Ikelite housing for Canon A640/630

[Stefan.Belgium]

I'm looking to give my wife an Ikelite-housing for her Canon A640 (Ikelite #6140.64). The model has been discontinued a while back, so - like many others - I'm hoping to find an second hand or an overstocked one, before I find myself buying a new camera again.

I'm reluctant to go with the Canon original housing (WP-DC8), as they do not support additional lenses or filters.

All the help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Happy diving in 2010

Stefan
OWSI #979943

 

[tjohnson]

Stefan,

I may be able to help you. As you noted, there are limitations to using the Canon housing. However, there are some benefits as well. For example, the Canon housing is more compact than the Ikelite housing. It's also much lighter, so if you're going to travel you don't have to dedicate an entire piece of luggage to manage the camera and housing.

I've been using the Ikelite housing for a couple of years and I love it. The buttons are easy to use, and with or without a strobe, this camera takes pretty good underwater photo's. Just flip it to manual white balance, and start shooting. My favorite feature of this housing is the ease at which I can switch between a macro lens, wide angle lens, and filters. I took white balance only photos for the first eighteen months of use, and then realized how valuable the strobe is...how much easier it is to get that perfect shot. I still shoot white balance once in a while, but use the strobe more and more often.

Now, here's the part where I may be able to help you out. For Christmas, my husband and I finally purchased our first grown up camera; Canon EOS 50D. We are traveling to the Maldives soon and decided we would sell the Ikelite housing for the A640, and then purchase an Ikelite housing for the 50D. Our underwater housing is in like new condition. It's missing the shutter button spring, but I've been using it like this for two years and it works just fine. It just means that you have to manually return the shutter controller to it's up position. You can see some of the photo's I've taken here: Scuba Photos on Photobucket, and you can check out the ad on eBay if you're interested: Ikelite Housing for Canon A640 Digital Camera #6140.64 - eBay (item 250562740339 end time Jan-22-10 21:45:54 PST).

Whatever you decide to do in the end, I hope your wife enjoys her new underwater toy.

Tania
MSDT #239537

 

[Funland111]

Tania

Can you tell me the settings you use with your A640? I also have an A640 with a canon housing and an Ikelite slave strobe. Part of my confusion is the manual white balance - I thought you have to take a pic of something white at depth, then save it as a new white balance setting. I have taken some nice pics over the years, but I think I can do better if I enhance the settings in M mode. Heading to St John next month and I'm planning to give my A640 a workout!

Thanks

Bill Henschke

 

[dhuskins]

Bill,

As light travels through water, it looses color. Red fades first. The total distance the light travels dictates the amount of loss. So, 45 feet down and 5 feet from the subject is a 50 foot distance. If you want to have a "white balanced" photo, you would need to adjust each shot based on your current depth, distance from the subject, weather conditions at the surface, time of day, and other factors.

Or, you can simply control the light yourself by shooting pictures with a strobe. Now you have a set lighting distance with a known light. All the other factors fall away.

 

[fppf]

Yes, you don't need to use manual white balance when using a strobe. You bring your own light so you don't care what the ambient light is.

 

[Funland111]

Thanks for the help - I'll try to remember to post some pics when I get back - thanks again

Bill

 

[tjohnson]

Tania

Can you tell me the settings you use with your A640? I also have an A640 with a canon housing and an Ikelite slave strobe. Part of my confusion is the manual white balance - I thought you have to take a pic of something white at depth, then save it as a new white balance setting. I have taken some nice pics over the years, but I think I can do better if I enhance the settings in M mode. Heading to St John next month and I'm planning to give my A640 a workout!

Thanks

Bill Henschke

Two things to remember; 1) if you use your strobe, you don't need to white balance, 2) You can take photo's without a strobe if you white balance.

How to white balance with the A640:
1. Turn the Shooting Mode Dial to "C." You can use other shooting modes, but this gives you the most control underwater.
2. Press the Function Set button to bring up the on shooting options
3. Press the Macro Function button (MF with flower above it) down until you reach the Menu Evaluate White Balance menu. It's the second menu from the top.
4. Scroll to the right until you reach the Manual White Balance setting. It's one setting to the right of the Underwater White Balance fish.
5. Once on the Manual White Balance setting, hold a white slate about six inches away from the front of your camera.
6. Click the Menu button.
You have now set your white balance for the current depth. If you change depth +- 10 feet, you'll have to repeat this process.

You can save this shooting method so that when you turn your camera off and back on it comes up on the Manual White balance settings. Then, all you have to do is put the white slate up and click the Menu button.

Hope this helps.