Subal D20 Housing - Nikon D300 Conversion

Many years ago, in a different life, I used to be a "fitter/turner" - which meant that I fixed things in the petrochemical plant where I worked in England. Those days are long gone, but I still have a strong appreciation for people who can make & fix things and was full of admiration when I stumbled upon Sam Chae's conversion kit to fit the Nikon D300 into the Subal D20 housing.

Anybody who has invested the considerable amount of money required for one of the more expensive underwater housings, such as the Subal or Seacam ones, knows that sinking feeling about 18 months later when it becomes obsolete because the camera manufacturer has released a new model! Most housings are designed for a specific camera and although some people have succeeded in getting other cameras working in their housings, most underwater photographers won't go there...

So when Sam Chae came up with a neat way to get the Nikon D300 camera into the Subal D20 housing for the D200 it seemed just too good to be true!

The kit Sam provides is pretty simple, but well designed and at around US$200 is significantly cheaper than a new housing! It consists of the following parts:

1. New base plate - this comes with a vertical front plate to position the camera body correctly

The base plate moves the camera body so that the controls at the front and top of the body can be activated by the existing housing controls.

The base plate I received in the kit from Sam was very well made and fitted perfectly in to the D20 housing

2. New Mode Lock - this is required because the original will not work. I installed the one in the kit but still found it a bit difficult to use - however, as I hardly ever change the mode underwater it did not matter to me.

3. Extension arms - these are for the five push buttons arranged vertically at the side of the viewfinder window on the D20 housing.

When a D200 body is in the housing, these buttons activate the Playback, Menu, Thumbnail, Protect and Enter controls on the back of the camera - in that order with Playback at the top.

With the D300 body in the D20 housing the controls are the Menu, Protect, Thumbnail, Zoom In and OK buttons - in that order with Menu at the top.

But because the D300 LCD is much bigger than the one on the D200, the buttons on the Subal housing are no longer aligned - so Sam has cleverly designed the extension buttons, which work a treat once you get used to the fact that the labels on the housing are no longer correct....

4. Lead wire - I was somewhat confused what this was for till I realized that it's to act as a spacer on the four push buttons on the Auto-Focus Direction pad and the Bracketing & Delete controls.

The problem being that the new base plate positions the D300 body so that the controls on the top of the camera work without any modifications, but the new position means that the controls on the back-plate of the housing need to be extended to work properly.

This is achieved by undoing the screw that holds the black plastic part, on the inside of the housing, from the control pin that comes through the back of the housing - yes, I know it sounds complicated, but bear with me....

On the inside part of the plastic part is a shoulder that comes up against the control pin when assembled, so by cutting a small piece of the lead wire and shaping it by wrapping it around the thread of the stainless steel screw, a "spacer" is made. Then by putting the spacer down into the plastic part so it rests against the shoulder and then reassembling the control it can now reach the actual pad when the camera is in the housing.

The same needs to be done with the Bracketing and Delete controls, which then become the Playback & Delete controls with the D300 is in the housing.

The complete modification took me less than 3 hours as I had to call on my long forgotten skills as a fitter/turner to do some minor modifications to get everything working properly and I have since done two trips to PNG with the modified housing & D300 and have been very pleased with the results!

Check out the galleries from Tawali and Tufi to see what images I have taken with the D300.

In summary, here are the positives & negatives of the modification:

Positives:

- For about US$200 you get at another two years out of your investment in the D200 housing, bringing it roughly in line from the life-cycle of a film camera housing

- Allows you to use the latest DX technology underwater and stay ahead of the learning curve.

- A D200 can go back into the housing by reversing the retrofit and this can be done when your on a trip, thus allowing you to use that D200 that you already own as a back-up in case of that worst case scenario!

- Gives you some breathing space as the FX technology develops and the optimum underwater kit becomes clear.

Negatives:

- The biggest negative is that you cannot see all of the excellent LCD on the D300 when it is the housing. However, although this was an issue for me at first, I soon got used to it and do not even really notice it now.

- You need to either re-label the controls on the back of the housing or remember which one is which. I went the latter way and soon got used to everything.

Sam Chae's email address is chae5721@gmail.com and here is the link to the thread on Wetpixel.

Alternatively go to the contacts page and send me a message if you have any questions.

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