fantasea fd70

well the times nearly here to purchase a new housing now i could go down the ikelite route at extra cost with going for ds125 strobe or for a lot less go the fantasea route and get housing for d70s housing for sb800 flash and a sb800 flash for under a grand now i know im very limited as to port options in comparison to ikelite but i would like to here from any one whos got a fantasea housing and not from some one who works for them and give me an honest opinion please

i personally wouldnt put a camera of mine in one, but that is only my opinion. I witnessed one flooding a few weeks ago, the chap of whom it belonged, was not impressed, and was missing out on some excellent schools of hammerheads. I would and i am going to pay the few extra pounds and put my 350 D in a nice little sea and sea.

well to begin with when i emailed fantasea the chap who emailed me back didnt seem to know his arse from his elbow when it came to what ports would be compatable for the different lenses which was a little perplexing so i was on the brink of giving up but im a fair sort of guy and thought if there was anyone out there to share there experiance i would give them a fair crack of the whip. thanks to those so far who have contacted me on this subject if theres any more who would like to contribute please do

I also have a D70 and wanted a relatively inexpensive housing. I did a lot of researching the web, and a lot of posts about Fantasea were negative. I emailed Fantasea for their response but got no reply. I bought a used Ikelite with dome port. It seems pretty solid, albeit bulky. But the price was right.

We do our best to respond to all inquiries we receive, sometimes the load is overwhelming and a very small fraction may go unanswered, this is not out of policy but out of oversight and overland. Michael, please write to me personally at howard@fantasea.com

Hermit Crab, there are so many combinations of lenses and port combinations that sometime we just DO NOT know the answer and it we advise that we do not know. We are constantly developing and improving our product line and have just added a whole new generation of ports, now with zoom control from a wide angle dome port to 105mm macro ports.

We have also added port ring extenders which will allow for a much larger range of lenses to work with Fantasea housings (and others as well) You can see all at this link http://www.fantasea.com/catalogues/fantasea_customers.pdf or through our website at www.fantasea.com

We are now releasing a new generation of D50, D70 housings together with Canon 350D and Olympus E330 housings. This new generation are substantially improved and upgraded versions of our first generation D70 housings with new trigger design, new port design, and much more. The same for dedicated Strobe housings for Nikon, Canon and Olympus Speedlights allowing for true TTL performance.

We are a relatively new company dedicated to affordable and reliable uw photo products and solutions. We have helped make uw photography more affordable and more popular by creating products that allow our customers to learn and enjoy underwater photography

without having to mortgage their houses. Also, we stand by our products and are the only company in the world that offers a free Flood Insurance program (Through DEPP). If the housing fails then the customer is compensated with a new camera.

There is always room for improvement and we are improving all the time, we also follow the market and are sensitive to it. We read the reviews, participate in the Forums and spend a lot of time underwater photographing and testing our products. If along the way, some of your emails were not answered in time or properly then I apologize.

Howard

Fantasea Line

Howard:

Thank you for participating in these discussions and thank you for your persistance in trying to get reasonably priced housings to the market. However, I think you need to know that it doesn't appear to be a small fraction of your email inquiries that don't get answered. I and a couple of folks I know have sent numerous emails to Fantasea and not gotten responses. Is there a mail server somewhere that isn't being looked at perhaps.

As for Port/lens configurations, I understand that they might not be available but in reality there are only 5 or 6 lenses that make up 80% of the use underwater and you should know which sets are available for those.

As I said, I think you guys are doing a good job trying to get relatively inexpensive housing available but I think you need to beef up your back-office support systems.

Bill

Thank you Sting Ray,

We are doing just that. We have added more staff for Customer Service, Janice@fantasea.com and Barbara@fantasea.com

for direct contacts.

As for the lenses, we can already handle most all of the popular wide angle and macro lenses. You can see the ports in our website at http://www.fantasea.com

I hope that no more of your mails will go unanswered.

Safe Diving

Howard

Howard:

I emailed to the addresses I found at Contact us on your website. As I recall I wrote to both the info address and the usa . As it turned out I also discovered that Ikelite allowed me to zoom the kit lens underwater , which I wanted to do. That shows how little I knew when I started this process. I am not a pro and was looking for something to use once a year while on vacation, so I didn't want to get into spending a lot of money. I do think the idea behind your company is a good one for people like me, so I hope you can develop a good reputation and following.

Mike thanks, we are trying our best.

Howard

I'm new here so my reply is a bit late but I felt I had to comment this thread.

I've been a customer with Fantasea for about two years now. I have had the CP-4 Pro, the FP-4 and now I hve ust ordered the FD-70N that I'm waiting for. The only reason for changing has been my wanting to "upgrade"...

I have had no problems what so ever with the housings and my experiences with Customer Support (mailings) have been impeccable. Howard and his staff has been fast and very customer oriented.

So I can seriously recommend Fantasea!