EWA-MARINE housing

[mountaineerdiver]

I just bought a new Nikon D80 to move up a tad from my D70 because of a great price. Since I now have my D70 freed up and a replacement firmly in hand I have been thinking about relegating the D70 to underwater use primarily. The price of a housing is high as you know and I have seen the EWA-MARINE housing offered at less than half of the price for other types of housing. Anyone use them or have any reliable information about safety, quality, etc? I would problably only be using this setup on 3-4 dive trips a year.

Thanks

 

[RonFrank]

I just bought a new Nikon D80 to move up a tad from my D70 because of a great price. Since I now have my D70 freed up and a replacement firmly in hand I have been thinking about relegating the D70 to underwater use primarily. The price of a housing is high as you know and I have seen the EWA-MARINE housing offered at less than half of the price for other types of housing. Anyone use them or have any reliable information about safety, quality, etc? I would problably only be using this setup on 3-4 dive trips a year.

Thanks

If you are comfortable putting a relatively expensive camera in a plastic zip lock bag, go for it! :shakehead

I don't know anyone who is interested in taking that chance, so to be fair, I can't really make a great comment. However I would think that as the water compressed the air in the bag, it would be subject to tearing around any of the protruding controls. If you accidentally run the bag into a sharp piece of coral, or metal on a wreck, get ready to replace the camera.

Strobe placement will also be an issue as EWE-Marines solution is a shoe mounted strobe on the camera. You will not have the option of multiple strobes, or any type of strobe placement which is an issue.

IMO spend the $$$ and looking into the lower end housings like Fantasea. For $800, you can house the D70 with a port in a much more reliable fashion.

 

[rcontrera]

I have used and sold a TON of Ewa bags. Yes, they are just a heavy plastic zip lock bag with a glass port. Yes, they are tested to 100 feet or more. Yes, they will work fine for your camera and give you great pictures ... if you are snorkeling!

As mentioned, the pressure acts on the bag to "vacuum" it down to the camera. Once you get past about 45 feet, you will find that the plastic just may push buttons on it's own. Or even worse yet, it might just let you push the button, but not let that button come back up. I wouldn't worry too much about banging it on a rock or something and tearing teh bag. I think that if you hit it hard enough to tear the bag, you will have damaged the camera anyway.

Go with a hard case. IMHO Ikelite makes the best and maybe even has one for your camera.