GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

I have a Nikonos III with the 35mm and 80mm coming on Monday! Why? Why not! and it was offered a good price.:lol: Brother Butkus has the manual on line so I won't be flying blind. The seller is sending some lube and a new gasket.

Anyone out there shooting underwater with one of these? Any suggestions on how to test for water tightness? I'd imagine that if the sealing surfaces for the lens and the case are good and the gaskets look undamaged all should be well, but the O rings for the wind/shutter, aperture, and shutter speed probably aren't readily "checkable." At the least it will be a truly "all weather" shooter.

Kombiguy Loc: Cedar Rapids, IA

Not the III, but I still break out the V every so often. The only O-rings on the V that are user serviceable are the lens, film door, battery, and flash connector.
I just check for water-tightness by getting it ready to shoot, then submerging it in a foot or so of water. No bubbles, no troubles!

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

I got my Nikonos III back from Southern Nikonos after a thorough going-over: new gaskets all around, and pressure testing to the design limit: 50 meters or about 160 feet. All is good. I've also scored the Nikon underwater meter enclosure, and the Sekonic L 86 meter which fits the case. There's a dive shop/instruction center only a few miles away. Jacques Cousteau beckons to me......

ramblinmen Loc: Manassas, VA

I have collected Nikonos II, III and V with pretty much all the lenses over the years especially since most are still available for cheap on eBay. No recent experience but back in the day I learned to remove, clean and relube the O rings frequently and tested new purchases at 10'+ in a local fresh water pool before subjecting my "kit" to salt water. You won't get much of a pressure seal test by subjecting your camera to a dip in a bathtub. My last set up was a two camera tray with one camera utilizing a wide angle or macro lense and the other camera an 80mm "telephoto" for distance.
I also decided to set up two uw strobes independently ... that is I connected one to each camera via single cable rather than both on the same cable. A one strobe set up will leave shaddows since it is best to angle the flash from the side towards the subject rather directly along the lens axis (which produces snow like backskatter in your results). The strobe associated with the wide angle lens/camera had a diffuser attached so the frame was completely illuminated while the other did not since a diffuser would cut down on the effective range of illumination. The 105 strobes can be selected as a slave so when one fired the other/slave did as well. Using just one camera on a tray with two strobes you can attach both with a two strobe connecting cable or disconnect a slave strobe and have someone (assistant) hold it for additional fill lighting. All this is best practiced before hand in a fresh water pool while using scuba.
Early on nearly all my photos came out under exposed so I decided to take a test roll in a pool bracketing 4-5 shots of the same subject at the same distance. I was able to determine that clear pool water absorbed light at a 1-4 ratio. In other words I needed to open up the f-stop by 3-4 stops especially for distance shots to get the color saturation and illumination I desired.
This era of my photography "life" was well before publication of "UW how to books" by the likes of Ron and Cathy Church which was the best bible of it's day.
I communicated with an FM Roberts who published a monthly newsletter for about two years and it seemed we traded experience and techniques during that time. I just wish we could have met for a dive or two before he passed away (this was back in the 70's).
While You will certainly enjoy your new toy I have, unfortunately, relegated my extensive collection to a box on a shelf for the forseable future as my wife is a hesitant diver and I spend most of my UW time following her around as a good dive buddy should rather than being self absorbed in tinkering with my equipment.
If I can offer a bit of advise: research and find a book on UW photography for the Nikonos camera system. I think earlier volumes of the Church "bible" are pretty specific to the II and III models and when you use your camera in salt water take along a bottle of rubbing alcohol, fresh water, cotton balls and Q-tips, spare O rings and silicon lube and packets of silicon desiccant in a large zip lock bag or two. Mark my words: no matter how carefull you are there will come a day when a tell tale trickle of bubbles indicate trouble. If this occurs exit the ocean asap and take corrective action as follows: Always dip your camera in a bucket of fresh water before you disassemble (swish it around thoroughly to eliminate any further intrusion of salt water), wipe the camera down with a salt water free towel, rewind your film, pop the camera open after removing the lens, remove film then see if you detect even the slightest bit of moisture on the inside. A water droplet under pressure (the inside of your camera is a vacuum while underwater) will "explode into a vapor" so may be difficult to see. If you find an indication of moisture I check it with a clean finger to mouth taste test and if it is, unfortunately, salty I proceed as follows: Flood the camera with fresh water (fresh water step may no longer be recommended) followed by rubbing alcohol. Soak it in alcohol for a bit if possible then shake it out as much as you can. Pack the camera in a ziplock filled with desiccant packets and ship it to a repair or service company when you get home. If you manage to do this there is a "chance" you can save your baby from salt water corrosion and a premature demise.
Ask me how I know all this! (LOL).

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

Many thanks for the advice and information. One question: rubbing alcohol often has perfumes. I assume that these wouldn't be good for my Nikonos? CVS says that their rubbing alcohol has only 70% isopropanol and 30% water. That would seem to be a safe choice?

whitewolfowner

91% alcohol would be better if it doesn't melt any of the rubber parts (70% could do the same thing). I have been using underwater cameras all my life and have never had a problem but I am meticulous as to how I seal them up before the dive and I soak them in the sink in fresh water for a few hours, changing the water several times in the process. I treat my regulators the same way and have never had a problem with a single one of them either.

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

Thanks! Since you are still with us I imagine that your regulator regimen is a good one! Live long and prosper....

whitewolfowner

I've been diving all my life, since I was 18. I have around 1000 hours under water recorded.

ramblinmen Loc: Manassas, VA

I think if you are at the stage you use rubbing alcohol you are pretty desperate and sure that you have a salt water intrusion issue. I am by no means a camera repair expert I was just passing along info related to me that I also had occasion to use. In my opinion the idea is to get as much of the corrisive salt water out as quickly as possible before it dries and starts to leave it's mark. I was told to use fresh water to disolve then alcohol to help dry by evaporation. I expect that you could remove all rubber bits you can locate before hand but I don't think you are going to let the O rings dissolve before you remove your camera from all liquid involved (or even long enough to turn gummy). If I had been able to use a hair dryer in the last step I would have but...
I guess I was trying to suggest that you don't want to simply pack it all up until you get home and can ship it off for repair..... Whatever you do you don't want the camera to dry with salt water residue in it. Make sense?
My worst case situation involved a Canon 814 film movie camera with two Ikelite old style light sources on extended arms. While I tried to coordinate decending on the anchor road, clear my ears, look for my dive budy and fiddled with the camera I missed the drops of sea water seeping into the Ikelite case around a stabilizing screw holding the camera in place located in the bottom of the case (hidden under the camera). By the time I saw one drop sliding around the inside the damage was done ... That is why I mentioned that water literally explodes when it enters a case under pressure and why I have never subjected a modern camera (with all it's electronic circuit boards) to a diving situation protected by a case. Others do and have 100% success with their rubber seals, never a leak. I dove several times weekly in the Philippines starting in the mid 70's and started with my Nikonos II around 1972-3. Other than Nikon's included camera guide there simply wasn't any "how to" info available. My first strobe was a cobbled together above water job jury rigged into an Ikelite case with a cable connected to a remote sensor in another case mounted below the camera. Thank God there were only 24-36 shots in a roll those days as that took the better part of a full tank to shoot with all the screwing around involved and I didn't want to go down on a second dive with just a few shots left on a roll or waste what was left leaving any blank. My one instance of leakage involving a Nikonos was the result of a pinched lens O ring that wasn't evident until I opened the camera to change film. I used the procedure I mentioned and sent it off for repair when I got home about a week later. The service noted a minimal amount of cleaning and no parts replacement required so I guess I got lucky.
With digital available why did you select the Nikonos? Are you into above water film as well?

tomad Loc: North Carolina

I bought a Nikonos IV-a the year it came out (1980) and used it with a variety of strobes and add on lenses until I had to stop diving in 1997. I always shot Kodachrome 64 because I liked the realistic colors. Now over the past few years I have scanned thousands of those slides and have been able to make some great improvements in some marginal shots through digital post processing.

Diving with a digital camera nowadays must be a dream in comparison, being able to have nearly unlimited shots on a single dive, review them on the spot, and post process them immediately instead of being limited to 36 exposures and usually having to wait until getting home from a dive vacation to get the film processed to see what, if anything, came out good!

thrash50

It's been quite a few years since I went to commercial dive school. After 20 years working/diving the oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, I only used a camera once professionally. Video was improving since the 90's, and a waterproof video camera could be mounted to the diver, and operated by topside support.
I seem to remember the early Nikonos cameras, 2's, 3's, and 4's were fully manual without electronics, and could be broken down, completely for cleaning, and seal replacement by the user.
The Nikonos 4a's, and 5's, had electronics, and had to be sent in for deep maintenance.

tomad Loc: North Carolina

"...The Nikonos 4a's, and 5's, had electronics, and had to be sent in for deep maintenance."

You are correct sir!

newtoyou Loc: Eastport

I used a nikonos in Hawaii when in USAF. Do not remember which one, but pretty sure it was fully manual. That is now over fifty years ago.

I use a food saver vacuum sealer in the kitchen. Maybe someone with a bit of inovativation could install a fitting to test with vacuum.
Any waterproof case might be checked this way.
Bill