I understand that Ikelite is not Bentley of underwater housings, but it is the one I have at the moment for my Sony RX100II. Aside from minor usability issues - it will work fine for me.
However one piece bothers me a lot, for perhaps irrational reason - the deflector. It is huge, leaves marks on the port every time I put it on, and tends to caught on something. So I tried to create deflector myself that is velcroed to the housing. Issue is that some light still goes over the top of it (some, but less, also visible with Ikelite own deflector).
Questions: Is it relevant? My internal flash is not as powerful as the two strobes that I am using with the housing, and most of the light from the internal flash is deflected. Would that minor light spill be a problem?
I will probably have time for one or two dives during the upcoming vacation and would hate to have light issues on top of me still learning the ropes underwater.
Thanks!
The problem can be with backscatter caused by the flash being so close to the lens.
Thanks for the reply. I am trying to figure out what amount would not produce back-scatter to the level that it would affect images. For instance when I had Olympus Pen housing - I could not see internal flash. With Ikelite/RX100II housing I can clearly see flash going off when looking at the housing from the front.
If any light leaks forward to in front of lens it can illuminate particles and thus producing avoidable backscatter. When I owned a Ike compact
housing I ended up taping up the inside front and top of the housing. Stopped any light coming forward and worked a treat.
You could test by taking some shots into a mirror. Forward projected light would be very obvious in the images.
Cheers,
Jim.
Thanks! I think this is pretty insane for a company that makes underwater photo equipment for living to put a flash in the middle of crystal clear box without any attempt to shield the light from the internal flash. Even with the provided deflector you can see light bouncing inside the housing.
