Source for RecSea 95 in UK or Europe?

[Durwin99]

Hi all, I've been lurking for months waiting for the FIX/RecSea S95 combinations to work themselves out, I desperately need to upgrade from my S70/Canon housing combo and an upcoming trip in March seems ideal... Wisdom here seems to suggest the RecSea95 housing is preferable because of the lens options - with my current no-external lens setup, I shoot mostly macro (small crabs, worms etc) and I dive mostly in the Maldives, where typically the visibility isn't that great for wide-angle stuff. I also have a trip booked to Manado in Indonesia, which is lots of macro stuff. BTW, I'm seeing nice close-up photos from people on here which seem to be made with wide-angle lenses, I just don't quite understand the difference shooting with WAL or macro??

Anyway, as far as I can see, nobody is supplying the RecSea95 here in the UK, and the FIX95 is thin on the ground too... just spoke to the supplier of the latter and they don't have plans to bring in the RecSea. Does anyone have any direct experience of buying the RecSea over here, maybe from Europe? I'm worried partially about warranties... I appreciate there are more options in the USA but I think the shipping costs, time and potential for transit damage are greater when ordering from there... I did think about the S90/Fix90 route but the S90 is hard to get now, seems more expensive than the S95 and the Fix90 housing is £100 ($160) more than the Fix95 !!

Any pointers would be appreciated!
-Durwin

 

[mantababe]

Hi all, I've been lurking for months waiting for the FIX/RecSea S95 combinations to work themselves out, I desperately need to upgrade from my S70/Canon housing combo and an upcoming trip in March seems ideal... Wisdom here seems to suggest the RecSea95 housing is preferable because of the lens options - with my current no-external lens setup, I shoot mostly macro (small crabs, worms etc) and I dive mostly in the Maldives, where typically the visibility isn't that great for wide-angle stuff. I also have a trip booked to Manado in Indonesia, which is lots of macro stuff. BTW, I'm seeing nice close-up photos from people on here which seem to be made with wide-angle lenses, I just don't quite understand the difference shooting with WAL or macro??

Anyway, as far as I can see, nobody is supplying the RecSea95 here in the UK, and the FIX95 is thin on the ground too... just spoke to the supplier of the latter and they don't have plans to bring in the RecSea. Does anyone have any direct experience of buying the RecSea over here, maybe from Europe? I'm worried partially about warranties... I appreciate there are more options in the USA but I think the shipping costs, time and potential for transit damage are greater when ordering from there... I did think about the S90/Fix90 route but the S90 is hard to get now, seems more expensive than the S95 and the Fix90 housing is £100 ($160) more than the Fix95 !!

Any pointers would be appreciated!
-Durwin

i got my recsea s95 housing from these people, not tried it underwater yet tho, had to pay postage and import tax, but dont regret getting it

uwdigitalcamera.com

 

[Durwin99]

Thanks Mantababe, I've bookmarked the website & had a quick look - price is basically about £500 before VAT and duty and without delivery - do you happen to know the duty on this type of product, I'm not really sure what they class it as?
-Durwin

 

[mantababe]

hi not sure of what they classed as but i paid just under £50 in begining of jan

 

[slowhands]

You can order the RecSea housing worldwide from Yuzo in Japan:
UWdigitalcamera.com :: Compact camera housing :: High Grade housings :: RecSea S95 housing
He is totally reliable and highly recommended.

From all I have heard, the FIX and RecSEa are both excellent housings. Honestly, I prefer the FIX housing, because it has the 67mm threads directly on it for macro and wide wet lenses. With RecSea, you need extra adapters. The fewer extra pieces I need to do the job the more I like it. Also, I prefer the location of the front dial on the housing.

Reef has the FIX housing and ships worldwide too (also highly recommended):
FIX Housing for Canon S95 [fix.s95] - $799.00 : Reef Photo & Video!, The Underwater Photo Pros

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

We have shipped Recsea housings to the UK, they get there fairly quickly, along with Dyron fisheye lenses.

Scott

 

[Durwin99]

Thanks for the info everyone; I was favouring the RecSea because of the variety of options (agreed they probably all need adaptors of one sort or another ) and also because of the experience of people on this forum. However, I think the FIX S95 would be fine too - as I'm starting from scratch, its probably 50/50 for each. The only WA lens that seems to make sense on the FIX95 is the Fisheye UWL04 - but I do not have any clear indication yet that the Inon macro lenses (UCL165) work on this housing. I do wish there were bayonet options for the FIX S95, that's my main concern - having to screw/unscrew lenses when at depth doesn't sound like much fun. If my local dealer gives some kind of warranty on flooding through faulty housing manufacture, then that may swing it for me, based on a recent post here where someone seems to have a faulty housing and the overseas supplier doesn't want to know...
-Durwin