marelux housing

[boduoguo]

marelux recently released housing for the A7CII/R, which is cheaper than the nauticam, a bit bigger and heavier. Can anyone share their experience with marelux?

[Phil Rudin]

11 hours ago, boduoguo said:

marelux recently released housing for the A7CII/R, which is cheaper than the nauticam, a bit bigger and heavier. Can anyone share their experience with marelux?

I personally own Marelux housings for the Sony A7R V and A1 cameras and have field tested several others. Currently all of the Marelux housings use five inch dome ports which are interchangeable to any Marelux housing. Nauticam uses the smaller N 100 port system for the A7C II/R housing which allows them to be a bit smaller and lighter.

 

Nauticam makes high quality equipment but it is more expensive than the Marelux systems which are also high quality. In addition to the housing Marelux accessories, Vacuum, flash trigger, ports, extensions, arms and more are all a bit less expensive than with the Nauticam system and it all adds up. The bottom line is that both Marelux and Nauticam are excellent choices for the Sony A7C II/R cameras.

 

Be aware that I am the Senior Advisor for Marelux and also have a long history with testing Nauticam systems going back over more than a decade.

 

 

 

[ColdDarkDiver]

I have also used Marelux for 2+ years.  Like Phil said, not only the housings but all of the bits really add up to a big price difference in the end between it and Nauticam. Marelux have also been responsive with questions and I would buy housings from them again (and have... I own 2 of their housings now (R5, R6 II), and just about every port they sell). 

 

Marelux housings can be adapted to many of the really nice Nauticam optics (WACP/ WWL)  although one needs to ask people like Phil the right ports, etc.  if that is a concern for you.  

 

I actually really like that all of their housings use the same port system.  For me that is a selling point. I also have looked at "smaller" mirrorless housings and they are really not that much smaller.  The big part for me is the front element (dome or similar( and that is set by focal length and sensor size.  The housing sizes really differ between P&S and full frame mirrorless and then it is a bit of a wash.

 

If you have any specific questions let me know.  The flash trigger has been excellent. The pressure sensors work. I have 100? dives on them  and in challenging conditions and they have been great.  

 

I am not affiliated with Marelux and paid for my housings (if that matters - Phil is always very honest about things that work and those that don't even though he has a Marelux affiliation).

 

 

 

[ShallowSeasGallery]

Its also critical to note that Nauticam sells the blue rubber 1 inch ball rings separately in packs of ten, So you can effectively Guccicam out your rig for the gram even if its not the real deal, though it may clash with the Marelux green t-shirts, hats, luggage, influencer deals, and flags that come with each housing. 

 

 

(both are fine housings by the way, no shade to the marelux marketing program we love it!)

 

 

 

[Phil Rudin]

1 hour ago, ShallowSeasGallery said:

Its also critical to note that Nauticam sells the blue rubber 1 inch ball rings separately in packs of ten, So you can effectively Guccicam out your rig for the gram even if its not the real deal, though it may clash with the Marelux green t-shirts, hats, luggage, influencer deals, and flags that come with each housing. 

 

 

(both are fine housings by the way, no shade to the marelux marketing program we love it!)

 

 

 

The down side to the blue O-rings is that you can't Gucci out the black housings or strobes, with Marelux you have a choice of five colors for both housings and strobes which seem to draw a lot more interest than O-ring color. 

 

If you feel left out the T-shirts, Hats, Luggage and more are available at Marelux.co or your through the dealer network. 

 

I will also point out that a pack of 10 Marelux 25mm O-rings sells for $9.00 not $16.00 so some folks may want to move to green for Guccigram.

Edited November 15 by Phil Rudin

[Davide DB]

It is a pity that marelux does not have a housing for Panasonic GH6/7. it happens once in blue moon that two models have the same bodies.
I see that they supposedly have a housing for OM1 but it looks like just a rendering and there is no port chart for M43 either.
As I have already written in another thread, the GH7 does not seem to follow the glory of the GH5 despite being impressive in the video features it has. On the other hand, Nauticam's policy of pricing the housing like that of a flagship FF does not help, and the GH6 housing while being absolutely out of the market for its price, does not even have a joystick like Nauticam's flagship housings. What a shame.

[ColdDarkDiver]

RE

10 hours ago, Davide DB said:

It is a pity that marelux does not have a housing for Panasonic GH6/7. it happens once in blue moon that two models have the same bodies.
I see that they supposedly have a housing for OM1 but it looks like just a rendering and there is no port chart for M43 either.
As I have already written in another thread, the GH7 does not seem to follow the glory of the GH5 despite being impressive in the video features it has. On the other hand, Nauticam's policy of pricing the housing like that of a flagship FF does not help, and the GH6 housing while being absolutely out of the market for its price, does not even have a joystick like Nauticam's flagship housings. What a shame.

I would reach out directly to Marelux about anything that you are interested in as they tend to have a lot under development or even ready to ship that may not be visible on the website.  I have done that a few times and they are always responsive.  I also purchased a housing that was only a rendering from their site at one point (and was nervous about it) but the housing was excellent when it showed up.  So I would suggest not thinking the only things they have are what is visible on the website and it can be worth an email.  Since they follow one port size for everything, the charts tend to be more straight forward than having N80,N100,N120, etc and various adapters between them.

[Phil Rudin]

All kidding aside we know that Nauticam has an excellent line of products covering a wide range of cameras. I believe Nauticam's first product was introduced at DEMA in 2008, the attached Done port designed for white balancing for video.

 

UWPMAG.com first mentioned Nauticam in a product announcement, a Nikon D90 housing and 180 viewfinder in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue prior to the 2009 DEMA where they had that housing and an APS-C housing for a Canon camera. Now 16 years later the rest is history. Marelux will be attending its third DEMA later this month and I think they have rolled out a lot in less than four years. 

 

Regarding the OM housing and other M43 cameras at this time all of the Marelux housings use the same Series 5 (five inch) port mounting system from the $12,000.00 ALEXA Mini Cinema housing to the $2800.00 Canon EOS R7 APS-C housing. Many consider this an advantage over the Four port sizes for Nauticam (N85, N100, N120, N200) because the Marelux ports and extensions can be moved between all the camera brands. Like Nauticam when they first arrived, Marelux offers port adapters for Nauticam and other brands but not in a mount as small as N85. Marelux also have adapters to mount the excellent WACP-1/2, WACP-C and FCP wet wide lenses along with a port for WWL-1B and of course C/U lenses.

 

To move to M43 housings Marelux would need to develop a smaller port system useful with only a small number of cameras. While I think this will eventually evolve it is going to take time just like it has for other manufactures. At this time efforts revolve around new products like the excellent Apollo III and Apollo S strobes, LumiLink wireless trigger, support arm systems, video lighting and other more profitable products.

 

Regarding housings that except more than one camera Marelux has several including the Sony FX3/FX30, Sony A7R III/A7 III, ALEXA Mini LF/MINI, Z6 II/ Z7 II, EOS R6 II/R6, Sony A7C II/A7C and Atomos V/V 5".

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15 by Phil Rudin

[Sokrates]

What i think i remember, back in the days Nauticam was the cheaper aluminium housing when it hit the market. Now 15 years later, it has become one of the more expensive ones.

 

I feel like Marelux is doing the same, offering aluminium housing cheaper than competition. (Disclaimer, i just checked some Blue Water prices).

 

That being said, i havent tried Marelux housing underwater, but i have compared side by side A7RV Nauti/Marelux. Couldnt say anything bad about either, some different choices have been made in design, but i probably wouldnt have any problem picking Marelux if i started this hobby now.

I just have been using Nauticam for 10+ years, and its hard to change with all ports ect hidden away from family 🤣

[Davide DB]

5 hours ago, Sokrates said:

 

I just have been using Nauticam for 10+ years, and its hard to change with all ports ect hidden away from family 🤣

 

This always applies 🤣

 

[TimG]

5 hours ago, Davide DB said:

 

This always applies 🤣

 

Never a truer word……