Andybody Use These Cheap Underwater Cases?

Getting ready to go on a cruise that may involve some snorkeling, and I was shocked at the price of cases! $150+!

I realize that you do get what you pay for in life, but does anyone have experience with these $35 cases from eBay?

I'm not a professional photographer and am looking for decent pictures with the emphasis on protecting the camera (Powershot A620) from damage!

eBay Listing

Thanks!

Taking your camera underwater is not an area where you want to cheap out on, unless you are prepared to buy a new camera. Underwater photography is expensive business. I would recommend just buying a disposable waterproof camera.

go buy a disposable underwater camera, dont take urs underwater

$150.00 for an underwater case? With no experience in the matter, I would stay away from that one, let alone the $35.00 one, considering that there are underwater cases costing thousands of dollars. As others have said, I wouldn't want to skimp on protection when my camera is underwater. A leak would mean disaster.

EDIT: And I just got back from looking at the link to eBay that you provided and it seems that we are talking about two different types of camera/housings. So... never mind the cost reference, however you still don't need to go cheap for underwater protection.

I paid almost $200 for a housing for my canon s-70. it takes great pictures and I dont have to worry about it all that much.

There is already a thread covering this here, may be worth a look

http://www.photography​-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=264076

does the quality of the pics degrade when the extra cover is in front of the lens?!

you have to remember the S-70 is a point and shoot. color saturation changes underwater and you cant see anything through the view finder.

A $150 case is just fine for compact cameras - the big expensive rigs are for DSLRs. Funnily, I've never had a flood on my Olympus housing that I had from 2001-2004, and the more recent Canon housing I have had for the past year or so. Both these housings are < $200 apiece. On the other hand, my "big rig", costing almost 30 times as much, flooded on its 14th dive, killing both the camera and the lens.

So much for the theory that cheap = bad.

This particular housing, on the other hand, seems to be a soft plastic case, similar to the Ewa-Marine units. The Ewa baggies work quite well, but only at shallow depths. Once you go deeper, the pressure change causes all sorts of problems with getting buttons to work and so on. If you are snorkeling, the baggies should work quite well, actually.

Vandit

bobinatcat wrote in post #2575015
does the quality of the pics degrade when the extra cover is in front of the lens?!

Not really, although I've never tried it outside the case . I think you get much more degradation from the stuff in the water than the lens port (which is polished and coated in the Canon P&S cases).

i have a a620 and a dynapack bag. i would trust it underwater (i take it on boat rides). the quality doesn't seem to be affected but the A620s a real tight fit. you cant just "slip" it in and out, but it works. dynapack needs a larger size

I would be nervous using a cheap housing for a DSLR.

I have a P&S (s400) with an excellent underwater housing that I got for less than $150 and it is super. Allows full control over every button and dial and claims to be good to 40m though the deepest I've gone is 30m. The cost of losing the camera is much less significant and it is relatively small.