Housing Manufacturers

Please note that this page is in the process of being updated. Thanks for your understanding.

U.S. Manufacturers

Ikelite

Ikelite is probably the most well known manufacturer of underwater housings for still and video cameras, as well as strobes, underwater lights, and other accessories. But what makes Ike stand out from the rest of the pack is his dedication to providing absolutely superior customer service which is not equaled by any scuba diving equipment manufacturer anywhere. Grumpy Ike gets my vote for the best service on the planet, bar none. I don't just say that because I am a dealer. You can visit the uw-photo mailing list if you want to see some consumer raves.

Ike has a housing for the Olympus C20x0 /C30x0/C4040 cameras, with a competitive list price of $750. Coupled with the Ikelite DS series Digital SubStrobes and TTL Slave Sensors, it can provide complete compatibility, duplicating the automatic exposure dictated by the camera according to Ike's web page. The major benefit of this housing is that the tray and handles for attaching strobes is already built on, as well as including the UR-Pro color correcting filter. Is rated to 200 feet/60 meters, and Ike has made a list of the design features of this housing.

There are also some nice uw housings for the Nikon Coolpix 950, 990, and the Kodak DC-260, DC-265, DC-290 models, but the housings are not inexpensive at $950 and $750 list price, respectively. There is an inexpensive housing for the Olympus D360 with a list price of $300. It is similar to the Auto35, a housed 35mm autofocus point and shoot film camera.

Housings are available for the Sony Mavica series (FD7, FD71, FD73, FD81, FD83, FD88), as well as the FD90and FD91 . Also, there is a housing for the Sony DSCS70. Finally, the oddball Hitachi mpeg camera also has a housing.

The latest additions are the DS-50 strobe for digital photography, and an announced DS-125. These strobes represent the latest technology, and stand above the competition which all (except for the Inon strobes, unavailable in the U.S.) use optical fiber cable and sensor over the camera's built in flash to detect the flashes.

Light & Motion

Light and Motion has released and is now shipping the Tetra, a metal underwater housing that has connectors for external strobes, and rated to 90 meters/300 feet for you trimix divers. The housing is constructed of aluminum materials with stainless steel hardware. You can see the specs here. The most important point is that you can use off camera strobes with their Nikonos or Wetlink bulkhead ($150-160) and Wetlink connectors, although the flash is not TTL. Retail price for the housing including a dome port is $1099. They also offer wide angle and close up lenses /dome ports which adds to the overall flexibility of the system. These lenses look a lot like the offerings from Inon but seem to be priced higher at $400 for wide angle and $400 for the macro lens.

The exciting development is the ROC controller which controls the output of the TTL strobes and gives instant feedback so you can make manual adjustments on the output of the hardwired strobe.

Video Sea

Video Sea also has a housing for the C3030. Video Sea is also sold by Jim Bullitt of Oceanbrite

European Manufacturers

Aquapac - Deluxe Plastic Bags from the U.K.

If you have an inexpensive digital camera that does not have a housing, you can try an optical vinyl bag from Aquapac. This is the solution for the diver who does not want to spend a lot of money getting a custom made housing that invariably costs more than the camera. The protective cases are very popular for cellular phones with the boat captains and dive guides at many of the dive services here in Japan. I recommend only using these for snorkeling and splashproof housings, even if they are rated to IP68, the bag will compress at depth, making the controls difficult to use.

The German Trio: Ewa-Marine, UK Germany, and Gun Lux

Thinking of those plastic bags made by the German company Ewa-Marine? They have various offerings for digital cameras, although I have not met anyone brave enough to try them out except for Philip Greenspun of photo.net who used an F5 in one.. The main problem with these flexible housings is that beyond a certain depth, the bag compresses, rendering the controls un-useable.

There are also housings made by UK Germany for the Nikon Coolpix 990, Canon PowershotPro 70 and EOS1nD2000, and Sony DSC-F505V. They also offer strobes from Subtronic. These are incredible, high quality housings made from aluminum.

Gun Lux offers Nimar housings (Nimar Compact housings rated to 20 meters and Profil Crystal GL housings rated to 70 meters) for various cameras.

If any users of these German products are reading this page, please send me your comments.

Nimar from Italy

Japanese Manufacturers

DIV - Custom Housing Maker

Japanese manufacturer DIV makes custom, order made housings for digital cameras, but they are expensive, as they are basically hand made one by one. I remember seeing the very first housing for a Casio about 4 or 5 years ago. They make a "production" housing for the Olympus C2000. The price is 72,000 yen (Approx. U.S. $700). Also, there is a housing for the Nikon CoolPix 950 which is not cheap at 120,000 yen ($1,200).

They also have various stock housings for different model cameras, as well as order-made (custom) housings available for many cameras.

Zillion

This Japanese manufacturer is similar to DIV, making clear acrylic resin housings. Zillion is a small operation, but is very popular in Japan, and they have the backlog to prove it. Current lead time for non stock housings is 2-3 months.

The FinePix 4900 Housing runs about 110,000 yen. There is a review of the FinePix 4900 at the DP Review. The FinePix 40 and 4500 Housing is 61,000 yen and rated to 45 meters. The Sony DSC-505 Housing is 100,000 yen. They have a new housing for the FinePix 4800 and 6800. This housing is unique because it can use the Sea and Sea WCL-16 as well as Inon UWL-100 attachment lenses. The housing is 73,000 yen plus adapter ring is 7,800 yen.

For inquires regarding this manufacturer's line of housings, please e-mail for further information about sales in the U.S.

It's a Sony

Sony offers a compact underwater housing and camera package, the Sony DSC-P1 with MPK-P1 Marine Pack. Most people recognize Sony for their bright yellow underwater video housings. The Marine Pack is remarkably similar to the housings made by Olympus. One user commented on the unusually fast shutter and the lack of typical shutter lag on this camera. However, the major drawbacks of this Sony camera are the proprietary rechargable battery pack (instead of standard "AA" size batteries which you can use NiMh rechargeables or at least easily obtain alkalines in a remote location if you don't have a charger) and the Memory Stick instead of a more common memory card format such as SmartMedia or CompactFlash. There have been some reports that the algorithm the camera uses is not good for low light conditions, which is why they sell an underwater video light as an accessory here in Japan.

The current series of cameras, the DSC-P3 and -P5 offer a housing rated to 40 meters, and the newest camera, the DSC-P9 offers a 4 Megapixel camera and the MPK-P9 housing.

Canon

Canon has released their underwater housings for the Powershot A10 and A20 cameras. The Waterproof Case WP-DC100 is for the A10 while the WP-DC200 is for the A20. These cases are inexpensive at $250 each, but are not as nice as the Olympus housings.

Asian Manufacturers

10 Bar

The name 10 Bar comes from the rating of their housings, i.e. 10 bar (90 meters)/300 feet. Hong Kong maker has housings for the Sony DSC-505 DSC-F707, and the Canon G2.

Updated: February 8, 2003