Canon G12 help

[bullshark]

By all means, avoid Ikelite housing. There are a lot of great options for strobes nowadays and Ike excludes all of them.
If you take it underwater, you need strobes. The long-ish barrel port required to accommodate the zoom lens makes flash lighting with a diffuser and built-in flash unacceptable. I shoot with a G11 in a fix housing for over 2 years now (400+ hours).

The Fix housing(recsea) gives you serious Wide-angle capability (165 degree) with the Wide angle lens/port. It is a very durable and reliable box.

 

[Reefwalker]

If the Canon housing is maintained correctly (see my article on Dive Photo Guide Website) and it has this very easy modification performed to it (See my DIY post at Digideep), then these housings will last for many years, even with lots of use. The other housings are great, but most are heavy and are not cheap. I figure by the time your G12 Canon housing is in need of replacement, you'll probably want the G14... or whatever is around in a couple of years time. The investment you could make in a better housing will never be regained in re-sale value. Have a search in the classifieds and see what people are asking for say G9 Patima housings. In two or three years time this will be what a G12 Recsea/FIX housing will be worth.

 

[Gilligan]

Coldwaterdiver77 you have a lot of good information and opinions in this thread. They should help you in making your decision as respects a housing.

I have G10 and G12 Canon housings with a Sea & Sea strobe. I am retired and I spend a lot of time in the Philippines which allows me to dive a lot, hence I use my housings a lot. My G10 housing is no longer usable as the tripod mount is broken. The locking latch has a crack in it which is not that serious of an issue compared to the tripod mount. Hindsight with my G10 housing has shown me how to prevent these two problems with my G12 housing. I have that info HERE

These are polycarbonate housings as are many OEM housings and the tripod plate, although metal, is attached by screws that thread into polycarbonate or other plastic type material shafts. The tripod plate is not designed to withstand the pressure put on it by holding a camera/housing/tray/army/strobe combo by the housing in your right hand. Many trays have only a left hand grip and it is not always possible to hold the tray in your left hand and work the shutter with your right hand. Holding the rig by the housing in your right hand puts too much stress on the tripod mount and it will eventually break depending on the amount of use. A dual handle tray isn't of much use either unless you can work the zoom and shutter with your right hand while holding the handle.

The Canon locking latch is also polycarbonate and cracking or breaking it is caused by closing the housing door at the point where the O-ring seats. It puts a lot of pressure on that latch. Again, cracking or breaking it depends on the amount of use. Closing the housing door by hand pressure then closing the latch will prevent it from cracking or breaking.

 

[azscubadude]

Based on my experience with Ikelite, I'd do some research on the model housing you are looking at. Real users will tell you about issues or problems. Good Luck.

I consider myself a real user and I haven't had one single problem with Ikelite products in hundreds of dives over many many years.

I'm currently using and Ike housing on a G-12 with dual DS-161 strobes and it works flawlessly.

To make a blanket statement like that when there are probably hundreds of thousands (if not more) Ikelite housings sold and/or being used is a bit of a "drive-by" statement IMHO.

 

[darook]

I have a couple of Ikelite housings and have never had an issue. They are not the smallest or sexiest housings out there but that size buys you back some buoyancy that will be nice when it is mated with a strobe or two. I don't use one on my DSLR but that decision was not based on quality.