E-330 Fantasea Housing

[Lan Caihe]

Having recently seen another post on here blasting this housing and a dealer. A little lightbulb went off in my head...there may be a deal available on a slightly used housing for my camera.

I called Jack Connick of http://www.opticaloceansales.com/ to see and sure enough he made me a deal on this returned housing. The housing arrived Friday and is fantastic.

I got a housing, standard port, dome port and port extension ring for about the same as it would have cost me to buy an Ikelite housing alone with no ports. Can't beat that with a stick! Jack has been very helpfull, answering a lot of questions for me as I was previously using a P&S system underwater.

I haven't got this housing wet yet (planning a pool session this week and then taking it to Lake Michigan next weekend) but I've throughly checked it out topside and I really like the housing. The only fault I can find with it is that the mode control doesn't work. I think this is because the previous owner had tried to glue a little pad on it and the glue has messed up the knob. Jack's sending me a new knob which should fix the problem.

I've currently only tried it with the kit lens, which works great with both the standard and dome ports. I plan on getting a 35mm fixed for macro work and the 8mm fisheye for the dome. For my experience both the housing and the service have been fantastic.

 

[gballard]

If you're going to dive with the kit lens and a dome port, you will need a +4 diopter lens. You won't notice a difference on land, but the camera will not be able to focus on anything closer than 2 or 3 ft.

 

[RonFrank]

I've currently only tried it with the kit lens, which works great with both the standard and dome ports. I plan on getting a 35mm fixed for macro work and the 8mm fisheye for the dome. For my experience both the housing and the service have been fantastic.

You may want to to hold off on the rave reviews until you dive with the thing!

Lenses don't perform UW the same way they do topside, and controls can also have problem under pressure, like ORINGS!

 

[Lan Caihe]

If you're going to dive with the kit lens and a dome port, you will need a +4 diopter lens. You won't notice a difference on land, but the camera will not be able to focus on anything closer than 2 or 3 ft.

I don't plan to use the kit lens with the dome. As I said I'll be getting the 8mm FE (or possibly the 11mm-22mm, I haven't decided) for that.

You may want to to hold off on the rave reviews until you dive with the thing!

I plan on getting it wet tomorrow evening.

 

[SeaYoda]

I'm the one that "blasted" the housing .

I'm glad she found a good home. You're not using it for the same lens as I was so the dome and flat ports should work for you. I'm glad you got a good deal at my expense .

The less "blasting" review between the Ike and Fantasea can be found here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=185372


It's not a bad housing, just not good for the 14-54 lens. The difference in price between the housings will depend on taste. After using both, I really like the Ike but would have been happy with less features on the Fantasea (if it had worked with my lens).

 

[Reefwalker]

Hi Lan
If you have problems with the Fantasea Housing shutter speed / aperature selection button and the rotating dial for changing aperatures / shutter speeds being difficult to operate (as both need to be pressed at the same time) please let me know and I can give you an easy fix that 1) makes the selection button lock in the down position and 2) stops you having to press the rotating dial.

 

[Lan Caihe]

Got this in the water last night, mostly just spent time getting used to the buttons.

The less "blasting" review between the Ike and Fantasea can be found here:

One thing you mention there is that the FS housing doesn't allow TTL. This is not really true, it does allow TTL with the Oly flash in a housing. Also there is a $60 converter available for this camera, if you are comfortable soldering 4 wires you can replace the FS hotshoe card with Heinrichs which would allow you TTL with the Inon, S&S, Subtronic, and Hartenberger strobes.

It's not a bad housing, just not good for the 14-54 lens. The difference in price between the housings will depend on taste. After using both, I really like the Ike but would have been happy with less features on the Fantasea (if it had worked with my lens).

I'm not sure what you mean by less features. About the only thing you can't control with the FS housing is the viewfinder shutter and the lens lock? Actually the difference in price between the two is enough for me to pay for my wide angle lens .

If you have problems with the Fantasea Housing shutter speed / aperature selection button and the rotating dial for changing aperatures / shutter speeds being difficult to operate (as both need to be pressed at the same time) please let me know and I can give you an easy fix that 1) makes the selection button lock in the down position and 2) stops you having to press the rotating dial.

I'd love to hear your tips on this. Number 1 would definatly be nice. I didn't have any issues with number 2, it was quite easy to press and twist with just my thumb, but I haven't tried this manuver with 5mm gloves on yet either . That will be next weekends fun.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I don't think I would consider the Olympus flash systems for UW usage just to gain the TTL feature. It'd be introducing yet another proprietary housing(and failure point) to the system that isn't necessary when there are several other flashes out there that are build for UW lighting and can be controlled manually.

Or get a different housing that suits TTL flashses that aren't Olympus specific.

The adapter, of course, is another option.

 

[SeaYoda]

... One thing you mention there is that the FS housing doesn't allow TTL. This is not really true, it does allow TTL with the Oly flash in a housing. Also there is a $60 converter available for this camera, if you are comfortable soldering 4 wires you can replace the FS hotshoe card with Heinrichs which would allow you TTL with the Inon, S&S, Subtronic, and Hartenberger strobes. ...

You can modify any housing to do just about anything you want if you are handy and brave enough .The comparison is "as bought" with no modification. Since TTL would only work with the OLY strobe I would have had to buy the strobe and strobe housing above and beyond the cost of the camera housing. I already had bought an Ike DS-51 which I think is a better strobe. Out of the box the Ike housing mated with my DS-51 with no alterations. The TTL on the Ike can be modified to be able to use different strobes as well.

... I'm not sure what you mean by less features. About the only thing you can't control with the FS housing is the viewfinder shutter and the lens lock? ...

There is no magnifier for the viewfinder like the Ike, each camera button does not have its own corresponding button on the housing like the Ike, TTL and manual flash do not have controls on the housing like the Ike, the handle/tray construction is stronger on the Ike, and button function issues are not present with the Ike. If modifications are made to the Fantasea in the comparison then modifications could also be made to the Ike to make it fit someone's needs better. Out of the box the Ike offers more but costs more. Like I said before, I could easily use the Fantasea given the price difference. I'll be switching back to manual strobe use and rarely will I use the viewfinder so I would not miss the TTL or magnifier. My only reason for switching was because the Fantasea didn't support the 14-54 lens that was my choice of lens from before I bought the housing.

 

[Reefwalker]

To modify the Shutter Speed/Aperature selection button on the Fantasea/10Bar housing - so that it stays in the lock-down position is quite easy:
1) The control has a small (philips head) screw attached near the end of the shaft, that from the factory sits in a small slot in the fixed part of the control 'body'. This screw needs to be loosened and adjusted down the shaft slightly (all this without the camera installed in the housing) until you can press the control down and rotate the control about 45 degrees (using the external knob) and the screw now holds the shaft from springing back up, (it now locks under the fixed part of the control body - out of the slot where it was first located).
The problem now is that the plastic button on the end of the control shaft isn't quite touching the camera control (when the camera is back in the housing), with the button in the 'new' locked down position. Simple solution - pull the small plastic tip off of the end of the control and cut a small piece (tiny) of plastic/matchhead/toothpick into the hollow of the plastic cap and re-instal (push it) back onto the control. Because of the new piece of plastic/matchstick in the cap, it will no longer seat all the way on the shaft - effectively lengthening it slightly. A bit of experimentation with the size of the piece of plastic/matchstick will get the correct length of the control to get the shaft to reach the camera control.
Now when the camera is in the housing and the control is depressed and rotated 45 degrees, the shaft locks in the lower position - holding the camera button depressed without the need to press and hold the button. Now you can select the required shutter speed/aperature (pre-programmable with the camera menus) with the rotating dial.
NOTE: The control should be in the 'up' position when installing the camera in the housing - as it now touches the camera in the down position.

Modifying the rotating dial so that is doesn't need to be pressed and rotated simultaneously, is also simple:
2) With the housing back removed, pull the roller wheel off of the end of the control shaft. Now you need to find either a few plastic washers (tiny) or a piece of insulation from some electrical wire that is the same diameter as the shaft for this control. What we are attempting to do is stop the rotating wheel sitting all the way onto the shaft, so that it (like the other control above) is closer to the camera wheel. Washers are the best way, but I used a piece of electrical wire insulation (stripped from the wire with side cutters and cut to length) and pushed this onto the shaft, before re-installing (pushing) the wheel back onto the shaft. As the wheel no longer seats all the way back onto the shaft, it is touching the wheel on the camera. The length of the additional wire insulation or number of washers, will determine the amount the wheel is moved forward by. Too little and it doesn't reach, too much and you may damage the camera wheel because of too much pressure. Remember the back plate of the housing is pushed further on by pressure when diving, so it only just needs to touch above water, to be fully touching once diving and under pressure.
Happy modifying - if you run into difficulties (or my explanation isn't clear) then please PM me.