Nikon Z6, Z6 II, Z7, Z7 II Setting It Up // Ikelite 200DL Underwater Housing Assembly [VIDEO]

Nikon users are in luck because one housing can accommodate their popular Z6, Z6 II, Z7, and Z7 II camera models. John shows you how to set everything up in the 200DL Underwater Housing # 71063 including the attachment of our favorite wide-angle lens- the Nikon AF-S Fisheye NIKKOR 8-15mm f/3.5-4.5E ED with FTZ Adapter.

Scroll down to read the video transcript.

 

Installing the Camera in the Housing

First things first, Let's go ahead and open up the housing. I'm going to set it down here on my assembly mat and I'm going to unlock each of the locking lid snaps by lifting up on the lever and then lifting that lid snap, that can let me remove the back. I'll set the back aside and you'll notice that when we initially open the housing, you have two different camera mounts. You're going to have one for the Z6 II and Z7 II and you'll have another camera mount for the Z6 Mk I and the Z7 Mk I. Since I'm going to be using the Z6 II, I'll keep the spare mount with my parts.

If we take a closer look on the inside, I have controls that interface with the camera. You'll notice that the camera mount slid out of the base and I have, included with the housing, a manual hotshoe (ground and trigger only).

Later on when I'm shooting strobes, I'll be shooting a TTL converter. So I'll simply swap the manual hotshoe out for a TTL hotshoe. But for the rest of this video, let's go ahead and use this because the assembly procedure will remain the same between those two. So I'm going to move that out of the way and then I'm going to go ahead and pre-align my controls.

You're also going to notice on this housing that I have preinstalled extensions for both the back button and the shutter as well as a handle extension so that I can have two handles for two different strobes that I'll be mounting and in my shooting style, I like to have the extensions so that I can reach both of those controls very easily with that installed. This is an accessory that I recommend using because it does allow you to have a more comfortable experience in the water.

Trigger Extensions brings the shutter button and/or back button focus controls out to the handle assembly for maximum comfort. Learn how to install trigger extensions on your housing.

Turning our attention to the camera mount itself you'll notice that there's a standard 1/4-20 screw. That's of course going to correspond to the 1/4-20 threaded mount of your camera. When you align that you'll notice that there is an anti rotation wall on this mount and that is going to but up to the back of the camera. If we move the LCD screen out of the way, you'll notice that that's up against the camera preventing it from moving. Take a flat headed screwdriver and tighten that down. You don't need to over-tighten it, but you do want to make sure it's snug. Any movement between these two pieces will translate to a misalignment with controls. Take the included hotshoe, align it in the hotshoe mount of the camera and make sure it is fully pressed forward so that the contacts are making contact with the camera and we're going to slide the camera mount into the camera base. Then make sure the controls realign.

Take a moment here to inspect this sealing surface and make sure it is clean and free of debris. The back seals to the front using compression seal, this means that we don't need lubricant on this particular o-ring. So we just need to make sure it's clean. That being said, turn our attention to the back itself. You'll notice that this O-ring follows an outside perimeter at all times, it never takes an inside curve that makes it a very stable o-ring, it doesn't follow a channel. Again, it's a compression o-ring, no lubricant required. As a matter of fact, I don't use lubricant here, not that it would hurt it, but because lubricant it has a tendency to attract things like debris which could actually compromise my seal. Check to make sure that the sealing surface underneath it is clean as well as the o-ring itself.

Now we realign the back to the front, gently set it into place. I do like to take an opportunity to make sure that my Video/Still switch control is aligned and then I can lift the lid, snap over each hook of the three hooks, and then simultaneously I'm going to press down the left and the right and click into place and then I'll follow with the top. Now I'm going to take the opportunity to make sure that the lock's engaged. 

 

Installing the Lens onto the Camera

As mentioned before, I'm going to be shooting the Nikon 8-15mm lens. Now, this lens won't inherently attach an bayonet to the camera body directly. You will need the FTZ adapter. I have the one without the bulbous mount on the bottom, but you can use either. If you use the adapter with the bulbous mount on the bottom, it will have to be preinstalled on the camera. In this case, I can simply remove the cap off the back of the lens and then I can attach the lens itself to the adapter. Make sure I'm set to autofocus on my lens.

Then, with the included clamp, you'll notice that I have two of the thinnest foam strips that come with it. I'm going to remove the adhesive backing from that strip and apply it to the inside diameter of that clamp and do the same thing to the other side.

When assembling the clamp you're only going to do this once, so take your time, make sure it's aligned properly, and make sure the adhesion sticks.

Now that I have the pads installed on the clamp, I'm going to install the clamp onto the lens. You'll notice that the clamp has tabs. I'm going to make sure that these tabs are actually pointing towards what will be the camera body. What I like to do is kind of preset the lens to somewhere in the middle of its focal range. Then, align one of those tabs up with the white dot on the lens itself and just walk the clamp up your lens until you get to the ring that is going to allow for zoom. Make sure you keep walking past the focus ring and up to the zoom.

Next, turn your attention to the housing itself. We're going to remove the cap. There's a gear sleeve retainer ring in here, to remove it you can use the included tool or your fingers. Take the retaining ring to set it to the side. Tilt your housing and that cap will simply fall out of place, set it aside with your spare parts.

Check to make sure that your lens release control is going to engage your camera and you can remove the body cap at this point. Then we're going to take the gear sleeve and drop it into place, and then we're going to take the gear sleeve retainer ring and drop it around that gear sleeve. Now we can use the included tool which lets us reach the two notches on that retainer and then simply thread it into place, no need to over tighten. Now I rotate the zoom control, and you'll notice that it's going to rotate the gear sleeve itself, and I'm purposefully going to align one of the two inner diameter ribs with the white dot on the camera body.

Note the gear clamp tab and white indexing dots all lined up appropriately. This allows us to slide that tab and engage with the rib of the gear sleeve so that we can then bayonet the lens into place.

As we feed the lens down into the gear sleeve, we're going to make sure that the tabs engage with the ribs of the gear sleeve itself. Once we've bayoneted the lens onto the camera body, we can use the zoom control to make sure that we are zooming the lens as desired. Now all we have to do is put a port on the system and we'll create a vacuum and we'll go from there.

 

Port Extension & Dome

Find the right equipment for your lens: DL Port Chart for Nikon Z Mount. 

For today's port system assembly video I'm going to use the Full 8-inch Dome. Let's go ahead and walk through how we put the large dome port onto the system. For this particular lens I'm going to need the 20mm extension and I'm going to need the 8-inch Dome Port.

I find it easier to attach the extension to the dome port first. You can do it either way, but I find it makes this a little simpler to do. So, I'm going to unthread all three of the thumbscrews of the dome port itself until they do not protrude into the inside diameter. Then, inspect the o-ring of the extension to make sure it is clean and free of debris and I'm going to do the same thing on the ceiling surface of the dome. I'll run my finger across that sealing surface to clean off debris and feel for anything that might affect the seal. I'll do that again after I've applied some lubricant to the o-ring.

Now you'll notice that if you look at the extension, you have three pockets that will correspond to the three thumbscrews of the dome port, you'll also notice those three pockets on the port mount of the housing. Of course, all of these things line up and then the thumbscrews go into those pockets. When you look at the dome port itself, one of those three thumbscrews is going to correspond to what we call the top of your shade, and that's going to be the top of your housing. I'm going to align those three thumbscrews with these three pockets and I'm going to press that down into place and then I'm going to tighten the three thumbscrews of the dome port itself.

The thumbscrew that aligns with the top of the shade on your dome port will be at the noon position when installed on your housing.

Now let's turn our attention to the o-ring on the port mount of the housing. Just like the extension, we're going to use a little bit of lubricant, it doesn't take a lot of lubricant, and you're going to run that around the o-ring of the port mount of the housing. Loosen the three thumbscrews of the extension to make sure that they don't protrude to the inside diameter of the extension itself because you don't want the thumbscrews to catch the o-ring. Again, we're going to check the sealing surface and apply a little bit of that lubricant to that sealing surface, making sure it's clean and free of debris. Again, we have the thumb screw that corresponds to the top of the shade which is also going to correspond to the top of our housing, and if we look closely, we have a pocket for that thumb screw at the top of the house. Line that up and we can press the dome port down into place and then tighten the three thumbscrews of the extension to the housing.

You don't need to over tighten these thumbscrews, they’re there for retention, they don't increase, or make a better seal. The seal occurred when the two pieces were put together with the o-ring, these just keep it in place. Now we have a waterproof system for the Nikon Z6 II.

 

Pulling a Vacuum

One last step that I'm going to do is I'm going to use the optional Vacuum Pump and I'm going to create a vacuum inside this housing. I'll create a vacuum inside the housing, and I'll actually dive with it under a vacuum. This will do two things. It ensures that it didn't screw up something in assembly, didn't forget an o-ring, I don't have a small leak, etc. but also when I'm in the water it will provide a reinforcement to all the closing mechanisms. 

The vacuum system does more than just check for leaks, it also reinforces all the closing mechanisms of the housing. This is especially useful in rough water.

The vacuum port on the housing has a push button, when you push it, it releases the cap. That cap is tethered because you don't want to go diving without this cap installed. You'll also notice that there's two piston seal o-rings, I do apply a little of the Ikelite lubricant to that to make sure that this cap goes in and out of the valve nice and smoothly.

Remove the cap by pushing the button and then that will allow us to install the vacuum pump barb. You'll push it down and hear the barb click into place. Now we're going to use the hand pump to create the vacuum.

You'll notice that the needle will move up. Now, the number that you choose to go to is not what is critical. What is critical is that the needle will not move. If the needle's moving after you're done pumping that means that air is getting in. If air can get in, that means water can get in. 

I have a large dome port here, so it's going to be a larger volume of air. The more air I have, the more I have to evacuate. So I'm going to go ahead and pump this hand pump until that needle gets to 10mmHg. Once I've reached 10mmHg on the gauge, what I want to do is just watch the needle, make sure I don't have a steady drop.

Once I've checked that gauge, and I make sure that it's holding and it's not dropping on its own, what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove the pump from the housing, because what I want to do is I want to test this system and I don't want to test this system with the pump attached. Let's say there was a potential leak in the pump. Well, I'm not diving with the pump, I'm diving with the housing. 

So what I do is I check it and make sure I'm at 10mmHg and then I'm going to remove the barb and then I'm going to put the tethered valve cap back in. Now, ideally, you would do this the night before. Make sure my camera is charged, make sure I have a functioning SD card, I can take photos, and I will create a vacuum and this will be sitting by the door so I can get it on my way out. If you don't have that kind of time luxury, give yourself 15-20 minutes. But after that time, whether it be 15 minutes or overnight, we're going to come back in and we're going to push the button again to release the cap and we're going to reinsert the barb. After we do that, you'll notice that once you reinsert the barb the needle will jump back to 10mmHg. There is a very small volume of air in the tube, which might have a minuscule effect where it jumps to maybe 9.5, 9.75, but you're back to where you started.

If you notice that either that needle is dropping or there's a huge discrepancy in your reading, let's say the needle only went to 5mmHg, that means that there's a problem that we need to start investigating before we get in the water and find out why it didn't hold the vacuum.

Now I'm going to release the barb, reinsert the cap, and I'm going to dive with it under vacuum. With the clear housing back I have a full view of my camera and I can see everything inside, not relying on any sensors. I have a full visual on the safety of my camera and what's happening inside.

After diving I won't be able to open this system while it's under vacuum, I won't be able to pull the port off, I won’t be able to take the back off, I will have to release the vacuum in order to release the camera. I can do it one of two ways. I can reinsert the barb into the valve and I can use the release mechanism on the pump and I will release and let the air back into the housing. Or, if I don't have the pump with me, I can take this valve cap off and push a pencil or pen down in and depress the release valve and it will release the vacuum and I can open up my system.

There is one more thing I'll mention here: adding a USB-C Bulkhead. This lets me do two things: I can charge the camera and I can offload my images. A slight caveat to that with the vacuum is once you do take the cap off of the USB-C Bulkhead, you will have to release the vacuum and re-vacuum the housing when you put the cap back on. But that is well worth it in order to keep my system fully assembled. This lets me move forward throughout the week without disassembling the whole system. 

 

Additional Viewing

Nikon Z6 II or Canon R6 Housing? Back in the Water in Catalina [VIDEO]

Nikon Z6 II, Z7 II 200DL Underwater Housing Compatibility Update

How to Install a Trigger Extension on Your Ikelite Underwater Housing [VIDEO]

Underwater Cave Photography with the Nikon Z7 II

Nikon Z7 and 8-15mm Fisheye Underwater Photos with Compact 8 inch Dome

Checking for Housing Leaks Using a Vacuum Pump and Valve

When to Use a Compact 8" Dome Port Underwater

Nikon Z7 Full Frame Mirrorless Underwater Photos

Never Take Your Camera Out of the Housing! // USB-C Charging & Data Transfer Bulkhead [VIDEO] 

 

John Brigham is the Vice President & head of product development at Ikelite. He was born with a flair for design and an entrepreneurial spirit as son of Ikelite founder Ike Brigham. He worked his way up in the business and is a natural fit in the R&D side of things. John dives the equipment as much as possible to test product and put himself in the "fins" of the user. You may also find him on the other end of an email or phone call when you reach out for product advice and support. When he's not underwater he's flying drones, setting off rockets, training his German Shepherd "T2", and spending time with his family.