Underwater housing for E-1

I did some searching but dint find anything exept this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=357906&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

But 1k it a bit to much for me, are there other options?

There's this type (from EWA Marine).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=17357&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

I used one for snorkeling with an OM - mixed success trying to manually focus underwater, but the case stayed watertight and essentially worked. I did not go more than 10 feet deep however.

That is about the cheapest option you are going to get other then going with a bag like is mentioned in the previous post. The housings for DSLR's a hugely expensive and even more so when you take into account that you still have to buy a lens port for whatever lens you are going to use with the camera to place on the housing. Then, you have to add in your underwater strobe to the mixture as well. It all adds up to big $$.

That is why I decided to rebuy an 8080 with the pt housing. In the end, it was much cheaper, it did what I wanted it to do plus you could use the on board flash so you did not have to look at additional strobes until the money is right.
--
Ken: http://www.ssi.smugmug.com , http://scubaschoolsinstruction.spaces.live.com/
E-500 plus two kit lens, C-8080 with PT-023

Thanks for the input guys.

The listed Ikelite housing is not currently in production, so there are really no valid u/w options for the E-1. (Please don't seriously consider putting an E-1 into a ziplock bag.)
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Richard
http://www.digitaldiver.net

Richard Perry said:

The listed Ikelite housing is not currently in production, so there
are really no valid u/w options for the E-1. (Please don't
seriously consider putting an E-1 into a ziplock bag.)
--
Richard
http://www.digitaldiver.net

Click to expand...

The E-1 is pretty cheap to replace these days; a new one costs less than a solid case :^0 I have a ewa-marine bag for my E-1 and have had some success using it. It has certainly never leaked!

Regards
Doug

--
See my best images @ http://dougjen.net/alamy
And many many more @ http://dougjen.net

In my limited UW photo experience (only about 50 dives), the E-330 with its live view and large, bright LCD would be a much better candidate for underwater photography than the E-1, or, for that matter, only other SLR.

It is difficult to accurately frame shots underwater because of the combination of the housing and mask. Exposure is also complicated and often requires several tries, but the small LCD on the E-1 would be marginal for review (here the E500 would be a better choice, but its smaller viewfinder would be worse. Another considerastion is that the smaller size and simpler outline of the E-330 may make for s smaller, more streamlined housing.

I have both an E-1 and an E-500, but have only photopgraphed UW with an C5050Z and a Canon S70 in their respectives (cheap) Oly and C UW case because both, with their housings, cost less than either my Oly or my Nikon's slr housings would have cost by themselves. It may be worth whilse starting out with a good P&S and mfrs' housing, unless you're already really sure whether and exactly what you want.

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erichK
saskatoon, canada

Well i'm tinkig now of buying canon sd800 and underwater case for it.
Everything is only 365+176=541

e-330 cost too much i would rather spend it on ZD 55-200

Ikelite, Fantasea and Olympus make housings for the E-330.

The live view in any of these makes for a great uw system.

I've seen the Oly housing as low as 799.00.

petrochenko said:

Well i'm tinkig now of buying canon sd800 and underwater case for it.
Everything is only 365+176=541

e-330 cost too much i would rather spend it on ZD 55-200

Click to expand...

The Canon SD800 would certainly be a good way to start; part of the reason for the much lower price is that you're also dealing with a much smaller and simpler housing. It's easier to use and carry on the one hand, but--while certainly usable--also a bit flimsy with its simple latch and O-ring design Oly's is sometimes a bit better here, with its p&s housings

However, if you find you really want to go further, then the E-330 or a future large-LCD's live view camera may be something worth considering...as I am very seriously at this point. You may want to look as what some of the underwater forums, like digideep, and some of the scuba formus like Scubaboard are saying.
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erichK
saskatoon, canada

There is a review of the Oly housing and a Euro one that uses the tiltability of the LCD (real rocket-science here!) on Wetpixel.
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erichK
saskatoon, canada

thx, for a link, btw is it possible to use zoom in UW housing?

The $799Olympus E330 housing surely doesn't come with a port.

You can buy zoom rings for the Olympus ports to utilize zoom lenses, I'm assuming the same on the Ikelites.

10Bar manufactures the Fantasea housings for the E330, buying from Fantasea comes with a standard port(14-45 compatible) as well as DEPP insurance that covers the camera incase of a flood. DEPP is a reliable insurance company, I can say this with confidence having dealt with them with past floods. Fortunately, they handled everything as advertised which made an unfortunate occurance, somewhate less of a bad experience. The only downside is the lack of a dome port for this housing. Oly and Ikelite have dome ports if you have the $$, big $$.

Review on the 10Bar/Fantasea http://wetpixel.com/i.php/full/olympus-evolt-e-330-dslr-and-10bar-housing-review/

I sold my E500 and took that money, plus the money I got from insurance after flooding my C5060 and picked up the E330 to fill in the E500 and C5060s role all in one camera. Hopefully, I can afford the housing sooner than later.

--

petrochenko said:

thx, for a link, btw is it possible to use zoom in UW housing?

Click to expand...

Although your question has been partly answered, I think a couple of points are important.

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erichK
saskatoon, canada

erichK said:

petrochenko said:

thx, for a link, btw is it possible to use zoom in UW housing?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Sorry, the important points are that:

1) Any properly designed housing --especially Oly's-- should work work with standard forcal-length zooms (such as the 14-45 or 14-54).

(this issues is actually more complicated, depending on whether you are using a flat, a generic domed, or a focasl-length-specific domed port, as is explained in

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/phgraph/film.htm#port (NOTE, however, that it is no longer only Nikonos that attempts to compensate for this)

2) Both these will be usable, but a bit problematic underwater because a) the refractive index of the water and the water/air interface will reduce the angle of coverage considerably, making the wide 28mm equivalent of your lens closer to 40mm equivalent

3) The 14-54 will be more usefuil because, in all but perfectly clear water (rare!) you will want to get as close to many of your subjects as possible, not only to take small subjects, but also to reduce the amount of often particle-filled water between them and the camera.

Its extra speed is also very useful by allowing some existing light images and needing less flash for others, thus illuminating less intervening crud. (This is btw, a seldom-mentioned but important benefit of the C5050Z fast lens)

The real complexity and cost of UW photography, and watching others struggle with massive UW rigs is one reason I've stayed with the C5050Z and PT-15. However, the E-330 seems to be posing an interesting intermediate solution, and the increasing array of relatively affordable housing options for it suggests that serious UW photyographers are finding its Live View a uniquely effective tool.

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erichK
saskatoon, canada