Easydive vs S&S housing

Does anyone have experience with Easydive housings? The model Leo will fit both Nikon D300 and D700 which is a great advantage compared to their competitors. They also use the USB port on the camera to control it. I am planning to buy an S&S housing for my D300 but the Easydive housing looks very interesting.

http://www.easydive.eu/eng/leo.html

Gunnar

It seems to me that putting the controls in the handle, as Easydive does, rather than on the housing would greatly simply housing design and fabrication. Why don't other manufacturers use this technique; i.e., what are the downsides?

It seems to me that putting the controls in the handle, as Easydive does, rather than on the housing would greatly simply housing design and fabrication. Why don't other manufacturers use this technique; i.e., what are the downsides?

Most housings simply use the camera's pre-existing functions and have buttons or knobs to access them by lining them up (also why most housings are a one-to-one fit for a particular camera model).

Easydive is instead using electronics to access the camera's functions - which allows them to move buttons to wherever they want. There's clear benefits and detriments to this approach. You definitely lose access to a bunch of camera functions, which might be an issue for many shooters.

I think this sort of approach is probably the "future" of dSLR housings, but it's got a ways to go before we see super widespread adoption of it. If nothing else, there's obvious complexity involved and externally-exposed electronics.

Housing electronics WILL fail sooner or later. A mechanical housing is much more reliable, & can be worked on in the field. If you go for electronic controls you better also buy a lot of spare parts.

How will you zoom? I don't see any zoom knobs....

I found this description on their web site for the USB control:

USB FotoControl consists of 1 USB board able to operate up to 2 push-button panels. It is installed into housings. Every electronic USB FotoControl has 6 magnetic buttons so that it can select up to 12 controls.

A standard push-button panel includes: 1 USB board and 1 FotoControl push-button panel to select the following controls: time + / - , diaphragm + / -, preliminary shutter release, shutter release, Iso + / -, mode switch, exposure meter.

The additional push-button panel can be installed at a later stage. Its controls can be programmed on demand to meet customers' needs. Furthermore the push-button panel can be reprogrammed. For this reason it can be adjusted to new equipment.

Housing electronics WILL fail sooner or later. A mechanical housing is much more reliable, & can be worked on in the field. If you go for electronic controls you better also buy a lot of spare parts.

Yeah, I think jc nailed it. On a trip two years ago, one of my fellow divers was using a Light and Motion D100 housing. In a couple of days it was Dark and Still. The Easydive looks pretty sexy, but must cost a fortune. It also has a cylinder & protective bracket below the housing that would prevent getting close to the bottom.