Ikelite housing upgrade

My upgraded housing has just returned from Ikelite.

They were offering the upgrade, which involved replacing the entire front section of the housing and swapping over all the hardware, at a very reasonable US$200 plus $60 for a full service.

The housing now has 4 port locks instead of just 2 and a focus light mount on top. Also got a free swap for the new 4 lock short port body including an anti-rotation lock for the 8" and they sent back my 3 leak alarms.

More photos here

12th Dec

I have just discovered that this Fantasea LED 360 focus light has been discontinued. Apparently there have been production problems leading to flooding. Mine is still going OK but buddy Rich's has flooded.

Fantasea LED 360 focus light

Just bought one of these Fantasea LED focus lights to replace the flawed Nano Fix (every one of these I know of has flooded)

Anyway the 360 has 36 LEDs and an On/Off switch so hopefully will have a longer life.
It's much bigger and brighter but still has the "Auto Off during flash" function as well as a handy continuous flash mode in case you ever get lost at sea!

I tried the focus light under the deep ledges at Cottage Reef and it worked very well allowing me to focus quickly on a seadragon in the darkness. It would be an excellent night dive torch also.

Purchased from Underwater.com.au in Byron Bay for A$84.95 + $5.50 shipping.

Additional: Price has just jumped to US$81 from Fantasea or $140 from Underwater.com.au!


Update
This light has now died (lasted 12 months). No obvious flooding but rust appearing around 2 of the LEDs. Buddy Rich's died a few months ago and the light is no longer being sold.
I'm back to using a Princeton REC 1 LED torch.

UK light cannon 100 as video light

I adapted a stingray housing to fit my Canon MVX430 DV camera, which worked pretty well, but it really needed a video light.

These excellent HID dive torches are available for around $300 posted on ebay from lightcannontoys

Here is a 5 min video from Cottage Reef showing the Light Cannon in action.

I'm now working on a magnet switch to operate the record button while underwater. At the moment I have to start recording before the dive and just let it run for 1 hr. Makes editing a pain.

Fix LED mini focusing light problems

Reports are surfacing on Wetpixel about unexplained floods of this little focus light and I have to agree.
Mine partially flooded but was rescued by spraying the electronics with WD40 but 2 mates have not been so lucky.
Theirs have been ruined with no replacement being offered by the supplier.

So I now wouldn't reccommend buying one. Unfortunately there does not seem to be an alternative focus light available for the same price with the light quenching feature.

FIX LED mini focusing light.

Ordered one of these from Yuzo last week and it arrived yesterday. Cant believe how good the service is from this business.

Anyway I made up a bracket to fit the Ikelite arm extention and took it for a dive at St Leonards. Vis was, you guessed it, bad again at 2-3m. Photos here.

This little light, which takes 4 AAAs not AAs like it says in the blurb, is bright enough for night macro and sped up the autofocus under the darker sections of the pier. The D80 handles low light levels very well but the light just made it better. The light also momentarily switches off when the flash fires so does not affect exposure.