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DSLR
Find out more:
Nexus D80 Housing with TTL and Swivel Viewfinder
The Nexus D80 housing provides the Nikon D80 owner with an exceptional specification at a very attractive price. Special features including TTL flash compatibility and a superb magnifying viewfinder are standard equipment, making the Nexus D80 housing an interesting paradox - a professional level housing at a budget price.
The Nexus D80 body is cast from aluminium. It is anodised for corrosion protection. This ensures your Nexus housing will be durable and will be dependable through many years of adventurous underwater photography. Using aluminium also keeps your housing lightweight (around 2.5 Kg). Because the housing is sculpted around your Nikon D80, this housing is also extremely compact. Combined, these qualities make your Nexus housing an investment for the long term and easy to travel with, even as hand luggage.
Toshi Kozawa, owner of Anthis, manufacturers of Nexus equipment, excels at designing his housings to make operating all your key camera functions as easy and intuitive as possible. His D80 housing is equipped with 23 controls. Toshi, a top underwater photographer himself, recognises that if you cannot shoot quickly and decisively, you'll miss great picture opportunities. He also makes certain you have full creative control of your Nikon D80. His understanding of these requirements is evident immediately that you first handle a Nexus D80 housing.
The shutter release is Toshi's signature soft touch lever. This pulls back towards you,
eliminating any tendency for the housing to "lean" as you shoot which can mar your composition. The very light touch needed to shoot also minimises camera shake. Toshi specialises in high magnification supermacro photography where the tiniest camera movement can create blurring (you'll find the Nexus macro port system also incorporates special cradles to virtually eliminate lens movement as well). It also helps with long time exposures often used in wreck photography when light levels are low. Below the shutter lever is a knurled knob, operated by your other fingers and behind the release lever is another knurled knob that falls under your thumb. These two controls operate your aperture and shutter speed dials. Toshi's careful placement makes it easy to control these - and therefore your exposure - without taking your eye from the viewfinder or your forefinger from the shutter release. The Nikon D80 lets you choose which knob controls which function, so it's up to you to decide which configuration feels best. On the far side of your Nexus you'll find your fingers naturally rest on the oversized zoom control. This ergonomic layout is what makes the Nexus so easy to use when the pressures on and you must shoot quickly toget the shot.
The Nexus D80 housing also gives full range to your Nikon D80's other controls. You can turn the camera on and off to conserve your battery. Exposure modes are easily chosen.The LCD panel illuminator can be turned on, a great benefit at night or in other low light situations. The metering mode and motordrive setting can be selected underwater. While shooting you can set the focusing points or use the same four buttons to playback your pictures or work through your set up menus. You can also access the lock. Set/okay is available along with image magnification, quality, protect, white balance (a must have for underwater photography - also check out Magic and UR Pro filters options which, when used with your white balance custom function can create incredible natural light images), ISO, menu and playback. You also have access to your exposure and focus lock - it's worth experimenting with your cameras custom functions to see which options work best for you. Delete is there to, of course.....A focus control switch is thoughtfully provided. You can toggle between manual and autofocus as you prefer. Nexus seal all their controls with double O rings for added security. Large top and back panels let you clearly see your LCD displays.
The hull is easily opened and closed using two rugged over centre latches. The Nikon D80 mounts easily onto a built in tray. Most controls line up automatically, so loading your camera into your Nexus D80 housing is straightforward and fast. The hand grips are sculpted so that your fingers sit comfortably in the detents. This puts them in the correct position for reaching the shooting controls and doesn't require you to have a strangle hold on your handles so you can relax your hand a little for comfort. The slim line grips also work well with gloves. Both the right and left hand grips can be fitted with spacers to move the grips outwards. This can make your Nexus D80 more comfortable to use depending upon the size of your hands and length of your fingers. It's a nice practical thought from Toshi. The left grip can also be extended forward. This helps you to easily stabilize long lenses like the Nikkor 200mm tele macro or when using tele converters. It also places your left hand is a better position for manually focusing some macro lens configurations.
It's essential to be able to use a wide choice of lenses underwater. The Nexus D80 puts a huge choice of Nikon optics at your disposal and gives you access to one of the most extensive and best thought out port systems available. From 10.5mm full frame fisheye through to tele macros equipped with tele converterts, Nexus can handle it. You'll find within this range specialist ports for split level photography and a superb modular macro port suystem that is virtually a housing outfit in its own right. A very nice touch is that you can remove and install lenses through the port mount. So you don't have to open your housing and remove your camera when you want a new lens for the next dive.
Flash is indivisible from taking great images when it comes to underwater photography. The Nexus D80 is designed to let you shoot flash whichever way you prefer. Two Nikonos type connectors are already fitted. Gold contacts assure you of reliable triggering. Drain ports clear any water from the sync connector threads to help avoid getting water droplets in the sync port and the Nexus connector cap has a dual O ring seal. These let you shoot on manual flash exposure with many underwater strobes, although you do need a good range of manual powers. Alternatively we can make a minor modification and you can shoot on TTL with full manual override by using, for example, a Nikon land strobe in a Subal housing. This modification does not require conversion circuitry or external boxes - we just change the housing hot shoe.
TTL is also available to you using the Nikon D80 cameras own built in flash as the master and then connecting a slave using the two fibre optic cable ports on the housing top. This has been tried and tested using Inon Z-240 strobes as the slaves. The Nikons own flash both fires the Inon's and controls their output automatically. It is a very attractive system. The Inon are high output, wide angle strobes, used by many professional underwater photographers. They feature fast recycling and have a built in modelling light. They are also very compact and extremely lightweight. The Inon's TTL system can also be compensated, allowing you to slightly under expose or overexpose to suit the difficult subjects than can confuse your cameras metering system. And, if all else fails, a dozen manual power settings are available. This system is very dependable, the fibre optic cables from Inon have proven almost unbreakable in the field, the connections are wet leads, so there's no electrical socket or sync cord to flood and no bulky external conversion boxes are required.
The Nexus D80 can be fitted with most popular flash arm systems, including Inon. Nexus alos offer a selection of mounts that allow you to connect strobes and focusing lights to their macro ports. This keeps your macro rig simple to shoot and reduces drag.
The Nexus D80 housing is a brilliantly thought through and superbly engineered example of Toshi Kowaza's design expertise as its best. If you'd like to take a closer look, please contact Mark or Steve for an appointment. On a first visit expect to spend arounbd an hour or so discussing the Nexus D80 system. If you decide to buy your Nexus D80 from Ocean Optics we will ask you to return with your camera, lenses and other accessoeires for a full morning or afternoon. Typically Mark or Steve will take three hours or so working one to one with you to ensure you are happy with loading and unloading your housing, know how to gear up your lenses, and have gone through testing your flash set up. They'll also take you through the all important pre dive procedures that will help you keep your valuable camera safe from floods.