Sea & Sea announces MDX-D7000 housing

by adamhanlon Friday, January 21st, 2011

Sea & Sea has announced the release of the MDX-D7000 housing for the Nikon D7000 camera. It is machined from a solid block of aluminum, protected by a highly corrosion-resistant coating. Other features include: A port lock mechanism, two fiber optic ports and one optional electronic port and a built-in leak sensor.

Prices are still to be announced, and the housing will be available from March in the US.

Press Release.

Long Beach, CA [January 21st, 2011]

New Housing for Nikon D7000

SEA&SEA’s announces the MDX-D7000 DSLR housing for the popular Nikon D7000 camera.

The MDX-D7000 is part of SEA&SEA’s latest housing series which is precision machined from solid block aluminum and designed for ultimate performance and ergonomics.

Housing Features Include:

Housing is precision CNC machined from solid block aluminum.
Ergonomically designed for ease of use and for total control of D7000 functions underwater.
Protected by a highly corrosion resistant anodized (black) coating.
A/R (anti-reflective) coated LCD rear display window accepts VF-45 prism viewfinder.
SEA&SEA Port lock system prevents an attached port from loosening while in use.
Two fiber optic cable sockets.
One sync cord connector (optional).
Dual locking latches to prevent accidental release of housing back.
Built-in Leak sensor alerts user if moisture or water-intrusion is detected.
Construction: Body: Corrosion-resistant aluminum alloy (machined)/anodized body, grip: corrosion-resistant aluminum alloy (die-cast).
Depth rating: 330ft/100m.
Part #SS-06156, MSRP: TBA.

The MDX-D7000 is scheduled for release in the US in March. For updated information please visit seaandsea.com or contact your local authorized SEA&SEA retailer.

Really concern about this connector/sync port problem mentioned by few people. Like to know more about it. I can't use Aquatica as it was mainly designed for men, not for smaller hand women (none of my fingers can reach any control/button from handles). It left Sea&Sea;the choice within simliar price range. I hope it is not a very big problem that I would have to give up the idea of using Nikon D7000 but switch to a Canon?
Posted by reneewoo on 2011-06-29 01:40:23 Getting away from the complaint department and more focused on the MDX-D7000. I am upgrading from a D200 in a DX200 S&S;housing to a D7000. Will all my ports and gears (lots of them) be compatible with the MDX-D7000? Also curious about the INON straight and 45 degree view finders I have that are adapted (Backscatter) to the DX200. Will I be able to use them if I go with the Sea&Sea;housing? There is lots of expense in changing brands so would really like to know more about this housing soon. I know the price just wondering about compatibility with what I already own.
Posted by Eyematey on 2011-03-02 17:17:42 Andy Sallmon of Sea and Sea USA here again.... R.e. Additional information on above reported problems encountered. I would like to make it clear first, that I represent Sea and Sea USA, not any other distributor or the manufacturer directly in Japan and that the customers posting above, all purchased their Sea and Sea housings from different overseas distributors. Mr Fraser’s housing was purchased online from a dealer in Asia, that’s why we (Sea and Sea USA) never heard about it and never received his letter or inspected his housing. Sea and Sea USA do not and cannot warrant products that we never sold..... One of the unfortunate realities of today’s web-based retailing is that products, quite often unbeknownst to the customer, must be returned for warranty evaluation and repair through the dealer to the distributor that sold it to them. Sea and Sea Sunpack, the manufacturer and distributor in Japan, have asked all their distributors to sell to dealers only in their respective territories. The dealer that sold the housing to Mr. Fraser did so knowing that Sea and Sea Sunpack in Japan, had warned them several times not to sell overseas, or out of their “territory”. Had Mr. Fraser’s housing been purchased through a Sea and Sea USA dealer in North America, (where I believe he lives), then we would have been able to work with him either indirectly through his dealer, or at least regionally through our own office and his delays would not have occurred. Since it was an “unauthorized” purchase overseas, Mr. Fraser had to send it, at his own out-of-pocket expense, back to the dealer in Asia and finally back to Japan. Our Japanese representative also informs us that Mr. Fraser’s letter had to be translated from English so that the Japanese service technicians could understand it. This brings up yet another problem when trying to purchase directly from an overseas dealer, the potential language barrier. At Sea and Sea USA we have several staff fluent in Japanese so that we can very clearly communicate with our manufacturer. R.e. Coating issues: I have images of Mr. Fraser’s housing and there are some definite signs of wear through the coatings to bare metal in small areas (all appeared to be on the bottom and back edges/corners, where a housing could easily get scratched or worn). In my opinion, nothing seems extremely out of the ordinary as far as I can ascertain from these images. I do not make warranty evaluations for Sea and Sea however, so am only stating my opinion based on those images. Sea and Sea Sunpack determined that this was not a warranty issue, but that the small bared areas were due to impacts to the housing. After seeing the images of the housing and reading their evaluation, I’d have to concur with their conclusions. Also, please note that external housing coatings are not warrantied by the manufacturer, yet even at that, Sea and Sea Sunpack, in Japan was willing to inspect Mr. Fraser’s housing in an attempt to help. R.e. sync ports - Mr. Gutierrez. I am confused, as your initial posting was recorded as Miguelcortes. Are you in fact the same person? In any event, your dealings with the distributor in your region sound very unsatisfying, however, I have not seen your housing or the reported pitting of the sync ports in your housing and am not sure that I understand what your issues have been. Perhaps you simply flooded your housing ports and didn’t realize it, or, are you actually talking about the sync cord when you use the term connectors? I cannot tell from your posting(s). You mention a D300 and a 5D housing. Assuming this is not a 5DmkII housing, the original 5D housing would be far out of the 12 month warranty period and it is even likely that the D300 could be as well, depending of course on when you actually purchased it. I am sorry that your post is not clearer and because of that I am not able to attempt to address your issues more accurately. Additionally, it is disturbing that you are offering up online retail website URL’s on our product release. That seems to show a genuine lack of etiquette on your part. I believe that there is a more appropriate area within the Wetpixel forum to voice your disdain for Sea and Sea products and to promote your new dealer’s website. We (Sea and Sea USA) have seen a few cases of sync port pitting, apparently due to electrolysis, which has nothing to do with, as you put it, “bad quality aluminum” and have had the ones reported within the warranty period changed out for an improved version. I have personal experience with this as my own two Sea and Sea MDX-40/50D housings had the sync port material that pitted. Again, the pitting is apparently due to dissimilar metal electrolysis, not “bad quality aluminum”. I dove the two housings that I owned for two years and approximately 250-300 dives each. I do soak them after use, however, I am guilty/lazy, as are many photographers, of leaving the sync cords in place in the sync ports for weeks at a time and my housings are subjected to heavy usage. I experienced some pitting, yet nothing that was of enough concern to possibly cause a failure in my opinion. I never had the sync ports replaced, even though I work for Sea and Sea USA and could have had it done easily at no charge under Sea and Sea USA warranty. All Sea and Sea housings of newer vintage such as MDX-7D, MDX-D300s, and MDX-5DMkII have and use an improved version with a different metal alloy in the sync port on the housing. I am happy to report that these have shown no pitting at all on either of my two MDX-7D housings, or on my MDX-5DmkII housing. All have been in service for 9-12 months now and have approximately 100 dives each. I believe we can all learn a couple of lessons from these unfortunate posters. 1) Nothing is perfect! Please understand that in designing and getting new housings and even diving equipment to market, mistakes get made by every manufacturer from time to time. Even regulators and life support equipment sometimes must be serviced for a warranty issue due to something unforeseen. All manufacturers strive to make the best product possible with everything available to them at that time. Each manufacturer, in turn, offers some kind of warranty for these eventualities. Therefore, it is always best if the purchaser buys from a manufacturer’s authorized distributor or dealer who they can build a good relationship with and are provided with good customer service. This can be accomplished in person, over the phone or online. If this is done, warranty service or any other kind of service or maintenance is carried out much smoother and without the undue stresses and costs noted by the unfortunate posters above. 2) Buyer beware! Support your local and or regional dealer. Underwater housings can be expensive pieces of equipment. They are manufactured to very close tolerances, but unfortunately, don’t always work perfectly. It is in each photographer’s best interest to find a dealer that they trust and can work closely with. A dealer where warranty service and after-warranty service is accomplished with high regard for the customer and with good customer service. Please check the warranty before you purchase and understand who will do what and for how long and exactly what is covered. This information comes with every product sold through Sea and Sea USA. There’s a Sea and Sea USA warranty card in every box. Registration can be completed online via the Sea and Sea USA website. Additionally, Sea and Sea offers the address of the service department and exactly what is required when warranty service is requested. Sea and Sea also offers an additional supplementary 12 month protection plan for flooding on selected equipment. These are services that are not available Through dealers and distributors outside of North America through Sea and Sea USA. If you decide to purchase Sea and Sea equipment overseas from your country or region please be sure you understand the full implications and how to acquire warranty services. 3)Is this the appropriate forum for complaints? Going forward, I would hope that these types of postings would be added to a more appropriate forum area on Wetpixel. It seems to me that we shouldn’t be discussing the issues of previous products here in a manufacturers “new product release” and I hope that the Wetpixel moderators are monitoring this exchange of information. That brings me to the one person who posted asking where the ok button was. That’s appropriate here and I have to admit that I don’t know at this time, but promise that when I find out, I will be back to let you know. Thanks for asking!
Posted by asallmon on 2011-02-16 21:21:50 My box sea&sea;for the D300 was bought in an official distributor in Spain. To the second dive problems with the connector due to the bad quality of the aluminium, the importer in Spain not towards post http: // www.deprofundis.es/and send to Japan. I change both connectors for others and it faced the consequences for sea&sea. My box of sea&sea;Canon 5D, problems with te electrical internal system, do not sell supply and I send her to Japan, 7 months later they return it to me and receive from me 600 Euros. Little later again problems with the connectors!!!!! Now I have SUBAL. Sea&sea;NEVERMORE JOAQUÍN GUTIÉRREZ Jogufe1@hotmail.com
Posted by Vimond on 2011-02-15 08:35:23 Hi John, Andy Sallmon here! I am the Sea and Sea Southern California rep. I was away on a shoot in Sulawesi when this posted, so I am late to the discussion. I was very concerned to hear about what had happened to your MDX-D300 housing, and even more concerned to hear that you didn't receive a response for six months, so I took the liberty of contacting TUSA/Sea and Sea's product manager and service department in Long Beach to find out more. They have no record of this, or of you. Obviously, something's amiss here. Could you tell me (1) where you purchased your housing, (2) to whom you addressed the letter r.e. the focus knob flood, and (3) where did you have your housing sync ports replaced? I have sold several, (maybe 30) of the MDX-D300 housings in my territory (not to mention dozens of other models with the same coating and aluminum alloy housing), and we did replace some sync ports that had signs of metal pitting, probably due to electrolysis. The metal pitted under heavy use on a few housings when the sync cords were not removed for long periods (weeks at a time - BTW, I'm also guilty of leaving my sync cords on), but to my knowledge, we have dealt with all of those under warranty and with an improved sync port socket material. I have never heard of a flood secondary to this pitting, except by user error. The external housing coatings are, unfortunately, not warrantied, but the only ones that I have seen so far that discolored were exposed to chemicals besides sea water. Your description of yours being down to the "bare metal" almost sounds like some kind of electrolysis at work....very weird. Could you tell me the number of dives during the 12 month period, where you dive and the conditions, and whether the housing was perhaps left in water/rinse tank with some abnormal electric current or with which you are unfamiliar? Or possibly soaked in a metal rinse container for prolonged periods? All can generate electrolysis. I once watched a chromed battery cap "fizz" off its chrome coating in a metal rinse bin when the ttl converter it was on apparently shorted. It happened in seconds! Do you have any images of the MDX-D300 housing that you'd be willing to email? I'll do my best to follow up and follow this post with some answers. This is not a normal occurrence; I have completed thousands (5000+) of dives with Sea and Sea housings. I typically do 300-500 dives a year with Sea and Sea housings (in all kinds of conditions/all over the world) and have never seen what you describe. We need to find out what happened here, and your input would be a great help. As to your #3 comment, we (Sea and Sea, both Japan and USA) felt it neccessary to make sync ports optional for two reasons. 1)To maintain price competitiveness. Nauticam sells many housings this way and offer a single electronic port. This seems to be a customer driven trend. I have one of Nauticam's 7D housings and added a single electronic sync port to it because I am 'old school" and prefer this. I am becoming more aware that fiber optics have many advantages, though. Nauticam is able to offer a great price advantage and subsequent savings to the customer this way, and we wished to, as well. 2) We have found that many photographers prefer the advantages of fiber optic cords. Not only because of the aforementioned initial savings, but also the ease of use and lack of a servicable o-ring (one less thing to flood), to mention a few. Fiber optic cables are half the price, if that much. Additionally, you mention the high price of a dual sync cord compared to a single sync cord. Actually, assuming that you are using two strobes, a dual sync cord costs less than two single sync cords. Our dual sync cord is $199.00, while our single cord is $125 each or $250 for two. We are just trying to keep the price at par with our competitors and offer what most customers want. When we supply our housings with electronic sync ports, we are forcing something on many that they do not need or want. I am sorry that our decision does not suit your needs. We are not in this business to price gouge anyone, and the implication of such is unfair. I'd like to think that we could remain a bit less negatively speculative on this forum. I realize that this situation has upset you, and we will do whatever we can to help resolve it. Finally, I certainly hope that we will be able to figure out a way to help with your housing. I hope that you have some time to respond. Thank you, Andy
Posted by asallmon on 2011-02-09 22:05:25 Andrej and Miguel, thanks for your information and opinions.
Posted by johnfraser1 on 2011-01-21 23:50:17 Unhappy with Sea & Sea service:. My Sea & Sea housing was expensive but it has a poor electrical system. The nikonos connectors of the housing are of poor quality, with a few uses the pins don't back to the position and the humidity come easily into the connector causing a flash failure. Into the housing the connections between the connectors, switchboard and the shoe are all by cables welded by tin, this suppose that if you have a problem with one of the connectors the flash will not work in the other one. As Sea&Sea;don't sell connectors you must send the housing to Japan, wait 14 months for the repair and pay 600 euros. Subal, Aquatica, HugyFot, Nauticam, Nexus, Seacam, etc. use connectors with a little cable that you can change easily and connect or disconnect them to the switchboard if you have a problem. Of course, all of these other brands sell the connectors separatelly. I sent a letter to Sea&Sea;too and is still unanswered. My next equipment will not be Sea&Sea.
Posted by miguelcortes on 2011-01-21 21:21:58 Hi John, forget about Sea & Sea, get an Aquatica if You're sitting on a tight budget, or Subal, if You like utmost functionality
Posted by Andrej Belic on 2011-01-21 19:15:10 1. the coating on my sea&sea;MDX-D300, for the nikon D300, lasted less than a year. it's color is now a combination of grey and bare aluminum. if i try to sell it, who would want to buy something that looks like that, even if it works well? 2. the focus knob on the extension port which i use for my 105mm macro lens actually came unscrewed and the housing flooded. the 105mm lens and D300 were trashed to a tune of $2,000. my letter to sea&sea;about that incident is still unanswered after more than six months. 3. the sync cord connector is now "optional" (read: more money) and there is only one of them. people will have to buy an expensive split cord and set aside their expensive single wired connectors. 4. i had to have both of the sync cord connectors on my MDX-D300 replaced after 18 months of use. cost: $200 plus shipping.
Posted by johnfraser1 on 2011-01-21 17:07:08 Always problems with the connectors!!!!!!!!
Posted by Vimond on 2011-01-21 15:12:35