SLR Camera Housings Buyers Guide (revisions coming soon)
By James Forte Copyright 2007, Do not reproduce with out the permission of James forte

Whether it's snorkeling around a off shore reef to capture images for your photo album or diving the deep wrecks of Truk "Chuck" Lagoon to days housing market has a choice for you. Some of you may already own a land SLR or point and shoot camera that can be made water proof by a number of manufacturers housings. Or maybe you have been taking pictures with an amphibious Nikonos or Sea & Sea motor marine camera and are looking to take advantage of some of the features of modern SLR cameras. Advantages to underwater housed cameras include auto focus, through the lens viewing, greater lens selection, and much more that we will try in cover in this guide to underwater camera housings.

The first consideration in underwater housings is the camera your going to take under with you. If you already own a camera and are very familiar with it's use on land you may look into housing it. If you find out your camera does not offer much selection in the way of housings or controls underwater you would like to access you may consider buying a new one. All though there are many brands of cameras on the market I recommend the purchase of a Nikon or Canon Digital SLR with auto focus, motor drive, sophisticated meter patterns, program modes and other valuable features that make photography easier today. Nikon and Canon camera lines have more housings available for them than any other camera manufacturers. Make sure the housing and camera you choose meet your needs and future needs for most photographers the camera arsenal only expands into the desire for more control and lens.

I have compiled information on a few of the more prominent manufacturers of housings today and will get you started in the housing selection process. As always with any guide only so much can be written with in the constraints of an article. To get more specific information and find out more about housings you should contact Cameras Below. Our staff are photographers them selves and have a wealth of knowledge based on personal and customer experiences. To get you started I have put together some of the different makes and features of housings and how do they compare?

Housing construction is what determines depth rating, ability to protect the camera, size and weight. The simplest form of protection for the widest range of cameras are EWA Marines's flexible PVC pouches. EWA housings can in case a variety of cameras including point and shoot cameras as well as advanced SLR's to limited depths with minimum set up and cost. A simple point and shoot camera with built in flash can be taken to depths of 30 ft. A professional DSLR with top mounted flash can be taken to depths of 90 ft. in their master series housing. For most when thinking of housing a camera we picture a hard box like case with knobs and buttons like the professionals use. The most commonly used material to accomplish this type of construction is hard plastics. Plastics of the likes of Lexan, ABS and glass-reinforced polycarbonates are used to create hard rigid shells that allow for more control and deeper depths to be obtained. Rigid cases also allow for the use of interchangeable ports, underwater strobes, strobe arms and handles to help in the creative control of your photography. Name brands included in the making of plastic housings are Ikelite, Olympus and several euorpean makers. The least amount of control in rigid cases are point and shoot housings which are produced by the camera manufacturers. Ikelite is the most well known of the plastic housing manufacturers offering a variety of full control housings for most popular DSLR manufacturers at a price range even the budget-minded photographer can afford.

Aluminum housings, when put to the test for durability, features, size and ease of use most pros would agree to use nothing less. Names you can expect to run into in aluminum construction are Subal, Sea&Sea, Aquatica, Nexus, and Seacam. All of these housing makers have focused on the growing popularity of DSLR's from Nikon and Canon. The unique differences of these housings we will try and sum up for you as we continue down the housing path.

Viewfinders, controls and LCD displays are what makes the difference between housing makers. Today housing manufacturers have added full frame viewfinders and some even magnify the image. What this means is that most cameras when put into a housing lose some portion of the viewfinders viewing area, usually the corners. The different housing manufacturers have come up with accessory add ons for there housings that shrink the overall image a small percentage to gain view of the corners and display information in the cameras viewfinder. Magnified viewfinders are now becoming popular in which the viewfinder image is increased in size by as much as 300% and set back from the housing for ease of viewing through your mask. Each manufacturers design differs slightly from the type of installation to viewable area. It's highly recommended you look (physically if possible) at this feature as an important consideration when purchasing a housing. Display windows also differ between the manufacturers. For instance one maker does not allow for information on your cameras data back to be read while another manufacturer allows for that information to be read as well as accessed.

Controls and Features

Controls and Features of the various manufacturers. While all housings allow for a cameras shutter to be tripped, there is different ways to access this control and the other controls that may be needed or desired. Research should be done on which camera controls are the most useful, and a housing should be selected do to it's access to these controls and your comfort with accessing them. For manual photographers essential controls might be focus, aperture and shutter. For those interested in shooting with modern, electronic SLR cameras, the range of controls might include program modes, focus modes, metering patterns, data back operation and what ever else a camera may have to offer.

Some extra features that could be over looked include the ability to connect more than one strobe to the housing. Most housing manufacturers allow for at least two separate sync sockets. Makers usually only allow there strobes to be attached via a propreitary sync cord, some offer options such as Subal housings. A built in moisture alarm that flash's off if moisture enters the housing is typical of most housings. Handles and handle comfort can some times be over looked. Be sure the grip is comfortable and that your able to access the controls with ease from the handles.

Port considerations design and types. Ports allow for different camera lens to be used in the housings. They are usually described as dome or flat, glass or acrylic, and are chosen for the type of lens beings used. The optical quality of both glass and acrylic is comparable, how ever quality control on glass is higher on the manufacturers level. Glass is considerably more expensive than acrylic, so don't be shocked when you see some of the glass dome prices. Glass ports tend to be less susceptible to scratching, however shallow scratches on either type of port are generally "filled-in" by water, and image quality is not sacrificed. Another factor in choosing a port is mount type. Mount type determines how easily a port can be changed when going to a different lens. Of the housings mentioned Aquatica and Nexus use threaded mounts while Subal and Sea & Sea use bayonet mounting. Ikelite use there own unique style of mounting ports to add to your choices. And last but not least in port construction is the ability to control focus, a consideration some ports allow for, while others don't.

As a rule of thumb, flat ports typically house macro lens from 50mm to 200mm; while dome ports are used for wide angle and zoom lenses. Note that zoom lenses are capable of going into some flat ports and macro lenses can go into dome ports with few changes in the lenses capabilities. For this reason some ports are capable of holding more than one lens reducing the number of ports needed to be purchased. Another option for allowing a port to accept multiple lenses are extension rings, again reducing the number of ports one must purchase. Typically ports designed specifically for a lens optimize the quality and control of that lens and are recommended when ever possible.

A few last Details to consider before buying a housing and going underwater, it is a good idea to get your hands on a few different models to compare function and access to the controls. A housing may have lots of controls , but if your not able access them comfortably then you probably won't use them. Only by handling the housing can you find this out. Every photographer has varying needs of control, and most find that it's best to have access to as many camera functions possible. With this in mind talk to several photographers who have different systems to find out what they like or dislike and where they have found the best service. You will be adding, ports, gears, etc. as your lens arsenal grows and need to service your housing every couple of years so it's a good idea to find the right dealer who can provide you with accessories and service you can count on.

Our favorite underwater housing maker is Subal.