Need help comparing Ikelite and Olympus underwater housings

[Ishie]

Ok....now....u guys have me worried. I just got the PT20 Oly housing for my 5060, with a Sea and Sea YS 90 strobe. Took it to Cozumel, worked great, no leaks. Exactly what type problems have been had with this housing, and what do I look out for? I want the Light and Motion Tetra housing, but didnt have the $1700 bucks for one yet.

I'm sure people will disagree with me who have it, but I didn't really see the advantage of the L&M housing, particularly not for a 450$ camera. I like the Ike because it's simple, sturdy, and I can see into the housing so if there is a hair across the o-ring or something, I can see seepage before it has time to get to the camera.

The problem some report with the PT-020 (which is what happened to me) is that when one of the o-rings twists slightly, which is hard to detect, the housing may pop out the lower left corner of the bottom o-ring. Unlike a slow leak caused by hair or lint, this tends to rather dramatically fill the housing full of water.

Others with the PT-020 have reported no trouble with it whatsoever.

When it happened to me, I was especially bitter because first of all, it was my fourth dive with my brand new camera, and second, it did it right as a bat ray with a five foot wingspan swam directly under me, and proceeded to swim under me as I booked it back to shore to try and save my camera (no way in bleep). :furious:

When I got back on shore, I ended up dumping 2-3 tsps of water out of the battery compartment of the camera. Now, I'm not terrific with electronics, but that's generally a bad sign.

On the plus side, I was going to resell the housing after I got the Ike housing (with a warning of course), but discovered that for keeping it from getting splashed or damaged, the Oly housing works quite well for me without being as bulky or heavy. I took it to Disneyland, on Splash Mountain and everything, and no probs.

Though that's probably not wildly encouraging. :05:

 

[slowhands]

....the PT-20, after flooding my camera on my FOURTH dive with it due to the same o-ring failure that everyone else had with the 5060, I'm going Ikelite for life.
...

To answer the original question the PT-030 housing for the SP-350 is a good housing at a good price. It has metal clamps for closure which apply more force than the plastic clamps on the older housings, and they are unlikely to break like the earlier plastic clamps. The higher clamp force helps to prevent the O-ring squeezout under pressure that has been mentioned.

This thread has drifted a bit to 5060 housings, but since there have been concerns mentioned about flooding with the PT-020, I suggest you consider the PT-027 instead. It will fit the 5060, and is a superior design at a similar price. It has metal back clamps instead of the weaker plastic clamps of the PT-020, an improved port clamp, and better O-ring channels. The metal back clamps solve two problems: the earlier plastic clamps had a tendency to break with age, and the metal clamps can apply more pressure, evenly. The new port clamps use a metal pin, not a plastic pin, to lock the port in place, an improvement but not perfect solution. Still unsolved is the corrosion problem of the stobe bulkhead connector. The connector corrodes and freezes, and breaks when removal is attempted. You must clean the strobe connector after each dive and re-apply silicone grease to the threads to minimize this.

I strongly advise against mounting a wide angle lens on the port, as the weight can't be safely handled by the port clamps and the port will come off. Similarly, I strongly advise against using the PPO-02 wide port for the housing for the same reason. If you want wide angle, consider use the Ikelite housing with dome port.

Despite these faults, this is a lot of housing for the money, about $180 versus $540 for the Ikelite. It will take great photos underwater. I like it for its compact size for travel. For peace of mind I just consider it a consumable, like the camera. Given the rate of improvement in digital cameras these days, I know I will want to replace it before it wears out. I'm already lusting for a DSLR for underwater use, with this as a backup when travelling.

 

[jeffdiver06]

I just bought the PT-030 and used it on three dives in Roatan and Belize at a depth of 90 feet and had no problems. For those of you who have had problems, does Olympus stand by their warranty, replace your camera, refund money or what? A few basic questions since I'm new to digital/underwater photo- what do you do with that pesky lens cover when underwater, leave it topside? How about storage and care of the housing between dives? Thanks Jeff

 

[RockyHeap]

Do the Ikelite housings lens port block the internal strobe on Oly cameras? I've had that problem with a Nikon 5900 in an Ikelite, and I was just reading on the Cannon forum about the same 1/2 picture frame being blocked too.

What models of Oly camera DON"T have a blocked shaddow line in an IKELITE housing?

thanks.!