Need feedback/suggestions on sony marine pack

I am thinking about getting a sony marine pack for my DSC-P100 for an upcoming cruise. Can anyone give me feedback on the quality the pics come up in the housing with just the internal camera flash (I will only be doing the shallow dive, 30 ft maybe)? What is involved in sealing the camera? I see that the kit comes with grease, an o-ring, a seal, are they only good for one use? Do you have to regrease and put new seals in the housing each time? Any input should help, thanks!

All the pics here:

http://www.fauncefamily.net/album/2004-07%...tion/index.html

and

http://www.fauncefamily.net/album/2004-11%...tion/index.html

were taken with Sony DSC-P10 or DSC-P100 in MPK-PHA or MPK-PHB (respectively) housings.

Keep the o-ring clean and lubed and you'll be ready to go. I typically only lube it before and after a trip and then inspect it each time I open the housing to swap the battery or the memory card.

As far as taking pictures, get as close as you can as the onboard flash isn't very powerful. You'll have no problem shooting close, slow moving objects, but wide angle is pretty much out, even at 30ft. Shooting up helps as well to take advantage of the ambient light.

You can get good macro shots with the Sony and its Marine Pack housing using the internal flash. Beyond a few feet, though, forget it. I have personally flooded one of these housings and have seen two others flooded. The problem has occurred when the O-ring gets pinched when the housing is closed. I would recommend removing and servicing the O-ring whenever the housing is opened. It's too easy for almost invisible things to get in or accumulate that will breach the seal. But be sure to always check after closing that the O-ring is sealed all the way around the housing back. This is easy because the housing is clear, but it is also easy to overlook this check before submerging.

One good thing about using the internal flash is that you have TTL, and will almost always get good exposures if you're close enough.

My chief complaint about the setup was the slow autofocus, but mine was an earlier version, the Sony DSC P5. Maybe they're better now.

i use the marine pack with a Sony P7 camera but have never used the internal flash. I don't take macro photos, just scene photos and I use a red filter. That puts a little color balance back and photoshop elements does the rest. my pics are on my web site:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~elliotg/

elliott

do you guys/girls think this housing is worth $150, i mean just for the cruise (i prob wont use it anywhere else). my last cruise i just used an underwater disposable camera and that worked pretty good

Whether it's worth $150 or not is a pretty personal decision. But I can say this:

Diving with a digital camera is MUCH different than diving with a film camera. Cost stops becoming an issue (taking a shot and then deleting it costs $0). WIth an appropriately sized memory card you can take hundreds of pictures a day/dive. You learn about what works and what doesn't MUCH faster because you can see what works immediately and make corrections to your technique. The "cycle time" is reduced to minutes instead of days.

But, on the other hand, diving with a camera changes the way you dive. I now routinely dive the same site and move much slower during a dive. Going slow and looking for subjects and backgrounds and positive and negative space and this and that and waiting for a subject to get used to your presence and come into focus and ...

I can't imagine diving without a camera anymore.

I do take my camera with me all the time. When I'm going somewhere where the camera could get wet, I put it in the housing (in a canoe or hiking in the raid for example). The housing for the DSC-P100 is about as small as possible and while it does make the camera much bigger (about 3x bigger) it's still not "that" big. All the controls are still accessable and you can fully use the camera inside the housing. The only thing that won't work with the camera in the housing is the focus assist light which is blocked by the lense port "bumper." But, if you're 3 feet of less from the subject underwater, the P100 does a pretty good job of focusing without it. Shots that are out of focus are typically because of surge, user error (moving the camera after it's focused) or trying to take a picture of something that's moving to fast or while you're moving too fast.

Anyway, for me the $150 has been money very well spent. I'm planning on upgrading my wife from the P10 to a P150 in the near future. In my searching, it appears that the MPK-PHB (for the P100/150) may be getting in short supply and the current P200 doesn't have a housing available. Ikelite shows a new housing for the P100/P150 on their site for near future release.

YMMV

i agree with everything you say about diving with a camera and would add the most important thing for me is that it forces me to see more things. also, then i go hame and can figure out what i have seen. i wouldn't dive without it.

elliott

People actually dive without cameras?

But a housing does have other "wet" applications. I've got a old Canon A40 in a Canon housing and I've taken it places where it *might* get wet. Its been to pool parties, afternoon boat rides, hikes, canoeing, and river tubing. If nothing else, it does provide a degree of moisture protection if you drop it in the water/mud/snow/etc.

Pull this puppy out at a pool party and you have this instant "cool factor" with your friends in non-diving environments. Most folks have never seen a UW housing for a camera so you're in for an instant popularity boost.

Right now, I'm wondering how I'm going to keep my Canon 20D (dSLR) dry when I go hiking to the waterfalls in Dominica this summer. Is the Aquatica A20 housing that portable? B)

-- Ken