Hi.
I can't turn on the video recording when the camera is installed. The lever that is supposed to let you swich between camera and video, is more or less stuck. I don't dare to use more force on it.

Has anybody experienced the same?
Any solutions?

//Mats

Does the lever move smoothly and easily when the camera is not in the housing?

The lever on my housing seems to have more motion than the button on the camera. Also make sure that when the lid is closed up the camera is in the same mode as the lever. If you look at the mating parts you should be able to see how it goes together. It does not need to be forced. I bet the lever is in photo and your camera is in video or vice versa....

The leaver is spring loaded even if you leave it in the wrong position it will first lock in when it comes I position before it always you to operate the switch. I manage to turn the video mode of, if pre set before locking the house, but not to set it back to video mode again.

//Mats

I'm currently trialling a loan Aquatica 7D housing while I'm waiting for my Nauticam to arrive and have a similar problem. It appears to be depth related in my case, the video switch doesn't work on the surface and on shallow dives down to 6 metres but on deeper dives at 15 metres it works. The compression of the main O ring for the housing back obviously has something to do with it. It can probably be fixed by adjusting the position of the control on its shaft but I haven't tried this because it isn't my housing.

No problems with mine, easiest switch to move on the whole housing. Make sure once the housing is closed up and that the switch is in the right position (ie housig and camera both in photo mode/video mode), that you push the switch in all the way so it locks onto the cameras button.

Matts, mines not spring loaded (I've got it sitting here in front of me). Are you sire about that? Or maybe there's already a few different versions of this switch already?

Gudge, how're you finding the Aquatica?

Ryan.

Overall I'm finding it a very nice housing to use. After using Subals for the last 13 years it took a while to get used to the Aquatica way of doing things with some controls but in other cases (eg, multicontroller) the Aquatica way of doing things is superior. The only thing I really don't like and would stop me buying this housing is the combined control for the AF-ON button and the * button. I do a lot of shooting where I want to use both these buttons at the same time and to be in a position where you can only use one at a time is unsatisfactory for me. In addition I have found that when the control is pulled out to access the * button after several presses of the control it slowly migrates back towards the AF-ON position and the * button stops working without warning.

Interesting comment about the AF-on and * buttons.
In the VERY FIRST render of the Aquatica 5dmkii housing they had 2 separate levers on that stalk, one for each control.
Next version they took away control of these functions.
Final version is the one lever for two controls. it's been working OK for me, but I hadn't thought of needing to use both at the same time.

BTW I have a continual problem with the power on/off button on my Aquatica 5dmkii housing, the control inside the housing gradually works loose and starts slipping around the stalk, to a point that it will no longer work. I then re align it and tighten it up, but it works loose again after a while. All other controls seem to do the job, I have notice some changes in the "feel" of controls depending on depth...

You probably wouldn't with the 5DMkII as it doesn't have a built in flash and you wouldn't be using fibre optics like I do. When shooting supermacro I like to use the AF-ON button for focussing and the * button for Flash Exposure Lock to do TTL flash metering of the subject. Having two separate buttons when shooting like this is easy, having to move the control to access each one of the buttons is VERY difficult.

It probably isn't an issue for most people.

Anyone interested in the FEL/Flash metering thing should check out the article on the Nikon Creative Lighting System in issue 52 of UWP and the article by Glenn Lawyer on Canon 7D, Aquatica A7D and Fibre Optics in issue 53 of UWP.

I got the official okey dokey from Peter Mooney (the very nice man from Scubapix who loaned me the housing) to adjust whatever I liked on the housing. I just moved the control for the video on/off a tiny bit further along its shaft so it is closer to the camera. The control now works perfectly on the surface. I guess I've got no excuse now not to try a bit a video on the next dive.