Aquatica D200 housing

[20 Fathom Sleuth]

Hello Guys n' Gals,

New to the forum today so if this topic has been beat to death already, please excuse.

Anyone have experience with an Aquatica D200 housing you would care to share with a prospective buyer of one. Just drooled on one at DEMA last week and would like some feed back from those lucky enough to have dived (dove?) one already.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[lastbornjoker]

u may get more replies if u post that in the photogaraphy fourms. but welcome to scubaboard!

 

[fisheyeview]

Welcome to the Board. Check out the Photography Forum. There is a lot of great information there. I shoot the D200 in a Sea & Sea housing.

 

[20 Fathom Sleuth]

Hi,
Had a chance to shoot w/ a Sea & Sea D200 (Cathy Church's rig) a few months ago. LOVED it. But I've got a stack of Aquatica ports/ domes (from an A4 housing) that I hope to use on a D200 housing. If I discover the ports won't fit, I'll go with a Sea & Sea. Any problems with yours?

Thanx,

Ed

 

[fisheyeview]

Hi,
Had a chance to shoot w/ a Sea & Sea D200 (Cathy Church's rig) a few months ago. LOVED it. But I've got a stack of Aquatica ports/ domes (from an A4 housing) that I hope to use on a D200 housing. If I discover the ports won't fit, I'll go with a Sea & Sea. Any problems with yours?

Thanx,

Ed

Ed,

That's the way to do it. If you already have ports, stick with the same housing.

I went with Sea & Sea because I had the ports from my F100 housing. I have had no problems with the housing except for flooding it, but that was my fault.

The most important thing is to get a housing and start shooting. The D200 is a great camera. There is a lot of talk about the new D300, but I'm not going to change out. The D200 still works for me.

Scott

 

[20 Fathom Sleuth]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your input. Spoke with the folks at Aquatica (Jean Bruneau) only to discover, much to my dismay, that the A4 ports won't fit the D200 housing. They switched from threaded connectors to bayonet mounts. So it's back to picking a completely new rig. With a couple of trips on the books, it's getty-up time on ordering gear to get this land locked D200 into the briney deep.

Cheers,
Ed

 

[RonFrank]

I have moved this to the UW forum under the Nikon section. I left a redirect that will expire in three days.

 

[Warren_L]

I've been happily shooting a D200 in an Aquatica housing for the past couple of years. To me, the housing afforded the best value in terms of what I was looking for. I had owned an Ikelite housing for my D70 prior to moving to the D200, and decided to go with the Aquatica for a variety of reasons. I would emphasize that the Ikelite housing is a fine housing, but there were a few things that I found to be better with the Aquatica.

I mentioned this already in another thread, but the gearing on the Aquatica I found to be more precise. I was having some issues on the Ikelite housing (especially when under pressure at depth) and eventually ended up stripping some of the gears over time. I also found I like the tactile feel on the levers of the Aquatica better. Not so much a big deal in warm water when not wearing gloves, but it seems to make a difference to me in cold water while wearing thick drygloves.

The other factor was having multiple ports for macro (and the 6" domes) for different lenses rather than port extensions. This means buying a port for each lens - with the exception of the 8" dome system.

The other thing that I really liked about the Aquatica was the rail mounting system for the camera body. There's very little play in the positioning of the camera body. With the Ikelite, mounting system, it did move a little bit and I found the command dial levers did not always contact the camera body optimally and there was a fair bit of slippage, which does not happen with the Aquatica.

The disadvantage of the Aquatica is that there is no TTL, although I think you can buy an optional TTL module for it. I'm not a huge user of TTL, so that didn't really matter much to me in the end.

Also being a Canadian company, this was an advantage since I got Canadian dollar pricing (at the time the C$ was much lower than the US$) so that was an advantage to me.

These are just my own personal experiences and observations, having owned and used both housing systems extensively, and of course, YMMV.

 

[porsc]

how long have you been a photographer warren? also, how long have you been shooting underwater? also, are the aquatica housings as reputable as the ikelite housings? and how do the prices compare? thanks.

 

[bigfrog23]

i have an aquatica A30D for my canon camera and i love the housing the controls are very well placed. they did a superb job on the housing it is well thought out. i did not take me long to figure out how to use it.the view finder is very bright even with the pick up viewfinder i upgraded to a inon view finder because it is easer to see the image in the viewfinder. the shutter button is very sensitive and it is easy to depress the shutter button half way and then all the way. All the controls are very smooth and precise. i love the system that Aquatica uses for mounting the camera in the housing it makes it very hard to misalign the camera. all i would give it a 9.5 over all.

there are only two problems that i have one is that the 8 inch dome port is just glued in and dose not have an o-ring i have had no problems with the port it just seams like if there was a week link in the housing system that this would be it and this is why it gets a 9.5 instead of a 10. the other problem is not really a problem but fully assembled with strobe and camera installed it weighs 19 lbs. and it can be a little difficult to clime over slippery rocks with. i have had mine on about 45 dives now and very happy with the housing. So far it seams to be very well built i have had no problems with it.