lens is only slightly thinner than the Canon EF-S 60. This system not only looked bad but also was not very stable. The zoom ring would tend to get out of the place and eventually fall out of the lens to the Dome port - Not such a good idea.

For my second test I used elastic bands (the ones you get for adjusting your clothes) and put it around the zoom. This seemed to work pretty well at the beginning - looks good and it is easily removable from the lens. For this one, I had the help of Rita, my mother-in-law, who generoulsy offered herself to teach me in the art of using an electric sewing machine (cool stuff, let me tell you guys!!!). The problem was that the zoom ring would still tend to fall out of the lens. The problem is that the o-ring inside the zoom ring is in the front of the ring and therefore it would not touch the elastic band.

Third test - final solution: I bought some velcro tape and "glued" it inside the zoom ring (in the oposite side of the existing o-rings). This mad the velcro tape "grab" the elastic band and the zoom ring feels now snug in the lens. I tried already several times and it works perfectly. Just be carefully to check whether the AF is still chosen since the elastic band might put it in MF when putting the zoom ring in the lens.

Since I glued the velcro tape in the lens I still had to make it work with the EF-S 60 lens when using this. For that, I slightly cut the velcro teeth so that they would not scratch in the 60mm lens.

Some pictures below of my solution:

New Camera, new Fisheye lens and new focus light

I got the new Canon EOS-400D, the Tokina 10-17 Fisheye lens as well as a new focus light Fisheye FIX LED 48DX.

For the Canon EOS-400D, I had to do a slight adaptation into my Sea&Sea housing. The fit is perfect and the large screen is a big advantage underwater. The adaptation does not have any impact on the camera which can be easily retrofit for the EOS-350D.

The Tokina fisheye lens has the advantage of focusing extremely close and of keeping the corners sharp underwater (Canon 10-22 does not provide such results). I was able to use the zoom ring for the Canon EF-S 60 with a small adaptation.

The Fisheye LIX LED 48DX has the advantage for providing a powerful light and at the same time has the flexibility of increasing or decreasing the light power with the twist of a simple knob.

While my latest pictures were already taken with the EOS-400D, the Fisheye LED is still to be tested.

I will post some pictures on the adaptations made soon.

Finally got my Sea&Sea Glass Dome Port

S&S Wide Angle Rig 2, originally uploaded by Nuno Sanches e Silva.

Finally got it. Just tried in the tub and it is very heavy. The rig went directly to the bottom. I tried also with the Patima BC on top and it did not make a different - Directly down.

I am looking into a new buoyancy arms system. When I try it I will post here the results.

Got a new BC for my UW camera housing

Just got a new buoyancy compensator for my Sea&Sea housing. This BC was kindly sent to me by Sam (schchae in Wetpixel) from Korea. I still didn't try as my housing is at Sea&Sea to check the TTL circuitry. I will post some additional pics and comments when I get it back.

My UW Photo Rig

My UW Photography Rig:

Sea&Sea DX350 Housing
- Canon EOS 350D
- Canon EF-S 60m macro
- Canoon EF-S 10-22m
TTL external converter
2x Strobes YS-110
2x Sea&Sea Arm VI
Compact Dome Port
Fantasea Frogman Modeling Light

I put all my rig in a Pelicase 1550

Volunteering - Marine Conservation Expedition Mexico

Wanna do some volunteering while diving? There is some volunteering diving going on in Mexico. Double click the video below for some info

For more information visit GVI website.

Some of my Rig

My Double Tank Rig

• Double-12's (14kgs per tank)
• Halcyon Eclipse Stealth 40
• Aqualung Legend Extreme LX 1st Stage
• Aqualung Legend Extreme LX 2nd Stage
• Apex DS4 1st Stage
• Aqualung Legend Extreme LX Backup 2nd Stage
• Scubapro Jetfins
  

What keeps me warm UW?

• Drysuit DUI TLS350 Explorer Edition
• Undersuit DUI Thinsulate 400g
• 2nd layer top Fourth Element Xerotherm
• Shirt Craft
• Socks DUI Thinsulate

I purchased most part of this equipment from Aquadiving Veenendaal. I highly recommend talking with Lex if you need any dive equipment. Apart from being very knowledgeable about diving, Lex is focused in getting the right equipment for you and not only selling products.