Anyone use the 300D or a DSLR underwater?

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i upgraded from a canon s500 to your camera (the digital rebel a300) in december of '04. i chose to house it in the aquatica housing and purchased a second strobe. my underwater pics have taken a huge (to me at least) step up in quality. however, my old camera cost $350, whereas just the 10-22 lens alone for the rebel cost $800. i am not a serious photgrapher but am enjoying the steep learning curve of underwater photography. if you would like to take a look at the difference between a point and shoot and the digital rebel, you can look at my gallery as every photo before the palau gallery was taken with the s500 and the palau gallery was with the rebel.
 
lee3:
i upgraded from a canon s500 to your camera (the digital rebel a300) in december of '04. i chose to house it in the aquatica housing and purchased a second strobe.

I'm off to buy one of those rebels tomorrow (they call them Kiss out here ?!?!?) and now I am going to have to buy a housing for it as well damn you! Looks like I'll never buy that house....

Great photos
 
How much did you folks pay for your DSLR housings? I take it there's a few brands such as:

1. Aquatica
2. Light&Motion Housing

Also, how do you actually look through the viewfinder, since there is no digital display for the DSLRs? Some angles would be pretty hard to maneuver into? Or do you just snap and pray?

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Bakpakka:

I own a 300D but jumped from Nikonos rigs to a housed 20D. It took me a while to recover from the sticker shock and decide that the $$ was worth it. I looked at getting a housed point an shoot but was advised (correctly I think) that as a long time slr shooter (on land) I would miss the viewfinder and not like the shutter lag on most P&S models. I made the jump to the 20D because the 300D is already obsolete and I hope to get a couple years out of the 20D before it is a Neanderthal (ha!).

I bot the Ikelite housing. Check your available dealers but i expect it will set you back in the range of $1,300 US. The housing is bulky but I like the clear polycarb and Ike's service and support has been nothing short of fantastic. I dont know how far Ike's reach extends into your part of the world.

For almost 20 years I shot the Nikonos and often did not use a viewfinder. There are point and shoot techniques that work in tight spots and where access to the viewfinder is not practical. On Ike's housing there is a magnification port over the viewfinder that gives you a nice clear view through the bulkhead. I dont shoot using an lcd screen so I dont miss it. Even on my wife's point and shoot, I use the viewfinder.

Hope this helps a little.

---Bob
 
bakpakka:
How much did you folks pay for your DSLR housings? I take it there's a few brands such as:

1. Aquatica
2. Light&Motion Housing

Also, how do you actually look through the viewfinder, since there is no digital display for the DSLRs? Some angles would be pretty hard to maneuver into? Or do you just snap and pray?

dSLR housing generally will cost anywhere from a bit over a thousand dollars up to > $5000 depending on the cameras/brands of housing. This does not yet including ports/zoom gears for various lenses. If you have 3-4 lenses, expect to pay at least another $600-$1000 at least.

Depending on the camera that you use (not all housing manufacturers support every dSLR), Ikelite is a good place to start for relatively cheaper but usually bulkier housing. It is polycarbonate housing, very solid, may not look as impressive as some other aluminium housing but it is well made with incredible customer service to back up its product. Aquatica is a solid, relatively inexpensive aluminium housing.
A bit more expensive is Nexus (for Nikon, very well made housing).
Light and Motion seems to lag behind currently and seem to concentrate more on video housing nowaday.

You will need to pretty much glue your mask to the viewfinder in order to see the entire frame. This is an inconvenience especially with Nikon D70 and Canon Rebel/350D as they have the smallest viewfinders. However you will get use to this very quickly and it is not a big deal unless your eye sight is not so great like some of my aging divebuddies :)

When you get up to Subal/Seacam housing, you will have the option of adding magnifying viewfinder to the housing which will give you quite a bit bigger viewfinder to look through so you don't have to glue your mask to the view finder. However this comes with a big price. Viewfinder on Seacam alone is more expensive than some other dSLR housing.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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