Usability of Ikelite housing for Canon S95

[Carl-Johan]

Some Canon OEM housings have a mould mark that has to be sanded. This is fully explained in this thread.

Besides, Canon OEM housings have been accused of sticky buttons. With these indications, you can avoid sticky buttons.

Both my Canon housings have mold marks and neither have flooded. Canon must have made millions of housings over a long period of time, if the mold marks is such a big problem they would have fixed them totally by now.

Canon, nor any other maker, obviously do not watertest every housing they make so it's best to do it yourself before putting the camera inside. The shallower depth the better, i used a sallad bowl and left it there overnight.

Matts tutorial is very good but don't forget to also put grease on the actual plunger, not only the oring needs lube. When putting the oring back use the back of plunger, the button so to speak. It fits good, is rounded and will not harm the oring.

The maintenance is done every year, after about 70 dives. That might be overkill but i actually enjoy the work.

Remember, "if it aint broke, do not attempt to fix it"

 

[cardog]

Both my Canon housings have mold marks and neither have flooded. Canon must have made millions of housings over a long period of time, if the mold marks is such a big problem they would have fixed them totally by now.

Canon, nor any other maker, obviously do not watertest every housing they make so it's best to do it yourself before putting the camera inside. The shallower depth the better, i used a sallad bowl and left it there overnight.

Matts tutorial is very good but don't forget to also put grease on the actual plunger, not only the oring needs lube. When putting the oring back use the back of plunger, the button so to speak. It fits good, is rounded and will not harm the oring.

The maintenance is done every year, after about 70 dives. That might be overkill but i actually enjoy the work.

Remember, "if it aint broke, do not attempt to fix it"

The housing needs water pressure applied to it if you are leak testing. Unless you are using a 50-60' deep salad bowl you are not going to find out if it leaks.....

 

[Carl-Johan]

The housing needs water pressure applied to it if you are leak testing. Unless you are using a 50-60' deep salad bowl you are not going to find out if it leaks.....

Of course it's always best to do the "full range pressure test" you get when diving with it.

However, "salad bowl" was a test regarding mold marks on the housing and the more pressure you apply to a housing with "too big mold marks" the less it will leak. Pressure makes the main o-ring seal better.

 

[masterludo]

I'm going to order the Canon housing this week end, thanks to all for your advice.

I just have one last question. Should I get a red filter, and if yes what would you recommend? Some people seem to use no filter and just manual WB and come up with pretty good results, so I'm wondering...

 

[Gilligan]

I'm going to order the Canon housing this week end, thanks to all for your advice.

I just have one last question. Should I get a red filter, and if yes what would you recommend? Some people seem to use no filter and just manual WB and come up with pretty good results, so I'm wondering...

You don't need a filter.
Shoot your photos in RAW mode, especially the non-strobe shots.
If you don't want to use RAW the next best thing in JPG mode is using manual white balance. Calibrate your white balance off a white card at varying depths and ambient lighting conditions for your non-strobe shots. You have to remember to change your white balance back to Auto or Sunny or Cloudy or Flash for strobe shots otherwise you will get red photos. One of the reasons to shoot RAW.

 

[daz88]

I used my old canon camera & underwater housing for 5 years without one problem. And still using the original O-ring. I got a G11 & housing in the fall last year. got about 50-60 dives with it so far with no issues. I never liked the shutter release on the ikelite.

 

[emoreira]

That is a good tutorial on how to remove the plunger O-rings but IMO it is totally unnecessary as well as time consuming. A drop of pure liquid silicone will solve the problem without removing any parts.
The reason for some Canon housing plungers sticking is more likely the lack of spring strength on the plunger.
Keep it simple.

I agree completelly with you. This is the procedure to follow in case that there was no rinse done after dive and the buttons are sticky.
After almost 60 dives with my WP DC 12, no button is sticky.

 

[emoreira]

Both my Canon housings have mold marks and neither have flooded. Canon must have made millions of housings over a long period of time, if the mold marks is such a big problem they would have fixed them totally by now.

My WP-DC-12 OEM UW Housing had at least 40 dives before I found the mold release marks and I sanded them, so, those mold release marks are not such a big problem.

 

[ianfitz]

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.

 

[Lyndon]

I hate the Ikelite Shutter release and zoom...talk about missing the shot...

I had 2 Canons flooded by Canon housings. I meticulously went through pre-dive maintenance but it still flooded.

Ive been shooting Olympus ever since and upgrading to an XZ-1 this month.