So here it is, the Aquatica D2 series housing, since I'm industry i'll refrain from commenting on it, Oh what the hell ! The thing is a smooth operating machine and well worth bragging about, damm, I can't wait to take it for it sea trial next saturday.

Enjoy
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The housing is machined from solid aluminium and as many new features such as quick release tray with lock, spring tensioner on the command and sub command controls, it as a built in eyepiece wich allows viewing of the entire area of the finder. the joy pad buttons assembly has been spaced to acommodate diver with thick neoprene glove (that would be me).

Looks great, do you have any size/weight info?

Luiz

Not yet, but should be in the next couple of days, this is a pre-production unit and might have some change in weight before it hit the market, also missing on this unit is complete labeling of the controls which will be present on production unit.

Good looking housing, I like the design of the shutter speed control.

Rand

Looks awesome.

Glad to hear that the buttons on the back are labelled on the production version. The one that really needs a labels is the AF sensor grouping switch (below the 4 AF area selectors) as the switch works in the opposite direction to the switch on the camera (because of the housing mechanics).

Alex

Cool Housing!! I like it Very clean likes and the ergonomics are awesome.

The AE/AF lever button is perfect placed!!!

Alex, the control your mentionning is a straight trough control with out gear mechanism, so no counter rotation involved and it will be also labelled for clarity.

This looks like a fantastic step forward for Aquatica devotees.

My first thoughts were how similar it looks to my Subal.

The quick release tray and spring tensioners really move this housing forward in terms of user friendliness.

I wonder if they have been considering the possibility of a ''viewfinder expander'' or similar.

I look forward to getting a unit wet.

Peter

Sorry Alex just dawn on me what you meant, yeah it will be labeled consequently, as far as finder goes, its in the project list, but, they already have a built-in one that allows the complete info to be seen and come at no extra cost, thus the accessory finder would have to be A: affordable, B: compact and C: a big step in image quality, not a long wish list but a tough one to complete specially item A on the list .

Not to hijack the thread - had my eyes done and a new pair of multifocal spectacles supplied - at last i can see all the out of focus images I have been taking....

On a serious note the optical mechanic says it shouldn't be a difficult task to replicate the SUBAL offering in terms of optics - he suggested a good machnist was more the requirement.

Peter

I really like the new control mechanism design for the aperture and shutter speed and the new tray design as well. Although these new designs do look quite familiar! A Magnified Viewfinder option would be a nice addition to this housing. I can't wait to get one in my hands and check it out.

Hey Dave ,


Great minds...........................

The housing looks great. One question: does the trigger/lever for the right thumb control af-on or ae/af-l.

Hey Larry, the lever is for locking autofocus/exposure or if if you want the AF-L / AE-L button.

Cheers

There are two buttons side-by-side on the D2; AE/AF-L and AF-ON. Are you saying the control can be adjusted to operate either button. Is this something that can be done during a dive, similar to the exposure compensation control on my S2 or must it be fixed before a dive.
I'm just curious because I use the AF-ON button frequently when shooting moving subjects with my D2H and I can also envision situations were I would want to use the AE/AF-L feature.

Thanks,

Only the AF/AE-L

Jean, is there any possibility that Aquatica could/would develop a full frame magnified viewfinder that could be retrofitted to existing housings like my S2?

Hey, a guy can dream.....

Bruce Dickson

Hey Bruce, how ya doing? As far as I know, its not in the grand scheme of thing, but hey, let me bug the hell out of Blake, never know...

Guess I should have checked the forums first, I just sent you guys an email about availability of this. I need to upgrade my u/w gear to digital and the first thing that came to mind was housing my D2X. Looking forward to more news...

Going under tomorrow to check the trim and all, will keep posted, dont expect great shot, it a treasure hunt in a mud hole for a local charity.

How is the viewfinder?

Joe

Give's a full view of the exposure info and finder area, it's the same that was used on the F100 housing and you had a complete view even with a full frame finder even then.

Very nice. Can't wait to try it.

thanks for the reply.

Joe

Another beauty (housing) for the D2X.

None of the existing housings have a window in front for the (automatic) white-balance sensor...

None of the existing housings support the "programmable button" in front of the camera. (I think this is technical not possible because of the position of the button near the lens).

The camera WB window is inside a shell with no direct line of sight to the ambiant light source which makes it useless when it's housed, couple this with the fact that most likely the users of D2x cameras are going to use the camera in RAW mode.

The programmable button would be an engineering nightmare in mechanical complexity, every thing is always possible, but the demand has to be there when you get to thoses weirdly placed buttons. you have two differents thinking line from the consumers, some are minimalist and would like only the most basic functions accessibles and some want the full regalia and are willing in some case to do highly complex modification in order to be able to transfer without removing the camera from the housing.

To be between a rock and a hard place I believe they call this.

Tell us the measurements! I am really curious to know the size of this beauty, it looks bigger than the Subal, but not by much.

Hola Luiz, it's about the same as what you have, give or take a few milimeters. sizing is not final as it might come off smaller, it all depend of the balance in water. i'm on these test for the forthcoming days.

So soon, but not now

So what's the critieria for the number of guide pins that are used in the housing? (ie the two on the bottom). Advantage / disadvantage of putting another near the top?

Mark

Hi Mark, the pins are there to prevent accidental lateral shifting of the two halves and two is plenty enough for that purpose. one is obviously not enough and three or four might not be overkill but definetly not essential, the latches, o-rings and mother nature's pressure provide the seal, the pin is just for alignement and/or when you will knock or drag your housing behind a boat like somebody did on this website.

Is there any special new painting for the housing? When I see the pictures its look like a new painting

Its the same silver paint we use for the Canon D20 and Fuji S2 pro and now also use on the Nikon D100 and D70, nothing new, but we discontinued the gold color, it was not as chip resistant as the silver paint (different batch). I think maybe the fact I changed my Studio recently may account more for the perception of color change due to my new lighting set-up. (I like the new set-up very much )

The housing looks great.
I see that Aquatica have make a big step ahead with the ergonomy of the housing. In some housings I have always dislike the position of the AE/AF Lock buttton, Main & Sub Command knob.
Now they are exactly where they must be. You can use the housing with one hand.

Very good job Aquatica.

Lambis

Thank's Lambis, I went diving yesterday with it and I would like to report on it now but the people at the office have not yet received my report, I don't want to ruffle the administration all i'll say is, it handled nicely with or without flash attached to it.

Diving condition was like a glass of chocolate milk without he milk so don't expect to see photos. The dive was a treasure hunt, so imagine 55 divers looking for keys in the bottom of a lake, and then imagine the visibillity like a night dive without a light.

Cheers

Waiting for the review!!!

The housing is a clear winner with that price. the only what I need is a D2X

About testing a housing in lakes and cold waters....

I went to 2 times to test my housing and lences but nothing....
Visability is 1-2 meters, full of perticles. nothing work.:-)

I must move back to Greece. You are welcome to test the housing there

Give me the address... I keep telling Aquatica to move its headquarter to Bermuda or Cayman

Hey Luiz, I don't have the dimension yet, but I know it's gonna loose weight, early testing showed that we could shave a bit of material to reduce air space to adjust the trim. work in progress...

That's great, I know quite a few people that are waiting for this housing. A friend of mine is trying to decide between Aquatica and Subal, if they are close in size/weight he will go with the less expensive one, that's why I asked.

They will be closes in size, if anything the Aquatica may end up with a smaller height/weight, but at this point I prefer that we take a few extra days and fine tune the machine before putting it on the market.

It is a nice camera to put in a housing, very pleasant finder and LCD screen among other things.

Hi Jean..
sorry I missed all the fun with the early test on the D2H as I am away with family.

The housing looks great! Nice studio images.
Cant wait to check it out as well.

The price is right and delivery should be very soon.
With the improovements on saddle mount, new paint job, greater viewing, and use of all existing Aquatica ports and accessories this looks to be a winner.

I will try and get this in clear water soon....
I will resist the dark, murky water treasure hunts as much as possible...

Mauricio Handler
on the road.......

Hey buddy, how is the new New Englander, remember your in murky territory now, so behave , You wanna come up and pick up the housing, remember me and Beatriz have a guest room for floatsam and debris drifting our way north, mi casa es tu casa hermano

Cheers

Hi Jean,

Any news on the progress of the Aquatica D2x?

Hi Luiz, there trimming this and that, streamlining this, repositionning that, blah, blah, blah, i'm impatient to have the thing but I understand the tibetian monk patience needed for those project. Which is why I never was or will be in charge of production It is very near final that much I know, I have two good friend, who ordered this housing, they are going down to Antartica for the next 18 months to spend the winter lock in ice in a sailboat and they are leaving at the end of August and that is fairly soon That is going to be one hell of a testing facillity!

Cheers

P.S. I bought a D2h for 1,500.00 Can. +/- 1200 U.S. with a few hundred shots on it, that will just tickle me until I sell some organ for the X file version. darn that focus is fast.

Jean, remember that the D2x has even better focus than the D2h Ok, not by much. Alex

Alex, you son of a gun , you know married peoples can't just buy something for themselves unless they purchase something of greater value for their spouses, still you rub my nose into it, that's mean !, well right now I don't have ten thousand bucks to blow away. I'm hoping eventually that my wife, for all her qualities, won't notice the subtle shift fron a H to an X, I mean they do look like the same camera even an H an a X can look the same from a distance, really honey you should check your reading glass prescription you are confusing your letters

Cheers you mean bloke !

Jean,
I think you'll be pleasantly suprised with your new D2h. I originally purchased mine to shoot sports but now I use it for all my topside shooting. The film-like quality of the images is remarkable. I'm looking forward to putting mine in an Aquatica D2 and seeing what it can do underwater. Do you think they'll be available by mid October.

Larry

Jean, don't you own/manage/work ?! at a large camera store?

Don't you think using a little white out to that D2H of yours and swapping it with a D2X would work?!

Mike you remember Letraset peel-off letters , maybe I can add a few zero on my ten dollars bills at the same time

Own (I wish, 160+ employees), manage (did for 10 years), work (yes I'm a full time photo instructor in our workshops dept. and responsible for undewater affairs)

cheers

Larry said, Do you think they'll be available by mid October.

Yep if not sooner.

Cheers