S120 or G16, ikelite or Canon housing....??

[rks]

I've got the underwater camera leak detector from this guy Underwater Camera Housing Leak Detector - Underwater Camera Housing Leak Detector - Home Page that I installed in my housing and it seems pretty good, I've thankfully never had to test it. apart from with a moist finger but the extra insurance seems worth the $$$

 

[Tafflad]

That was one of selling points of Fantasea housing for me - comes as standard

 

[Interceptor121]

A moisture sensor inside the housing reacts when you have already water in it. That is usually a bit late if you need to do a mandatory safety stop. Usually this is good only if you do a test in the rinse tank
With a proper leak detector vacuum based you check the integrity of the housing before and during the dive at the minimum pressure loss you know you have to make your way up. This is the right way to protect your investment but you need an accessory port on your housing

Also moisture sensor may react to condensation inside the housing (happens in plastic housing more than metal) that are not linked to leak and give a false alarm

 

[Tafflad]

Didn't imply it was perfect .... but it is free .... and I would rather a False positive than no alarm ... and it you don't like it turn it off.


Personally I would not like a vacuum based device ... nature abhors a vacuum ....at all times housing is trying to suck something in.
A positive pressure would seem more logical ... but I don't have either.

 

[Interceptor121]

Well this is now an industry standard accepted method there are many benefits and you can read around, the delta pressure is only 200 mbar and that means pretty much nothing at 20-30 meters.
On your comment about the positive pressure housings are not designed for positive pressure.
One of the issues with plastic housing versus metal is that they tend to be more insulate so when your camera gets hot inside the air in the housing gets very hot this increases the internal pressure and the housing floods. A metal housing will better dissipate the heat in the water and not have this problem
Other situation is when you have a drop of water already in because you managed to get some condensation in your air conditioned room. With a leak detector this means nothing with a moisture sensor you may have a false.
Then when you get in the water the inner of the housing heats up and vaporizes the drop of water. In a plastic housing the glass port is conductive and the rest of the housing an insulant when the how vapour hit the cold glass port it condenses and you get fog on your port end of pictures. With a metal housing the vapor tends to condense on the metal that compared to the glass is more heat conductant.

Anyway enough of this and yes something is better than nothing

 

[Tafflad]

As I said .. I can live with a False positive ...

Metal also conducts faster ... so would exacerbate any difference in temp between camera & water.

However this is all pretty academic to me ... I have my housing, and have dived with Polycarbonate housing for more than 10 years .. never had a leak, never had condensation issues.
I even gave up putting the silica gel sachets in about 3 housings back.

I treat the 'electronic leak detector as a visual extra ... I can ignore the LED warning if I can visually see all is OK ..

Good practise would be to submerge in the rinse bucket before each dive and that again dissipates any temperature variations (however freely admit I don't often do that), I just drop in and have a quick look for any bubbles form housing.

If I had a £2000 DSLR camera & lens and £1000+ housing I may feel different - I don't I have a compact.

 

[Deep Water Dan]

I have a moisture detector in my Nauticam housing; I consider it essentially worthless. As stated above, once it sounds off it's most likely too late. And chances are your camera won't be at the optimum angle when flooding starts so when the moisture detector does go off you probably already have a good deal of water in the housing. Vacuum systems are the bomb if you're concerned about protecting your gear. The inside of the housing is going to be under negative pressure underwater anyway.

 

[Hatul]

As starter kit I would recommend S120 with canon housing. It is very good value for money at £550 you get camera and housing.
The camera is easy to use and fits in a pocket the sensor is the same of the G16. It has less zoom that on land is a draw back but underwater is a plus as you can attach a wide angle lens and use it at wide apertures.
The G16 can also take wide angle lenses but require small apertures so no natural light shooting except at the surface

Housing
Other than the increased depth resistance the ikelite housing does not offer more control.
In fact it also misses the cold shoe for the focus light and pushes you to use M67 lenses

As far as choice of housings I've used both for the S series, Canon and Ikelite. They're both roughly the same price, Canon housing is more prone to flooding, but has better zoom control. The Ikelite is more robust with better O ring and is held to the tray by two screws, has a better lens port and comes with a lens port protector. The zoom control on the Ikelite is not so good but I've reprogrammed the camera to use the step zoom. Also the Ikelite has more room for silica packs. Overall I think the Ikelite housing is a better buy.

 

[Interceptor121]

How can you say a housing is more prone to flooding of another? There is only a common characteristic amongst all floods: it was a user error. Oem housing are popular amongst beginners that in turn flood housings more so you hear more reports. For the same reason you hear no reports for example of Aquatica housing. However if you get a chipped oring or a hair in the seal or a silica packet in between your housing will flood regardless of brand

 

[KeithG]

How can you say a housing is more prone to flooding of another? There is only a common characteristic amongst all floods: it was a user error. Oem housing are popular amongst beginners that in turn flood housings more so you hear more reports. For the same reason you hear no reports for example of Aquatica housing. However if you get a chipped oring or a hair in the seal or a silica packet in between your housing will flood regardless of brand

Well in this case, your opinion turns out to be very WRONG!

Not all floods are caused by user error (just most of them...). Please make sure you have all the facts when quoting history.

Canon had a manufacturing problem for a while (or who ever made the housings for them did). There was a ridge from a mould line that bi-sected the o-ring groove. Lots of unexplained floods. Lots of unhappy customers. No user error involved. I believe there are a lot of divers who now do not trust canon housings due to this issue.

The fix was actually simple - sand down the ridge.

Here's a few links with background info. I am sure there is more info out there...

Canon Underwater Camera Housing Leak Fix - Reef Wreck & Critter
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ca...p-canon-housing-need-instructions-open-2.html

Cheers...