Ikelite vs PT-030

[f3nikon]

Sounds like you have a very small leak if the desiccant are getting wet like that. Try using a hair dryer to warm up the inside of the housing and at the same time turn on the camera while connected to the charger, with the LCD viewfinder on, this will drive the water off the camera and housing. Then quickly place the camera in the housing and lock the lid. 99.5% of the water should be gone so there is in effect no water to turn into fog, steam, vapor etc...unless there is a leak of sea water somewhere.

I had this happen on my U/W video housing, fogged up after 15 minutes, sure enough there was a leak (I actually saw the water slowly dripping in) because the housing did not fog up before this leak.

 

[wahlaoeh]

Sounds like you have a very small leak if the desiccant are getting wet like that. Try using a hair dryer to warm up the inside of the housing and at the same time turn on the camera while connected to the charger, with the LCD viewfinder on, this will drive the water off the camera and housing. Then quickly place the camera in the housing and lock the lid. 99.5% of the water should be gone so there is in effect no water to turn into fog, steam, vapor etc...unless there is a leak of sea water somewhere.

I had this happen on my U/W video housing, fogged up after 15 minutes, sure enough there was a leak (I actually saw the water slowly dripping in) because the housing did not fog up before this leak.

If there is a small leak, why would it be OK for some dives & not others?? The problem seems to be intermittent. On one occassion, the housing started to fogged as soon as I was in the water but I took it down for a 60 mins dive just to check for any air bubbles/leaks but so not see any. Also, I did test the setup in a rinse tank before the dive but do not see any water in the housing.

 

[f3nikon]

If there is a small leak, why would it be OK for some dives & not others?? The problem seems to be intermittent. On one occassion, the housing started to fogged as soon as I was in the water but I took it down for a 60 mins dive just to check for any air bubbles/leaks but so not see any. Also, I did test the setup in a rinse tank before the dive but do not see any water in the housing.

A leak can range from a flooded housing to one drop of water in the housing. A drop of water together with a heat source (camera thats on) is more than enough to make steam or vapors. You will NOT see any bubbles with a leak rate of one drop every few minutes plus the fact that at depth, if by chance you do start seeing bubbles, your housing would have been flooded in no time! Also at depth the water is compressing the air molecule to a smaller size making it harder to see. An example of this is when you exhale at depth using scuba, the bubbles are packed in or compressed at first because of the water pressure, but then spreads out or expands as the bubbles nears the surface.

The rinse tank does not always work on very small leaks, the water pressure in the rinse tank is too low or zero. If you did heat up the housing with a hair dryer and left the camera on for 10 minutes with the charger like I had said, thus yeilding a very dry surface area on the housing and the camera, and you still see "fog" on the housing surface. Where did the source of water to cause the fog come from? Because you need the water to make fog and water does not appear out of nowhere as if by magic, unless there is a leak.

You need to drive the water from the surface of the housing and camera with heat, then close the housing lid. My video camera did NOT fog at all before the small leak (one drop of water) was noticed inside. The fogging did go away after the leak was fixed.

"housing started to fogged as soon as I was in the water". This tells me that there was water still in the housing even BEFORE you hit the water because on the surface the temperature inside the housing with the camera on, is about the same as the warm air temperature. Once you hit the water the surfaces of the housing starts to get colder, steam or fog or vapors condenses (goes back to a liquid state) on colder surfaces.

 

[wahlaoeh]

A leak can range from a flooded housing to one drop of water in the housing. A drop of water together with a heat source (camera thats on) is more than enough to make steam or vapors. You will NOT see any bubbles with a leak rate of one drop every few minutes plus the fact that at depth, if by chance you do start seeing bubbles, your housing would have been flooded in no time! Also at depth the water is compressing the air molecule to a smaller size making it harder to see. An example of this is when you exhale at depth using scuba, the bubbles are packed in or compressed at first because of the water pressure, but then spreads out or expands as the bubbles nears the surface.

The rinse tank does not always work on very small leaks, the water pressure in the rinse tank is too low or zero. If you did heat up the housing with a hair dryer and left the camera on for 10 minutes with the charger like I had said, thus yeilding a very dry surface area on the housing and the camera, and you still see "fog" on the housing surface. Where did the source of water to cause the fog come from? Because you need the water to make fog and water does not appear out of nowhere as if by magic, unless there is a leak.

You need to drive the water from the surface of the housing and camera with heat, then close the housing lid. My video camera did NOT fog at all before the small leak (one drop of water) was noticed inside. The fogging did go away after the leak was fixed.

"housing started to fogged as soon as I was in the water". This tells me that there was water still in the housing even BEFORE you hit the water because on the surface the temperature inside the housing with the camera on, is about the same as the warm air temperature. Once you hit the water the surfaces of the housing starts to get colder, steam or fog or vapors condenses (goes back to a liquid state) on colder surfaces.

Thanks so much for the detailed info. I'll be sending the housing back to Olympus for checks..hopefully they'll find out something to fix this problem.

 

[f3nikon]

Anytime...I hope it works out for you.

 

[GulfCoastdiver]

I have a sp-350 and a pt-030 and it flooded on me on my first dive with it at about 10' or 15' and I sent it back to olympus, they replaced both the sp-350 and the pt-030 and the 1gig mem card, no problems with it anymore and have been to 98' with it.

 

[sunkarm]

Thanks all for the advises. My only concern is that, does using Ikelite housing guaranteed from any u/w leaks as compared to using PT 030? thanks again.

 

[WOODMAN]

There are no guarantees in this business, unfortunately, and I have heard of floods with both systems even after taking minute precautions to ensure that all sealing systems are intact and clean . Now, having said that, I think I am fairly safe in saying that the Ikelite systems are far less prone to this sort of monkeybusiness, with precious few reports of trouble coming in here. I have never had any trouble with my Ikelite case, for example, but then I am fairly anal about prepping and handling it . I guess that you do the best you can, care for your system (whatever you end up choosing) as carefully as you can, and if it still bothers you, then take out flood insurance, which is a whole 'nother topic. Good luck. Woody

 

[slowhands]

Price: PT-030 is $190, Ikelite is $500. The Olympus housing is fairly compact, but will not support external TTL strobes; sometimes the buttons on it get jammed at depth. The Ikelite is bulky, heavy, reliable and sturdy, and supports external Ikelite TTL strobes.

Many people have had concerns about the Olympus housing leaking or buttons being depressed by depth pressure, but some have had good results. Olympus product support is abysmal. Ikelite's product support is sterling.

So, perhaps it comes down to how much you want to spend and what your reliability demands are. I use both Olympus housings and Ikelite housings for my older Olympus C series cameras. On some trips I prefer the compactness of the Olympus, but on others the dependability of the Ikelite is preferred.

My suggestion is to try the Olympus, and consider your camera a disposable camera. Use it and get a feel for what you like for shooting. You may find it just right, or want to move to a DSLR in the future, depending on how much you do photography underwater. Enjoy.

 

[jjwdiver]

Looking at the options for the Oly housing, which is only the housing... add a bracket for another hundred plus. That makes it look like about a hundred dollars difference. Am i way off or is this close?