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Underwater Housing advice
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Hi all,
I’m wondering if anyone has any advice in this regard, I’ve been looking into underwater photography as I sometimes get a chance to go to some lovely locations and see beautiful marine life, but never have been able to photograph them.
First of all, I cannot afford something along the lines of an Ikelite case, and anyway do not go scuba diving, just snorkeling mostly.
I’ve been doing alot of research, and asides from the difficulties associated with underwater photography, I’ve discovered two types of waterproof ‘flexible housing’ -read plastic bag- from two companies, ewa-marine and Aquapac:
Aquapac:
http://www.aquapac.net/ukstore/waterproof-camera-camcorder-cases-588-0.html” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;Ewa-Marine:
http://www.ewa-marine.de/index.php?id=90″ onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;The cases would both fit my D5000, and I don’t think I’ll be using the flash much, so it makes no difference to me if it accepts a flash or not. The only thing I’m wondering about is the quality of the housings. Aquapac seem to have great customer service, but the amount of customers on their site praising their service for faulty products worries me about the quality of the housing itself. Ewa-Marine seems to have been around for longer.
I would just like to ask if anyone has used, or knows anyone else who has used either of these housings, or has any relevant advice?
Thanks very much in advance!
Ewa-marine has been around for ages and they’re ok. I don’t know AquaPac at all, but I’m sure they’re fine for what they are.
Soft housings of any description present a number of drawbacks:
Water pressure effects:
1)If you have a normal AF-(zoom) that doesn’t have IF (i.e. it extends whilst focusing or zooming) you’ll quickly run into problems once you leave the surface and you can even damage the lens motor.
2)Even a meter down it’ll become harder to access many of the camera functions that rely on “glove” access.
3) Indirect pressure effects on the camera body: E.g. I once had a Yashica FR1 SLR in one of those and when I went deeper than a few meters the shutter would lock up for unknown reasons. It would then automatically trip upon return to the surface.Flat-port: Due to the enlarging effect of water, any moderate wide-angle will become a standard lens making wide-shots impossible.
They are cheap and with e.g. a 14mm IF lens be ok. Also for a compact that doesn’t have the lens telescoping out on start up, they’d be ok (or put a hard tube inside around the lens).
I’d rather buy a compact camera in a small hard-case. Beware of “waterproof compacts”; they’re not that reliable; I’d put them into a housing anyway.
I’ve used at least half a dozen compacts in housings for work over the last decade to augment my Subal and other-SLR kits and always had good experience with Canon and Olympus compacts and housings and also Nikon Coolpix in Fantasea housings.
Just keep those O-rings painstakingly clean.Hi Fineprint,
That’s great advice, thanks, I had had a read of some of the limitations of flexible housings, I didn’t really fancy sticking my DSLR in one. I think the future may hold an Ikelite in store, but for now, I’ll use a GF1 in a flexible housing, the lack of zoom and less mechanical parts makes me feel better about the pressure issues.
Thank you very much for your help, much appreciated!
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