Hello,
I'm an avid diver but only dive maybe 15-20 days per year. I've been thinking about getting into video but have been reluctant due to the cost and effort needed to maintain the gear and not have floods. I've seen many many folks have their cameras flooded due to a myriad of reasons. What housing is rock solid with the minimum of care?
Gates, Amphibico, Light & Motion...Ikelite, Aquavideo, USVH also.
Define "minimum of care"
I hate having to worry about o rings and the shellicam sounded interesting.
You'll still have to worry about it with their rubber seal. Maybe less due to it's apparent thickness. But since every other housing manufacturer uses o-rings who is right? My
guess is long-term durability and hardening after exposure to salt water and the elements is the issue with rubber seals. Ikelite otoh has been using o-rings for 45 years.
your call...
Also "boiling for an hour" and "strapped under a Jeep" while indicative of robustness, probably has no bearing on whether it will leak at depth.
I'm not looking for professional quality.
You won't get it with Shellicam. No camera control, the complete inability to even see/frame what you're shooting and lack of basic start/stop, zoom or focus control means you're getting what you pay for. To be fair, that's the problem with other generic "tube" housings also.
Although at that price, their only competition is the Nemo sold on eBay. Advantage to Nemo is that it has a clear back port so you can see your viewfinder or maybe LCD screen - depending on camcorder size. Disadvantage to Nemo is it's lower depth rating (120').
If you want a basic tube housing with some controls, also look at Aquatix or Atmo-Seal. Double the price plus. If money's not as big a factor, you can get an Ocean Images Dolphin, TopDawg or Ikelite for around $900, all have controls and viewports.
Links to all of the housing mfr's websites named are
here.