Which Housing For Canon 10D

A little background: Last December I flooded my D60 in a UK-Germany housing. It was not a biblical food, maybe 10-15 ml. Subaquatic Camera Repair cleaned the housing and it pressure tested OK, so presumably the flood was caused by user error. The D60 was toasted and no longer available, so DEPP replaced the D60 with a 10D. Whoopee. Unfortunately, the 10D does not fit in the D60 housing. I can't bring myself to sell the 10D. I could buy a used D60 for about $900 and use my existing housing, or I could buy a new housing for the 10D. My inclination is to buy a "less expensive" housing (i.e. Ikelite or Sea&Sea), sell the UK-Germany housing (after I test it underwater) and dive with the 10D. Any thoughts on this strategy are welcome.

My real question is this: does anyone have any experience to share, good or bad, with Sea&Sea or Ikelite housings. I'm under the impression that the Sea&Sea housings are heavy, and then there is the question of US distribution. As far as Ikelite goes, their new digital housings are compact, but is anyone using them?

10D information just added to our site today:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/2d10canon.html

Thank You Ike,

I like the design of your 10D housing. Seems to be light and functional with a lot of buttons available outside.

Is there any intention of extending the port line in the near future? maybe with a extra big fisheye dome? :-)

I also have the feeling that the Sea & Sea is very heavy and bulky handling in comparison.

The Ikelite 10D price is also great!

cheers,

Julian

The S&S housing for the D60 is very bulky relative to other housings available, especially the Subal and UK-Germany versions. The S&S housing for the 10d looks to be significantly smaller than the D60 version, so that's a plus. The Ike looks to be a lot smaller than the old MD version as well.

As for cost, there will be a significant difference between the S&S and the Ikelite, with the Ike version coming out much cheaper. The housing itself is about $600 cheaper. Ports are also much cheaper for Ikelite. For example, the Compact Dome Port for S&S runs about $480 list, where a dome port for Ikelite is less than $150 at B&H. Add in a couple other ports / extension rings and you'd be looking at a difference of $500-$600 for ports as well. There's definitely a limitation to the lens size that you can use with Ikelite ports, but most of the commonly used lenses can be used, such as the 50mm and 100mm macro, Canon 17-35(so probably 17-40L), Sigma 15mm FE. One lens that I'm not sure you could mount and still zoom would be the Sigma 12-24.

Just some food for thought.

Your other option, of course, is to house your Canon 10D in a UK Germany housing. This will particularly make sense in your case as you must still have some UK Germany ports from your D60 housing.

I have this setup ( the review is still available on this site) and I continue to use it without any problems. I have used Sigma 15mm FE, Canon 20mm, Canon 28-90mm, Canon 50m macro and Canon 100mm macro lenses with my setup. As we speak UK Germany is making me zoom rings for Canon 17-40mm and Tamron 28-75mm. ( I am really excited about this Tamron lens - it is awesome topside and I am hoping it will be equally impressive UW)

Cheers, Andre

How about buying a used D60 on Ebay? That would get you back in the water right away, and the camera is very similar to the 10D. Because underwater camera gear is so expensive and is out-dated so fast, I'm a strong proponent of not "upgrading" until important features are TWICE as good. While the 10D is better than the D60, I don't think it's twice as good.

Cheers

James

While the 10D is better than the D60, I don't think it's twice as good.

I'd have to agree with this. I couldn't justify the upgrade from a D60 to a 10D, just not enough of a difference, and the cost of getting a whole new housing really was the biggest problem.

Granted, you could keep your ports, sell the UK-Germany housing for the D60 and get a new UK-Germany housing for the 10D.

I've got a demo Sea&Sea 10D housing on my couch at home right now (Ryan is graciously letting me take a look at it). It is definitely smaller than the D60 housing but it isn't exactly svelte. With the ports included, the price for the Sea&Sea looks like it would be a bit less than twice the cost of a similar Ike setup. Still, the cost is about the same as just the Subal housing alone. At this time, neither will do TTL, though Ike has hinted that they are working on it. From what I understand, the Aquatica ICU thingy could probably be retrofitted into the Sea&Sea housing. One nice thing about the Sea&Sea housing is the ability to easily operate the shutter and the * buttons "single-handedly". INON may also have their housing on the street sometime in the next couple months. I'll probably be investing in something in the next two or three months but I'm holding off until I see what all my options are. I've already got the Ike synch cords for eventual digital TTL so maybe that, along with the price difference, will make up my mind for me. We'll have to see what shakes out.

Mike

PS If you want me to post some pictures of the Sea&Sea housing with the camera in it, let me know. Don't have any ports (Ryan probably figured if he sent a port along with it, the temptation to get it wet would have been overwhelming )

Yes, please post some photos Mike. I'm interested in this housing size.

Cheers

James

The * button on the 10D needs only a push. This is auto exposure lock, not focus lock, and holding it down accomplishes nothing. We provide a control for depth-of-field preview on front below lens removal button which will accomplish focus lock but is a convoluted procedure. Are we missing anything?

Yes, the * button can be re-mapped using custom fuctions. There are a couple different options, one common one is to use the * for autofocus and keep the shutter release button just for exposure / shutter release.

Here you go . . .

Hi Mike,

thanks for the infos. I really would like to see the Sea&Sea 10D housing photos.

I think Sea & Sea offers the option to install a 6 pin connector for E-TTL Canon Flashes.

Sea&Sea web site:

"To dedicate the housing with the Canon SPEEDLITE for E-TTL flash exposures, a 6-pin bulkhead connector can be installed on the top-left deck of the housing."

Sea & Sea only offers a small flash housing for the 220EX flash.

But maybe there is a way to use a different flash housing (UK Germany for example) with a bigger flash.

Julian

Does the * button need to be kept depressed if its function is set as focus lock? The depth-of-field button does lock focus, so would this be a better choice rather than give up exposure lock?

ike

Ike,

Some people (Eric for example), use the * button to activate AF rather than relying on a half-press of the shutter button. On the D60 there are 4 combinations of AE, AF, AE Lock, and AF lock possible between the shutter and the *. I personally don't use the * for AF, but some people do.

Tom

Does the * button need to be kept depressed if its function is set as focus lock?

Once you have CF4 set to 1, you press the button and it will focus; when you release the button, the focus is locked. What I like about the Sea&Sea is that both the shutter lever and the lever for the * button are easily accessible without moving your right hand. What I don't like is that the * lever must be pushed up the by thumb to press the button. I find that slightly uncomfortable, though others might not . . .

Will switch to a lever control like we did on the Rebel, and it should operate by pushing down with your thumb............