Aquatica for EM1??

Just got very disappointed with Subal's housing for the EM1. Looks good but just not priced competitively... so its time I move on to another housing maker...

Nauticam is just too heavy for me so my hopes now fall on Aquatica.

Does anyone know the weight of Aquatica's housing and new 8" dome?

Thanks

Hard to believe it can be much lighter than the EM-1 from Nauticam; aluminum being aluminum and wall thicknesses determined by depth ratings. The Nauticam is 1.8 kg with handles, I see that the Aquatica weight is to be determined (don't they have a scale).

Bill

Triggerfish, As the final configuration for the AE-M1 is still being determined (there were 2 handle configurations considered for it,) there is no weight yet set for the housing, however I will try to get some info tomorrow to you.

I've just been considering buying a new setup mow that I have time to use it again and was looking at the EM-1 and the Subal housing.

I need something that can get down to depth's of around 120 mtrs and subal have a 120 mtr option, and I will only be shooting WA.

Triggerfish what were you disappointing with?

Any advice folks on housings for the EM-1 would be greatly appreciated

Regards

Stuey

The AE-M1 bare weighs in at 2.5 lbs. If you add the handles and the 8"dome, the weight totals 5lbs or 2.27 kg.

Hope this helps in your decision.

Regards

Stewart

I think for the comparisons to be meaningful we need the weight in water - domes hold a lot of air!

I was asked for weight, not in water or in air. Water weight can be easily negated by dome flotation and foam floats. Moot point IMHO.

S.

If weight is really a concern, I’d suggest looking at the EM10 rather than the EM1 camera and housing.

Stuey60 - If you are considering a Subal housing what I can tell you is that you can't go wrong. They are always very very high quality.

Thank you Stewart for the information. I assume you work for Aquatica (?) - Congratulations to Aquatica, its good to see brands (other then Nauticam) bringing innovation to the market - and your new 8" dome seems to be "sweet". Unfortunately the housing is still to heavy for me. My SLR Subal weights 2 Kg (with handles). The only reason I want a new one, and Im changing to mirrorless is because I want to travel light and want a light set that I can take walking/snorkelling.

The problem with the EM10 Alex is the slow flash sync speed. I think maybe the GX7 would be a better choice...

Thank you all for your input

If you are anywhere near Bournemouth, you are welcome to come and see the housings side by side.

"My SLR Subal weights 2 Kg (with handles)"

​Don't know what housing you have but most of the slr subal housings are like 2.5 KG without any ports. I think the subal guys must not have a scale either.

​I would have thought that you could calculate the weight of the housing without actually making it from the Solidworks file, if you know the density of Aluminium (which is pretty easy to find).

Bill

Keep in mind that the total weight includes the housing, camera, lens, port, extensions, arms, clamps, strobes, etc. If the housing weighs 1kg less, but everything else is the same it won't make a huge difference. Similarly, if other components of a smaller format are lighter still, it can matter as much or more than the housing itself. For example, the lenses and ports are much smaller and lighter for a m43 system compared to a DSLR. For example, those 9+ inch domes for shooting rectilinear wide angle on full frame are pretty massive.

I miss read Stewarts post. He says "The AE-M1 bare weighs in at 2.5 lbs. If you add the handles and the 8"dome, the weight totals 5lbs or 2.27 kg."

That means the Aquatica housing is 1.1kg!! That is just great... If that is true, it means that the Aquatica is the cheapest and lightest of the housings for the Olympus EM1. Plus Aquatica has an 8" dome to go with it and (as far as i know) Nauticam has none that can be used with a fisheye...

Im going to email Aquatica and try to get to the bottom of this...

I have no input to provide, having no knowledge of the Aquatica products beyond what I have read recently, but am interested to see more on the Aquatica housing and ports. At this point I am pretty much locked-in to Nauticam and have no real complaints but I sure like the idea of that SW8 dome that will allegedly work (with appropriate extensions) with the Panasonic 7-14mm, Olympus 9-18mm, Olympus 12-40mm and Olympus 12-50mm.

That said, Aquatica offers a 4" glass dome for the 8mm fisheye and the Nauticam can use their own 3.5" or 4.33" port or the Athena 4" glass dome for that lens.

I would think that housings from Subal, Nauticam and Aquatica for the EM1 are pretty close in weight between them, they are all made of aluminum. To me the difference between these housing is their ergonomic feel in ones hands and what controls they allow access to. If weight is a big issue get the Olympus acrylic housing, but you will need an aluminum handle/tray with it. This combinaltion will probably be pretty close in weight to an aluminum housing that has own handles.

I think that there is a bit of apples/oranges here or a bit of selective marketing going on with respect to weights. The OP suggested that 1.8kg was too heavy for a housing (that is housing plus handles) but that 1.1 kg without handles was great. Not knowing the weight of the handles makes this a suspicious comparison. I would bet two nickels (that's a big bet for me) that all of the Al housings with the same port, handles and camera + lens) will be within 5-10% of each other.

Bill

Maybe yes, maybe no...

But take for example the Nikon D7100:

Subal housing - 2.3 kg

Aquatica housing - 2.75 kg

Nauticam housing - 3.23kg

All aluminium high quality housings, yet there is a substantial difference in weight between housings.

In deed its not just the weight of the housing, you have to consider the weight of the whole system

Strange I thought when I saw this, just so happens I have both a Subal and a Nauticam D7100 here so I weighed them side by side. Here are the results:

Not sure where you are getting your stats from or if these are variants of the housings that I am unaware of:

Im speechless!!!

I was quoting the weights from the makers sites:

http://subal-megastore.eu/a340c73c2c1/Housing/SLR_cameras/Nikon/ND7100.aspx

http://www.nauticam.com/product.asp?id=275

http://www.aquatica.ca/en/products_dslr_d7100.html

In regards to weight of the whole system, I shoot a Nikon D800E and two of my dive buddies do too. I have a Subal, one friend has a Nauticam and the other has a Aquatica housing. In handling each while picking them up and passing them on the boat they feel to be about equal in weight. While at Beneath the Sea, I handled both the Aquatica and Nauticam EM1 housing with the same body/lens and they were also pretty equal in weight. I realize these are anecdotal since we have not weighed them with a scale, but it would seem that an aluminum housing per specific camera body are pretty much equal in weight.