Canon G10 Underwater housing.

[TylerOxendine]

EDIT: I'm leaning more towards the DICAPac Bag for my G10, but just wanting to see if anyone else has had any experience with that bag/g10. I'm not going to be doing any scuba diving with it, just mainly snorkeling, use it in the ocean(swimming), the pool, and maybe just goofing around with it in the water.http://www.accessorygeeks.com/waterproof-case-camera-wp-610.html

Anyone used this?!

[liannallama]

I had great luck with this case in Hawaii last year. Easy to get in and out but not so easy to change settings once it is in there. You also need to make sure the lens stays in place or you will get a strange "frame" from the case in your pics.

http://www.accessorygeeks.com/waterproof-case-camera-wp-610.html

[jgogums]

I bought the canon G10 UW housing for my ex girlfriend for a trip we took to Tulum, Mexico. Dead easy to get in and out of case, and no leaking. However, the little Ikelite strobe I bought her did leak...but it didn't affect our cenotes dive fortunately.

I don't own the G10 but I did use it on our dive since she was still new to diving and didn't feel comfortable operating camera/strobe while trying to stay alive...;). It work really well giving my inexperience with the camera and a quick play with it the day before in the hotel pool.

Read this thread on scubaboard.com. It has good info. on how to adjust aperture and shutter in Av and Tv respectively with G10 in its UW case (post #6). It sounds difficult but it really was quite easy to make these adjustments, UW, and will make more sense once/if you get the G10 UW case in your hands to practice. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-corner/262442-canon-g10-housing-dilemma.html

Have fun!

[peterbj7]

I bought one at the same time as the G10, and it's great! Very easy to insert the camera so long as there's no strap attached, and the housing is completely waterproof given the usual care with the O-ring. It is essential to use the flash diffuser if you're going to use the internal flash, as otherwise you get a two-part picture - bright above and dark below. With the diffuser it's fine. Although I rate the G10 very highly above water, below water it isn't my favourite tool/combination. I get pictures as good or better with my old Casio EX-Z55 in its own housing, even though the camera has only 5mp.

With the G10 in the WP-DC28 the whole lot is quite positively buoyant, around 2lb I'd guess. Ensure you leave it attached to a D-ring or (which I use) your chest strap, with a long-enough lanyard that you can use it without unclipping. That way you can simply let go when the need arises and you won't lose it.

"Normal O-ring care" - grease it very slightly with silicon grease so that it feels slightly slippery, but not so much that any grease is visible. Do this with the O-ring in situ - do not ever remove it (it stretches and thereafter never fits properly). When you close the housing make sure by feeling with the fingertip that there is no grit on either mating surface, and ensure by looking that the O-ring stays correctly positioned as you snap the clasp shut. This latter should never be an issue unless you have at any time removed the O-ring. When the housing isn't in use leave it loosely closed but with clasp not fastened, in a dust and wind free environment. I leave mine in a fabric bag inside a cardboard box that never gets disturbed.

Never open the housing in any area where there's moisture or flying grit - that means amongst other places on the deck of a boat. Fortunately the exceptionally long battery life of the G10 permits this - I've done 10 dives using internal flash all the time and the battery still showed "full" at the end. You need a decent sized SDHC card to permit this - I generally use a 16gb one.

On the boat on the way out ensure the housing remains cool and out of the sun. otherwise you will immediately get internal condensation and fogging when you enter the water. This will prevent any chance of photography that dive, and severe condensation can damage the camera. Open the housing and dry it out, away from any moisture of course. Don't reclose the housing until you are in a protected environment. If the camera shows any signs of moisture then remove battery and memory card and let it dry in the sun, but obviously protect it from any possible moisture. Regard that day's photography as shot.

And lastly, as with any housing don't ever let sea water dry on the port - it marks it permanently. Slight marks can be removed by rubbing gently with Brasso. Either put it in a rinse bucket (with salt or fresh water, it doesn't matter) or take a just-large-enough drybag that you can put the housing in with some added water until the boat gets back.

I have owned for myself or for rental in my shop some 20-odd housings, and the only ones that have flooded have either been closed in a hurry or have been tampered with by guests who thought they knew better. It is a truism that every housing will flood - it's not a question of whether, but just when. Never get blase with your housing care but be meticulous every time you handle it, and hopefully you'll put off that moment indefinitely.

[MarKap77]

.........Do this with the O-ring in situ - do not ever remove it (it stretches and thereafter never fits properly).

I go along with most of what you posted, but take exception to this statement. According to the guys at Ikelite, who manufacture high end housings for all sorts of still and video cameras, removing the O-ring is essential to ensuring that the seal is not damaged and that you have removed any and all debris. A single grain of sand or even just a single strand of hair can compromise the watertight integrity of the seal.

Best advice I have ever gotten on this issue? Always have spare O-rings. They will get damaged. They tear, or they get stretched out, or worse, in storage for long periods of time, they get compressed and don't make a good seal anymore. They are inexpensive when compared to having to replace a $500 camera. And since the G10 is now out of production, if you do flood the housing, you will need to buy either a used G10 somewhere (unless you can find a new one that had gone unsold), or buy a G11 or current model camera and a new housing. That makes a few spare O-rings seem really cheap.

To the original poster, the Canon housings are great products. The only thing better would be a higher end housing that would cost considerably more. If you are just starting out in underwater photography, it is a great place to start.

[peterbj7]

I absolutely don't agree with removing the O-ring unless it's necessary, and that should be very rare. So long as it's thoroughly (but sparsely) greased in situ to begin with, and the housing is treated with reasonable care, there is no way any grit can get behind the O-ring. Once you remove it you're presented with the risk of debris getting into the groove, as well as the O-ring stretching. Once it's stretched it's much more difficult to close the housing whilst ensuring the O-ring stays in place.

I don't actually agree that Ikelite housings are "high end". I've owned one and seen others that had minute stress cracks at the corners. Maybe they're better made now, I don't know, but that's how they used to be. Other than camera manufacturers' own housings, Canon, Casio, Olympus, Nikon, I now own a single plastic housing - an Ikelite for a Sony digicam, that exhibits stress cracks. My various other housings (video - I never take an SLR underwater) are all metal. I never remove the O-ring in any of them and I've never had a leak that wasn't directly caused by carelessness.

I said above that when the housing isn't in use it should not be closed with the catch. So the O-ring doesn't get compressed. I have three compact stills camera housings that are five years old and on their original O-rings. And never leak. As to tearing, how on earth could you tear a housing O-ring if you treat it as I have said?

As far as I'm concerned, my experience tells me very directly to treat the housing as I have described. I learned the hard way, having first followed "received wisdom" to remove the O-ring and grease it all over. I found myself having to replace O-rings more often than annually. Since then (for ten years) I have never removed and never renewed an O-ring and I have never had a housing leak (other than, as I said, as a direct result of carelessness).

A direct message to the OP. If you "dont want have a hassle of worrying of leaks everytime I put the G10 in the housing" then don't take your G10 underwater. EVERY time you put your camera into the housing and take it down you are risking a flood. Please don't think this is just a hypothetical risk. In eight years running a dive centre I reckon I've seen a flooded housing at least once a month, usually one owned by someone very experienced you'd think would be more careful. People get blase and careless.

[TylerOxendine]

I had great luck with this case in Hawaii last year. Easy to get in and out but not so easy to change settings once it is in there. You also need to make sure the lens stays in place or you will get a strange "frame" from the case in your pics.

http://www.accessorygeeks.com/waterproof-case-camera-wp-610.html


I looked for a case like this but could never find one, how legit is it? Do you basically just drop the camera in and shut the top? Also like you said make sure the lens is in place do you mean you have to just keep the camera pressed against that side (if that makes any sense) ?

[jsnoah]

I have the Canon housing and while I am not a scuba diver going deep, I used it in the pool and shallow snorkeling... Works great. Easy to use, and get the camera in and out of and as long as you use the supplied grease that comes with it to seal it, all good!

[TylerOxendine]

I have the Canon housing and while I am not a scuba diver going deep, I used it in the pool and shallow snorkeling... Works great. Easy to use, and get the camera in and out of and as long as you use the supplied grease that comes with it to seal it, all good!


I'm leaning more towards the DICAPac Bag for my G10, but just wanting to see if anyone else has had any experience with that bag/g10. I'm not going to be doing any scuba diving with it, just mainly snorkeling, use if in the ocean, the pool, and maybe just goofing around with it in the water.

[liannallama]

I looked for a case like this but could never find one, how legit is it? Do you basically just drop the camera in and shut the top? Also like you said make sure the lens is in place do you mean you have to just keep the camera pressed against that side (if that makes any sense) ?

yep--drop the camera in and I think there are two ziplock closures and fold it over and some snaps (I'm trying to remember back from June, LOL!) and, yep--keep the camera pressed against the side--the first time I used it was positioned poorly (user error!) and my pics looked odd. After that I got the hang of it and it worked fine. It was an easy, cheap alternative for a case that works great for the occasional vacation or pool party.

I second what another user said about making sure your card and battery were ready to go before you go in, haha! We just started snorkeling and I realized that my card was full so we had to swim back and start over.

I will try to post some pics later tonight when I get home so you can see what the case does.

[kja]

Spring for the Canon housing over the baggie. The baggie can be a major pain in da booty, they are far more likely to leak for a whole variety of reasons, if you even duck dive down a little bit the compression of the bag can make working the controls & keeping the lens lined up a bit of a booger...

Basically, the baggies might work sometimes but they're going to be painful to work with and there's a lot that can go wrong or simply be frustrating - and why would you want to deal with that?

The housings just work. They are easy to use, easy to maintain, rugged...

I'm not going to go into the o-ring debate that's happening in this thread more than to say mho is that somewhere in the middle of those two poles is where I would suggest you be on maintenance. It is a fallacy that grit and & debris cannot get into the groove or on the oring if it's left in the groove, it can and it does. With correct technique an oring can be removed 100s of times without damage - and it isn't that hard. Maintenance of the housing and the oring is really very simple and doesn't need to be over-thought - you simply need to be aware and careful each and every time. Easy.

Just my two cents.

Have fun with whatever you choose!

[EVOL]

Get the Canon housing........putting your $500 G10 in WATER is not the right place to save a buck.

I have not used this bag before but I have used a lot of dry bags for kayaking and backpacking..............they are ment to protect stuff INCASE they fall in the water not to keep water out while swimming.

If you want a point and shoot that you can take in the water that wont need a housing, check out the Olympus Waterproof Cameras.

Spend the extra $100 bucks to save yourself $500-800 in the long run.

Cheers!
EVOL

[Killjoy]

If you value your camera, do NOT put it in one of those glorified ziplock baggies.
Get a real housing for it.

If you don't get the Canon housing for it, go for the Ikelite (http://www.ikelite.com/web_two/can_g10.html) housing.

[peterbj7]

I agree - avoid the flexible bags. They allow too much pressure to be put on the camera, even if they don't leak. Though "leak" is hardly the right word - if you snag the bag on something it will flood catastrophically. I own one intended for an SLR and I've never had the courage to use it. Optically they stink anyway. The Canon housing (as opposed to the Ikelite one) is also sufficiently compact that you can take it skiing and to other places where there would be too much water for the naked camera.

It is a fallacy that grit and & debris cannot get into the groove or on the oring if it's left in the groove, it can and it does
If the O-ring stays in the groove how can grit get past it into the groove? Grit can get on the surface of the O-ring, but that's wiped off with normal maintenance. But if you leave the casing lying around in the sand, even if it's closed, you are asking for trouble. I'm assuming a modicum of operator sense here.

With correct technique an oring can be removed 100s of times without damage
In my experience this is absolutely not so. Correct technique is important to avoid nicking the O-ring, but it won't stop it stretching. "My experience" is not just as the owner of quite a few housings of different makes, but as the owner of a dive gear shop selling and maintaining the things. And every time the O-ring is removed it makes it more likely that it will fall out when the housing is opened, making it difficult to reclose the housing whilst ensuring the O-ring remains correctly positioned. But believe what you will - it's your money.

[kja]

Peter - agree to disagree. I don't think it's as dire as you make out, but whatever. I do this day in and day out and I'm only passing on what I see and experience. I have Canon housings that are coming up on ten years old (yikes!) and I've changed the oring once because someone sliced it with a credit card when they were trying to get it out.

Me likey the Canon housings & orings :)

As with everything YMMV and advice on the net is worth what you pay for it :D

[Killjoy]

I forget which distributor I got them from (I used to work in a SCUBA dive shop about 17 years ago) but I have a set of o-ring "picks" (for lack of a better term).
They are smooth, and if used correctly you can basically spoon out the o-ring from the groove.
No damage to the o-ring, and no scratches in the o-ring groove.
I've used them on a Nikonos IV-A, Nikonos V, and a Light and Motion Stingray Video housing.
I have NEVER sliced or broken an o-ring.

If you use care, and do it correctly, your o-rings will last a long time.

Edit: If I can remember, I'll dig them out of my drybox tomorrow and take a macro shot of them to show.

[EVOL]

I live in St. Croix and dive quite often.

I have >>>>>>>followed the instructions<<<<<< for cleaning and greasing the O ring several times.

In fact now its a little over a year old and I take it out and inspect it every time.

I have found a lot of sand in the O ring. Most of the time its from a shore dive where you have to come back on shore through breaking waves.

Cheers!
EVOL

[Killjoy]

Okay, I didn't dig out my drybox, but I remembered where I got them from.

The supplier was Trident (http://www.tridentdive.com/). You can go to their web site and download their catalog in PDF form.
Page 13 has the o-ring tools on it.

You can get one with a sharp point, one with a spoon smooth end, or one with a smooth flat end.
Or you can get a kit with all three.

They should be available through your local dive shop.

[TylerOxendine]

I will try to post some pics later tonight when I get home so you can see what the case does.

If you dont mind, could u post some.

[liannallama]

Here are a few that I had on my facebook. Hopefully they can give you some idea of what you can do. I think they were all shot either on auto or the underwater scene setting. The ones at Hanauma Bay are pretty murky and looks like noise but I think it is mostly sediment. I never tried it with the flash but we were in shallow water.

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/sharkscove4.jpg

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/sharkscove3.jpg

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/hanaumabay-4.jpg

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/sharkscove6.jpg

(and don't forget my dear husband...there are water drops on the casing here)
http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/sharkscove8.jpg


I think this link will work to see more in my photobucket album http://pbckt.com/sh.2YW

[liannallama]

Here's one that shows what happens when the camera gets unseated in the case. This was the first time I used it and I think I had it in there backwards or something. This happened a few other times but not nearly as drastically; simply resulting in a small corner that was black, not the whole "tunnel" effect of this photo.

http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd336/liannallama/underwater/IMG_1532-underwater-s.jpg

[peterbj7]

Weird fault, and I can't begin to imagine what happened. I don't see how that could possibly happen with my housing.

I took this shot yesterday with my G10 and WP-DC28.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc230/peterbj7/img_02412.jpg

[liannallama]

Holy moly! That thing scares me to death! Great picture, though!

[LouisStone]

I'd go for canons stock standard G10 housing, I think it's called a wp-dc 28. relatively cheap and alot safer as they are good to 40 metres. . .

All the shots on my site were taken with this housing.

http://louisstonephotography.com/