Olympus Evolt e510 housing?

[gcguru]

I just purchased a evolt E-510 and was wondering if anyone has come across underwater housings for it? I see Ikelite has a housing for the E-500 but nothing for the 510.
Anything in the works?

 

[RTRski]

gcguru:

Unfortunately I've read here and elsewhere that Olympus will NOT be housing the E-510. They did house the E-410. I guess they figured that not that many would be stepping up to the 510 for underwater applications. Ikelite doesn't house either the 410 or 510, nor have I seen anyone else do it. I bought a 330, in part because of this factor (Ike does have a housing for the 330).

 

[RTRski]

OK, just read a bit ago on Wetpixel that UK-Germany (aka AQUAMIR) will be doing a housing for the e-510. But as I still can't find anything on their website about the housing for the e-330 they also have, I bet it might be hard to get info on it. Not to mention their one distributor listed for the US/Canada just points you right back to the mfgr's website.

 

[f3nikon]

Thats correct, I think the technology is changing so fast that Olympus is taking a wait and see before the next camera change. The E-330 was easy because the housing was modeled off of the E-300 line.

On a positive note the prices of Olypmus housings, for their DSLRs, will be falling like a rock due to their use of a more economical "point and shoot" type housings (120ft depth rating vs a 180ft rating of the E-330):

http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/olympus-e-410-dslr-and-pt-e03-underwater-housing/

http://www.olympus.co.uk/consumer/dslr_PT-E03.htm

I hear that this housing is priced in the $500 range...for a DSLR housing! This camera/housing setup maybe the transition factor between the point and shoot users into DSLRs U/W. Even if you already have a DSLR its still much cheaper to go with the Olympus 410/housing setup than to house ($2500-4000 for the housing and ports) a DSLR.

Plus the fact that there is still "live view" on the E-410, which cuts out the need for the expensive U/W magnifiers, we see in the other DSLRs.

 

[RTRski]

The 410 "live view" is not effectively usable underwater without the same type of shutter delay you get on a PnS. Ditto the e510. So an optical viewfinder is still highly necessary in either case.

Cheapest I've seen the PT-E03 is about $690, sans port as with pretty much all other dSLR housings, and sans handles/tray unlike many others. At $1100 for the e-330 housing (by comparison) with at least a flat port and the handle/tray assembly built in, the Fantasea is still effectively about the same price. Ike is certainly higher at $1300ish for the e-330 but that's with handles and TTL included, so it all balances.

Not knocking Oly's offering at all: but it's more on par with the market than hugely cheaper.

 

[Ryan]

We tried to establish a distributor relationship with UK Germany, but they weren't able to meet the demand a new market require. This makes me a bit nervous about parts and support...

Ikelite will house the e510 as well.

 

[LVX]

ikelite does offer a housing for the E510 - Here it is...

 

[RTRski]

yeah, at the time of my posting, they didn't. Glad to see they do now, I always feel like Oly gets the short end of the stick in terms of UW photo awareness. Not that I'm a fanboi or anything...just enamored of my first ever dSLR purchase.

 

[jfproul]

HI , I've got one Ikelite housing for my E-510 , i think i am the only one !

works great ...no complaint at all except the 8 inches dome is easy to remove
at surface in rough water ... i have lost it in bonaire last month but LUCKY enough
to save my camera ... but all ikelite slr housing have same i would'nt say problem but...

 

[ce4jesus]

You're not off the hook that easy...need some pics!!! Also since you're the lucky first person do a small write up of the likes and dislikes of both the housing and camera underwater.