SeaFrogs housing compressing at depth

[Craine]

Heyo fellow Sony peeps.

I’ve been diving with my SeaFrogs housing for a few years, and I’ve started to notice some issues on my deeper dives. Basically what’s happening is on any dive deeper than ~60 ft, and most dives deeper than about ~40 ft, the back panel of the housing is compressing so much that the buttons on the back become inoperable, because one or more buttons are actively being pressed. Autofocus is constantly running (I have back-button focus set up), and I’m not able to review shots, change any settings, or otherwise do anything than use the shutter and the C1 button. I also notice on these dives that the “glare protection” thing that sits between the house back and the camera, around the screen) gets squished and very deformed.

Has anyone else seen this issue? It doesn’t matter what lens/port combination I’m using, and I always put the housing under vacuum before diving. Thinking of ditching SeaFrogs altogether for Ikelite or maybe even Nauticam (everyone who has them loves them).

 

[hellhole]

You probably need to service that housing... it'd possible to do it yourself if you have some simple tools.

I would try some warm water soak... and running water on those buttons... and keep pressing them to try to rid of any salt built up

 

[Barmaglot]

I would guess that button springs weakening over time have more of an effect than the back plate flexing. You can try replacing the springs, or just swap the back part of the housing altogether - SeaFrogs have it listed as a spare part, and the cost is a fraction of what it'd cost to service a Nauticam housing.

 

[Interceptor121]

I would guess that button springs weakening over time have more of an effect than the back plate flexing. You can try replacing the springs, or just swap the back part of the housing altogether - SeaFrogs have it listed as a spare part, and the cost is a fraction of what it'd cost to service a Nauticam housing.

Except you don’t generally need to service a nauticam housing

 

[Craine]

I should clarify that the housing buttons all press in and out normally, with full range of motion, so it's not an issue of the buttons getting stuck in or not being able to be depressed all the way. It could be that one button on the back plate is getting compressed due to spring fatigue as @Barmaglot noted and the camera is locking out all the other controls (except for shutter and C1) while that button is depressed.

You probably need to service that housing... it'd possible to do it yourself if you have some simple tools.

I would try some warm water soak... and running water on those buttons... and keep pressing them to try to rid of any salt built up

I do soak the whole housing (and strobes, etc.) in warm water after every day/trip, including cycling/pushing the buttons repeatedly so that there is nothing caught in them. I once had sand get caught in the shutter lever after a particularly rough shore dive, and didn't discover it until my dive the next day when I was about 50 ft down on a reef, so that lesson was learned the hard way.

I would guess that button springs weakening over time have more of an effect than the back plate flexing. You can try replacing the springs, or just swap the back part of the housing altogether - SeaFrogs have it listed as a spare part, and the cost is a fraction of what it'd cost to service a Nauticam housing.

Unfortunately the backplate is listed out of stock on both the SeaFrogs website and the SaltedLine website. I'll have to hope that it's temporary, or I'll be out of luck.

 

[SuperSeaMonkey]

I have done several tech dives (150-190ft) with my Sony A6XXX housing and had no issues operating with buttons and knobs at depth. I have had some alignment issues with buttons before, but this happened on way more shallow dives (20-30ft). I just needed to clean and orient the buttons or knobs correctly. The SeaFrogs A6XXX housing is very rugged and I had no issues operating it at tech depths even with no vacuum. I hope SeaFrogs continues to make 60m rated camera housings.