TG-3 & TG-4 Housing Options

[Barmaglot]

SeaFrogs is a Meikon brand - For Olympus

 

[RTee]

Sea Frogs is the housing I am looking at right now as the Olympus housing seems to have been discontinued. interesting to note that it comes with visual/aural flood warning and built-in optical cable connection.

this is my back-up to my elp-5 set-up in Nauticam housing

 

[LimitedSlip7]

Has anyone tried out the Sea Frogs housing yet? Now that the PT-056 is discontinued the prices shot up to $400+ while the Sea Frog is only $185. Most of the reviews on Amazon for the Sea Frogs housing are obviously fake so that has me worried...

 

[Barmaglot]

I can't speak for the SeaFrogs TG-4 housing, but I have their housing for Sony A6000/6300/6500 and it's perfectly functional, within its design constraints (fixed port, no viewfinder); I wrote a full review here some time ago.

 

[Sea Reindeer]

Hi! I have been looking for an Olympus TG4 case for a while and I can only find the Seafrogs one. The original Olympus one looks like having disappeared and I cant find any reviews on the Seafrogs, so I am a bit hesitant- Any opinions on this one?
Cheers!

 

[RTee]

Hi! I have been looking for an Olympus TG4 case for a while and I can only find the Seafrogs one. The original Olympus one looks like having disappeared and I cant find any reviews on the Seafrogs, so I am a bit hesitant- Any opinions on this one?
Cheers!

I ordered two (one for myself and one for a friend) from Amazon.ca back in November and they came in a week later. Generally speaking, quite happy with design, built and dry functionality. Kit included spare oring, oring grease, 67mm screw-in red filter, neck and wrist straps, "Go Pro style" moisture munchers and housing comes with aural and visual flood warning system.

My TG-4 fits snugly inside and all buttons/controls are functional. I mounted it on a Nauticam tray I already own (and using with my Nauticam EPL-5 set-up), using a single handle and configured with a Fantasea video light mounted on the cold shoe of the housing and a single YS-D1 strobe. Dry test conducted so far shows the functionality of this set-up. This is the configuration I will be using in Cayman Brac mid-January.

Two things to be aware of:

1) even though the housing shows what appears to be an external flash diffuser, it is not functional. Therefore, in low light conditions, an externally mounted videolight (using the cold shoe mount of the housing) or a strobe connected to the fiber optic connectors (X 2) has to be used; (this was also confirmed by Sea Frogs tech rep). Meikon is the distributor for this housing and does have a note to this effect on their website but it is somewhat nebulous as it makes reference to use of internal flash for macro photography. As a side note, Olympus seemed to have been the only company whose housing accommodated the camera built-in flash as a stand alone, based on my research. Ikelite, Nauticam and Sea Frogs housings all require externally mounted lights or fiber optic controlled strobe(s). In my case, this was not a show stopper based on my light/strobe configuration.

2) the housing incorporates three mounting holes. When I attempted to mount the housing on the tray, I had to insert a nylon washer to each of the two retaining screws of my Nauticam tray due to the fact that the screw holes recess located underneath the housing were not deep enough to hold the housing firm and steady (the protrubing treads of the screws were too long for the housing recess). With this addition, it seems to be working well and the housing is snug on the tray. More to follow once I take it under.

Lastly, the accompanying documentation makes mention that the housing is very buoyant (hence the provision of the wrist strap assembly). It will be interesting to see the final result once the kit is used under water fully assembled (with tray and lights).

 

[tursiops]

I ordered two (one for myself and one for a friend) from Amazon.ca back in November and they came in a week later. Generally speaking, quite happy with design, built and dry functionality. Kit included spare oring, oring grease, 67mm screw-in red filter, neck and wrist straps, "Go Pro style" moisture munchers and housing comes with aural and visual flood warning system.

My TG-4 fits snugly inside and all buttons/controls are functional. I mounted it on a Nauticam tray I already own (and using with my Nauticam EPL-5 set-up), using a single handle and configured with a Fantasea video light mounted on the cold shoe of the housing and a single YS-D1 strobe. Dry test conducted so far shows the functionality of this set-up. This is the configuration I will be using in Cayman Brac mid-January.

Two things to be aware of:

1) even though the housing shows what appears to be an external flash diffuser, it is not functional. Therefore, in low light conditions, an externally mounted videolight (using the cold shoe mount of the housing) or a strobe connected to the fiber optic connectors (X 2) has to be used; (this was also confirmed by Sea Frogs tech rep). Meikon is the distributor for this housing and does have a note to this effect on their website but it is somewhat nebulous as it makes reference to use of internal flash for macro photography. As a side note, Olympus seemed to have been the only company whose housing accommodated the camera built-in flash as a stand alone, based on my research. Ikelite, Nauticam and Sea Frogs housings all require externally mounted lights or fiber optic controlled strobe(s). In my case, this was not a show stopper based on my light/strobe configuration.

2) the housing incorporates three mounting holes. When I attempted to mount the housing on the tray, I had to insert a nylon washer to each of the two retaining screws of my Nauticam tray due to the fact that the screw holes recess located underneath the housing were not deep enough to hold the housing firm and steady (the protrubing treads of the screws were too long for the housing recess). With this addition, it seems to be working well and the housing is snug on the tray. More to follow once I take it under.

Lastly, the accompanying documentation makes mention that the housing is very buoyant (hence the provision of the wrist strap assembly). It will be interesting to see the final result once the kit is used under water fully assembled (with tray and lights).View attachment 440061 View attachment 440065 View attachment 440066 View attachment 440073 View attachment 440074 View attachment 440064

Try out your buoyancy in a bathtub. It is much easier to adjust now than during a dive.

 

[coralcruiser]

I have he Oly housing for my TG-4 but had some issues with it when I tried to use thit cold shoe after having it for a few months. Sent it back and they needed to deepen the grooves in it so that I could use it. Still have issues depending on which mount I want to use with it to attach my video light. Am now thinking about getting the sea frog housing after reading this thread.

Will be very interested in hearing more reviews and how it handles underwater...is it more buoyant than the Oly housing or about the same?

 

[RTee]

When tested in a tub, this set-up, as is (camera inside with no arm, strobe and video light) was negatively buoyant. With the tray removed, the remaining assembly was still negatively buoyant (slightly) and adopted a top heavy position with the bottom facing up. Next week I will have a chance to test various configuration permutations in salt water and will update accordingly.

 

[coralcruiser]

How is the locking on the housing. I’m used to the one that I have on my nauticam housing for my canon.