6400 - Ikelite or Salted Line? Leaving in 3 weeks.

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That is the Aquatica surveyor installed in my housing.

This is the exerpt from Wetpixel

"
To anyone that is interested. I installed the aquatica surveyor system in my Ikelite polycarb DSLR housing today. Very straightforward and works perfectly. About 10 in/hg is good.

I bonded two 14/20 nuts to a 1.5mm piece of black poly plastic with loctite 406 then arildite. I installed double sided tape onto the plastic and installed the pc board into the lhs of the housing. I then placed small tabs of double sided tape to the moisture alarm and led and routed them to the very bottom and top of the housing.

All in all a very worth while investment.

Note it was made much easier on my housing as I had removed the zoom control/mech and the mode control and plugged the holes allowing for tonnes of additional space. there is around 5-10mm between all components and the camera body once installed."
 
I used to have Fantasea for Sony compact and I always see Nauticams being used by experienced photographers.

There seem to be supporters of Seafrogs but I rarely see them in use, compared to these other, more expensive brands. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for you, just my experience.

I would hazard a guess that the pros who shoot with Nauticam and other metal housings spend a lot more time in the water than your average vacation diver. The plastic housings don't stand up well to constant use - I was talking to a photography instructor on Koh Tao some time ago, and he had some very unflattering words to say about Ikelite; said he hadn't seen even one that survived more than a year. If you're diving 3-4 times a day, 5-7 days a week, for months on end, this makes sense - but for me, as a vacation diver, my work schedule (and finances) allows me to make 1-2 overseas trips a year, and maybe 2-3 domestic ones (northern Red Sea), so dropping several thousand on a Nauticam is a complete overkill, while a SeaFrogs serves me just fine.
 
I will disagree with the statement that polycarbonate Ikelite housings don't stand up to heavy use. My experience has been using Ikelite D70, D300, and D800 housings. I used the Ikelite D300 for probably 300 dives in 3 or 4 years. I then sold it to a friend who has since used it for in excess of 600 dives in about 5 years. That housing probably dives 3 or 4 dives a week to this day. With some basic care and attention, perhaps some service every few years the Ikelites can be very durable and reliable.

I've been using Nauticam housings for the last 5 years now and have nothing but good things to say about them. However at 2-3 times the costs of Ikelite housings, you are paying a lot for the better design and ergonomics.
 
The A6400 is an exciting camera at its price point, the auto focus and tracking features are excellent with fantastic speed and accuracy. Better than any APS-C camera I have tested and better than many cameras at two or three times the cost. Lenses like the Zeiss 50mm macro are now much faster and more accurate. Regarding the Ikelite housing for the A6400 I just tested it for uwpmag.com and my review is available as a free PDF download.

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https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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