Digital housing beyond 70 m

I would like to know is someone has ever used a subal or seacam photo housing beyond the 70 or 80 meters depth limit announced by the manufacturers ?

One of my clients has used a Seacam S2Pro housing to 135m. This was with a strengthened Superdome (120m rating). He reported that whilst the housing worked OK its controls were somewhat tighter than normal(!) but while his flash worked fine, no adjustments could be made as the controls could not be operated due to being locked in place.

Darek uses a standard Seacam down to 90m, here are some examples of his work:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15697

However, I wouldn't take my housing that deep without consulting with the manufacturer first.

Luiz

Just for information purpose, Nexus housings are designed for max.75m

& dome port bursted at 90m during tech dive.

Sam

Darek uses a standard Seacam down to 90m, here are some examples of his work:

 

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15697

 

However, I wouldn't take my housing that deep without consulting with the manufacturer first.

 

Luiz

Hugyfot housings are rated (and tested) 80-100 metres, depending on model.

/christian

Hugyfot housings are rated (and tested) 80-100 metres, depending on model.

 

/christian

... and a 150m-rated version is also available upon request, which uses stiffer springs for the control to eliminate/mitigate the problem mentioned by Paul in the above post.

Aquatica housings have always been popular for deeper photography. Not sure of the ratings.

Alex

Aquatica is rated to 100m

I think the latest Aquatica's are rated to 90m, no idea why the change. Mine seems happy enough at 120m though, no issues with buttons or springs.

I think the latest Aquatica's are rated to 90m, no idea why the change. Mine seems happy enough at 120m though, no issues with buttons or springs.

Depth rating varies not so much because of the material, but because of the layout of the LCD, spacing between push button etc. some model with very large LCD and very tight layout of controls button may be harder to certify to the behond 100 meter mark, its not just how thick but how much space between control holes and viewing port surface area and blah, blah, blah. I recommend talking to the manufacturer about deep diving, we have some of our housing routinely going to 150 meter, but they are modified for that purpose.

Hi Eric

I regularly take my SUBAL with FE2 dome port on dives 60m-70m and it works beautifully. Deep photography is one of the main reasons I spent a king's ransom to acquire a SUBAL, otherwise I would have bought a plastic housing... (could have bought 2 for the price difference!)

Jean.

Though I cannot recommend using any manufacturer's housing past its depth rating, one of the reasons I chose Subal was because I periodically enjoy many dives in the 80m+ range and did not like the affects I found with some 'other' quality housings. If your housing manufacturer offers it, you may specify that you would like it designed slightly more for your deeper diving.

Safe diving!