Nikon vs. Fantasea vs. Ikelite for Coolpix 4600/5600

[TheNitroxinator]

On short notice, I wound up getting the Nikon CP3 housing so I'd have a backup for my 5050 in PNG. I handed the 5600 off to a buddy for a couple of dives. He used the underwater mode, and usually had the internal strobe on. No dice, its still blue on his photos unless he got really close. Unless you happen to dive in conditions that match what Nikon chose for their underwater white balance, I think you're better off using the manual white balance.


Would I buy the Fantasea? That's what I'll be recommending to one student with a 5200, assuming she chooses to get a housing of any sort. She'll be using my 5600 for a National Geographic exploration dive. I'll need to demonstrate the manual white balance, and turning the strobe on and off to avoid backscatter. The lack of shutter and aperture control is annoying, but in good light the automatic settings do a decent job with manual white balance. I expect that students are going to buy a housing for digital cameras that they already have in most cases, and most students will have something with a bunch of scene modes and no manual shutter and aperture settings. The Nikons match that. Maybe Nikon will match the Canon A520 and put full manual control in their low end consumer cameras someday, but its apparently not going to happen with this years models. Incidentally, I've been using the Canon A520 lately, just because of the manual controls, and the housing isn't much bigger than the Nikon CP3. I do think the Nikon is better for macro, but most beginners don't really have the knack for macro shots anyway, time will tell which one they'd prefer to use.


I'd go with the Fantasea housing if I had time to get a delivery - its basically setup to do the manual white balance without a problem, based on finally getting to see a housing firsthand (that only required my being in a camera store in Australia,, while living in So. Cal). I don't actually use any of the missing buttons from my Nikon housing, they just get in the way. My Nikon housing hasn't leaked yet, but I don't know that it will really be any better than the Fantasea, and the Fantasea costs a lot less. Fantasea will soon have a new strobe housing for the coolflash, or there's the Sunpak as a low cost alternative. I'm seriously considering getting one in lieue of the internal strobe, that might eliminate the shutter speed issues for some of the nearer shots, and not introduce a bunch of backscatter.


Examples? Well, I attached a couple showing what you can get with manual white balance and some post processing. Not as good as what I can get with a good strobe, 5050, assorted add on lenses, and manual shutter and aperture control, but probably good enough for what most beginners would be looking to get.

 

[HMan]

Hi, I am following this interesting conversation from our Fantasea Line international headquarters in Israel. We are now releasing a new, very economical accessory flash called the CoolFlash it will cost about $120 retail and have a housed Sunpak Digital slave flash inside. It is good to 130 ft. it is definitely very basic but it will do a good job for most digital aim and shoot u/w photographers and at a great saving.
It can be seen at this link http://www.fantasea.com/ssl/prod_det.asp?id=144 we will soon be posting images taken with this CoolFlash and our new FS1 housing for the Nikon Coolpix S1 and S3 cameras. As far a visual proof of images taken using these Fantasea Housings, here is but two galleries shot exclusively with the Fantasea Housings 1. http://www.pbase.com/hman/red_sea_images and 2. http://www.pbase.com/hman/testing_new_housings hope you enjoy Howard

 

[kimkr]

Did you find out for sure if the Nikon 7600 will fit in the 5600 housing?

 

[QbLulu]

Nice to see some discussion about the 5600 and its houses. I have a 5600 and the first house I bought for it was that fantasea house. I used it for four days of snorkling and then the closing mechanism broke. Luckily the suplier gave me a new house, but that house had a broken button and a third house got a broken button just before I would use it for a diving session. Luckily all breaking occured above water so no spoiled camera. These experience did not give me a lot of confidence in the fantasea housing anymore. It also bothered me that one is not able to switch the camera on and off while you are under water.

I got rid of that house and bought the Ikelite one. It is stronger and all functions of the camera are accesible. I have done more than twenty dives with it and it is still ok.

However, the ikelite house has a problem too: the internal ring around the lens does not have a tight fit to the camera, which results in a nasty ring on the pictures when using the flash. My remedie against this is making an extra ring of ducktape stuck to the camera. Sadly this should be done every time when you change the accus.

cheers