Hugyfot Nikon D200 Housing Review

If there is one housing for the D200 that can be called sexy in my honest opinion, it’s the Hugyfot D200 housing. It’s as compact as a D200 housing can be and because of its round shapes it fits your hand easily. Hugyfot recently decided to deliver all their housings in black anodized aluminum with a Teflon coating.

I come from a point and shoot camera (Canon G5 in UMIE DCH-701) which I’ve been using intensively the last 1.5 years. I felt that I reached the limits of what’s possible with this set so it was time to make the big step forward and get myself a true DSLR. First I had to decide which DSLR. One of the reasons for getting a DSLR was the ability to shoot with a fisheye lens. My P&S with the INON wet-lens attached enabled me to shoot a maximum angle of 135 degrees; something wider wasn’t available. Because I’ve always liked my G5 I initially wanted to stick to Canon, but the only option for a true Fisheye would their 5D, which would be one step too much for me. So I had to look for another camera. Basically there’s only one other big name and that’s Nikon. Off course I could have gone for Olympus or Pentax, but Olympus is very limited in their lens choice and third party lenses aren’t available. And for Pentax only very few housings are available. So it became a Nikon. Next question: which Nikon? The D50? It has just one control wheel, which isn’t very handy when you want to control shutter-time and aperture, so no D50. So, what about the D70s then? The D70s has a very small viewfinder and coming from a P&S, looking through a viewfinder will already be hard enough and furthermore it has, like the D50,‘only’ 6 Mega-pixels. My P&S was already having 5 mega-pixels. I know with 5 or 6 mega-pixels you can fill the cover of a magazine, but hey, I’m a man and men always like more and bigger... . So finally I decided to get myself the Nikon D200.
Next question was: Which lenses? First of all: the Nikon 10.5 mm f/2.8 Fisheye, because that was one of the main reasons for me to go DSLR.
Since I shoot about 75 % of my photos in the murky Dutch coastal waters, I needed a close focus macro lens: I chose the Sigma 50 mm f/2.8 macro lens. This lens enables me to come closer to my subject then the Nikon 60 mm macro lens and it also saved me about 100 euros. Since the Fisheye isn’t always very applicable in our blurry soup I also bought a regular Sigma 10-20 mm f/4.0-f/5.6 wide angle zoom-lens. It’s about half the price of the Nikon 12-24 mm and it has a closer focus and a wider angle. For topside use I bought myself a ‘cheap ###’ Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-f6.3.



So now the serious part started. A lot of manufacturers announced that they were going to develop a D200 housing. And Hugyfot was one of them. It’s the looks and the compact size of their housings that attracts me. But off course I checked out all different possibilities. The Subal, Seacam and L&M would become too expensive for me. UK Germany offered me something but still there is no D200 housing available. I personally never liked Ikelite housings since they’re too big and heavy. So I ended up with choosing between Sealux, Sea & Sea and Hugyfot. Sealux offers a good grand viewfinder which isn’t angled, Sea & Sea offers only a standard viewer and Hugyfot has an angled, Rotatable and magnifying viewfinder. This entire together plus the sexy looks of the Hugyfot made me decide to go for it.
In my P&S days I used two optically triggered D180 strobes which I really liked a lot because of the reasonable amount of light they produce and their compact size. For my D200 both strobes became useless. I had to find substitutes which I found in Inon’s successor of their Z-220: the Z-240 strobe. In fact, it is the same strobe as the D2000Wn but then with a higher guide number (respectively 24 and 20 meter in air at ISO 100). The Z-240 is, like the D2000Wn, also fully compatible with the Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL OEM converter. Hugyfot builds this converter in for 295 euro. I thought about doing it myself, but the housing is designed so compact and tight that I decided to have it installed by Hugyfot so I could be sure that everything worked properly.

Like all modern Hugyfot housings the D200 housing is machined out of a solid block of 2024-T6 high strength aluminum by a 5-axis CNC milling machine. It’s black anodized and Teflon coated. The Teflon coating forms a smooth surface on the housing that secures smooth placing of the main O-ring to close the housing. The housing comes standard with one left handle with arm ball and arm ball on top of the housing. The neoprene hand strap is also included in their standard price. The housing cannot be ordered without arm balls, but if desired they will not glue them to the housing. Furthermore it comes with an Allen key to open and close the housing, spare O-rings for the housing and ports, an instruction CD-ROM and a piece of cleaning tissue to clean your ports and make them anti-static.

The standard housing gives access to the following functions: On/off, sensitive shutter release, aperture, shutter time, zoom or focus, ISO/Qual/WB, focus selector and all general central control buttons. Some functions are optional and can be installed for 100 euro each: the AE-/AF lock (although it’s always shown in their product sheet), the M-/S-/C- switch and the lens release button. The housing is equipped with the standard viewfinder.
Furthermore the housing comes without ports, accessories and strobe connector sockets. Available accessories for the Hugyfot D200 housing are: The rotating 45? magnifying viewfinder, the Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter, leakage warner, neoprene port covers, extra handle with or without arm-ball and the Carrier bag.

I placed my order before the first D200 housing was realized so I had to wait. After more then two months I finally got it. I ordered it with the standard flat port and with the large fisheye dome port with a diameter of 17 cm. All ports are acrylic which is more sensitive to scratches then glass, but on the other hand scratches can be removed from acrylic ports and they’re a lot cheaper then glass ports. Initially I had my housing equipped with the standard viewfinder and later I had it replaced by the rotating 45? magnifying viewfinder about which I’ll come back later.
I had my housing delivered with non glued arm balls because I initially wanted to use my flexible loc-line arms. The loc-lines can be mounted easily on the handles since they’re equipped with a standard M8 thread. The thread on top of the housing is something different. For this you’ll have to find a bolt with a M12 on 1.25 threads, which isn’t available in any shop so it has to be custom made. Very recently I put the arm balls back on my housing and I ordered black anodized aluminum ball and joint strobe arms that enable me to extend my strobe arms without collapsing when submerged.
I have my housing equipped with two 5 pin strobe contacts via Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter and the leakage alarm. These two devices share the same power supply: a 12V 23a alkaline battery. Other optional accessories that I have are the AE-L/AF-L button and the M-/S-/C- switch. The last two I had installed afterwards.
The housing seems to be well manufactured and it feels very solid and strong, it’s certainly a housing that I trust to put my camera in. Some buttons are made of aluminum and some buttons of plastic. All buttons seems to be durable enough, but time will tell how durable the buttons really are. Like all Hugyfot housings (except the housing for the D100) the housing is closed by two Allen bolts. Hugyfot sticks to this concept mainly for esthetic reasons, but this also prevents the housing from opening coincidentally.

The camera is mounted straight into the housing without an external tray, which isn’t the most easy I can imagine. You need to have fairly large hands so you can hold the camera in one hand and while the other hand is needed to mount the tripod screw. Before mounting the camera make sure that the M-/S-/C- selector and the ON-/OFF- switch are aligned to the camera’s switches. Also take care that the wires of the iTTL converter are free.
When the camera is mounted into the housing it’s still possible to replace the CF card and also the video output is still accessible. A standard style 5-pin hot-shoe adaptor connected to the Heinrichs Weinkamp converter plugs into the camera’s hot-shoe.
After alignment of the focus selector with the button on the backside of the housing and switching on the leakage warner the housing can be closed. The backside of the housing fits the front part perfectly. The Allen bolts hold the two sides parts perfectly together. They have to be tight but not too tight (…. what’s too tight?).
When the housing is closed, lenses can be changed via the front port which is 114 mm wide; the inner diameter of the standard flat port is 101 mm. As far as I know there is no Nikon lens (which is feasible for UW use) that is so thick that it cannot be housed with in the Hugyfot housing: the new Nikon 105 mm VR micro lens does fit the D200 housing but focus rings are still being developed.
Lenses can be changed via the front side of the housing when there is no port mounted. Simply push the lens release button with your finger or with the optional lens release button which is mainly useful when a lens with focus- or zoom-gear is mounted. You also can use the provided Allen key to do this. One thing I forget to mention: all ports can be extended with port extension rings from 20 to 60 mm (in steps of 5 mm), so any lens can be fitted in the Hugyfot housing. Longer extension rings can be custom made.

Initially I ordered the housing with a standard viewfinder, which provides a sufficient view through the camera, although the full viewfinder cannot be viewed without moving your head; all four corners can’t be seen at once. For Wide angle photography the viewfinder works fine and after some time I really got used to this viewfinder, but like all straight viewfinders it has its limits: small critters like to live in small corners where it’s impossible to put in your head and camera together. In situations like this it’s nice to have an angled viewfinder. Since July 2006 Hugyfot has a rotatable and magnifying viewfinder for their housings. The Viewfinder was originally developed by Inon for their X-2 housing. With the 45°viewfinder, you can see whole eyesight with same finder magnification as camera's viewfinder even through mask underwater.
The angled (45)°viewfinder enables me to shoot a subject on a sea floor without the necessity to lay down flat on my belly and all forthcoming dust caused by this action. The 360°rotatable construction also enables me to take low angled vertical shots more easily. Making a composition through the 45° viewfinder is even easier then with the LCD of a P&S camera. One important thing I forgot to mention: the 45° viewfinder is detachable for transport.
A minor disadvantage of the 45° viewfinder is that is hinders the view on the camera’s LCD. It is still possible to see your image almost completely if you look somewhat from below. So far I used the LCD only to have a quick check whether the image is roughly OK, and for this purpose it’s sufficient. But I can imagine that it’s really annoying when you need to make space on your CF card during a dive because you filled it up completely.
Furthermore, the D200 also provides settings information via the LCD on top of the camera. When the camera is housed in the Hugyfot housing it is difficult to see the left side of the screen, unless you switch on the backlight. When shooting with any other port then the large fisheye dome port this can be done easily; when the fisheye port is attached it’s difficult to control the power-/backlight switch of the D200 when wearing (thick) gloves

When my housing was first delivered I had only one strobe connector installed in my housing. My initial plan was to use one hardwired strobe (the Inon Z-240) through the Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter and my old Inon D180 strobe as slave. I did one trip with this setup and I experienced that the slave isn’t fully reliable. Firstly, the D200 triggers, depending on the situation, one or two pre-flashes. The D180 is able to follow one pre-flash, but two is too much for it. As far as I know it cannot be predicted when the D200 is going to trigger one or two pre-flashes. The second problem is a more general slave strobe problem, when you’re shooting wide angle with a lot of ambient light, the slave strobe isn’t able to detect the main strobe and therefore it won’t fire. And the third problem is that a slave strobe cannot recognize whether a flash is emitted from your strobe or someone else’s; your slave’s battery is dumped because of someone else’s flash and you probably you screwed up his/her photo… So after this trip I decided to have a second flash contact installed on my housing for a second Z-240 strobe. Both strobes are connected with a Sea and Sea 5-pin sync cord N. Since these cords are only available in one size it would have been more convenient to have one flash socket on the left side and one on the right side of the housing. Now both Flash sockets are positioned on the left side of the housing.

After trying to understand Inon’s strobe manual, I putted it back in the box and decided to figure out how they work by trial and error, since Mathias Heinrich himself admitted that he couldn’t understand the Inon manual either. Now I use the Z-240s with TTL switch on and I shoot them on manual. In this way I shoot them according to Inon’s Manual + TTL functionality. Basically this means that you shoot your strobes manual and the TTL serves as a sort of ‘overexposure protection’.
I have my Heinrichs Weinkamp converter installed by Hugyfot and they did their job very nicely. It’s amazing to see how they fit all this electronics with so little space. Sea and Sea solved this problem differently: their converter (which is basically also a Heinrichs Weinkamp converter) is connected externally. A disadvantage of the Heinrichs Weinkamp converter is the need for a power supply. Hugyfot uses for this a 23A 12V alkaline cell which is also used for the leakage warner. The converter switches on when one of the strobes is connected and switched on. Unfortunately battery life is quit limited: a new battery lasts for about 7 hours when strobes are switched on. For more information about the Heinrichs Weinkamp converter and compatibility issues see their webpage (www.heinrichsweinkamp.net).

The leakage warner is switched on separately: a switch is built inside the housing. To switch it on, the housing has to be opened with the provided Allen key. To my opinion it would have been better to make it possible to switch in on through the port. When the leakage warner is switched on a red Light Emmiting Diode blinks every few seconds.

Hugyfot claims that their housings are ergonomic and can be operated with one hand by use of the provided neoprene hand strap. To some extend this is true: if it comes to only shooting and locking the focus and/or exposure this is true when your set is more or less neutral. If your camera is too negative you have to use more force on the hand strap to position the set. Sometimes this is too much and the hand strap breaks, which happened to me already twice. For this I had a new hand strap modified by strengthening the Velcro with some stitched nylon band from an old backpack. Any shoe-repairman can do this for you without problems. Since I had my hand strap modified it never broke again.
As mentioned above the housing is neutral to negative depending on the configuration of the set. When used with the large dome port and the 10.5 mm fisheye without strobes the camera is neutral in seawater. Because most of the air is present in the dome port it’ll tend to float, but it’s controllable. Any other configuration makes the set more or less negative. When I have my set configured for Wide-Angle photography with two strobes and my Hartenberger focus light it’s too negative IMHO. The strobes + B&J-arms are negatively buoyant and positioned behind the camera’s lens axis. This together with the floating dome port makes the set not easy to handle, because it tends roll backwards quit strongly. I’m still looking for a definite solution to make my strobe arms more buoyant. When the set is configured for macro photography (with my 50 mm Sigma or 105 mm VR Nikon) it’s also negative but more balanced and therefore easier to handle. I wonder why so few strobe arm manufacturers have an elegant solution to make their products more or less neutrally buoyant (only ULCS and INON have some sort of solution for this).

When it comes to handling of the camera controls, most buttons are well positioned. The AE-L-/AF-L-button is controlled with a thumb button for your right hand. The sensitive shutter release is a pleasure to use: the focus and release can be felt well, even when wearing thick coldwater gloves. For adjusting the diaphragm two hands are needed. The knob has to be rotated quit a lot for little change. The control wheel on the back feels more direct. Maybe I should consider swapping aperture- and shutter controls on the D200. The camera power switch is easy accessible with any port except for the large dome port as mentioned above.
To change ‘mode’ or ‘+/-‘ two hands are needed: one to hold the button and one to turn the control wheel on the back. The D200 provides the possibility to lock the ‘mode’-, ‘+/-‘-, ‘QUAL’-, ‘ISO’- and ‘WB’- button by pushing once. To unlock you should push it again. For the last three functions mentioned this isn’t very convenient in the Hugyfot housing since those three buttons are already permanently pushed by the rotating knob when you want to control them.
Until now I only own one zoom lens. This is the Sigma 10-20 mm WA. For this lens I have a zoom gear installed and it works fine. I never experienced any problem that other customers have with it. The M-,S-, C- control lever is positioned just under the zoom knob. The click of each position can be felt through 5 mm gloves.
The other functions on the back aren’t heavily used except the focus selector which works good. Because these buttons aren’t used very often (at least not by me) it’s nice that Hugyfot labeled these buttons in case that you need them. In fact there are only two functions missing that I can imagine being useful: flash mode (for front or rear curtain shots) and metering mode wheel.

After some months of shooting with the Hugyfot D200 housing I’m still very happy with my purchase. I’ll end up this review with some pros and cons for this housing.

Pros:

• excellent shutter release control
• excellent feel in your hand because of the round shape and compact size
• The rotatable, detachable and magnifying 45? viewfinder provides perfect possibilities for making a proper composition
• no additional arm tray needed since the housing can accommodate up to three strobes (or other devices) when the additional right hand grip is placed
• Any Hugyfot housing can nowadays accommodate ports of other brands (Aquatica, Sea & Sea, Seacam, Sealux and Subal; Nexus will be available soon)
• It’s round and sexy like a beautiful women’s ...

Cons:

• It’s not cheap, also not compared to the other Hugyfot housings which don’t differ that much in my opinion. Some essential functions (M-/S-/C- button and AE-L/AF-L) are optional and should be standard in their price as well as one flash contact.
• Poor visibility on the top LCD, even in light situations: the backlight is always needed.
• The Velcro on the hand strap breaks too easy and needs to be strengthened.
• Poor battery life of the Heinrichs Weinkamp iTTL converter (only 7 hours when strobes are switched on)
• Housing has to be opened completely to switch on leakage warner
• Difficult to switch on the camera’s power with gloves when the large dome port is attached without extension rings
• Both flash sockets are placed on the left side of the housing.
• Metering and flash mode buttons are not supported

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