Sea and Sea DX-D70 A Review by Rich Todd

by Richard Todd Saturday, July 10th, 2004

Introduction

What a great opportunity! I was in Guayaquil , Ecuador with a D70 and instruction book flying out to Galapagos the next day. I had planned to use my newly acquired Nikon D70 for topside shots, when Eric called me from Houston 's Seaspace. SEA & SEA distributor Underwater Camera Pros ( http://www.underwatercamerapros.com/ ) would provide for review a brand new DX-D70 housing to put through the paces. I was already in Ecuador

I'm specialising in portrait underwater photography and was wondering whether a 16mm fixed lens would be too wide and cause to much distortion? Could you tell me whether a port that would fit a 16mm lens could also accommodate a 18-70mm or would i have to buy a new port?
Posted by Bubbles1 on 2007-01-21 10:37:49 I have found that the housing does not have the circuitry for the shutter activated focus light, when you remove the screw in plug on the front if leaves only a hole. Go figure! Why would Sea and Sea call this an accessory bulkhead? What accessory goes there then? Can any one answer this? One confused person. Gene
Posted by tomeyer on 2005-07-07 22:51:07 No, you just need one dome port and one flat port, and you use these with extension rings. For your first lens, I recommend the Nikkor 60mm Micro Cheers James
Posted by James Wiseman on 2005-02-24 09:02:15 Do I need a differnt port for every lens?
What lens would you recommed me to buy(interested in macro mainly)
Posted by on 2005-02-23 23:11:38 Hi, "There is NO flash that will give you TTL with this camera except the SB800 or SB600 Nikon." What that means is that as of today (2-6-05) there is not an underwater flash that will do TTL with the D70. You have to buy an SB800 and put it in a separate underwater housing - then connect that to your camera housing via sync cord. Hope that helps, James
Posted by James Wiseman on 2005-02-06 03:32:22

A few posts back "james" says, "There is NO flash that will give you TTL with this camera". Do you really mean the D70 or the S&S housing? CAn you please alaborate? TIA. Greg

Posted by Gregory Witek on 2005-02-06 03:23:38 Yes, you can use this lens on the D70 but it will be a poor performer as it will "act like" a 42-128mm lens and it has extremely slow autofocus. If you get the D70 with the kit lens, you will have an equivalent setup (better actually) to your 8008.
Cheers

James

Posted by James Wiseman on 2005-01-03 01:25:33 i have a Nikon N 8008 with a AF Nikkor 28-85 lens can i use this len on the new digital D 70 camera
Posted by PETER RESTIVO on 2004-12-29 12:23:19 There is NO flash that will give you TTL with this camera except the SB800 or SB600 Nikon. James
Posted by James Wiseman on 2004-12-11 16:00:40 It seems that I can not use TTL with this housing. I have a Nx90z, but changing for this mainly because I can use ports and gear etc. . I have 2 YS-120: in order to use TTL would I have to buy other flashes? Thanks.
Posted by on 2004-12-10 22:28:09 Anthony
Thank you. To answer your question I'm a manual kindaguy! For wide angle work I have never been a fan of TTL. Even shooting macro I prefer to bracket between F22, F32, F16 or reposition strobes.
Rich
Posted by on 2004-07-12 17:01:24 Great review and pictures!

How did you overcome the lack of compatibility of the D70 iTTL with your flashes. Presumably you used manual flash? Sorry I might have missed it in the review.
Posted by Anthony Plummer on 2004-07-12 14:25:29 I found it was easy to use however I have not shot them both side by side to really notice a difference.
Rich Todd
Posted by on 2004-07-12 11:29:40 I found it wasy to use however I have not shot them both side by side to really notice a difference.
Rich Todd
Posted by on 2004-07-12 07:53:29 What is the viewfinder like? The D70 is 18mm eyepoint against the D100 24mm. How is the Sea&Sea D70 viewfinder optic in real life use?
Posted by Roger Willems on 2004-07-11 16:00:52