I plan on buying the ikelite housing. Will I be able to use the WA lens from canon in the housing, or would I have to buy the 300 dollar lens from ikelite?
Also, I have the sealife SL960 External Flash from my old DC500. Would I be able to use this? I'm not going to be taking professional shots, so for the level of shooting I'm on, it would suffice.
If not, would I be able to use their digital strobe?
I'm all for having a strobe, but with my upcoming trip to Thailand I'd rather spend 250 bucks instead of [at least] 400 from ikelite.
Thanks.
Hi,
Unfortunately, if you are going to want to take WA shots, then you are going to need to fork out for a "wet" lens (one that is designed for water use and can be put on and taken off underwater). This for a couple of reasons, not least of which is that the Canon lens would not be manufactured for underwater use so could start to corrode very quickly in salt water, plus may not stand up to pressure at depth.
Not sure how the Ikelite housing goes, but you cant use the Inon or Epoque WA lenses with the Canon housing due to the lens sitting too far away from the camera lens which causes serious vignetting ... the only lens that I have been told will work, is the Dyron (Dryon ??) which is comparable in price to the other two.
The other thing is that the Canon lens would be a 58mm mounting thread, whilst the Ikelite housing would have a 67mm lens port. You can sometimes use larger lenses on smaller ports, but not smaller lenses on larger ports ... you'd probably end up with photos that look like they have been taken thru binoculars or a telescope (you know, small round picture in the centre of a black surround).
As for the strobe, you probably wont be able to effectively use the internal flash as due to the position of it on the camera, the lens port will block the light from getting to the bottom right quadrant of your photos, and in fact could be totally blocked if you are using any accessory lenses (WA or macro).
Im not sure about the Sealife flash however unless it can be fired as a slave via fibre optic it will depend on whether it then has a hot shoe and if so if it is compatible with the Canon connections. Even if it is, dont scrimp just to save a couple of bucks as you will forever regret it. If need be, wait/dsbr a bit longer and get yourself an Inon D2000, Z240 or one of the Ikelite models with related paraphanalia ... it will be worth the wait, and you will much prefer the end results.