Wow, housings have gotten freakin' expensive!

[Maddog59]

That's still close to the cost of the housing. Dome ports shouldn't cost THAT much, and they wouldn't if there were a standard dome port that every photographer used. Edmunds Optics sells mass-produced 8" hemispheres for about $50, the mounting features can't cost THAT much.

If, as a Manufacturer I can make a product for a theoretical price of $100.00, by the time I add Gov Taxes and duties, Transport costs, material costs and a reasonable profit for my self and then the wholesaler gets his profit and then the retailer adds his the price for that $100.00 article will now be about $400.00 - $500.00 dollars. Now take into account the cost of the machinery to manufacture this item and you start to ask yourself as a business why am I doing this!

The Dome from Edmunds are far to thin material (1/8") for an optical dome and they are not optically produced or coated.



This is not a cheap sport and U/Water photography is not a cheap pastime!


Peter

 

[MarkH]

For my underwater housing, I ordered a dome from these guys:Small Acrylic Domes
I assume that Ikelite 6" domes are priced based on what the market will bear and not what it costs to produce them. Up here they retail for $300, which seems pretty steep for what they are.

 

[bvanant]

For my underwater housing, I ordered a dome from these guys:Small Acrylic Domes
I assume that Ikelite 6" domes are priced based on what the market will bear and not what it costs to produce them. Up here they retail for $300, which seems pretty steep for what they are.

It's not the cost of the materials mostly, acrylic is pretty cheap and the molds aren't too bad. It is the engineering to make sure that it doesn't leak, ever, at all in any circumstance including a whole bunch of user errors. That part is what we are paying for. I just recently took my 15,000 picture with a particular camera while diving. The camera cost $1000, the lenses another $3000 and the housing another $3000. Add in strobes and bits and pieces and all in I am at say $7000 or so. That is the price of 2 liveaboard trips more or less and less than $0.50 per pic. Worth it, I think so. As for getting the cheapest system that lets you take pics that are "good enough" I would venture to bet that most people taking pics underwater are no where near limited by their equipment. Compare today's gear with a Nikonos 3 and you will see we are way ahead in technology but many pics taken with old film systems are still amazing. Same for P&S cameras. So why do I use an SLR? Mostly because I am in to super macro types of things and the versatility of using multiple different ways of getting a good shot of a tiny critter is worth the $. Your mileage may vary.
Bill

 

[MarkH]

I also made an underwater flash housing that I used for years down to about 140'. It was made out of less than $10 worth of ABS plastic plumbing fittings. The o-ring sealed cap (clean-out adapter) cost about $4 and never leaked in about 200 dives. The engineering involved in waterproofing diving-depth equipment is pretty simple. -Tolerances of not much less than 1mm and a rubber o-ring. That's about it.

 

[furby076]

Wooohooo!!! I love it!!

Proactive and good for all Well said!

Great before you know it diving will be so popular Starbucks will open shop at 15 feet for the safety stop.