Following my "First Impressions" review on the RDX-450D based on a couple of hours I spent with it at the shop came home and let my brand new MDX-D300 sit in my office for a couple of days.
Now I have the time to do a better "Hands On" review of it, which will be followed by an "In Depth" review as soon as I hit the water, maybe late Jan
(
So here it is:
MDX-D300 housing (serial 074200524) bought in Singapore for U$2400.
You can check the specs here.
Well the first thing it strikes you is that the housing is amazingly pretty. The black anodized aluminum gives it a very special look, never seen in any S&S housing before it.
The obvious next thing is the size. It is a VERY compact housing. I always compare housing sizes to the NX-80 housing, a full aluminum housing made for the F80, because it is the best example I know of a full functional aluminum housing compactness to the date. The MDX-D300 seems to be the next standard to my future analysis... The D300 is a lot larger taller and thicker than the F80, yet the MDX housing don't quite reflect all this difference in sizes. When you put them side by side it takes some time to actually perceive the small difference. It was so that I had to draw the contour of the back half of the housing on a paper to properly compare them. On the housing itself the difference is about only 1cm in height, width and thickness!!! Taking into account the complexity of a digital housing compared to a film housing (greater number of controls/buttons) this alone is quite an accomplishment!!! Let alone the fact that even with this increase in width, the distance between the handles remains the same.
This is another good point, even before opening the housing I could check that I have free access to most of the camera controls without removing my hands from the handles. The inclined left menu buttons on the back of the housings are a VERY special touch of design, thanks S&S!!!
Opening the housing one captures the level of preciseness of the new housing, machined out of a solid block of aluminum, it is thinner than other housings, yet maintaining the same level of robustness. You can see this new process is not the reason for the small size, as the camera fits perfectly in the housing, but something else show up, it is SO precise that the inside of the housing is so smooth that it actually feels like plastic!!! It is good as it retains almost no particles that could cause problems. The electrical installation is better than ever, clean professionally placed wires runs through the inside of the housing connecting the well protected bulkheads to the hot-shoe and from the flood alarm cleverly placed on top, to its sensor place on a receded basinet in the lower part of the housing created to channel any drops of water so it quickly informs you of any problem. I was saved by this once in the very NX-80 housing that is still with me!!!
The housing operates every control of the camera but these ones:
CF Card Compartment lock (useless underwater anyway)
Flash pop-up button (useless underwater anyway)
Flash Mode/Compensation button (can be achieved by the TTL Converter)
Lens release button (useless underwater anyway)
Viewfinder Diopter adjustment (dah)
Depth-of-Field Preview button
Fn Button
Another nice surprise is the new camera shoe, that attaches the camera to the housing. I used to consider S&S's former shoes the best in the market. This one just got better. The tray inside the housing where it fits is essentially the same since the NX series, but the adapter that goes in the camera is a lot better!!! With the same plastic base now connected to a metal holder with a soft rubber that fits the camera like a glove!!! I use a lot more lenses, teleconverters and extension tubes than depicted in Sea&Sea's compatibility chart, so one of my first worries is if they would fit in the camera with the shoe. The most critical one being my Kenko PRO300 series 3x AF teleconverter (in the DX-D50 housing I had to scrape a little bit of this adapter with a Dremel to make it fit). The good news is that from all the housings I have had, this is the one with the largest room for any unspecified lenses on the camera/shoe connection. The AF Mode control (which sometimes can be problematic) is another good surprise, the best one I have ever seen, with a thick plastic piece that completely surrounds in a very secure yet gentle way this camera lever, another great design example.
With the camera in the housing, the viewfinder is just the same as I have been used to. I have seen people adapting the Inon viewfinders to these housings (here), I have never tried those but seem a good piece of equipment. Another good surprise though is that the inclined menu controls allow for a nice little room for my nose with the housing in a horizontal orientation. In a vertical orientation (without TTL converter) you can literally glue the mask glass to the viewfinder with plenty of room (this is for me that shoot with the right eye, have a good story about it!!! Will tell you later!!!).
All the controls where perfectly placed out of the box, and no extra adjustment was required. The LCD window is very clear, and leaves some room for you to operate the camera with the LCD protector on (the viewfinder eyepiece should be removed of course) and it creates a pretty well shaded area for you to better analyze the photos.
A little while ago I abandoned (sold) my Fisheye Dome Port in favor of the new glass Optical Dome Port. It is amazing the look, compactness of this housing with this dome port. Looks like they were made together and then separated!!!
The two connectors (one 5 pin for the TTL converter and a 2 pin for straight strobe usage) are well marked, with one red for the converter and a black one for straight forward flash.
The new control for the Main Command dial is a lot better also, receded into the housing it is a lot smoother and more precise that the previous small knob on my NX housing. In previous housings (included the NX-80) I used to swap the controls and have the aperture on the back, with a better control and the speed on the front one. With this housing I am seriously contemplating the idea of going back to the default setting!
Another nice detail that shows the level of engineering did in this housing that is seldom mentioned every where else is that although not apparent from the outside, the zoom control knob (the one that suffers the biggest forces) sits on a thicker aluminum wall than the rest of housing.
The housing closes securely with the well tested latches (same of my NX housing!!!) fixed on aluminum and stabilized by two stainless steel pins that connect on holes on the back of the housing... I think these would be better placed inside of the housing for strength, but I reckon that on the outside they give you a direct visual clue of their perfect alignment and it allows for a smaller sized housing.
It an easy job to recommend it to anyone. I have had my NX-80 housing now for almost 6 years now, it will soon pass by it's second overhaul and I am sure will come back as good and new. This is the best thing about all aluminum housings (and the size!!!), this housing is another timeless piece of equipment!!! Itis not a surprise that this housing (along with others on the MDX series) is considered by many the best housing Sea&Sea has ever made, opinion that is easily confirmed as it is suggested that it was the best selling housing from the manufacturer. I would really like to see an MDX-D90 housing, because since the spectacular NX-80 there were no all-aluminum housings from S&S to fit a more "consumer" camera.
I will soon post the pictures for this review here and in my Sea&Sea Commentator site, accessed via my new webpage.
Good dives!
Now I have the time to do a better "Hands On" review of it, which will be followed by an "In Depth" review as soon as I hit the water, maybe late Jan
(So here it is:
MDX-D300 housing (serial 074200524) bought in Singapore for U$2400.
You can check the specs here.
Well the first thing it strikes you is that the housing is amazingly pretty. The black anodized aluminum gives it a very special look, never seen in any S&S housing before it.
The obvious next thing is the size. It is a VERY compact housing. I always compare housing sizes to the NX-80 housing, a full aluminum housing made for the F80, because it is the best example I know of a full functional aluminum housing compactness to the date. The MDX-D300 seems to be the next standard to my future analysis... The D300 is a lot larger taller and thicker than the F80, yet the MDX housing don't quite reflect all this difference in sizes. When you put them side by side it takes some time to actually perceive the small difference. It was so that I had to draw the contour of the back half of the housing on a paper to properly compare them. On the housing itself the difference is about only 1cm in height, width and thickness!!! Taking into account the complexity of a digital housing compared to a film housing (greater number of controls/buttons) this alone is quite an accomplishment!!! Let alone the fact that even with this increase in width, the distance between the handles remains the same.
This is another good point, even before opening the housing I could check that I have free access to most of the camera controls without removing my hands from the handles. The inclined left menu buttons on the back of the housings are a VERY special touch of design, thanks S&S!!!
Opening the housing one captures the level of preciseness of the new housing, machined out of a solid block of aluminum, it is thinner than other housings, yet maintaining the same level of robustness. You can see this new process is not the reason for the small size, as the camera fits perfectly in the housing, but something else show up, it is SO precise that the inside of the housing is so smooth that it actually feels like plastic!!! It is good as it retains almost no particles that could cause problems. The electrical installation is better than ever, clean professionally placed wires runs through the inside of the housing connecting the well protected bulkheads to the hot-shoe and from the flood alarm cleverly placed on top, to its sensor place on a receded basinet in the lower part of the housing created to channel any drops of water so it quickly informs you of any problem. I was saved by this once in the very NX-80 housing that is still with me!!!
The housing operates every control of the camera but these ones:
CF Card Compartment lock (useless underwater anyway)
Flash pop-up button (useless underwater anyway)
Flash Mode/Compensation button (can be achieved by the TTL Converter)
Lens release button (useless underwater anyway)
Viewfinder Diopter adjustment (dah)
Depth-of-Field Preview button
Fn Button
Another nice surprise is the new camera shoe, that attaches the camera to the housing. I used to consider S&S's former shoes the best in the market. This one just got better. The tray inside the housing where it fits is essentially the same since the NX series, but the adapter that goes in the camera is a lot better!!! With the same plastic base now connected to a metal holder with a soft rubber that fits the camera like a glove!!! I use a lot more lenses, teleconverters and extension tubes than depicted in Sea&Sea's compatibility chart, so one of my first worries is if they would fit in the camera with the shoe. The most critical one being my Kenko PRO300 series 3x AF teleconverter (in the DX-D50 housing I had to scrape a little bit of this adapter with a Dremel to make it fit). The good news is that from all the housings I have had, this is the one with the largest room for any unspecified lenses on the camera/shoe connection. The AF Mode control (which sometimes can be problematic) is another good surprise, the best one I have ever seen, with a thick plastic piece that completely surrounds in a very secure yet gentle way this camera lever, another great design example.
With the camera in the housing, the viewfinder is just the same as I have been used to. I have seen people adapting the Inon viewfinders to these housings (here), I have never tried those but seem a good piece of equipment. Another good surprise though is that the inclined menu controls allow for a nice little room for my nose with the housing in a horizontal orientation. In a vertical orientation (without TTL converter) you can literally glue the mask glass to the viewfinder with plenty of room (this is for me that shoot with the right eye, have a good story about it!!! Will tell you later!!!).
All the controls where perfectly placed out of the box, and no extra adjustment was required. The LCD window is very clear, and leaves some room for you to operate the camera with the LCD protector on (the viewfinder eyepiece should be removed of course) and it creates a pretty well shaded area for you to better analyze the photos.
A little while ago I abandoned (sold) my Fisheye Dome Port in favor of the new glass Optical Dome Port. It is amazing the look, compactness of this housing with this dome port. Looks like they were made together and then separated!!!
The two connectors (one 5 pin for the TTL converter and a 2 pin for straight strobe usage) are well marked, with one red for the converter and a black one for straight forward flash.
The new control for the Main Command dial is a lot better also, receded into the housing it is a lot smoother and more precise that the previous small knob on my NX housing. In previous housings (included the NX-80) I used to swap the controls and have the aperture on the back, with a better control and the speed on the front one. With this housing I am seriously contemplating the idea of going back to the default setting!
Another nice detail that shows the level of engineering did in this housing that is seldom mentioned every where else is that although not apparent from the outside, the zoom control knob (the one that suffers the biggest forces) sits on a thicker aluminum wall than the rest of housing.
The housing closes securely with the well tested latches (same of my NX housing!!!) fixed on aluminum and stabilized by two stainless steel pins that connect on holes on the back of the housing... I think these would be better placed inside of the housing for strength, but I reckon that on the outside they give you a direct visual clue of their perfect alignment and it allows for a smaller sized housing.
It an easy job to recommend it to anyone. I have had my NX-80 housing now for almost 6 years now, it will soon pass by it's second overhaul and I am sure will come back as good and new. This is the best thing about all aluminum housings (and the size!!!), this housing is another timeless piece of equipment!!! Itis not a surprise that this housing (along with others on the MDX series) is considered by many the best housing Sea&Sea has ever made, opinion that is easily confirmed as it is suggested that it was the best selling housing from the manufacturer. I would really like to see an MDX-D90 housing, because since the spectacular NX-80 there were no all-aluminum housings from S&S to fit a more "consumer" camera.
I will soon post the pictures for this review here and in my Sea&Sea Commentator site, accessed via my new webpage.
Good dives!
