Housing Ergonomics

[Craine]

I'm in the market for a new housing. I'm at the point where I'm not really satisfied with the port selection on the Salted Line housing, given that SeaFrogs doesn't offer extensions for their ports (especially the domes). I'm either going to replace the Salted Line housing I have for my a6400, or get an entirely new housing for my A7IV. My biggest decision there comes down to whether I want to keep the setup smaller, or go bigger and benefit from the A7IV's much better autofocus and responsiveness.

I recall reading recently a discussion (here or on wetpixel or waterpixels, which of course I cannot find now) comparing different brands of housings. Many of the respondents mentioned that (paraphrasing here) Nauticam was the gold standard, with wonderful build quality and excellent ergonomics. They also said that Ikelite had (again paraphrasing) "bad to terrible" ergonomics, though no bad comments on quality.

So what am I'm here for? I'd like to hear from people who have actually used both an Ikelite or either a Nauticam, Marelux, or other similarly priced housing.

• What are your thoughts on the ergonomics between the two?
• Do the Ikelites really have "terrible ergonomics"?
• Did you find that the improved ergonomics of the more expensive housing was "worth the difference"? Yes I realize this is very subjective
• Setting the ergonomics aside, what did you prefer about the Ikelite, and what did you prefer about the more expensive system?

Thanks for humoring me and my (probably misguided) quest for more knowledge while I endlessly stall instead of just buying one of the damn things.

 

[tursiops]

I'm in the market for a new housing. I'm at the point where I'm not really satisfied with the port selection on the Salted Line housing, given that SeaFrogs doesn't offer extensions for their ports (especially the domes). I'm either going to replace the Salted Line housing I have for my a6400, or get an entirely new housing for my A7IV. My biggest decision there comes down to whether I want to keep the setup smaller, or go bigger and benefit from the A7IV's much better autofocus and responsiveness.

I recall reading recently a discussion (here or on wetpixel or waterpixels, which of course I cannot find now) comparing different brands of housings. Many of the respondents mentioned that (paraphrasing here) Nauticam was the gold standard, with wonderful build quality and excellent ergonomics. They also said that Ikelite had (again paraphrasing) "bad to terrible" ergonomics, though no bad comments on quality.

So what am I'm here for? I'd like to hear from people who have actually used both an Ikelite or either a Nauticam, Marelux, or other similarly priced housing.

• What are your thoughts on the ergonomics between the two?
• Do the Ikelites really have "terrible ergonomics"?
• Did you find that the improved ergonomics of the more expensive housing was "worth the difference"? Yes I realize this is very subjective
• Setting the ergonomics aside, what did you prefer about the Ikelite, and what did you prefer about the more expensive system?

Thanks for humoring me and my (probably misguided) quest for more knowledge while I endlessly stall instead of just buying one of the damn things.

Just buy the damn Nauticam. You will not regret it.

 

[Nemrod]

Ikelite is like the box they ship a Nauticam in.

One is a bunch of coat hanger wire controls with stoppers on the ends in a plastic box to push and pull and finagle about the camera functions, the other is a precision piece of equipment that actually improves upon the operation of the camera inside. There is no comparison, one is stone age and the other is like some alien technology by comparison.



Guess which one and buy that one.

 

[noserider]

I am in the same place, however it looks like I will go down the Isotta route rather than Nauticam, base price is about 30% cheaper and accessories / ports / extenders are significantly cheaper.

The housing looks easier to service and least important to its function they look far more stylish than any other housing

 

[ROUS]

I'm guessing that you'd eventually get used to the ergonomics of any of those. My recco is to buy the best housing that you can afford.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I have an Isotta housing for my Olympus EM5 III and my partner has a Nauticam housing for her GH5. When play with her setup, the Nauticam has noticeably better ergonomics (more levers vs buttons for back button focus, knobs are easier to turn, etc). However, I would say Isotta is about 80% there, and also only 60-70% the price. The prices Nauticam charges are bordering on criminal in most cases in my opinion. The only time I would get Nauticam was if I wanted to invest into their wet lens ecosystem, as then you need the compatibility.