Ron;
I'm very sorry to hear of the problems you had. Contact
janice@fantasea.com for service and help in filing your included flood insuarnce of the camera body (the lens is not covered). Go to
Fantasea.com and look under customer support for more info.
This is paraphrased from a reply about Fantasea DSLR housings from
this thread. There are some other comments from another user there, etc. Here's some straight info:
I just did 19 dives on my FD80 in Bonaire in a row last month. I've used it pretty extensively in cold water in harsh conditions for a year as well probably with about 80+ dives on it. I dove a prototype unit and offered suggestions for the final production before that. Unlike some mail order places, I actually dive what I sell. I've had one bad strobe bulkhead and a couple very minor control issues, yes very small weeping leaks, a couple of drops of water sort of thing. Those controls and bulkhead were easily replaced. The kind of failure that you had may well of been due to a port oring problem. There are two orings and the outer one can be pinched when tightening the port.
Like all manufacturers, they've had production problems. Ikelite, Sea & Sea, Aquatica have had them too. Fantasea has always included flood insurance on the camera body though.
Now, here's some surprising news perhaps; Fantasea pulled off the shelves all existing FD80s and FD400 housings earlier this year (as of January). In fact, gave refunds to a couple of my customers. They were not happy with the overall production run they had. Some dealers are deliberately ignoring the company's directive (and I think taking advantage of the shortage) and were/are continuing to sell them. Don't buy one. Yep, you heard me, a dealer, say that. I haven't sold one since November - even though I continue to get great results with mine.
The FD40x for D40, D40x and D60 is fine, and a great housing for it's price level.
Fantasea is redesigning from the ground up their DSLR housings and having a different factory produce them. Obviously this was a very, very expensive decision for all concerned. I think it goes a long way to showing their commitment to bringing a lower-cost, but good quality, product to the market. I expect to dive one of the prototypes and have some input. I'd say that their new housings won't reach the market until sometime this summer, but that's a total guess. I do know that they will be a serious upgrade.
When did you buy your housing? If recently, I think personally you have some grounds on going back to the dealer for some mitigation. There was a service bulletin sent out early on.
Note that the views above are my own opinions and not Fantasea Lines, etc.
Jack
