Fuji S3 pro and Bruder housing

Extended dynamic range seems to be the last limit to beat for our UW shots.

I've just read a full article about the Fuji S3. It's performances in highlights restitutions seems to be excellent.

I still wonder why the big "S" companies (subal seacam sealux ... ) or even less expensive ones haven't made an housing for it

This camera seems to be as good a D70 or 350D regarding AF, LCD , metering .... but very very better in the quality of images and also cheaper than pro cameras like the D2X : so maybe the best compromise for us

Bruder told me they are making an housing for it, does anyone has experience about this german company and their products ?

I'm interested but still sceptical ...

What about strongness, optical quality of their domes , aftersale service ....

any comment and experience welcome

thanks

jerome

Well, I shoot the S2, and for a while was really excited about what the S3 would have to offer. The capabilities of the sensor sound inspired!

However, IMHO, the S2 does have quite a few limitation, mostly because of the base body design. I was hoping that Fuji would address these issues in the S3, but it appears they have not.

The battery system, autofocus system, shutter system, data stream, etc, seem to be the same as the S2. So, although this camera will have probably the best dynamic range of any digital camera to date, it will still have a strobe sync speed of 1/125, slow autofocus (compared to the "new" stuff), and painfully slow writes to the card.

I am saving for the D2X, just for these reasons.

Its seems that although the S3 propose good dynamic range and impressive sensor its just not successes to conquer signification part of the DSLR market, Nikon & Canon are much more popular so the housing manufactures focus on them.

To be honest, in the past Bruder housing’s build quality has not been up to what you might expect if you compare with aluminium housings over here. I was close to buy one because he (Frank Bruder) is very open minded when it comes to customer requests and I had not seen one of his housings in real life before. A friend of mine had a Bruder 300D housing and he had to send it back many times to have it fixed. Finally he sold it because it has never been completely fixed. Unfortunately, he was not the only one (Helge might jump in here soon). I really don’t want to put down a certain manufacture, but I never got to know a happy Bruder housing owner. Just want to share the few cases I have seen. But maybe I just got to know the few unlucky cases and you would be happy with a Bruder housing.

As there are almost no Bruder housing pics available on the web, here some of the mentioned 300D housing:

regards,

Julian

That's a shame, because it looks great! A carbon fiber housing must be very light.

Cheers

James

thanks guys for replkies and pictures

this is a quite bad new , coming from subal , the loss of housing’s build quality will be hard to admit

anyway i ve sent a mail ,we ll see what they will say , what about Uk germany ?

Hi!

A word on Bruder:

I had a bruder housing and I'm glad to be able to use past tense now ;-)

Frank Bruder is open to customer requests and he was at that time the only who housed the Olympus E-20 in Europe (I got the prototype). The housing was delivered "just in time" (one day before I left for a dive trip). The sub-dial never worked and the video lights didn't dim reliable. Most screws were loose, the camera wasn't adjusted properly and I had to do a couple of fixes. The housing was poorly manufactured. You could do great housing swith carbon fibre. Bruder can't do it. The housing differed in thickness for about 4mm from left to right. I had the housing for service and got a dome but the main problems weren't fixed.

Finally the housing flooded through the finder. I was able to get the camera out before it was damaged. The video lights flodded 3 times and I had to renew the soldering myself. They only replaced the batteries but the electronics were still the same, still salt crusted. I sent the housing in for service and sold it.

The new owner had to wait 3 months for the housing. He told me that none of the o-rings had been changed, no parts replaced. The release lever broke at the first dive. The new owner is thinking about legal actions against Bruder.

About UK-Germany:

UK-Germany is open to customer requests. They build very good housings. Aluminium, machined from the block. It's high quality manufacturing. UK-Germany will do a housing as soon as there are 10+ orders (or you find another way to spread design cost or simply pay it).

I'm doing my new housing as a joint venture wit a couple of weirdos and UK-Germany (who will finalize the housing and build the ports).

Helge ;-)=)

thanks a lot Helge for these complements

Yesterday I went to my local Nikon dealer who's also a good friend , he made me a very good price for the D2X so i've commanded it

I'm now thinking about the housing but not before end of september

Hi,

It’s a pity. I was also thinking about to buy a Bruder housing for my Konica Minolta 7D. Based on your reports, I have to spare a bit more money to go for UK-Germany housing.

The specifications of Bruder housing are not so bad (two strobe bulkhead, light,) but one thing is not acceptable. The high risk of flooding.

Thanks for answering also my question.

Marcell

Hi Marcell,

A second bulkhead (or S6 instead of N5) is no problem for UK-Germany. You just tell them when you order. they're good at small modofications too.

The problem with the bruder housings is also teh design. Thy have one standard box where all camera bodies have to fit in. The housing is quite sturdy. It could be made amazingly light weight if you carve out the parts that don't need to be that thick (all space where's no levers and buttons) but this would request a design to the camera. The way Bruder does it there's no benefit from the carbon fibre technology. He's proud that there's no corrosion on the housing (but there's plenty of possibillity to catch rust on teh levers, camshafts, screws, ...)

Helge ;-)=)