D700 underwater housing

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<p lang="en-GB">Hello. I use a Nikon D700, af-s 24-70mm f/.2.8, af-s 80-200mm f/2.8, af-s 300mm f/4 en SB-900. I am thinking about buying something more wide angle (probably a second-hand Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF-ED).</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">I have the following problem My wife and I are going to Australia on holiday (third time) in December. This time to the south-west. In certain places, I would like to go snorkelling. Not diving because I'm not allowed to medically. I won't be going deeper than 3 meters (9 feet). I would also like to make photo's in the shallows of dolphins (and wife and baby).</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">I take my photo quality seriously. An extra (underwater) compact is not really an option for me. I prefer using my Nikon and photographing in RAW. I am looking for an affordable solution for underwater photography with my D700. I am leaning towards a solution by Ewa Marine. For example the U-BXP100. I cost around € 350 (euro) which is around the maximum I am willing to pay. Besides using it during this (and future) holidays and want to use it to make swimming photo's with our baby.</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">I looked around on forums allot. The few real experiences I have read about these types of housings/bags are mostly positive. However allot of the reply s are based on presumptions and not real experiences, like: “I would never trust a plastic bag with my expensive equipment” etcetera. These kinds of reactions are not very helpful to me. The Ewa Marine bags are made of double laminated PVC and not cheap plastic, according to the manufacturer. I know that operating all the buttons of your camera is very hard. This is not a problem for me. I am going the Photokina this year (I live in The Netherlands) and hopefully will check out the stand of Ewa Marine.</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">My question is, who can give me some info about these types of housings/bags based on their own experiences? How about leaks? How about easy to operate? Is there a alternative in the price range of €350? I have no experience with underwater photography. I am open to suggestions.</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">Thanks allot an sorry for this long post.</p>

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<p lang="en-GB">Regards,</p>

<p lang="en-GB">Addy</p>

<p lang="en-GB">The Netherlands</p>

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<p>"something more wide angle" - yes for underwater get as wide as you can.<br>

The 14-24/2.8 Nikkor would be ideal for D700, but the 18-35 FX lens you have in mind would be good enough.<br>

My underwater experience is only with Olympus and Lumix. Unless you already have some underwater experience, try simple point$shoot first ?</p>

<p>If you check the B+H Photo-Video web-site, there is a digital Canon point-and-shoot body with a zoom lens that is good for up to 33 feet underwater, no extra housing needed. For snorkelling, that would be much easier to use than a D700-housing kit. And it would travel on a airline flight much better, too.</p>

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<p>Before going and buying an underwater housing like the EWA Marine, you really should take into account that, given a hefty camera like yours, the whole package will increase your boyancy significantly and hence make diving a bit of a challenge. That is why such cases are not really used for snorkelling in medium depths - they're perfect for seaside shooting and maybe some surface shooting (like what you want to do with the dolphins), but not really shallow diving. You'd need weights to compensate and that would make simple snorkelling next to impossible.</p>

<p>Now, onto the EWA Marine. It will be very, very hard to operate. If you do go ahead and buy it, you really, really should try out the whole system at some controlled location (such as swimming pool) before you hit the water, to familiarise yourself with its use.l It's not an easy proposition...!</p>

<p>It is watertight as long as: you make sure it is closed and fastened properly! CAUTION: this is much, much trickier than it sounds. If the folds do not go in exactly where they should, if the plastic clasps do not close properly, if, if if - if any of the dozen or so "requirements" are not done properly, you risk a chance of letting water in. It might only be a couple of drops and your D700 can easily handle those, but it might be more - it all depends on how deep you go, how the case twists in your hands, what type of stress you place on the fastenings, etc, etc.</p>

<p>Furthermore, the moment you take it out of the water, you need to THOROUGHLY rinse every single nook and crany with drinking water and then let it dry somewhere shaddy - NOT sunny.</p>

<p>Otherwise, the cases are pretty solid and should work well for medium and careful use. Be EXTRA CAREFUL when carrying it underwater as even the slightest bump against any other hard surface (i.e. your fins, or a diving knife or the side of the boat or whatever could VERY easily create a sufficient dent in the material which may quickly and easily develop into a leak.</p>

<p>Personally, for what you're suggesting, I'd invest in a good P&S with a hard case from Peli....</p>

<p>Marios,</p>

<p>Doesn't the housing come with it's own boyancy guidelines. I mean the weight compensation for salt or fresh water.</p>

<p>I try to keep my camera away from water. But under water photography is tempting.....</p>

<p>Based on all the answers i got on different sites, i don't think i will go for the Ewa Marine. I just don't want to take the risk with all my expensive equipment. I think i'll do research into Sealife camera's (occasion). Unfortunately there is no underwater housing for my wife's Panasonic Lumix FZ18.</p>

<p>Lijkt me ook de beste oplossing Addy!</p>

<p>Check out Sea and Sea or Ikelite housings. Both are great. Personally I prefer the S & S stuff.</p>

<p>So after asking many questions on many websites, I made up my mind and went on holiday. I really appreciate the fact that people are answering the questions I asked and are trying to help out. What I do find is that on many forums people are giving their opinions instead of answering based on their own experiences. For instance, the remark “I have never used it but I would not put my camera in a plastic bag” or something like that, is a common response to the question above.</p>

<p>Therefore I would like to share my experience with you. Hopefully it is helpful to anybody with the same dilemma as I had. To be clear I am not stating facts, but experiences and personal opinions based on my last holiday.</p>

<p>Well surprise surprise, I did choose the Ewa Marine U-BXP100 bag. The company exist for more than 30 years. They must be doing something right so i was willing to try it out. The reason I bought the bag was:</p>

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<p>I really wanted to use my own DSLR equipment.</p>

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<p>We had serious luggage weight issues, so hiring an extra underwater camera (like Sealife) for a couple of weeks was not an option.</p>

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<p>I wanted something that I can also use in the future holidays, kid swimming et cetera.</p>

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<p>First impressions were very good. I could tell that the bag was tested by the company and it came in a nice carrying bag. It is a large bag. My Nikon D700 with grip fitted nicely. You can also attach a flash on top of your camera in this bag. It is a bit of a wriggle to get such a large camera with grip in the bag with the lens in the correct position. After a couple of times, you know how to do it. You need to attach the flash after you put the camera in the bag.</p>

<p>Closing the bag is very easy. If you pay attention you can't go wrong. It feels very secure. You do need to get a bit of trust in the bag, you're putting expensive equipment in it. So what I did was testing the bag without camera in the bathtub. You will see a some bubbles, but they come from the clamp and straps. Ewa mentions this also in their manual. It will stop very quickly. After that I tried it out a couple of times with camera in the bathtub. Afterwards, I inspected the bag very carefully to see if water had come in. The third stage was going to the local swimming pool to try it out with my wife and our baby. I must say that it is very scary to put your expensive equipment in the water. But it is a matter of getting comfortable and also being careful when you are putting the camera in the bag and closing it. When you get in the water you pay attention to bubbles for the first couple of minutes after that you can relax.</p>

<p>My experiences:</p>

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<p>Working with liveview was not working for me. Because of the light I couldn't see anything on the display. Also I don't like the way autofocus works. So I sticked to the viewfinder.</p>

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<p>Make sure the clear peace of PVC is in front of the finder. Because of the water pressure it is hard to shift it in the right position under.</p>

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<p>If you have a good and clear diving mask, you have an okay view through the viewvinder. I say okay not good or great, but well enough to take nice pictures. Not well enough to make excellent compositions though.</p>

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<p>You can change some settings on your camera once in the bag. Operating push buttons is fine. Operating turn buttons can be done with some difficulty above water but is impossible under water. My advise would be to select the settings you like and need, before you close the bag. I used the aperture mode. Selected a fixed aperture. Set the auto iso on and a minimum shutterspeed of 1/125. Because of small choppy waves, it is sometimes hard to keep your camera still while snorkeling. Less of a problem with diving I think.</p>

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<p>On hindsight, I should have bought the bag without the flash option. My D700 can take excellent photo's on high iso. Flash while snorkeling is not really an option because of the distance and small particles in the water.</p>

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<p>Another problem with the flash attached is that the air in the bag will collect in the top of the bag. This makes it a bit harder to tilt the camera down if you have the flash attached. It will put a considerable strain on the flash/camera connection. I hope I explain well enough. If you opt for using this bag without flash, you have this large piece of empty space above your camera. This works as a brake while snorkeling. If you snorkel calmly above a reef this is not a problem. I pressed the bag against my chest while swimming to minimize drag. I was also on a manta ray tour. These animals swim fast even when going slow. Everybody really had to swim like crazy and I just couldn't keep up. It was like swimming with an open plastic shopping bag (I am a good swimmer so that was not the problem)</p>

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<p>I had no problems with fogging up. It was 36 degrees celsius in Australia. So warm air in a cooler under water environment could be a problem. What I did was putting my camera in the bag, keeping the opening of the bag in front of the air conditioning, put a silicagel bag in the Ewa Marine bag with the camera before closing it. I did this 30 minutes before going snorkeling.</p>

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<p>The glass port in front of the lens is of excellent quality. I have no experience with quality loss.</p>

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<p>I used the 18-35mm Nikon lens. The water pressure does make the zoom of the lens creep. You can use a piece of tape to stop that from happening.</p>

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<p>You can regulate buoyancy easily by releasing or adding some air through the extra valve or by adding some extra weight. I used a diving weight of 2kg attached with the straps under the bag, while using the flash. I got nice neutral buoyancy. Excellent for the swimming pool. Not for snorkeling and taking photo's straight down though. Again the extra weight under and trapped air in the top of the bag, make it hard to tilt. Without the weight and flash and minimum air in the bag, tilting was fine.</p>

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<p>If you have no under water photography experience like me, getting some experience in the swimming pool is a good idea. I did this so I didn't need to figure everything out while on holiday and potentially missing out on some nice opportunities.</p>

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<p>Finally, I am very pleased with the quality of the pictures I took. Being able to take photo's in NEF/RAW makes a difference, especially in post processing the white balance. If underwater photography is more of a hobby, I would save money for a good underwater housing. I think this bag is not suited for that. It is in my opinion a great and affordable solution for people with a DSLR looking for a underwater solution for the occasional holiday or taking pictures from their kids in the swimming pool and not wanting to buy an extra (second hand) compact camera with underwater housing. One of the dive masters did take some very nice photo's with a Canon G10 by the way.</p>

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<p>Sorry for the very long post. I hope it is somewhat helpful. If there are any other questions let me know.</p>

<p>Addy</p>

 

<p>Nimar housing is very impressive, i think. I've used for over 25 years now. My name is Marcela btw.<br /> I feel like I made a good decision choosing Nimar. I have never used Ikelite so I can't talk bobo. But Nimar is very durable, I don't know how many times I've dropped it :/ and plus, I find the clear casing a plus.</p>

<p>thanks very much for the 'in depth' review !</p>

<p>No one has suggested <em>this</em> option yet, why not invest in a Nikonos V? There are going very cheaply nowadays and there are plenty of lenses available as well, along with SB-105 U/W speedlights. And it can be used above water too, with non-UW Nikkors (for the Nikonos, F mount Nikkors won't fit).</p>