6400 - Ikelite or Salted Line? Leaving in 3 weeks.

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Clack

Registered
Messages
11
Reaction score
1
Location
NorCal
# of dives
50 - 99
Fantasea is coming out any day but looks to be $2k for housing, port, zoom gear, port extension. Too much for me. Nauticam is also coming out any week but same problem.

SeaFrogs is the obvious value play but I'm a little gun shy after a failure at depth that cost me my 6300 and 1018 a couple months back. Customer service was excellent. They refunded my money almost a year later even though they pressure tested it and couldn't find anything wrong. Possibly it was user error but I have no idea why it failed after 20 dives with no issues. Half of me says get the vacuum and try them again with the dome. Can't beat the price at $500 so long as it doesn't cost you $1800 in camera equipment. The extra money would go a long way towards lighting, etc.

Ikelite doesn't have the reputation or ergonomics of the Nauticam or other top tier brands but I feel more comfortable regarding failure if simply because it's widely sold and accepted as a good working unit. Maybe it's the Honda Accord to Nauticam's S Class Merc to SeaFrogs' Kia Forte?

Any thoughts on other options? In any case I'll be pulling the trigger on something in the next week. Maybe just an RX0 and housing (much smaller) and just keep my camera on dry land?

Thank you!
 
I have a Nauticam housing and can speak to how amazing it is. I've dived about 180 dives with it with the vacuum valve and it really brings me peace of mind and it is a quality piece of engineering and design. I don't have a 6400 but I have the RX100. I have a friend who also has one but with a Panasonic GH series and another one with one of the Sony mirrorless models (I forget which).

With that said, should you decide to go the way of Seafrogs or Ikelite, and you are worried about floods or failures, another option is to purchase flood insurance. I have it for mine as well. If you are a member of DAN, you can purchase some through h2oinsurance.com. They also cover against theft and damage as well, but not mysterious disappearances and losing something overboard or while on a dive. You can even include other dive gear as well such as your BCs, regs, etc. They provide you replacement costs that you communicate when you buy it, not pro-rated depreciation. You can also always claim with your renter's or homeowner's insurance, though I tend to not like to do that because it can affect your coverage, not only in price, but if you get any coverage at all. (All insurance companies report claims and frequency of claims...I know someone that had legitimate claims but made too many in a short amount of time and was denied coverage when it came to renewing or continued coverage.) Most insurance companies reimburse depreciated value though there are some like Nationwide that I know do replacement value.

I run into a lot of people diving with cameras often and most people I've spoken to have been quite happy with Fantasea, less so with Ikelite. Common complaints with the Ikelite were more fogging problems and the buttons seizing up, but that might be something that is caused by lack of awareness on how to prepare the camera to prevent that or post-dive care.

Either way, I'd lean on the side of going with an option that provides a vacuum and a flood sensor. Does the Ikelite have that? If not, I'd stick to Fantasea or Nauticam. I think it's worth it.
 
Thank you and great insurance info. The Ikelite vacuum system would be more inspiring if it threaded directly into the case with an o-ring. I like the idea of a vacuum with indicator you don't release until you're done with the dive.
 
The Ikelite vacuum port threads directly to the housing and is sealed with an Oring, you leave the housing vacced down for the duration of your dive.
It does not have a blinking led to pass on the status to the user. I installed an Aquatica surveyor in my Ikelite housing so it has all the vacuum/moisture bells & whistles of a Nauticam or Aquatica housing.
 
Any housing can flood if sealed improperly. I've used my SeaFrogs one for five trips now, no issues. Their VPS-100 system has probably saved me from a flood once - it started blinking red on the way to the dive site; I took out the door and port o-rings, cleaned and re-greased them, and it was fine afterwards. Note that although it isn't mentioned on their website, it looks like they recently revised it to include a second o-ring on the main seal (link). The main advantage of Ikelite is a more robust port system - Meikon still hasn't released any extension rings to customize the length of their ports, although they've been getting better with zoom/focus rings lately.
 
The Ikelite vacuum port threads directly to the housing and is sealed with an Oring, you leave the housing vacced down for the duration of your dive.
It does not have a blinking led to pass on the status to the user. I installed an Aquatica surveyor in my Ikelite housing so it has all the vacuum/moisture bells & whistles of a Nauticam or Aquatica housing.

Did the system change since this? It shows it installed through the housing, not into it, then vacuum removed and port plugged. No torque spec or locktite. Just seems to loosie goosie.

 
I dive Sea and Sea housing for Sony a7iii. I’m very impressed with build quality. My dive buddy has Ikelite for his Nikon DSLR and he’s very happy with it too.
I used to have Fantasea for Sony compact and I always see Nauticams being used by experienced photographers.

There seem to be supporters of Seafrogs but I rarely see them in use, compared to these other, more expensive brands. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for you, just my experience.

My 2 cents is that maintenance, predive checks, o-ring lube and replacement are more important than brand.
 
My housing is the older style polycard DSLR housing shown in the video.
Instead of removing the 1/4" focus light mount , I removed the lens release control lever and installed the vacuum valve in its place. The valve threads into the housing in this location unlike the video posted. The housing is then vacced down and left for the duration of the dive. The vac gun is removed and the port plugged prior to splashing. The vacuum valve has an auto shut off poppet so it will hold pressure unless the gun is attached and the vent lever pulled.
 
Got it, that does work better than I thought. The indicator is still nice though.

Trigger pulled on the Ikelite. Now I need to decide between Vivid Sentinal V5, Aquatica, or other?
 

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