D7000 Housings/ Looked at 4 different at BTS

I just returned from the Beneath the Sea Expo up by NY City. I looked at 4 new housings from seacam, sea and sea, Nauticam and Aquatica. What do you use and what do you like and dislike about your housing. Trying to make up my mind as to best housing. My quick rundown on my brief encounter with each housing.

Seacam: Nicely made housing with big reputation. I did not like non-locking port and deletion of many buttons found on other housings.

Sea and Sea: Again very nice made housing. Handles a little far away from controls for my hands. Labels on buttons look like stickers that would fall off. I think if they made the housing like the 550 housing for canon out of plastic for a price a few hundred above ikelite they would have a winner.

Nauticam: I really like this housing. I like the port and body lock system. Most of the controls fell really nice in place for my hands. Some did not. Controls felt very smooth, Maybe over engineered when looking inside at mechanicals. Like the 2 mounting locations on body for arms.

Aquatica: Again great housing. some very nice work put into this housing. I like the port lock, and again some controls felt right and some did not. Price for quality excellent. Simpler design inside. I like it being made in North America.

Nauticam and Aquatica are my top choices that I see at this moment. Funny that the controls that felt wrong on one housing were perfect on the other.

Tell me what you think!!!!! There is no wrong answer.

The Sea and Sea doens't have port lock and the Aquatica does?
My Sea and Sea D300 housing does have port lock, and Adm. Linda's
Aquatica D40 housing does not. She once had a port fall off as she was
carrying it to her bench after a dive. No damage fortunately.

No problems with the button labels coming off on my Sea and Sea, so
far, and I've not heard of that.

Think about what controls you need to mess with quickly:
Aperture
Shutter speed
Zoom
Focus
Shoot

That's it.

I personally like my Aquatica AD7000. It has alot more engineering inside than the Aquatica AD90 which I had before. I like how the buttons of on the Ad7000 housing have been moved away from being directly behind the buttons on the camera for more ease of use with one hand.

I have gone the option of having both Ikelite and Hybrid bulkheads which gives me the best of both worls for strobe triggering.

I prefer the mounting points on the arms especially with using larger arms for wide angle. I prefer the feel on the Aquatica arms compared to the Nauticam arms as they dont feel as strong to me.

The Aquatica AD90 and Ad7000 both had locking systems with the Ad7000 more engineered than the simple AD90. I actually like the Ad90 housing pin locking system as its simple (the old KISS principle).

Regards Mark

Chuck Tribolet:

The Sea and Sea doens't have port lock and the Aquatica does?
My Sea and Sea D300 housing does have port lock, and Adm. Linda's
Aquatica D40 housing does not. She once had a port fall off as she was
carrying it to her bench after a dive. No damage fortunately.

No problems with the button labels coming off on my Sea and Sea, so
far, and I've not heard of that.

Think about what controls you need to mess with quickly:
Aperture
Shutter speed
Zoom
Focus
Shoot

That's it.

Click to expand...

Chuck, you must have misread, nowhere does he says the Sea & Sea does not have a port lock, they do like all of our current housings.

Along the controls nowadays that also counts are exposure comp for Video and WB also usefull in Video and in many instance AF-Lock/AF-ON (depending of the situation).

Nikon D7000 and Aquatica AD7000 Review - The Housing

This shows the Aquatica setup and port locks.

Regards Mark

Viz'art:

Chuck, you must have misread, nowhere does he says the Sea & Sea does not have a port lock, they do like all of our current housings.

Along the controls nowadays that also counts are exposure comp for Video and WB also usefull in Video and in many instance AF-Lock/AF-ON (depending of the situation).

Click to expand...

My Sea & Sea (MDX-300) has a port lock on the hosing, BUT if you use an extension ring and a port, then only the extension ring can be locked (the port cannot be locked to the extension ring)

I believe thats the case with at least some other Sea & Sea (maybe all but I am not sure)

And here is an unbiased review of the Nauticam:

Field Review: Nikon D7000 and Nauticam NA-D7000 :: Wetpixel.com

Dave
Nauticam USA

limeyx:

My Sea & Sea (MDX-300) has a port lock on the hosing, BUT if you use an extension ring and a port, then only the extension ring can be locked (the port cannot be locked to the extension ring)

I believe thats the case with at least some other Sea & Sea (maybe all but I am not sure)

Click to expand...

That's the same with my Aquatica D3 system as well. The port lock uses a pin system (same as Mark's) and will only lock onto the extension ring if one is used. Fortunately, my most used lenses do not require an extension ring, but when I do use one, I have to be a bit more wary of the port spinning.

There is also the extension ring lock collar:

Aquatica Digital - Featuring an extensive line of underwater housings for Nikon and Canon digital cameras

Regards Mark

I have used a Seacam housing for many years-F100 then Nikon D200. As far as a port locking system, I, nor anyone else that I have ever heard of has had any issue whatsoever with the port systems. With the engineering/fit/finish and quality of Seacam, it is a fact that if there was any issues with anyone it would have been addressed. All the other items like controls/levers/handle placements etc are really personal to you. They need to function well/consistently when called upon to work. Add up all your priorities in order of importance, throw in the pros and cons to each, add a heap of pricing-then enjoy. Regards,Wayne