Sony CD300 & Ikelite Housing Comment

[Zugzug]

I noticed some talk on the board about Digital Cameras & housing combinations. I'd like to add a recommendation

I purchased a Sony CD300 and an Ikelite housing a couple of months ago. I've been very happy with the results. The CD300 stores images straight to 3.5" RW CDROMs which are nice. I took a stack with me to Palau a couple of months ago and it worked out excellent. You don't have to worry about EMI screwing up the disks when going through AP security I came back with 780 fairly good photos on 14 CDs which are resuable. The Carl-Zeiss lens produces very good results. The only quirk I've had is a jog control knob on the housing which is easy to fix with a rubber washer and some glue

If you have considered going with the CD300 checkout my web site It has some of the photos I've taken with it over the past couple of months.

http://photos.dchess.com

 

[Dee]

Very Impressive! All your photos are great. I especially like the layout of your website. It's very appealing, graphics are appropriate to the subject and it's easy to navigate...well done!

 

[11B3Y]

zugzug,

You mentioned in your post a quirk.

The only quirk I've had is a jog control knob on the housing which is easy to fix with a rubber washer and some glue

I have no idea what you are referring to...I have pretty much decided on a CD300 and Ikelite housing for my underwater photography. Can you explain what this quirk is?

Thanks,

Thomas

 

[Zugzug]

Sure,

There is a plunger which has disk and an o-ring glued to it. There is a dab of glue located on the top of the o-ring. When you push in the plunger the o-ring hits the jog knob and allows you to change some of the numeric settings on the camera. The problem is that the metal disk hits the side of the housing blocking it from fully allowing you to depress the jog knob to control a setting. I talked to Ike about this. Apparently this was tricky for Ikelite to put into the housing and they debated whether or not to even allow the user to tweak with the jog knob. The idea was for the dab of glue which is slightly raised on the o-ring would cause the knob to press in a bit further causing it to depress and the surface of the o-ring itself would act as a frictional surface allowing you to select the numbers.

I was able to fix the problem by glueing a flat ruber disk the same size of the oring to the top of the oring. This allows the disk to travel far enough to be able to both depress and turn the jog knob. I know this is tough to explain but when you get your housing you will see what I'm talking about.

I am more than happy with the housing and I wouldn't let the quirk with the jog knob effect my decision to buy one. I've had the camera/housing for over a year now and have taken thousands of photos. It has worked great as far as the housing is concerned (wish I could say the same for the camera). One of my friends has the same setup as me and had to send the camera back when the high voltage flash unit went out in it Both of us have had to take our camera (not the Ikelite housing but the camera itself) housing off 2x's because we accidentally pressed too hard on the "take a picture button", causing the button to get stuck under the plastic housing. Taking the camera case appart looks scary but is fairly easily done.

On the plus side, those RW Mini-CDROM's rule. No worries about EMF going through airport XRAY scanners, if they get wet on the dive boat simply rinse and dry, carry as many as you need to get through the week, move them to your desktop by simply popping them in the CDROM drive, so on so forth. I've very happy with my setup despite the few quirks with the jog knob, etc.