Been out of the photo scene for a while - appears that prices have gotten worse...

[bruehlt]

I can't fathom how anyone that isn't a professional can actually afford a decent underwater DSLR setup nowadays. The prices of the cameras themselves aren't too bad, but the prices of the strobes and housings are astronomical. How can manufactures justify charging 3 - 4 times the cost of the camera, just for the housing??? Seriously??? And to top it off, if your camera breaks, your $3000 housing may just end up being a paperweight once the camera model becomes discontinued / obsolete. The average joe just can't win anymore...

 

[nimoh]

yes, it's crazy. What can you?

 

[danpass]

It's better than it was.

It used to be hideously expensive ........... now it's only outrageously expensive lol.

 

[dhaas]

bruehlt,

I worked in manufacturing of medical equipment and other venues during my "corporate" phase Everyone complained about cost of goods there too.......

To design and build a housing for even the simplest digital camera with various buttons, switches, etc. in a low volume type of product isn't easy. I am constantly amazed by people's perception a SLR housing with interchangeable ports, all controls, circuitry for real TTL through a hot shoe (in Ikelite's models I sell) to 300' capable strobes should cost what? $300.00? Get real..............

If you think it's so easy go build one and put your SLR in it to test your knowledge and expertise

SLRs have reached a plateau of plenty good enough for 99.9999% of shooters who want the speed they provide.

My customers keep them a MINIMUM of 4 years before even thinking of upgrading. Then they always use their ports, lenses, cords, strobes, etc. So the life cycle has somewhat stabilized. I have people shooting older Canon Rebel XTi, XSi, T1i or whatever with even a 18-55mm "kit" lens making photos that would astound the average diver / photographer.

Plus SLRS are sold in such huge volumes and finding a clean used body if you kill yours isn't that hard either. Obsolescence was when you had a FILM camera housing

Sorry if his comes off as a rant but I'm tired of people expecting great products for nothing..........

YMMV........

David Haas
www.haasimages.com

 

[Nemrod]

I do not find it the least bit unusual that an aluminum housing for such a limited market would cost several times the price of the camera. I would (and do) purchase a spare camera for expensive housings. Actually, I think things are much less money now (inflated dollars) and the quality and function of housings are superior overall. The cameras of today, however, one drop of water and most of them are dead, dead, dead. The exception seems to be the new Olympus OM-D, splash proof, dust proof, hmmmm.

N

 

[azscubadude]

How can manufactures justify charging 3 - 4 times the cost of the camera, just for the housing??? Seriously??? And to top it off, if your camera breaks, your $3000 housing may just end up being a paperweight once the camera model becomes discontinued / obsolete. The average joe just can't win anymore...

I would disagree, I see an awful lot of camera's on my dive trips, many, many more than in the Nikonis days. Plus, in the old days you used to buy a camera and keep it for years before the replacement came out, now they release them every year, sometimes less. Just think of the R&D that goes into keeping up with Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Olympus.. etc as they pump out new models as fast as they can.

For instance.. Canon just released the G1X a few months ago and already just came out with another new model, the EOS-M

The choice of UW photo equipment manufacturers we have now is pretty incredible compared just a few years ago. The boom was the digital age. Now it takes me one carry on to haul my equipment around, when I started diving it took me about 5 huge Pelican cases.

If there was a ton of money in it the big boys would be building their own UW equipment to fit their cameras and cutting all the little guys out.

Canon and Nikon can sell their cameras and flash heads to billions of people around the world so their cost of development is pennies per unit compared to what it costs some small companies to build strobes and housing for the few that want underwater use. Don't forget, they also have to design and build everything between the camera and the end of the strobe in order for it to work, that mean mounts, handles, trays, strobe arms, sync cables, electronics etc, etc.

As Canon and Nikon get more and more digital (touch screens, less buttons, etc) we will have fewer choices yet because you can't touch that screen if it's in a housing. They don't design their camera for UW use so the UW equipment people have to jump through hoops to make them work or just not support them. One button in the wrong place or one function button missing and you can't design a housing that will work.

Go to Ikelites web site and look at the list of cameras that they don't support. It's longer than the ones they can.

 

[bruehlt]

bruehlt,

I worked in manufacturing of medical equipment and other venues during my "corporate" phase Everyone complained about cost of goods there too.......

To design and build a housing for even the simplest digital camera with various buttons, switches, etc. in a low volume type of product isn't easy. I am constantly amazed by people's perception a SLR housing with interchangeable ports, all controls, circuitry for real TTL through a hot shoe (in Ikelite's models I sell) to 300' capable strobes should cost what? $300.00? Get real..............

If you think it's so easy go build one and put your SLR in it to test your knowledge and expertise

SLRs have reached a plateau of plenty good enough for 99.9999% of shooters who want the speed they provide.

My customers keep them a MINIMUM of 4 years before even thinking of upgrading. Then they always use their ports, lenses, cords, strobes, etc. So the life cycle has somewhat stabilized. I have people shooting older Canon Rebel XTi, XSi, T1i or whatever with even a 18-55mm "kit" lens making photos that would astound the average diver / photographer.

Plus SLRS are sold in such huge volumes and finding a clean used body if you kill yours isn't that hard either. Obsolescence was when you had a FILM camera housing

Sorry if his comes off as a rant but I'm tired of people expecting great products for nothing..........

YMMV........

David Haas
www.haasimages.com

Medical? Similar to this market, I imagine - huge markups. This is something that blows my mind about the scuba industry - the markups are insanely huge, and when you call people on it, they don't like it, and take it as an insult. This isn't that much of a "niche" market - especially for larger manufacturers (Ikellite, Aquatica, Subal). It doesn't cost a lot of money developing new housings if you have the experience, tooling, dies, etc in place from all of the previous product runs that happened in the past - its called economies of scale. I would imagine that a lot of these manufacturers produce enough product, consistently, to drop their overall unit costs - but they don't. Its an inherent rot that's part of the scuba industry as a whole - just amplified because its the photography market.

Want an example of a company doing it right? Gopro. They sell a compact HD camera for peanuts compared to other cameras, and the accessories are affordable. Their dive housing that they just came out with? Hell of a lot cheaper than the competition. Why? Because they don't have a vested interest in marking their product up 500% to rape their customer, pure and simple. Not trying to be a rabble rouser, just calling it like I see it.

 

[Nemrod]

A GoPro is hardly in the same league as a Nikon or Canon or Olympus SLR camera or any of a number of the new M4:3 and similar. You get what you pay for, if a Gopro is what you feel good about, go for it. I much prefer still, do not have much use for video. Kind of like comparing an Instamatic 110 to a Nikon 35mm SLR or Nikonos.

N

 

[Larry C]

I was watching one of those hot rod shows on TV last week. The guy had a custom rear wheel built on a 3 plane CNC machine. They said the part took 150 man hours to build and cost something like $30K. Most of the new DSLR housings are built the same way, and they're quite complex. If you want reasonable, the Olympus polycarbonate housing for their 4/3 models is quite reasonable-not much more than the camera.
Have you priced lenses lately? It's easy to spend $1,000 on one lens. One of our dive buddies was shooting a 400mm f2.8 Nikon for pictures of Eagles and stuff on our recent dive trip. $8K. If you want the VR version, I think it's close to $18K. Check out your choices and buy what you can afford. OTOH, I saw a D2x with an Aquatica housing for sale on e-bay a few weeks ago for about $2K as I recall. The camera sold new for over $3K and the housing was over $4K. There are plenty of bargains out there if you're willing to look. Nobody is ripping you off-until you want something like a vinyl port cover and it's $29.95 when it should go for about $5.

 

[muzikbiz22]

Medical? Similar to this market, I imagine - huge markups. This is something that blows my mind about the scuba industry - the markups are insanely huge, and when you call people on it, they don't like it, and take it as an insult. This isn't that much of a "niche" market - especially for larger manufacturers (Ikellite, Aquatica, Subal). It doesn't cost a lot of money developing new housings if you have the experience, tooling, dies, etc in place from all of the previous product runs that happened in the past - its called economies of scale. I would imagine that a lot of these manufacturers produce enough product, consistently, to drop their overall unit costs - but they don't. Its an inherent rot that's part of the scuba industry as a whole - just amplified because its the photography market.

Want an example of a company doing it right? Gopro. They sell a compact HD camera for peanuts compared to other cameras, and the accessories are affordable. Their dive housing that they just came out with? Hell of a lot cheaper than the competition. Why? Because they don't have a vested interest in marking their product up 500% to rape their customer, pure and simple. Not trying to be a rabble rouser, just calling it like I see it.

Underwater Photography IS a niche market.

It DOES cost a lot of money to "tool" a new housing.

GoPro is a MASS MARKETED CONSUMER PRODUCT that crosses over into Scuba/Underwater photography.

GoPro DOESN'T rape their customer by NOT marking up their product by 500% ?? PLEASE, they sell for what, $299'ish ? Manufacturing cost is MAYBE $25 ?? yeah, they're not raping anyone. Not saying it's a bad product, because it is a great product, way cool. HOWEVER, go right ahead and work the WB, switch from Video to Still, Aperture Mode, and then hop over to Manual mode and set it to f8.0. ISO 200 and 125 shutter speed, then jump back to Video Mode and do some custom settings there as well. Oh shoot, that's right, YOU CAN"T. Unfortunately, it takes a housing with lot's of buttons (all in different places depending on camera manufacturer and model) and MONEY to do that. Summation - All those costs trickle down. It's not easy being an Ikelite, Aquatica, etc.