FS3 / MCFS5 Underwater underwater housing

[bracko]

greetings all...

I have an FS3 which is my P/S camera and have looked around for the underwater housing, which i found quickly then hit the floor when i saw the aussie price...

$430AUD.

which i think is almost twice what i paid for the camera. it seems that most of the panasonic housings are just as expensive as well...

I'm happy to pay the price if the camera will take good shots, (and yes i know cameras don't take good shots, people do, but it's a bit hard when you have a weak flash and poor sensor processing) but I'm at the moment struggling to believe I will be happy with the results for the $$ outlay.

so i guess my questions are 2 fold. 1. will i be happy with the results, 2. is there anywhere cheaper to aquire the cases... i have seen some on ebay which all up come to just over $300AUD... I'm not a huge fan of ebay, but if it comes to it i will buy it from there.

the other concern is that i buy the casing and the camera packs it in after 6 months... it's been around the world and dropped once (that i can recall) which is something else playing on my mind.

it's just a pity i can in no way afford a case for my D90 at US$1400++ that's just out of my league at the moment.

 

[slowhands]

In Japan, they charge high prices like US$400 for these cases. In the US, it's more competitive and you pay about US$220 on eBay. Shipping will jack that up say US$40 to Australia. You know the conversion rates. These cases are about 50% higher than Canon OEM cases, for whatever reason.

 

[bracko]

yeah, I've actually spotted one on ebay for $US260 + $50(AUD) delivery.

I'm going to have a hunt around ebay for a month or two and see if i can snap up a deal from some sucker who's out-laid the $$ for a complete setup and now has no time to do it or someone who's upgrading.

I've been playing around with the flash at home quite a bit and I'm not sure I'm happy with the results... so I'm starting to think I'll need a strobe quite quickly, hence the rethink to a second hand setup.

 

[bracko]

wohoo! they're now a discountinued item and have halved in price, picking one up tomorrow just in time for my Mike Ball liveaboard