Dusty2,
Is it the G10 you don't like or is it just Cannon camera housings? You seem to list most of the reasons not to buy one. Except for the "Good choice, It is one of the top rated cameras in it's class and will give you lots of room to grow. Congrats" comment.
Hi Bassman,
The G10 is a great camera. IMO the best point and shoot out there and will infact give some of the SLRs a run for their money except for the lens change feature. The online reviews concour. It's the canon housings I don't trust. Some have had very good luck with them but I haven't. Over time I have lost 3 cameras due to flooding and all at less than 80 feet. Their design for the way they seal is not good. The ikelite cases seal by compressing the seal between the two faces of the housing so that as the pressure increases the seal is compressed even tighter where the canon housings seal on the side so no matter how much pressure you put on the case the seal stays the same.
We have had....three? four? of them over the years (love little Canon powershot cameras though) but every single one of them winds up flooding after a lot of use. And believe me - I *DO* service my housings religiously. And even with that, they wind up flooding - often through the front lens seal (which is an area that you don't typically service due to inaccessibility).
But I didn't mind TOO much because the little powershot cameras were about $150 - $200 and it was always nice to upgrade by the time they flood.
PAY ATTENTION to when you start noticing ANY moisture inside the camera. You'll first notice it as just a few drops of water either up by the lens area or somewhere, and you'll even brush off the notion that anything's wrong, thinking you just dripped water inside the camera last time you opened it or something. That's the first clue. After that you MIGHT get another dive before it completely floods.
When I bought my G9, I didn't want to risk playing the flood game anymore - so got an Ikelite housing for it.
But do note, those Canon housings only seem to flood after a LOT of use - maybe like a year's worth or so. So when you're just starting out, they're fine. Just don't expect them to last indefinitely, and DO carefully check and maintain the seal.
- Janna (who's been around the Canon block a time or two)
Janna Nichols My underwater photo galleries REEF Citizen Science Program Manager
Seen any cool critters lately?
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Ditto on what Janna just said regarding the canon housing. I loved my canon housing. Just used the internal flash with the diffuser. Got good pictures except for some back scatter. Small, compact, easy to use one handed. Light weight. Affordable. I cleaned and serviced my O ring/housing before every dive ( I learned from Janna!).
After about 80 dives, it began to show a touch of moisture inside, then, one dive at 15 feet, half full of water.
Just ordered my Ikelite and strobe. Should be here Friday. Big and bulky I understand, but much less likely to leak. Also used it as an excuse to get an external strobe as the internal flash does not functionally work with the Ikelite housing.
Grateful Diver tracked down a more compact 3rd party housing, which looks very attractive, but I was already exceeding my budget with the Ikelite.
As an alternative its worth mentioning that the Nikon P6000 has the same level of performance as the G10, and ikelight makes an excellent housing for it. The best 'prosumer' point and shoot on the market today however is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. With an f2.0 leica lens and a 24-60mm zoom it would be a great UW camera but sadly no one makes a housing for it.
Did my first dive with the G10 and Ikelite housing/strobe. Pictures came out well with the TTL lighting, but what an awkward change from the one handed, easy to operate OEM housing. WIll definitely take some getting use to using the Ikelite setup comfortably.
Also, what do folks use for a focusing light? I was night diving and holding my flash light in the same hand as the camera housing was a bit awkward...
Ikelite pushes their Mini C light. I saw that the fisheye diffuser fits it and seems to work OK.
The Fisheye series (Fisheye FIX Light HG20DX) certainly looks attractive and very functional, but costs as much as the camera did.
I enjoy night diving, so the focus light needs to be fairly strong.
Do folks think it is important to have a focus light that turns off when the strobe fires, or just leave it on to fill in more of the dark areas (from a different angle than the strobe)?
Lots of questions,,, As for a focus light that turns off?? I have never used one and don't really see the need as long as the one you use is well defused so you don't have a big hot spot. As for focus lights there is a huge range of choices. I used a cheap 17LED light for quite awhile and it worked pretty good. I am now using a nocturnal dive lights SLX300i which has 3 1 watt LED's but I just got an upgrade kit To take it to their new SLX800i which uses 3 cree 3 watt LED's and according to them puts out 800 lumens The really cool thing about it is it can be internally focused from a 12 deg. spot to a 60 deg. wide angle and comes with a set of defused lenses made especially for photo work that is claimed to have even light with no hot spot. Can't wait to get out and try it!
There are quite a few different small focus lights that are not too expensive. Fantasea makes a good one that does turn off when the strobe fires. It is only about $45.00
Biodiversity_Guy wrote:
Ikelite pushes their Mini C light. I saw that the fisheye diffuser fits it and seems to work OK.
I enjoy night diving, so the focus light needs to be fairly strong.
Do folks think it is important to have a focus light that turns off when the strobe fires, or just leave it on to fill in more of the dark areas (from a different angle than the strobe)?
I use an Ikelite Mini C, with the matching Ikelite mount. It's a nice reliable light, and with my home made diffuser (cut from a plastic milk jug) it casts a nice even beam. Even with the diffuser, this is usually my only dive light. On night dives I take another, more powerful light, on a retractor (but that's just for navigation etc - I turn it off when taking photos). I tend to use the edge of the beam to illuminate the subject enough for reliable focus lock, and it hasn't been a big issue in terms of backscatter - the strobe is just _so_ much brighter. Congratulations on the fun new camera setup David.
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” -- John Muir
When I bought my G9, I didn't want to risk playing the flood game anymore - so got an Ikelite housing for it.
But do note, those Canon housings only seem to flood after a LOT of use - maybe like a year's worth or so. So when you're just starting out, they're fine. Just don't expect them to last indefinitely, and DO carefully check and maintain the seal.
- Janna (who's been around the Canon block a time or two)
I for sure agree with you on the Canon housings. My regular dive buddy has flooded his canon point and shoot three times. He still hasn't taken my advice (from the very beginning!) to get an Ikelight housing. (sorry Andy!)
BTW, thanks for helping transfer those photos of mine from the conference. Only problem with the dropoff arrangment was that the guys at UWSports liked them so much they put them on display in the store. :biggrin:
dphershman wrote:As an alternative its worth mentioning that the Nikon P6000 has the same level of performance as the G10, and ikelight makes an excellent housing for it. The best 'prosumer' point and shoot on the market today however is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. With an f2.0 leica lens and a 24-60mm zoom it would be a great UW camera but sadly no one makes a housing for it.
Don't cry- there is a housing, but you have to get it from overseas:
After much thought and research, I'm getting the G10 as my first real underwater camera. I was planning to get the Canon housing. But....perhaps the $400+ difference for the Ikelite is worth it. Need to think about that. Hmm... The Ikelite is so bulky.
dphershman wrote:As an alternative its worth mentioning that the Nikon P6000 has the same level of performance as the G10, and ikelight makes an excellent housing for it. The best 'prosumer' point and shoot on the market today however is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3. With an f2.0 leica lens and a 24-60mm zoom it would be a great UW camera but sadly no one makes a housing for it.
Don't cry- there is a housing, but you have to get it from overseas:
The Ikelight G10 housing has the option for a dome attachment for wide angle shooting that is far superiour to any of the wide angle attachments one typically sees (Inon and others). Its removable underwater so you can switch between a flat port and dome port without having to surface and disassemble the camera.
After much thought and research, I'm getting the G10 as my first real underwater camera. I was planning to get the Canon housing. But....perhaps the $400+ difference for the Ikelite is worth it. Need to think about that. Hmm... The Ikelite is so bulky. 
