Usability of Ikelite housing for Canon S95

[masterludo]

Thanks to everyone for the above - I have just bought a Canon S95, with similar usage specs to Masterludo, and am also deciding between the two housings - very useful info. So Masterludo - if you wouldn't mind it would be great if you post a comment on the Canon housing after your dive holiday.

Sure, but that will be around end of March.
I received my Canon housing last week but I didn't have much time to play a lot with it. So far it's looking good, there are some mold marks but I almost can't feel them so I'm not sure if I need to apply Reefwalker's fix. I'll also do a salad bowl or bath tub test.

Again thanks to everyone for your feedback, I'll let you know how everything went in a couple weeks

 

[olphart]

I've used two of them over the past 6 years, on my A520 and then my A570. I gave them no special treatment, just kept the O ring clean and lubed. I've had them down to 130' in warm water and as deep as 90 in cold water. They were also both thumped around a fair bit and I had no issues at all. Never a sign of leaking and I was able to use all the camera functions
I found the diffuser useful for night pix, and an lcd screen shade is very nice is bright sunny conditions.
The plastic they use is a very tough polycarbonate that will withstand reasonable abuse. The biggest drawback is the inability to add lenses.

 

[masterludo]

Unfortunately I'm back from vacation, I would have stayed there forever...

So I have to say I love the S95. It's a great easy to handle camera and the pictures and videos under water are really great.
I also loved the handling of the Canon housing, it was really easy and felt very natural to use like my old Fuji housing. I went down to 27m (about 90'), also did lots of snorkeling and had no leaking at all, no sticky knobs (yet).
I bought the Canon OEM weights for the housing and used just one (60g, 2oz) so the housing was just slightly negatively buoyant and mostly remained on the same level as my hand while swimming. That was much better for me than without weight or with two weights.

Another diver had an Ike housing, I looked at him when we was taking some pictures and it really looked odd the way to zoom and take pictures, I'm really glad I have the Canon housing.

Feel free to ask if you have any other questions.

So thanks again for all your comments that helped me pick my housing.

 

[ianfitz]

Thanks for that feedback.

 

[AlMitch]

Thanks so much for this thread!
I have the G11 with Canon underwater housing and after 20 odd dives, no issue! Before that I had a small Canon point and shoot with Canon housing and it was great for many dives.... up until one day I was in a hurry and ended up trapping the diffuser laniard in the seal and only noticed this at 30 ft!!! One times drowned camera! Lets just say I am far more carefull and patient now before my dives!

The wife is fed up waiting for me to take pics so now is demanding her own camera. So I am most likely going the same route as you! S95 wth Canon housing. Its far cheaper (than Ike or others) and as everyone has said you can actually use the camera's own flash.

I am really happy that you are happy (with the S95 and housing) because that means my wife will be happy and that inturn will make me happy! Happy wife = happy home!

 

[masterludo]

The wife is fed up waiting for me to take pics so now is demanding her own camera. So I am most likely going the same route as you! S95 wth Canon housing. Its far cheaper (than Ike or others) and as everyone has said you can actually use the camera's own flash.

Hehe, I know what you mean with the wife being fed up waiting... She was so pleased with the great picture and video quality (and I am too) that she's even considering buying a second S95 with Canon housing so that she can take her own pictures.

 

[charlesml3]

Nope I won't be using an external strobe

You will at some point. If you stay with UW Photography you're eventually going to get really tired of backscatter ruining your shots and you'll want an external strobe (or two). The difference in the photo quality is astonishing.

This is one place where the Ikelite makes all the difference. You'll get a proper bulkhead fitting through the housing to an external strobe and it'll do TTL metering.

I used an older Powershot in a Canon housing for years doing the old "black velcro over the internal flash with a fiber optic cable to a SB-125" action and never really liked it. I had to take every shot 3 or 4 times to get the strobe power output right. Sometimes it wouldn't fire the SB-125. It was a pain.

My other problem with the Canon housing came with depth. At around 80 feet, some button would be partially pressed and it rendered the camera completely unresponsive. I could turn it off and back on, but that was it. I don't dive that deep very often but on a deep wreck I had to just clip the camera.

Ike housings are bulky. Bulky means a lot of possitive buoyant.

That is incorrect. Ikelite engineers all of their housings to be slightly negative. I agree they're kinda bulky but the build quality is superb and they're much more versatile when it comes time to add external strobes.

-Charles

 

[altaskier]

Also I've read a couple times that the buttons are hard to press (I guess people are talking about the back buttons). Does it get better after a couple dives or does one just have to get used to it and press real hard and is it really that inconvenient?

You already got the Canon housing, so this is somewhat moot - but I got the Ikelite housing and found the back buttons hard to press. I simply put three bandaids on the plastic "bars" on the front of the housing where the front face of the S95 sits. Raised the camera by a millimeter or two, and now the back buttons work just fine.