7D housing Nimar Vs Ikelite

Hey there I'm looking to purchase my first underwater housing and I've got a couple questions. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with the Nimar housing and what they think of it? I know many people have used the ikelite and it's fairly good for the price point, just a bit heavy and bulky. The Nimar is a little bit lighter, and a little cheaper too so my interest has been sparked. Techinically I do have the money to buy a machined aluminum housing but I feel like for the price point a polycarbonate housing is the way to go; especially until I can make some money with it. One of my friends let me shoot his D7000 around Malapascua island a bit and got me hooked but his ikelite housing wouldn't actually communicate with his YS-110a's, is there any reason for that? Finally, would TTL metering work with the Nimar with YS-110a strobes or others?

Thanks,

Shane

Shane,

While I have no experience with Nimar, I do have with Ikelite and I would suggest looking into Nauticam, particularly if you intend to have access to all camera functions. Nauticam let's you access the little joystick behind your 7D, you can lock focus /exposure with one knob and shoot when you are ready, you can quickly maneuver the menus and you can adjust settings easier! as ergonomically speaking, it's superior in design.

I bought a 7D housing from Ikelite in 2009, amongst the first ones produced and enjoyed this very much, but it did not grow with me- switched to Nauticam going on to 2 years now and it's worth every penny to me. While its more money, you get more housing as it's well built.

My 2 cents.

Ricardo

Get a vacuum port installed! Expensive but so is your camera. My friend had a little leakage while diving Truk using the Ikelite housing. He later flooded it while diving at Grand Cayman. I WAS a 5D MII...now it is scrap.

Moisture detectors have thier limits and don't allow a pre dive check.

There are several vacuum systems that I know of that I have seen on the net that allow you to install it yourself or come with the housing:

The "SENTRY" by Underwater Camera Stuff:

http://wetpixel.com/...housing-sentry/

http://www.uwcameras...ry_installs.htm

Review

http://wetpixel.com/...housing-sentry/

Hugyfot:

http://www.hugyfot.c.../HugyCheck.html

Leak Setinal:

http://www.vividhous...ak-sentinel.php

Review

http://www.vividhous...tzone_OCT11.pdf

Gates has one also for their video housings but I can't tell you if you can reverse engineer their setup to fit any of your housings you are looking to buy.

I personally will be installing a vacuum setup for my Aquatica housing using the Sentry System.

You should also look into flood insurance from the Divers Alert Network (DAN):

http://www.diversale...ance/equipment/

Operating Experience (OE) from scubaboard:

blibecap

January 27th, 2011, 01:11 AM

I agree on user error responce but I think the third or forth issue is user error in the rinse tank. I never leave my camera in the rinse tank without my hand attached to the housing.

In regards to the port coming off easily or the latch coming open, with 10" of vacuum which is what the Housing Sentry works under, a force of Fifty pounds is required to break the seal on the dome port or the housing back. This is posted on the FAQ page. So if a latch comes open or a port lock comes loose it may not matter because until you release the vacuum on the housing you most likely will not be able to get the housing open anyhow.

With the vacuum seal you could theoretically dive with no latches and no port clips although, I wouldn't recommend it. With a vacuum on the system the deeper you dive the tighter the seal gets until you reach the design limits of the housing.

The idea of a port not as secure as I would like it to be was part of the reason for developing the housing sentry. Another part was to alert the person using the housing the there is a user error somewhere in the assembly process before it is exposed to water. I have had 3 situations where salt water was invading my housing and all three times it was user error. Fortunately for me it was a small leak that was caught before it did any harm.

You can search here and read about floods, if you want more information on the Housing Sentry there was a recent review here or take a look at the web site.

The Meltdownman

Thanks for your input guys! Actually i was looking at the Hugyfot housing for the 7D but can't find a North American dealer which is discouraging, any help there? Does anyone have any experience with this housing as well because I do like the looks of it, but are all the controls there (including the joystick?)

tresherlove,

i have a Ikelite housing for my D90 and last year i bought a Hugyfot housing for my new D7000.

Ikelite housings are not so bad as a lot of people write here and most of the floods occur because of user errors

and not because of housing failure. Ikelite changed the port latches to 4 now and 3 latches for the back plate.

There is a article regarding the housings for a D7000 but i think that it is helpful also regarding your 5D.

Regarding the Vacum check; i had it included with my Hugyfot housing and after some tests i am a big lover of

this system. The vacum check does first check for leaks and alert BEFORE you enter the water and second,

the vacum sucks the port and especially the o-rings in place, avoiding floodings on surface (where the mostly happen).

You can find the excellent write up here: http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/wetpixel-d7000-housing-review/

It is not about your camera but you will find a lot of useful generic informations.

The USA dealer for Hugyfot is:

Tackle Shack Water Sports

7801 66th Street North

Pinellas Park, Florida 33781

727-546-5080

800-537-6099

hugyfot@tackleshack.com

http://www.tackleshack.com

P.S.

Regarding NIMAR: they had a bad reputation here in Italy and it may be that they make better quality housing this times,

but as you live in the USA i would go with a Ikelite if you consider a acrylic housing.

I have a Hugyfot housing for my 7D, and it's great. What made me choose Hugyfot over many of the other brands was the vacuum system.

Yes, the joystick is available in the 7D Hugyfot housing.

Would the hugyfot be compatible with other ports and strobes with TTL? I called tackle shack and it was 2600 euros without any ports or anything, aside from the hugycheck system of course. The guy quoted me 1700 euros for the fisheye port with a focusing system which to be quite frank is absolutely ridiculous! There already without any lights, TTL connections or arms it's already at 4300 euros and I'm not sure I'm ready to invest that kind of money into a housing just yet. The phone cut out when he was talking about the TTL connections and strobes so I don't have an idea about price or compatibility. Thanks everybody for your help!

I shot with an Ikelite housing for three years and never had an issue. I think their housings are good value for the money. However, eight months ago I bought a 7D and decided on an Aquatica housing for it (mostly because of tech diving). Before I did though, I got to hold an Aquatica 7D housing, as well as a Nauticam and Subal and found the Aquatica to be the most ergonomic for me. Add to that, I asked a lot of shooters, whose opinions I trust, for their comments on Aquatica housings. All I heard was that from the Arctic to the Amazon, the housings never skipped a beat. That, and because there was/is a dealer within driving distance from where I live, sealed the decision. I dive just about every weekend and having an easy to use, rugged housing rated for the technical depths I take it to is great! It has changed the way I shoot macro and I even have suggestions and advice from both my dealer and the company (from Jean who is a member here on WP) on using lenses that aren't on the list (28/1.8, 50/1.4 and the 28-105/3.4-4.5)! As far as actually buying the housing and ports, my dealer spent a couple of hours going over everything with me - putting the housing together, setting up the camera menus to help with actually shooting u/w, how to maintain it and, even how to rig a DIY lanyard (that doubles as a handle for carrying and handing the rig up to the boat crew!). I'd suggest, that since you live in Canada, check out Aquatica as well. Lastly, if you're interested in chatting with my dealer (who has a great rep for great service) PM me and I can connect you. Also, I just want to say that I have no affilliation with Aquatica or my dealer, other than being a satisfied customer. I just believe that good products and good service should have their day in the press as well!

I guess t

One of my friends let me shoot his D7000 around Malapascua island a bit and got me hooked but his ikelite housing wouldn't actually communicate with his YS-110a's, is there any reason for that? Finally, would TTL metering work with the ..

I guess this question wasn't answered.... while an Ikelite housing would fire the S&S YS110a strobes, it would only do so with manual power settings from the strobe. The only way to get TTL with an Ike housing is to use Ike strobes. If you want to enable TTL in other housings, as long as the housing has an optical port, then you can trigger the YS110a in DS-TTL mode or if you want, in manual mode. The choice is yours and you can change the settings UW. Many shooters like to use TTL for macro subjects and manual for Wide Angle. You are also constrained by your on camera flash as to how fast you can take a follow up shot with TTL. You have to wait for that small flash to recycle properly. Whereas in Manual Mode, you can set the on camera flash to as low as 1/128th power and still get the external strobes to fire.

S.

Tresherlove,

if the strobe of your 7D will fire inside the Ikelite housing then you will be able to use any optically triggered strobe,

but the strobe will not pop up enough to fire - like at Nikon cameras - you will have TTL only with Ikelite strobes.

Ikelite strobes are excellent strobes and their internal TTL controller works very good.

To check current prices for Hugyfot housings have a look here: http://www.hydronalin.com/

The Acrylic 8 inch dome port is 499€ and the mini glass dome port is 950€

Yes, Hugyfot has various adapters to use ports from other manufacturers.

Chris

I vote for the Ikelite. I shoot Nauticam now, but have been a happy owner of several Ikelite housings. They are fantastic value for the money. Their products are well built and durable. You have the benefit of actually seeing what is going on inside of the housing. You see all of the controls and the camera and your settings (I really miss this with my aluminum housing). You see your orings and you see that there is no flooding or anything else funky going on, which translates to peace of mind. ikelite is as far as I know also the only (correct me if I am wrong) housing that has built in true TTL. I don't miss the auto TTL so much, but I really do miss the controller board because it offered a super easy way of dialing strobes up and down in manual mode quickly right from the housing. Now I have to fiddle with the actual strobes, which means a lot more reaching and twisting. The Ikelite housings are also near neutrally buoyant ( depending on your lens/port combo.) I never needed to add floatation to the Ikelite housings, which I have found I now have to do with my aluminum housing. Also, you'd be hard pressed to find another company that has customer service of the caliber of Ikelite's. They go above and beyond to take care of you. As an example, I sent my last housing in for maintenance earlier this year. What I got back was basically a new housing, they had changed out the entire front and all the controls on the entire housing. The handles/tray was the only part I could identify as "old". They also made a point of finding out when I would need to have the housing back and worked around that. This is just one example of the many good experiences I have had with them over the years.

So now I'm beginning to contemplate saying screw it to the 7D and going for a 5D III ! Part of the reason being the new ikelite 5DIII housing is only 5.4 pounds which is perfect and I do like the idea of being able to see into the housing pre-dive. Does anyone here have any experience with the leak sentinel first hand? Also, would drilling the housing for the leak sentinel void the warranty from ikelite?! It sounds like it could! The price would be about the same if I got the 7D and got an aluminum housing so it doesn't look like that would make much sense in the end, and the new AF system and low light quality would be fabulous too

Shane

I shot with Canon 7D in Nimar Housing, and for me is a good product, for this price you cant found better, surely the most expensive housing are also much more efficient, but as we all know it is not the reflex ( and the housing ) that will do the photographer ;-)