Ikelite SLR housing and Canon F1

[Skoobadoo]

Hello, and greeting to everyone.

I'm looking to acquire an old Ikelite SLR housing and a Canon F1 as my first attempt to shoot underwater photography. The people whose getting rid of this package let me bring the stuff home to figure out how to use it. Apparently they haven't a clue about the stuff they're trying to make money from. And there's no manual instruction.

The camera by itself I have no problem figuring it out. The housing isn't that hard to tackle either. The lens port, on the other hand, "Whotta?" I know there are 2 rings that supposed to go to the focusing gear and an aperture gear, but how? I don't even know how to detach the lens port from the housing. Anyone has any ideas on how this thing supposed to work, please..please...and I beg you please.. enlightening me.

 

[MarkH]

I use a couple of those. I'll try to explain, but without pictures or diagrams, we might have a rough time of it. On the outside of the housing, around the port, there should be 2 or 3 black (wedge-shaped) things with a screw in the middle of each. These hold the port on to the housing. Unscrew these and take them off. You now should be able to gently pull the port off. On the inside of the housing (again, around the port) there should be a few round black things (with a screw in the middle of each) around the rim of the hole where the port goes. Unscrew these and take them off. Now slide in the clear plastic ring-type thing that has gear teeth around it (hopefully your housing came with one of these) into the port hole. The teeth on the ring should match up with the gear in the housing. Put the round black things back on. There should be a black adjustable ring that goes around the lens of your camera. Once this is on your lens and you put the camera in the housing, this black adjustable ring should slide into the clear plastic ring you put in the housing earlier. You should now be able to focus your lens by turning the large control knob on the outside of the housing. The aperature adjusting ring-gear goes around your lens where you would normally adjust the aperature. When the camera is in the housing, you adjust the aperature by using a control rod against this gear-ring. I am lost now. My brain hurts.

 

[Skoobadoo]

Thank you very much for your reply. I am now able to take the lens port off. Still dealing with the aperture gear ring, though. I'll get it to work eventually, I hope. So, did you like this particular ikelite and canon combination? How does it operate underwater? I'm struggled a bit already on land. I'm particularly concerned about the micro-screen rangefinder. I can hardly see and focus anything with less than perfect lighting condition. I'm concerned that I won't be able to see anything at any depth. Any advices, suggestions, and pointers are welcomed and will be truly appreciated. Again, thank you very much for your help.

Take care

 

[MarkH]

I've never used a Canon SLR, but I've used several other SLRs (Fujica, Pentax, Konica, and now Minolta) in my 2 housings and they're all more or less interchangeable. With some of my older SLRs (1950's-mid 1970's) I also had a problem with dark viewfinders underwater. Keep in mind that with most SLRs, you have to wind the film advance to see through the viewfinder at the maximum lens aperature. If you click the shutter, then try to look through and focus, everything will look as dark according to what the aperature on the lens is set at. I used to use a flashlight "rubberbanded" onto my housing to help with focusing, but now I use my housed system mostly with a wide angle lens (17mm) so composition is more critical than focus. I don't think I'd bother doing macro or "fish portrait"-type photography with an SLR in our darker waters unless it had an autofocus lens. I tried for long enough with a manual-focus, and it's possible, but I ended up with about 75% out-of-focus shots. If your camera doesn't have a strobe, that would be the first thing I would get (make sure it has the old Ikelite connector on the cable). In my opinion, there is very little you can do without one unless you have a wide-angle lens and go for those scenic shots. There will be very little colour unless you are very shallow. I don't know if you have a dome port or a flat port and what kind of lens you have.

 

[MarkH]

Oops! I just looked at your profile and since you're a "photo geek" that works in a camera warehouse, I probably didn't have to tell you about the winding-the-film- advance-to-see-through-the-fiewfinder-at-the-maximum-aperature thing.