Underwater Housings for 20D

Hi Tweatherred,
An underwater housing is way too bulky and heavy to be lugging around. I am going to be backpacking in rugged terrain at times and need to travel as light as possible. An underwater housing won't fit in my backpack, thus why I am looking at the EWA Marine bags. Plus my 24-105 and 100-400 don't fit in an underwater housing Point and shoots cannot capture what I want with my bigger lenses.

OK, I thought you might have an underwater camera. The housing definitely looks like it is not for traveling light.

For my A70 the strobe has a sensor that will fire with the flash from the camera. It might take a couple of shots to get the strobe intensity correct. I had some pretty overexposed images in Bermuda using the strobe, although the diving isn't very deep there, and I probably didn't really need it.

I'm also thinking P&S. You can definately get the camera and the housing for <$500. I don't think you're gonna have time to fiddle with all your 20D's settings underwater. I'd save that ~$1250 and buy something that you can put to use for more than just one sucba diving trip (like some L glass). Either way it sounds like an awesome honeymoon, congrats

check out digideep www.digideep.com. They have a huge section of pictures, you can even search by camera types...the 20D takes some awesome pictures underwater. I don't know if I have to stones to take mine down. Ikalite also makes strobes, too. Buoyancy is huge when trying to take pictures underwater...it takes a lot of concentration to frame the shot while trying to hover in the water.

Howdy, I actually purchased a waterproof cover (neopreme) from Kirk when I bought my new BH. It worked fantastic. I was able to use my camera in the rain many times without any issues. Its a little touch sliding the zoom with the cover on, but I mainly shot long so once I had it adjusted, I did not have to touch it. Works with smaller lenses as well. I was using the 100-400L ISM lens which worked phenominal in the rain. I am still pondering coughing up the 1200.00 or so for the underwater Ikelite (when I go scuba diving) for my 20d, vs just buying a good point and shoot with an underwater housing (which I can get easily for 500-600). Then again I bought the 10-22mm Canon lens which shoots fantastic pictures so with my 20d and the 10-22mm, I am leaning towards the Ikelite with the 8 inch dome port. Anyhow reading this have experience with the 20D and 10-22 with an Ikelite housing? Is it neutrally boyant? I shoot a TopDawg with dual video lights for my underwater videography. It is absolutely neutrally boyant so its very easy to shoot steady video (without a steadyshot camera). Tnx.

Scubamaniac -

I compared the Ike to other options, and ended up ordering an Aquatica. The Ikes are good, but the Aquatica has a lot better ergonomics: the port seals are more secure and less prone to user error, the tactile feel of the shutter button is better, and the housing itself is a lot smaller. However, with the Inon Z240s, this housing is negatively buoyant by a couple of pounds, but that doesnt bother me (my rig is a lot more negative on land, and I cope with that....).

With the Ike, you'll have to take into account the strobe and arms in determining total buoyancy. You are getting strobes for it, right?

Oh, and the $1200 just gets you a housing. Add in a port, strobe arms, sync cords and strobes, and you're looking at a lot more. And unless you get one or two strobes, there really isnt much of a point to getting the housing - you might be better off with a better strobe and one of the Inon add-on lenses for a P&S casing.

Vandit

Wouldn't even attempt a ewa-marine. If the ikelite housing is beyond your budget, you can't afford to lose the 20D either. Go with an underwater housing that lets you use disposable cameras. Have fun losing a couple of these underwater so you can reflect on whether your 20D is worth a $1200 housing.

I completely agree. Would never use the bag. As for lighting, rather than using strobes, I use dual video lights which are great down deep when its dark and I can adjust the output using three different levels so I never have to worry about having too much light.

Save and get the Ikelight, I think I won't have any other choice as that is the LEAST expensive housing for the 20d out there I can find.

Happy shooting.

Scuba maniac. I have done a fair bit of shooting around costa rica, and have done everything you mentioned. As long as you dont plan on taking the camera IN the waterfall, there shouldnt be much of a problem with needing housing. the first time i went all i had was the kit lens and a 75-300 IS. and the second time i had my 17-40 and 70-200 (with a 1.4x tele). I really was proud of the results, and arenal (if you can manage to get it on a night without many clouds) makes simply Beautiful long exposure photographs (meaning you need a tripod. i found the best results were between 20-30 seconds). If you want to see some of my costa rica stuff, check out the gallery in my sig. all the stuff with the frames around it are from my latest trip. really is a great country

*edit* i just noticed this thread is pretty old and you already went. hope you had a great time. get any good volcano shots?

I had a great time in Costa Rica., been back for a while now. I used the waterproof cover from Kirk Enterprises which worked extremely well. You can check out my pictures at www.jlgphotography.com in the Portfolio COSTA RICA. I got some GREAT shots of Arenal as I had about a 1 hour open window. I noticed Arenal was the cover shot of Outdoor Photography ( I think that was the magazine ) this month. I am sending them some of my photos to a follow up to that article. Got a TON of great shots during the day with some very unusual cloud formations.

Tnx

wwow man good stuff. i see you got obsessed with one of those white faced monkeys too. they really are cool when there right up close. Great job on a green Jesus lizard. Looks like you were also able to get to the backside of the volcano at night for the eruption shots. Great stuff, wish i could have convinced the group i was with (non photographers) to go out there. but i stil managed some good ones i think. Costa Rica is a blast though.

Thanks. Yes Costa Rica was "PURA VIDA" for me for sure. When we arrived at Lake Arenal the volcano was CRYSTAL CLEAR from all around. I took lots of shots not posted on the net. Very unusual cloud formations in one of my shots was wicked looking. The night shots were only from a narrow window where I sat on my balcony of the Lost Iguana Lodge where we had a view dead center of the Western side (mostly west) of the volcano which was the most active. I got about 6 or 8 good night shots and that was all the time I had as each exposure was 3-5 minutes and it was only viewable at night for about an hour. I hired a taxi to run me around at night but once we drove down, the fog came in like you would not belive at ground level (pretty rare I heard to be on the ground) so I should have stayed in my room and gotten the fog rising up to the volcano top. That would have been great but oh well. We were lucky because they said for 30 days before our arrival, there was not a single day it was viewable. I think the volcano god was giving me a show because he knew I was coming for a year! You really need about 15-20 days to do the photography areas and we only had 10 days. However it was very fulfilling. Cheers.

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