Has anyone used Fantasea's FD-70 for Nikon D70?

Hi Guys: Just bought a D70 and looking for a housing for it
Has anyone used Fantasea's FD-70 housing yet? I understand its quite new but with the price tag some one's bound to have bought one somewhere already. Mind sharing on the experience?

David Bali:

Hi Guys: Just bought a D70 and looking for a housing for it
Has anyone used Fantasea's FD-70 housing yet? I understand its quite new but with the price tag some one's bound to have bought one somewhere already. Mind sharing on the experience?

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Havent seen that housing but look in on what Fantasea does to make the image from the viewfinder much bigger. And your moorish idol photo...insane!

Thanks for the compliment dude!
I guess I was at the right place at the right time.
I only took it with a SONY P8 w/o any strobe
Had I had a D70 back then, this pic would be even better

Am deciding between Fantasea and Ikelite
A friend use Ikelite for his P120 DV, liked it alot
But the fantasea has insurance, which had me thinking
Both looked quite similar

Would like a Nexus but $$$ just not allowing

I have dived alot but has just taken up Photography
A little over a year now.

Can I ask you a question?
I have 2 led lights, ones a S & S LX15 and another similar to UK cannon
Is it possible to use these 2 lights on the D70 for macro works?
I mean for now before I have more $ for a proper strobe such as the new Ikelite 125

If TTL is important to you, Ikelite is very close to cracking Nikon's iTTL and will offer the circuitry as a retrofit if you purchase one of their housings prior to its release.

You need to check each housing and see if you have access to all of the camera's controls. Also make sure they offer a port for the lens(s) that you intend to use.

HTH,
Dave

Fantasea has a housing coming out for the Nikon SB800. They don't won't need to crack any codes... This would be an ideal setup for macro where TTL is really helpful. What I like about the housing is that it takes a regular old Nikonos-type strobe connector.

I've seen the housing and it was well-made.

be careful about using housed SB800 as it does not seem to be that simple. With one SB800 strobe, there is no problem but if you plan to use dual strobe setup, 2 SB800 via cord connection does not seem to work and it also does not work well with another third party slave strobe in TTL mode.

Fantasea looks ok but does not support all of the popular lenses yet. Flood insurance is nice but it is not all that expensive to get one yourself either.
My take would be to pick the housing that has all the feature that you needs, all the ports, accessories etc. Might as well just do it once and do it right.
If money is not a big concern, Subal would be my pick because of the nice larger GS Viewfinder (and more affordable than Seacam).

Subal and Seacam make superb housings. I fear that a system would cost more than double that of a Fantasea or Ikelite. If the FD70 becomes as popular as Fantasea's coolpix housings, you can expect more ports to be available.

My understanding about the SB800 is that a second flash can be operated wirelessly. I'm not sure how that would work underwater.

DesertEagle:

Subal and Seacam make superb housings. I fear that a system would cost more than double that of a Fantasea or Ikelite. If the FD70 becomes as popular as Fantasea's coolpix housings, you can expect more ports to be available.

My understanding about the SB800 is that a second flash can be operated wirelessly. I'm not sure how that would work underwater.

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Subal and Seacam is definitely very nice but certainly cost quite a bit more. Subal housing for D70 with the big viewfinder costs a few times more than the D70 itself and even more for Seacam. I am waiting for a delivery of Subal housing for my D2X and hopefully will get it by the end of this month or early May.

If you look ata SB800 manual page 90 under multiple flashes with cord connection, it is quite confusing but there is a little cryptic note mentioning that dSLR and Coolpix compatibel with i-TTL will only be operational in manual mode only.

I doubt that wireless connection will work underwater as it would have to go through the housing as well as water.

My divebuddy tried to use one SB800 in Subal housing with Sea and Sea and Ikelite strobe as a slave and that did not work at all as all the pictures were pretty much over exposed.
However he got excellent result when using single SB800 for macro.

Unless someone can come up with a solution, the easiest way to use dual strobe in TTL is to use Ikelite housing with iTTL converter.

Most housings (except Ikelite) comes with Nikonos 5 pins connection however to use the SB800, all 5 pins have to be connected (you only need 3 pins connected for manual strobe connection) so make sure that the housing have 5 pins connected (Sea and Sea for example only has 3 pins connected from the factory).

I chose the Aquatica Housing for its depth rating. Works great with the D70 and D100

Thanks Folks!
Appreciate all the advice but..
I just dont have the $ to buy subal & aquatica...

I am only thinking of either Ikelite or Fantasea
Looks though no one has much experience with it, but no wonder as it just came out early last mo.

But thanks for all the kind advice though...