Lee Peterson and Tom Harman of Nexus USA and Marine Camera Distributors

Lee Peterson and Tom Harman of Nexus USA and Marine Camera Distributors showed off a prototype of a Nexus housing for the Nikon D80.  Also on display were Nexus housings for the Canon 5D and 1D/1Ds Mk II, and Nikon D70s, D200, and D2X. As most other manufacturers have done, Nexus has also come out with an accessory viewfinder option, incorporating an INON angled viewfinder into its housings.  It was mounted on a D200 housing at the show.

The D80 prototype has one fiber optic bulkhead and one wired bulkhead to provide flexible strobe sync options.  You can reach both the top and back dial from shooting position (both hands on handles), but you can only reach the focus lock control if you grip the housing itself with your right hand instead of holding onto the handle.

The 5D housing has no convenient access to the rear dial, and the * button is hard to reach when hands are grasping handles.  For some reason, there is currently no access to the mode dial, although there seems to be space reserved for one.

I wasn’t able to directly compare this viewfinder/housing/camera combination with any of the other viewfinders on the market, but I did look into it and found the image to be both large and bright.  The 45-degree finder can be swiveled for vertical compositions.

For more coverage of DEMA 2006, please see the DEMA coverage index.

Nexus D80 housing for Nikon D80

Nexus D80 housing for Nikon D80

Nexus D80 housing for Nikon D80

Nexis housing for Canon EOS 5D

Nexis housing for Canon EOS 5D

Nexis housing for Canon EOS 5D

Nexus’ new viewfinder (made by INON)

Nexus’ new viewfinder (made by INON)