RX100 V underwater housing recommendations

starbase218 wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

starbase218 wrote:

and I wouldn’t take my DSLR under water.

If you did, you might never look back.

Well, one thing is that it would be hard to put inside my 37 liter backpack. Though perhaps not impossible to put in a 60 liter-ish backpack.

You can stop worrying about carrying it.   There just isn't any convenient way to travel with a a full-frame DSLR housing, especially if you have a big dome port.

Myself, I fill one entire roller bag with most of the gear, and several more bits have to go in my waist bag.  (Incidentally, one of the things going into my waist bag is my RX100 II Nauticam housing, there for backup purposes.)   And I still have to put more parts - including a port with glass - into checked luggage.

On top of all the camera gear, I also bring a plastic 36-quart cooler that is used to hold the camera on a dive boat if not a big enough dunk tank onboard, and a very useful 'tub' to use as a rinse tank after dives when I only have a shower in the room.  While very bulky, at least it servers as very useful padding.  I even stick my laptop inside it to protect it in the suitcase.

But still, the quality of my underwater photos, the bulk to handle it while I'm still learning to improve buoyancy control... no, it's not for me. At least not now.

OK, now there's something to think about.   Unlike some, I don't think you have to master buoyancy first, but there is definitely risk there.   My late wife ripped her ear once drifting down while concentrating on shooting a lionfish and not realizing she was descending 6 feet.  (She had a weak ear from previous rips).

Myself, it forced me to become much better at buoyancy control quickly.

For starting out, I would highly recommend a small housing that can be attached to a wrist and simply dropped if you need to focus on something else.  Once you get to the point of attaching a strobe arm, you tend to be in a situation where you have to go through an entire dive without letting loose of the camera.   It's a huge difference in your diving, and much more risky for a beginning diver.   For example, my air hose often gets caught in one of the strobe arm clamps when I turn my head to one side.  Then when i try to turn back, the regulator wants to get pulled out of my mouth, and my face mask prevents me from seeing what is going on.   That was pretty surprising the first time it happened.