D800 Housing - Which is the best?

[BluewaterPhoto]

The port lock system on the Nauticam housing is amazing. it is probably the easiest D800 housing to use. The Aquatica housing is built so well it could probably survive a fire/war, the finish is amazing and the knobs work really well with gloves. The S&S housing I think is also excellent, it is very small & light, and their new internal TTL converters are definitely worth checking out. The Ikelite housings are a great value. We have videos of most of these housings here.

Hope this helps!

Scott Gietler

 

[TwilightZone]

I'll second Scott's recommendation on the Nauticam housing. I still love mine (and bought it from BluewaterPhoto btw, hi Scott!) It has such a solid feel, its like sealing your camera into something Tony Stark might have manufactured for your use.

 

[magicfx]

Nexus housing is good since it's upgradable to D810 or future model when you want to upgrade your camera body
Nexus D800

 

[James R]

I have the NA-D800 II housing -- very happy with it.

 

[Fota]

I use Ikelite for my D800E.

It was good enough for me to win the Swedish Championship in Underwater Photography 2015.

Mine has:
* Vacuum system
* LED warning LED
* Mini DOME (with sharp edges)

Works great with Tokina 10-17 + Kenko 1.4x, = FishEye zoom for full Nikon format. Very sharp!

On my rig I have attached (without anything interfering with the other)
* Dive Computer
* Compass
* A Focus light
* A Dive light
* Two individual Strobes (DS161) on individual arms.

And well balanced in the water using Stix Floats.

The LED-light on the strobes DS161 are so strong (500 lm) that it makes using a Snoot very easy, and it can double for a video-light, focus light (auto-switches off when firing the strobe), strobe pointing light, dive light etc and uses very little of the strobe's battery.

Yes, it leaked once (during the Championship!), but first the Leak Warning shined RED and then I checked inside the housing. As it is transparent I could see exactly where and how much water there was inside. There were only a few drops and as I also has the great Leak Insure sachets I slowly descended. It turned out that I have forgot to put the cap on the vacuum connector. Opened up the housing, changed sachet, dried out the drops,
So, I was clumsy (but hey I was under stress, it was the Championship) and forgot the lid, but the leak warning system and the fact that the housing is transparent, saved me.
Note, that there is another version of the vacuum system that has a build in warning that warns when it looses pressure. I usually check the pressure before the dive so I felt no urge for it and went for the cheaper solution.