Fantasea Housings?

Hey people,

have been looking at a camera rig am willing to spend $2000 (GBP1000) and i came across Fantasea housings they seem as good as ikelite (60m full control etc) plus offer complete flood insurence. I.e if your housing floods in the first year they replace both the lost equipment and housing?

Their cheaper than ikelite as far as slr housings go and brings me into being able to buy an SLR

Has anyone heard of these?

seems an interesting option what with the flood insurence and all

Which camera are you looking at? I can give you further info on it.

Yes, they do do P&S, but only for CoolPix.

New housings are pretty nice, a lot of improvements. Flood insurance only covers the camera body, btw. 2 year warranty on the rest.

Jack

God knows which camera i'm looking for i seem to be trapped in some sort of digital camera hell.

I was all set for the G7 with an ikelite housing, but now having found fantasea i'm wondering should i dive into the SLR range and hang the expense, (i've been working in iraq the last year i deserve to treat myself).

The D40x looks like my sort of camera but the lack of servo seems to destroy it for divers.

The olympus 330 with its live view seems nice as well as canon rebel 400. And well then theres the Nikon D80 which looks HOT.

Then you have to get the lenses, which makes me think go back to the G7 can an SLR do macro and wide angle with just one lens.

Seeing as i'll be using the camera above water as well.

Why can't the camera companies make a SLR like all in one super camera i.e a point and shoot with SLR performance i'm sure the technology is out there, and us amateurs would lap it up

A few WetPixel shooters and others have tried using the Sigma 17-70 macro as sort of an all-in-one answer. It does sort of macro at 1:2.5 and sort of W/A at really 18mm. It's not an expensive lens and it's a good above water knock around lens as well. But I would say while it doesn't excel at any of those shots, it's a good gen purpose idea.

It does take a dome port and extension to set it up. It is available for the Canon 400xTi and the D80.

Really though, DSLRs are best set up for a specific type of shot and using discipline and creativity to find that shot. Specific lenses for macro and W/A give much better results, are sharper and faster.

I like shooting with the 60mm macro Nikor on my D80 along with a Woody's diopter for a poor man (that's me!) sort of 105mm. I can take fish portraits as well as 1:1 macro with one very sharp lens.

The Fantasea FD80 housing comes with a standard port that will work with the 18-70 as well as the 60mm macro. Add an extension ring to use the 105VR. Add a dome port and in combination with an extension ring you can use a wide variety of lenses.

Jack

Yeah am sliding away from slr while the quality is great and in the future i might it just seems to serious, a top end postumer is more like it