Nikon D90 Aquatica or Ikelite housing, your choice?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

howertonz

Registered
Messages
39
Reaction score
0
Location
Oklahoma
# of dives
50 - 99
I've narrowed it down to two housings and would greatly appreciate any advice on the two. What strobes do you use with your system? I am looking for good strobes, but not the cadilac of the bunch. My lens choices are the Tokina 10-17mm and Nikon 60mm. Thank you in advance.
 
I currently own both the Ikelite D90 and Aquatica D90. I purchased the Aquatica last month and sent the Ikelite back for port upgrade and then selling it when it gets back.

I used the Ikelite regularly for the past 18months and have done more than a couple of hundred dives on it. I found that the Ikelite build quality to be less than the Aquatica and this was shown in the difference between the zoom gearing and general fitting of knobs and dials. I have issues with the shutter release tigger on the Ikelite which lost its accurate feel in the past 6 months (needed a new spring or different type of spring setup) and the housing release latches for the main door had rust on it after only a couple of months (latches are stainless).

But in general the Ikelite housing served me well and with stood alot of diving, maybe more than what they are designed for (showing by the loss of feel in the trigger and other buttons). One thing I do like about the Ikelite housings is their TTL setup. Ikelite housing with DS series strobes and you have True TTL which I found excellent with Macro work and shooting wide angle on the fly. This feature alone is worth $300 as thats the price of the Ikelite TTL setup for other housings using Ikelite Ds series strobes. I like the idea of the clear housing but it comes at the cost of being a much larger housing with a maxium depth rate of 60m (Aquatica has 90m with 120m option). But I still installed a cheap flood alarm on the bottom of the Ikelite to give me quick reference to any moisture in the housing. Yes the housing is clear but so is water and a $25 flood alarm is a small price to pay to have a minor flood than a major flood.

The Aquatica has more precise fitting of camera body into housing and also a more precise feel with its zoom gear, dials and knobs. I like the feel of how the buttons and dials of the camera line up with the housing. I love the feel of the handles and the more comapct size of the Aquatica. Another advantage with Aquatica is the ability to use different bulkheads. I use the Ikelite bulkhead as I have few Ikelite Sync cords and use the Ikelite Ds125's strobes. Maybe I might try the Ikelite TTL adaptor with the Aquatica at a later date.

One thing I dont like with the Aquatica housing is that when using zoom lenses that you have to remove the lens and gearing from the camera body first before you can remove the camera body. Just dont like having lenses off bodies if you dont need too and more effort if you only wanted to replace the battery or memory card. The Ikelite with a little care you were able to take the whole camera and lens out in one go and didnt have to remoe the port/dome and then remove the lens from the body.

I use Ikelite DS125's strobes (i use 2) and I am happy with the results on both the Ikelite housing and Aquatica. They are much larger and heavier than the Inon z240's and Sea & Sea ys110 which are another popular strobes. I like the light they put out (more warmer) and also their recycle time (1sec). My next upgrade will be too the Ikelite DS161 movie as I like the extra grunt of the Ds160 with the LED modelling light for the video mode of the D90. Their down side is their size, weight, and replacement battery cost vs using rechargeable AA. Recommend the use of ULCS bouyancy arms with them also.

I like using the hotshoe hardwired setup for strobe firing over Fibre optics as I find it a little faster in shooting a series of shots than my friends Inon z240's. The downside is that Ikelite digital sync cords are more expensive than optical fibre cords .

Another Housing setup worth looking into is the new Nauticam's. They look very well made and offer different ways of connecting to strobes (hardwired and optical). The ability to use different ports from other brands make it a worth while.

My recommendation is to find somewhere locally which sells maybe them both and phyisically play with each of the housings and have a good look inside and out. Compare the total package of housing and ports for what you need and also the strobe options which are available. It going to be an expensive investment but I be looking at the setup which feels right in your hands rather than whats easier on your wallet.

Regards Mark
 
Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge! I have started a pro's & con's page for the three housings and will take the time to study each. I have a Sea & Sea set up that I can use in the mean time. Thank You!
 
I have 2 Ikelite housings and had no issues at all and consider Ikelite as a very experienced manufacturer building the best "cheap" housings.
Get a quote for the Ikelite and the Aquatica/Nauticam housing, including ports, zoom rings etc and you will realize that the differenc in price is more than the often advertised few houndred bucks. If you are a "(semi)professional" UW Photographer a aluminium housing may be the better choice as it is more forgiving to some bangs but i find the Ikelite quite sturdy. When you drop your rig from 5 ft and it falls on the port i guess that both would have some damage on the port clsoing mechanism.
Also consider that Ikelite provide a free i-ttl/e-ttl converter built-in so you can attach the DS series strobes by cable and have a working TTL system, while other housings may need to aquire external converters or don't provide TTL. The only backdraw on Ikelite is that you can't use optical slave strobes on most of their D-SLR housings as the housing don't allow the internal strobe to open and fire to trigger a slave strobe.

Modern "TTL" strobes like the INON D-2000, S-2000, Z-240 and some of the S&S YS series provide perfectly working "TTL" cirquits reading the preflash from the camera to regulate the output power. Using a slave strobe will eliminate the electrical connection as a potential source of troubles.

Chris
 
Chris, thanks again for sharing your knowledge. I spent a lot of time in Cost Rica and lived their for short periods at a time. Just wondering if you dive around Isla del Cano?
 

Back
Top Bottom