Focus gear for Sea & Sea AF-D60 port?

[Larry C]

Finally bought a housing: used MDX-D300 which should arrive early next week. First purchase for it will be a port for the 60 AF-D. Given that for the moment it has the standard viewfinder, should I bother with the manual focus gear yet or just plan on autofocus?

 

[Larry C]

OK, there seem to be quite a few 60 AF-D focus gears out there for the NX-90, for cheap. Anyone know if they work on the new housings? Numbers are four digit, with the same base as the new one, but missing the last digit.

 

[Brewski]

You should be good with the autofocus Larry. To be honest I really don't use my focus gear much at all. only when my lens decides to hunt and gets lost will I use it to bring it back into range.
Congrats on the housing bud. Your gonna love it.

 

[weeksd]

Hi. I have the focus gear for the nx90 housing. It is the same number but the new one is 5 numbers versus 4. I checked with sea and sea and they said my gear would not work on your housing so i did not respond to your add. The new one is different.

 

[Larry C]

You should be good with the autofocus Larry. To be honest I really don't use my focus gear much at all. only when my lens decides to hunt and gets lost will I use it to bring it back into range.
Congrats on the housing bud. Your gonna love it.

Thanks. Do you use the focus limiter, or leave it full range? Full range, I imagine. How did you solve your focus issue. Did you get a light? I'm hoping my little fisheye mini light will be adequate, but the 60mm doesn't like to focus in dark rooms, so I'm betting I'll need something stronger for high f-stops underwater.

Hi. I have the focus gear for the nx90 housing. It is the same number but the new one is 5 numbers versus 4. I checked with sea and sea and they said my gear would not work on your housing so i did not respond to your add. The new one is different.

Thanks, I was afraid of that. There's a guy selling them on e-bay for about $25 and up, for use with various teleconverters. I guess I'll shell out the $200 or so for the AF-D focus gear for the standard port. Is there any reason to get the custom port or compact macro port instead? It's more money and an extra o-ring, but are they more versatile?

 

[Brewski]

Thanks. Do you use the focus limiter, or leave it full range? Full range, I imagine. How did you solve your focus issue. Did you get a light? I'm hoping my little fisheye mini light will be adequate, but the 60mm doesn't like to focus in dark rooms, so I'm betting I'll need something stronger for high f-stops underwater.

I bought this

It has a sensor that shuts it off when it senses the flash. and its the topic of many jokes on the boat.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I wouldn't even think about shooting in Monterey without a focus light.
I use the Ikelite Mini-C. About $25 from LeisurePro. I use NiMh
rechargeables and swap lights between dives. Ultralight has mounting
stuff.

Autofocus is fine. I've done nothing but autofocus for the last 17 years.
(about 1900 dives), and your D300 AF is MUCH better than that on my RS.

Go full range. Which 60mm do you have, the one with the motor, or not?

Do pressure test that used housing before you put your camera in it. I've
got a pressure pot if you want to give that a try.

 

[Larry C]

I've got the little Fisheye light with the hotshoe mount, which also shuts off when I shoot. It sounds like it will probably be adequate. (Although yours is much sexier, Brewski!) For super macro, the built in lights on my YS-110's might help as well.
My 60 is the AF-D, not the AF-S, so no silent wave motor. It hunts quite a bit, especially in low light, and is a bit slow to focus.
I do plan to dive the housing empty before I put the camera in, but I might take you up on your pressure pot, Chuck.
Considering that for now, I'll only have one port, should I leave it on to avoid extruding the o-ring or take it off after every dive day to clean and regrease?

 

[Mariozi]

Hy Larry, welcome to the team!

I am sure you will enjoy the housing as much as I do.
I do my macro with an old 105mm, that's with me since my film days.
And although I have the focus ring for it I rarely use it.
I recently got the new 60mm, but I have used the old one a few times.
I think you will enjoy a focus ring with that...
Despite the advanced AF systems in Nikon bodies I find that the OLD 105 tends to hunt towards the macro end of it while the old 60mm hunts a lot more to the infinite end... and when Im doing macro close to 1:1, I find the 105 AF a lot easier than in the 60 where I had to wait it to go to infinite and back. If I was to dive with this lens again I would try to do it with in manual focus...
I only limited the focus once, didn't really like it, I ended up finding it too limiting...)

 

[Larry C]

Thanks, Marcelo. I've ordered the focus ring as I've had enough focus issues with the lens topside that I'm sure I'll need to occasionally help it out a bit underwater. I guess if I wanted to save money, I should have chosen a cheaper hobby.