I guess any discussion about the pros and cons of the various DSLR housings on the market is always going to be controversial. But I can only say if you're planning to lose one underwater, then Ikelite is not a bad way to go. Firstly it's cheaper than its aluminium (sorry, aluminum) counterparts, and secondly if you eventually find it again there's likely to be a lot less damage corrosion-wise.
Last month I lost a D70 in an Ike housing in 20 metres of water (don't ask - long story, too embarrassing). It was adorned with a fairly expensive nikon lens, a DS125 and YS120 slave. Despite lots of searching it stayed lost until a few days ago, three weeks submersion to the day.
So how did it fare? Well, pretty good actually. The area where it was lost had some big seas go through over the period but luckily the damage was only cosmetic – some scratches on the housing body and strobes, but none on the port. The metal push controls and strobe connectors were a little discoloured but not corroded. I always put a smear of petroleum jelly on the metal threads of the strobe connectors, and they unscrewed easily. Importantly there were no leaks whatsoever – the camera still fired when it was found, as did the strobes once fresh batteries were installed. Even the aiming light survived its ordeal, and after an overnight soaking, strip, clean and reassemble the outfit was ready to go again.
So given this experience I'm pretty happy with the Ikelite. But of course, if you're not planning to lose your rig then you might as well disregard all of the above!
