Did anyone upgrade camera and change from Nauticam to Isotta housing? positive and/or negative experience?

I would just send an email to Miso from Vivid. He was very responsive when I bought mine, although of course that is now quite some time ago.

Thanks all, I think I will have to consider isotta for the new housing. Whilst I'm not a fan of the ferrari red, I am a fan of the overall price. If I can re use my Nauticam N120 ports, then I can probably save £1500 to £2000, rather than going with any of the other brands.

Not to mention the space and weight savings, which will be a huge plus.

@Kraken de Mabini do you need to pull the port out and the lens from the front, when removing the camera from the housing? Or does it slide out nicely, with the lens and the zoom gear, like the Nauticam, with just pulling the back off? 

Here are my thoughts, if you need any more advice:

I’ve owned two Nauticam housings (EM-1II and R5) and recently bought an Isotta housing for an EM-5III as a student camera. I’ve done a few dives with it so far and here are my pros and cons on the Isotta housing:

Pros:

• It is small and quite light
• Feels very rugged
• I love the handles, and the way you can attach the upper tray, which I think is a great system, much better to hold the housing than the Nauticam lanyard which is always in the way under water if you leave it attached
• The fact that you can open the housing easily while it is standing upright is genius, as it prevents water from falling into the housing, and most importantly, into the inside of the port, which is a pain to clean.
• Double o-rings give some peace of mind if you don’t have a vacuum system installed.
• Better port system. Nauticam’s N85 is too narrow for many lenses. With the pana 8-18, for example, you need to remove the port and lens before you can take the camera out to charge the battery, that’s not very user friendly. No problem on the B-102 opening on the Isotta housing.
• Very subjective of course, but I love the color!

Cons:

• The camera tray does not lock into place very well with the camera attached. It does lock into place without the camera though, so something is a little off inside (yes, I removed the shoulder strap clips)
• The buttons, dials, and levers don’t operate as smoothly as Nauticam’s do
• The dials are not as easy to grip and turn. With thick gloves on, I have issues turning the dials on the Isotta housing, but have absolutely no problem on Nauticam. Even without gloves, Nauticam provides a smoother operation.
• The zoom dial is attached to the port extension, which makes it a bit harder to operate than Nauticam’s zooms as they are attached to the housing and thus closer to your fingers

Overall, as a 6-year Nauticam user, I am very happy with my Isotta housing. The quality is very good, it is priced well, it looks great, and has a lot of nice features. However, Nauticam has the edge when it comes to how well it is engineered and how smoothly everything runs.

No reason to think there is a problem at Vivid. I’m in contact with Miso and have just taken delivery of a revised Sentinel XB6.

The first version did have some issues and he’s done a rebuild. I’ve not had chance to test ithe new version yet but plan to this coming week. 

Tim, thank you for the good news about Vivid.  Now Vivid needs to update their Web page so one can get in touch with them.  
Please post some photos of the new Sentinel XB6.

13 hours ago, Kraken de Mabini said:

Please post some photos of the new Sentinel XB6.

Yep, will do

2 hours ago, TimG said:

Yep, will do

I'd be really interested in this as well. I do wonder if we'll see sealed usb c bulkheads soon. Then I can imagine isotta + leak sentinel + mirrorless being a valid option, as you can charge with a Power Delivery USB C charging brick in between dives. A lightweight housing you don't need to open up.

The future is now ☺ 

9 minutes ago, sinetwo said:

I'd be really interested in this as well. I do wonder if we'll see sealed usb c bulkheads soon. Then I can imagine isotta + leak sentinel + mirrorless being a valid option, as you can charge with a Power Delivery USB C charging brick in between dives. A lightweight housing you don't need to open up.

The future is now ☺ 

It already exists, dive and See make them, see this page:

https://diveandsee.com/type-c/

Charging the battery and downloading without opening the housing would be great on those cameras that can do it.  Some of them are charging only, but it appears other also allow data transfer.

34 minutes ago, ChrisRoss said:

It already exists, dive and See make them, see this page:

https://diveandsee.com/type-c/

Charging the battery and downloading without opening the housing would be great on those cameras that can do it.  Some of them are charging only, but it appears other also allow data transfer.

For sure, that'd be the dream. However WiFi is a half decent option for "must have" photos for cameras that either have a separate port for downloading photos or don't have the option. 

It seems that usb c port is sealed, so perhaps this is the beginning. Whilst it is going a bit off topic, ikelite also have theirs but it requires that you depressurise the housing, at which point droplets could potentially enter the housing. Not a big deal but a deal nevertheless. 

I have an Olympus OM-D E-M 1 Mark ii Isotta housing with a Leak Sentinel V5 XB and the battery lasts months. Replacements are readily available, and as has been mentioned, the memory function means it can be turned off and it remembers the vacuum. I really like the housing.

3 hours ago, sinetwo said:

I'd be really interested in this as well

The new Vivid Sentinel V6XB is rechargeable......

4 hours ago, sinetwo said:

For sure, that'd be the dream. However WiFi is a half decent option for "must have" photos for cameras that either have a separate port for downloading photos or don't have the option. 

 

It seems that usb c port is sealed, so perhaps this is the beginning. Whilst it is going a bit off topic, ikelite also have theirs but it requires that you depressurise the housing, at which point droplets could potentially enter the housing. Not a big deal but a deal nevertheless. 

Well this allows you to do just that, the top cap has a seal and you just need to plug in a USB cable to connect to your computer - you just need that can be recharged through the USB port, which is mainly newer models, the EM-1 MkII which I have can't do that, but the new OM-1 can.