Glorified zip lock bag housings for DSLRs

[rickthompson]

So about a year ago I purchased a ewa-marine U-BZ for my Pentax K-7 and have gotten mixed results. The reason I purchased it was that up until very recently (just within the past 6 months I think) I'm pretty sure the only other underwater solution for Pentax DSLRs was to get a custom housing made. Now Ikelite makes housings but your're still looking at ~$3,000 for housing + lens port + strobe(s) and I just cannot afford that right now.

Anyways I got the U-BZ about a year ago and was pretty happy with it and used it snorkeling and in the swimming pool with pretty good results. It was only last month when I was in Grand Cayman that I took it diving with me. Since it has a max depth. rating of 20m/65ft I only took it shore diving since I prefere to follow the group usually and didn't want to end up at a site with nothing above 60ish feet. So I took it on a shore dive and wasn't too happy. I added as much air as I possibly could prior to sealing it, but when I got to 50 ft (max depth I took it), the air had compressed so much that it was nearly impossible to access any of the controls. Also, since this is a "soft" housing that is incapable of having strobes mounted on, I was using only natural light. My photos came out with very little contrast and I spent hours in post trying to extract as much as I could. Below are a few sample images, let me know what you think and let me know if you have any tips/ideas for me...

Also, if you're familiar with the U-BZ system can someone explain to me why ewa-marine was, only for a short time, packaging it with the AV110-L which supposedly isn't suitable for use submerged. I believe the U-BZ should have been packaged with the CA adaptor set to allow me to fix the front of the lens to the glass lens port via the filter thread or something like that. I fought with the people at B&H for what seemed like hours to no avail so if anyone has some input about this let me know.


Thanks!

 

[smellzlikefish]

I have have known of 3 people using those Ewa Marine bag housings (I was one) and all three have flooded catastrophically. Mine had a vent plug that opened, as did a close friend of mine, although both were for copact cameras. Another friend had a similar housing for his DSLR that flooded. Keep the bag for rainy day photography and if you want to go underwater on the cheap, get a cheaper compact camera with a housing or save up for a proper housing for your DSLR.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

you should get a TTL strobe that fires thru fiber optics cable and fire the SLR via the pop up flash. This should still give you TTL lighting, although you have to find some way to mount the bagged SLR and strobe together.

If you don't feel safe with the ziplock bag, you can probably also pick up a old SLR housing for dirt cheap and use that. They were generic fitting where you just get a shutter lever and maybe aperture control if it is controlled on the lens. You then control lighting via the aperture setting and strobe strength.

 

[smellzlikefish]

To be pedantic, a strobe that fires off the pop-up via fiber optic cable would be more of a slave. TTL stands for "Through the Lens" in that its timing is based on how much light enters the lens.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

It could technically act like a slave, but since the primary flash's light does not reach the subject or the lens, it is effectively the main strobelight. And with Sea&Sea or Inon's optical TTL strobe, the camera's lens does actually measure the amount of light needed based on the output of those external strobes.

 

[smellzlikefish]

I thought all fiber optic strobes had to be manually set. I just learned something new.