Installing Lens Ports, Gears, and Viewfinders
This knowledgebase article will guide you through mounting your lens, lens gear, and lens port to your underwater photography system.
While it is not possible to show every variation in one web-based article, the concepts illustrated below are fairly universal. If you still have questions after reading these articles or watching the videos, please contact us.
Installing Lens Ports
Reef Photo & Video produced this short video which demonstrates installing ports and locking extension rings on Nauticam housings.
Virtual Installation Guide for Nauticam Style Extension Rings and Ports from Reef Photo & Video on Vimeo.
Installing Lens Focus & Zoom Gears
While point-and-shoot and compact cameras have power zoom functions, most interchangeable lenses do not. To make it possible to adjust the focal length of a zoom lens underwater, the housing will provide you with an external knob for this function. Inside the housing, this knob is connected to a gear, and this gear will mesh with the lens gear mounted on the lens to turn the zoom ring (or focus ring). You install the appropriate lens gear on your lens to complete this mechanical function. (Not all manufacturers put the external knob on the housing, sometimes it is part of the port.)
Typically you will install a zoom gear to allow manual adjustment of focal length, while allowing the camera's autofocus function to focus on your subject. For macro-photography, some photographers prefer the ability to manually focus the lens. In this case, a focus gear will be installed in the same manner as the zoom gear.
This short video shows installation of lens gears for Nauticam housings.
Nauticam Zoom and Focus Gear Installation Guide from Reef Photo & Video on Vimeo.
Please note that this video shows the procedure to remove the rubber from the lens zoom ring. This is not done for all lenses. Consult the instructions which were provided with your lens gear.
Installing and Changing Viewfinders
All DSLR housing manufacturers provide the ability to change to optional viewfinders. Most of these are user-changeable. The following video was produced by Nauticam USA and illustrates the procedure to simply and quickly change the viewfinder.
Nauticam 180 & 45 Degree Viewfinder Installation Guide from Reef Photo & Video on Vimeo.