Housings suitable for freediving

I'm a freediver that's starting to get into photograpy in the water. I have little interest in getting out the SCUBA gear again, so I plan to do wide and wideish-angle photography in natural light on breath-hold. I won't be going any more than 30m in my home waters of New Zealand and nothing deeper than 50m in blue water of Dahab & Bahamas.

What I'm hoping for is some advice on compact yet neutrally-bouyant (with dome + 10-17 FE for a start) enclosures for DSLRs. Drag is a real concern when freediving, but equally additional bouyancy is not really an option. I'm shooting a D70 topside, but don't have a significant investment in glass and would consider going Canon if there was a significant advantage. So far I've been looking at a D90 for weight reasons, plus a Nexus, Hugyfot or Sealux housing. Obviously price is a concern and second-hand gear would be great, but suitablity takes precidence.

What would people recommend?

I've used my 40D in an Aquatica housing (no strobes) for feediving a few times, without any issues. Although if your wanting to shoot natural light, you may want to look at a full frame camera, such as the Nikon D700 or Canon 5DmkII, as they're better at high ISO.

Another brand of housing worth looking at may be Sea Tool. They're one of the smallest and lightest around.

Good luck with it!

Ryan.

This might be of some help to reduce drag... Ryan's mini fisheye dome

If it's of interest I have a Aquatech housing which is sutable for the 5D etc. got it for windsurfing shots but only used it once as its better for diving, got a couple of ports to go with it

If it's of interest I have a Aquatech housing which is sutable for the 5D etc. got it for windsurfing shots but only used it once as its better for diving, got a couple of ports to go with it

Thanks, but my quick glance at their website indicated they're only for shallow depths unfortunately.

photovan: Thanks for the link. Looks like there's a Nexus dome, but the one Ryan is talking about is still a POC. That sort of thing would suit me down to the ground though.

aussie: How was it drag and bouyancy-wise? Did you find yourself fighting it much while diving or shooting? Full-frame is a consideration, but price goes up, housing size increases, lenses get more expensive and so on. I don't think I'm ready to blow that much just yet. As for the SeaTool, the two things putting me off are the huge frontal area because they allow the internal flash to be used and the fact that they mention that the housing is negative in the water (200g for the D300). It doesn't specify what gear this is with though.

Chrismar,

Because a housing has a rigid shape, it will displace the same amount of water at any depth and not change its bouyancy. If your housing is too negative, add a little flotation to make it more neutrally bouyant. I would suggest making the floatation out of a marine styrofoam such as that use by the fishing industry for the floats at the top edge of trawling nets. These floats can usually be bought at a ships chandelry (sp?) in cities that are also ports for fishing fleets. The styrofaom is soft enough it can be machined easily and final shaping can be done with a rough file.

I made such a floatation device for one of my Seacam F5 housings that my ex-girlfriend used for four years. She had trouble with its negative weight during regular diving, causing wrist aches. With the flotation added, she could one-hand the housing with an attached pair of strobes. See attached photo of Pat shooting a picture of an octopus in Bali. The floatation is the "whitish" layer between the black dome port and the silver housing body. This shape in this position added insignificant "drag" when carrying it underwater.

Fred

Chrismar,

Because a housing has a rigid shape, it will displace the same amount of water at any depth and not change its bouyancy. If your housing is too negative, add a little flotation to make it more neutrally bouyant. I would suggest making the floatation out of a marine styrofoam such as that use by the fishing industry for the floats at the top edge of trawling nets. These floats can usually be bought at a ships chandelry (sp?) in cities that are also ports for fishing fleets. The styrofaom is soft enough it can be machined easily and final shaping can be done with a rough file.

I made such a floatation device for one of my Seacam F5 housings that my ex-girlfriend used for four years. She had trouble with its negative weight during regular diving, causing wrist aches. With the flotation added, she could one-hand the housing with an attached pair of strobes. See attached photo of Pat shooting a picture of an octopus in Bali. The floatation is the "whitish" layer between the black dome port and the silver housing body. This shape in this position added insignificant "drag" when carrying it underwater.

Fred

Chrismar,

Because a housing has a rigid shape, it will displace the same amount of water at any depth and not change its bouyancy. If your housing is too negative, add a little flotation to make it more neutrally bouyant. I would suggest making the floatation out of a marine styrofoam such as that use by the fishing industry for the floats at the top edge of trawling nets. These floats can usually be bought at a ships chandelry (sp?) in cities that are also ports for fishing fleets. The styrofaom is soft enough it can be machined easily and final shaping can be done with a rough file.

I made such a floatation device for one of my Seacam F5 housings that my ex-girlfriend used for four years. She had trouble with its negative weight during regular diving, causing wrist aches. With the flotation added, she could one-hand the housing with an attached pair of strobes. See attached photo of Pat shooting a picture of an octopus in Bali. The floatation is the "whitish" layer between the black dome port and the silver housing body. This shape in this position added insignificant "drag" when carrying it underwater.

Fred

Oops! Seem to have added it twice.

Fred

the d300 is 200g heaver than the d90 so the d90 seatool may be perteft for you.