Canon v. Ikelite housings

I am purchasing a housing for my Canno PowerShot and have found two compatable housings listed: the Ikelite 6147.8 UW and the Canon WP-DC9. Which one should I choose?

The Ikelite seems more sturdy and gives me more option, bu tI can't find a photo of the Canon WP-DC9 and the manufacture of the camera should make a good housing...in theory. Please help me figure this one out? I am a totaly newbie to underwater photography.

I own one of teh Canon housings (for the SD700) and I also have owned Ikelite housings (for coolpix).

The major difference is that the Canon housing is not meant to be serviced. Once it's useful life is up, who do you send it to for service? But they are afordable and well designed.

The Ikelite housings are a bit more rugged and you can get them serviced by the folks at Ikelite. Ikelite also has a tray/handle/strobe system that is made to work w/ their housings. Canon doesn't sell a handle/strobe system but you can get one from third party manufacturers like ULCS and Inon.

Cheers

James

I own one of teh Canon housings (for the SD700) and I also have owned Ikelite housings (for coolpix).

 

The major difference is that the Canon housing is not meant to be serviced. Once it's useful life is up, who do you send it to for service? But they are afordable and well designed.

 

The Ikelite housings are a bit more rugged and you can get them serviced by the folks at Ikelite. Ikelite also has a tray/handle/strobe system that is made to work w/ their housings. Canon doesn't sell a handle/strobe system but you can get one from third party manufacturers like ULCS and Inon.

 

Cheers

James

Thanks. That helped a ton. I think I am going to go with the Ikelite. It is only $50 more and it sounds like it has a better life span and future options.

Thank you so much.

I can't suggest which product to purchase based on quality because I've only used and have had experiences with the Canon housing but if price is an important factor than I would look at Shopping.com (http://www.shopping.com). The housings offered on the Canon site I believe are in the $200 range but off this website you are able to see the lowest prices from other distributors. It's still the great Canon product, but without the large mark up. Once again this is coming from a poor college kid, so if money isn't a huge deciding point, than possibly the Ikelite is the way to go. Just trying to shed some light.

I work with a guy who last year got a powershot S80 and the cannon housing. Within 6 months of diving ervry couple of weeks the housing buttons packed in and where we live in Thailand they couldn't repair it. So he ended up buying an Ikelite from malaysia and it's a solid piece of kit and has lasted nearly a year so far on dives to over 50m.

I am just about to order an Ikelite housing for my DSLR.

Shooping.com is a great site. Thanks for all your responses and advice. It is extreamly helpfully. Being a novice of underwater photography I am kind of just figuring it out, but I am excited to try stuff out on my trip. It is still over a month away, but I promise to take some pictures.

I also have an interview tomorrow with the Georgia Aquarium to become a part of their dive program. Wish me luck!

If you are not handy with drills or hack saws, then you'll be stuck with whatever housing brand's limitation on what strobe arms systems that can be easily attached to what you decide to get.

I chose the Ikelite system, while it's tray design favors their strobe arms I don't use them. I made my own, but I do use the ikelite ball joints on 1" and 1.25" balls.

If you really wanta know the difference between the Canon cheapie housing vs the Ikelite, take them both down to 100 feet of depth underwater and you'll see the difference in how the buttons operate or not. You'll see that the buttons don't match up nicely on the Canon housing since it's a thinner plastic housing so it'll flex more at depth. Ikelite is my choice even though it's a heavy housing and tray. It won't just hang on one of your BC D-rings like the Canon ones but I'm betting that the photos when using the Ikelite housing come out better.

For the strobe flash shadow problem the diffuser is meant to be used for the close up shots. This is a common problem with all point and shoot housings. Just some housings are more noticeable than others. I DO NOT use the diffuser but instead use the one that blocks the internal flash so my external flash will be the one to light the image only.

I am planning to drill out the handle grip on the Ikelite double handle tray so I can remove it to attach/bolt on my old Nikonos SB101 strobe to the Ikelite tray. When I go back to the needing the double handles I just bolt the handle back on.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uw_canon_powershots/ to see what's being done with the Powershot S70 and S80's. They have a photo area you might look at to see how the housings are rigged up.

Good Luck on your choices,

Charlie Eng

In your case, go with Ikelite, more versatility, great service, is possible to stack wet lens in the future, strobes, besides durability an a heck of a warranty.