Nauticam D700 underwater housing field review 
Wetpixel's Alex Mustard tests it in Australia
Last Update: 17 March 2010 05:05 PM
14 comment(s) | discuss in forums
Author: Alex Mustard ( Alex_Mustard )
Nauticam’s port locking system is excellent: a true market leading innovation. You simply line up and push on the port and then close the lever on the bottom left of the front of the housing to lock it securely. It is simple to use and inspires confidence. I have seen quite a few housings flood (not mine) with ports being knocked loose or rotated. This is a valuable feature. However, it should be noted that if you continue to use ports from your existing housing then the Nauticam port adaptor will be locked securely in place, but you old port will be mounted on to it with the same issues as on your old housing. Hardly Nauticam’s fault!
The Subal port adaptor I used positioned my Subal ports exactly as they are on my housing relative to the lens, meaning that optics remain correctly aligned. However, the Nauticam port adaptor would not fit directly on my, or my buddy Shannon’s, Subal FE dome port. Subal users, at least, thinking of switching should double check their FE port works with the Nauticam. It would be an expensive mistake if it does not. Please note, all the other Subal ports and port extension rings worked perfectly.
The Nauticam is fitted with a leak detector with a visible and audible alarm. Not that I tested it properly! The housing design is certainly confidence inspiring. The o-ring track is smooth, with no fussy details than can cause o-rings to pop out unnoticed when the housing is open.
The housing is sealed with three snappy latches. I am not a fan of snappy latches. First, three is one more than I have hands, meaning the third always snags when you don’t want it to! Also there is just the right amount of room between the locks and the handles to trap my fingers every time I opened the housing. But despite my bias, importantly they provide a secure seal (unless you have a Wilk moment, Keri’s Nauticam housing was opened underwater by Indonesian kids right in front of his face).
The Nauticam is designed to run optical synched strobes, and, in standard configuration, does not come with an electronic flash synch socket (although there is a blanked off hole, where one, but only one, can be easily fitted). Optical synched strobes are a neat solution providing un-floodable fibre-optic synch cables and the ability to shoot TTL with newer strobes, driven by the camera’s own built in flash. On the negative side, not all strobes can be fired using optical cables (notably some of the best for clear water wide angle) and at small apertures shooting TTL, you are sometimes cannot shoot until the internal flash has recharged, which tends to be slower than your strobes. I’ll discuss some positives and negatives of the flash system I encountered shooting in Australia, below.
The Nauticam has a button to pop up the flash when underwater (should you forget) and also a leaver to lower it, which provides a very swift solution for switching to shooting without flash (close the flash and your external strobes will not fire, saving you turning them both off). The Nauticam bristles with innovative solutions: another feature that drew praise was the large M-S-C, which enables you to focus and then switch to manual without removing your eye from the viewfinder. This is a handy benefit for supermacro. The housing also has a well-placed lever (under your right thumb) for AF-On, if you prefer this method of assisted focus. Manual focus gears are also available, but I did not test them.
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Comment(s):Thanks Alex
Great review and really nails home why I purchased the Nauticam for my D300s.
Next trip we will have to get Shannon to drag you over to the Australian West Coast.
Posted by Chriso on 03/16 at 10:32 PMGreat unbiased review (as usual) Alex!
Posted by dbh on 03/17 at 04:16 AMHi Alex,
Completely agree with your findings which support my own suggestions to Nauticam following our original testing. Most of our suggestions have been taken onboard and are now present on the production units. The issue of the extra large, elongated control knobs being supplied as accessories would be welcome.
Having just completed some 70+ dives with my Nikon D300 housing I can only say I made the right choice.
Thanks for the great review and re-assuring that my own findings were almost identical to yours ..
Best regards
David - DigitaldivingPosted by digidiverdave on 03/17 at 05:19 AMFantastic review Alex - thanks!
Cheers
JamesPosted by James Wiseman on 03/17 at 05:46 AMGreat review, Alex. One has the feeling of knowing exactly how this housing is and performs after reading it.
Posted by davichin on 03/17 at 02:42 PMExcellent, thorough review Alex. Great job as always.
Posted by Mike L on 03/18 at 04:51 PMGreat review Alex.
I have just completed 70+ dives with the Nauticam D700 in the Maldives shooting wide angle only.
I completely agree about the shutter dial, I was in strong channel currents for most dives and it was impossible to change the shutter speed with my thumb and hold on to the housing with a tight grip.
I also had a few other points which I have directed towards Edward directly but in short I found it to be a great housing and will house all our future cameras in Nauticam.
Cheers,
JasonPosted by muppetcam on 04/03 at 09:42 PMHi Alex
Same here with the shutter dial. Planning to make a home-made solution soon.
Cheers,Carlos
Posted by blueglass on 04/22 at 06:05 PMI think that good news is coming from Nauticam that the Command Dial Knob has been redesigned following feedback from some users - clearly a company that listens .....
Posted by digidiverdave on 04/22 at 11:53 PMAlex
Fantastic and helpful review.I’m looking for for a housing for the d700 and new strobes to encompass wide angle- I must make a decision.\
I’m not happy that the Nauticam is a larger more bulky housing (traveling issues) and that it appears that the housing will accept only fiber optics for twin strobes. I have been advised that using the internal camera’s strobes is a bad idea because of illumination issues (the water column)
Is the internal flash covered by the housing?
Are fiber optics the ‘new and dependable’ way to go?
thanks\
AllanPosted by allan on 08/01 at 12:36 PMThanks (belatedly) Alex. T’other Alex has made me an offer I can’t refuse in the context of positive reviews and my own shooting style, so it looks like ex-Nexus and newly-Nauticam!
Posted by tdpriest on 08/17 at 10:47 AMThanks Alex, good review. I’m quite frustrated by problems with my Nexus D300 recently. I hope to upgrade camera+housing next year, so eagerly awaiting to hear if a Nauticam D800 will come out.
Posted by christianloader on 12/16 at 09:15 PM
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