Housings

[tom]

Hi all,

I'm interested in playing around with a bit of underwater photography, and hopefully getting better shots than I have been so far with my Vivitar Cruisecam. I'm especially interested in close-up  / macro stuff. However, I can't justify spending a lot of money on a decent underwater setup.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 2000, which I'm pretty happy with - decent prints from it despite it only being a 2 megapixel cheapo. I find its macro mode works very well - you can focus on things only 4cm away.

So, I've been looking at housing options to enable me to take this thing underwater.

The only hard housing I've found that fits this camera is the Ikelite 6182, which looks just the business. Unfortunately, it costs more than the actual camera did (about £250 - then add the cost of strobes etc to get decent shots). It seems silly to spend that amount on what is only a 2MP camera; it would be better to spend  more and invest in a better complete system. But I'm not sufficiently serious about photography to be able to justify doing that.

The other option seems to be one of the £50 Ewa-Marine flexible housings:

http://www.ewa-marine.de/English/e-start-photo.htm

This is only rated to 10m, but that's the kind of depth I'm probably most interested in anyway, doing close-up snaps of marine life & basically just messing around rather than going for award-winning scenic shots etc. Also, there's the factor that there's more light in the shallows, so less need for strobes etc.

Has anyone had any experience of actually using one of these Ewa Marine things? Did it work? did it leak? what kind of depth did it go to before squeeze on the bag made the camera controls inoperable? I'd be very grateful for any information anyone has.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of another housing that will fit my camera (or has an Ikelite 6182 housing they want to sell cheap!) I'd be interested to hear about it.

Thanks,
Tom

(and yes, been checking ebay)

[lizardfish]

<font color='#810541'>My advice is limited but maybe it will help you.

If you want to be bold, you could try the flexible housing out. If you loose your camera because of a leak - that will be a good excuse to upgrade! 2 MP really is a little shite now compared to what you can get for a reasonable price! Have you searched for any reviews on this housing? Sometimes you can find some good advice on the web.

I wouldn't take a 10m rated housing in the water with any camera I really wanted to keep! 30m rating is a minimum IMO.

I use a Sony DSC P1 - digital. 3.2 MP. with a housing that costs an extra 150 - 200 squid. I have taken this to 33m and it only had a rating of 30m! They do newer versions of this set up with up to 4 or higher MP cameras so check out the sony website or you local dealer for new models that come with marine pacs.

I'll post some of my pics on this site soon that I took with this camera and let you know when I do. So you can see some examples. I am very happy with it - and it is pretty good for macro.

Also, check out the Pentax digitals. They do a 4 MP one with marine housing unit for a reasonable price. This looks sweeeeeet!

If you have the money you could and like the Nikon range. You can get a Coolpix 5000. One of my dive buddies has this model with a housing and she loves it. (If you are interested I can find out what type of housing she has as I am not sure what it's called).

Hope this helps.

When my Sony cybershot dies... I am planning on getting a pentax with marine housing.

Lisa

[JohnK]

Try www.camerasunderwater.co.uk and do a search for your camera. Dont bother with the 10m `housing`

[lizardfish]

<font color='#810541'>Tom,

See new topic in this forum - &quot;Maldives pics&quot; for examples of what I have managed to achieve with my Sony cybershot in it's cheap (ish!) marine housing.

[Simon TW]

The sony shops have a deal on a DSC-P12. 5MP and it can do a full 90min video, The marine case is to 40 mtr.
You can't see my pics cos I haven't got it wet as yet.

If yur only messin around, check your insurance is new for old, try the bag if it does yur camera in then your on yur way with a cheque to change to a better one. Win Win.

Get wet soon
Simon

[tom]

Thanks guys -

Lisa, if I could get shots like yours I'd be very happy with them. I'm going to check out the camera Simon mentioned. I don't think it's worth getting a proper housing for my current camera.

Will have to check on my insurance policy... or wait for christmas

Tom