Ikelite vs AOI vs Sea Frogs

[Guitarcrazy]

I am looking at upgrading my camera system and have not settled on a camera or housing yet. Some of the cameras I am considering have Ikelite, AOI, and Sea Frogs housings available. Some also have Nauticam availability but those exceed the amount that I am willing to spend for this purchase. I have used Olympus housings, which I think are made by AOI (?) and they work fine. I have never used an Ikelite or Sea Frogs housing. The Ikellite looks very boxy and not very tailored to the particular camera, but I am told they are a good company, made in the US, and function well. The Sea Frogs cases lack some features in their lower end (some don't appear to have changeable ports), but they are exceedingly affordable. I like the AOI housings I have seen, and the Olympus housings I have used. Any Ikelite or Sea Frogs users have thoughts on why I should or should not choose a particular housing? I am considering the Sony A6XXX cameras, Olympus OM-D EM1 mkIII, and possibly the Oly E-PL10 in the AOI housing. The last one would be the simplest way to go, but the 16 MP sensor is giving me pause as I am not sure it is enough of a step up. I appreciate feedback from experienced housing users who are more familiar with these than I. Thanks.

 

[Barmaglot]

If I was starting from the ground up, and without unlimited money (if I had that, I'd go for a Sony A1 with 28-60mm, WWL-1, and 90mm macro, in a Nauticam or Marelux housing), I would probably go for E-M1 III in an AOI housing. It's priced competitively with SeaFrogs (keep in mind that the AOI housing includes a flash trigger and a vacuum system, whereas for SeaFrogs those are optional extras), and it has a more comprehensive lineup of lenses and ports. You can shoot it with 8mm fisheye, or with 8-25mm or 9-18mm rectilinear wide zooms, or with 14-42mm zoom plus wet lens, or with 12-40mm zoom, or 30mm macro, or with 60mm macro - this pretty much covers all the underwater use cases.

Sony A6600 or A6400 in a SeaFrogs case would be a close second - it doesn't have a native fisheye option, so your lens choices boil down to 10-18mm wide (possibly the new 10-20mm, but there is no zoom gear for it yet), 16-50mm either in a dome or with a wet lens, and 90mm macro, possibly 50mm macro, possibly adapted Canon 60mm macro. Tokina 10-17mm via Metabones is also a possibility, but you'd have to make your own zoom gear, and you don't get a small dome for CFWA. A6600 advantages over A6400 are much longer battery life, IBIS (if you shoot video), and access to manual focus on the 90mm lens (A6xxx Salted Line housing has too small of a port opening to operate that, but A6600 housing shares its ports with A7 series).

E-PL10 would be in the last place, primarily because of the older sensor and CDAF-only autofocus.

Ikelite housings work, but they're too much in love with wired strobe sync for my taste - I prefer fiber optics.

 

[Guitarcrazy]

Thanks for the informative response Barmaglot. The Sea Frogs housings can be had really cheap, but like you said everything is an option and I am not knowledgeable enough to piece together a decent rig without a lot more research. That is the nice thing about the E-PL10, Backscatter has pretty much lined it all up so it easy to buy what you need to hit the ground running. I am hesitant to buy that camera for the reason you mentioned, the sensor seems outdated and somewhat lacking in resolution compared to the other cameras. The E-M1 ii and iii seem to have a good combination of sensor size and resolution. They were quick to point out that the EM-1 AOI housing uses PEN ports. Is that detrimental in any way? I don't really care which ports a housing uses as long as they are available and affordable. Appreciate the reply.

 

[Barmaglot]

The main issue with E-PL10 sensor is not the resolution, but the contrast-detect only autofocus. The phase-detection autofocus on E-M1 II and III is a lot faster.

PEN ports have a smaller diameter than OM-D ports. This can be annoying if you want to use larger diameter lenses, such as 8-25mm or 12-40mm - they won't fit through the port opening, so in order to get the camera into the housing, you have to detach the port, detach the lens, put the camera body into the housing, attach the lens, attach the port. For taking the camera out, you need to do this in reverse order - if you look on the front of the housing, there is a button labeled 'LENS RELEASE' - this is so that you can detach the lens while the camera is in the housing. You also need an adapter to mount OM-D ports on PEN type housings - AOI ER-PN_OD-37 - OTHERS - PRODUCTS | AOI LTD. - as well as the OM-D ports themselves.