Housing for D90 - Ikelite or Aquatica

[ejg62]

I have been doing photography for years now. I have a Canon G9 that I use for underwater and a Nikon D90 for land. I want to move toward a DLSR for underwater as well. I am down to the Ikelite and Aquatica housing. What are the thoughts on each of these housings. What would be considered the most secure for the camera? I know the Aquatica is less bulking but is it as dependable? Is it easy to use?

I have a number of different lenses and will probably get the tokina 10-17mm as that seems to be the best for underwater. I already have the 105mm VR macro.

I also use an Inon Z240 strobe so will need a sync cable as well as adapter for the arms.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[tom1563]

i just bought the aquatica housing for my d-90 and i loved it. i just got back from tahti and had no problems with it.

 

[CaptSaaz]

I also have a D90 and deciding between the Ikelite and Aquatica housings. What do you do for strobes with the Aquatica?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Both are good brands. The Aquatica is probably a little better unit. They
aren't far apart in price. Do check the whole package price. Adm. Linda
found that the Aquatica would be cheaper because the Ike needed an Ike
strobe cord and the Aquatica could be equipped with either Ike or Nikonos,
and we had tons of Nikonos strobes. How do your G9 strobe(s) synch?

 

[mwall04]

I have a new D90 and went with Aquatica and S&S YS-110a strobes. Here are my initial observations:

Just returned from my first trip with this setup. Since I was shooting great white sharks from a cage at Isla Guadalupe, I went with the Tonika fish eye lens paired with the 8" dome port to get a wide-angle perspective. I didn't need my strobes on this trip since we had plenty of light, were shooting near the surface, and the complete setup with multiple strobes would be difficult to manage in a cage with multiple divers.

After spending a lot of time practicing putting it all together and taking it apart at home prior to my trip, I found managing the setup on the boat and during my trip was quite easy. One of my very few negatives is that its difficult/impossible to swap out the battery without partially removing the camera from the housing. Not a huge deal since I could shoot all day and still have over 60% of my charge left. It may be the same way with all the other housings.

Underwater the housing was a dream. Had slightly negative buoyancy (without stobes) which was so slight I had to test it to actually believe it was negative versus neutral or positive.

As far as durability between the camera housings, since I've only had my Aquatica housing for several months so can't comment on this long term. However, I can say its a solid, well-built housing. Searching this board and other underwater photography boards prior to my purchase, I can say there are many more threads about problems with Ikelite and flooding problems than there are Aquatica issues (actually can't recall an Aquatica housing).

Other than being an owner of a new Aquatica housing, I have no other vested interest. However, I spend months researching which one to buy. The only reason I saw that would drive me to buy Ikelite over Aquatica with a D90 set-up is budget. If you can't afford the Aquatica, you can step down to the Ikelite.