Diving Cameras | Camera Housings | Dive Photography Kit

Fujifilm F80EXR and WP-FXF80 housing

Fujifilm’s FinePix F80EXR features the same innovative EXR sensor technology as its F200, which I reviewed last year.
For land use, the F80 is really excellent as a point-and-shoot, with the added advantage of a 10x zoom – but if you want to shoot manual exposures, it’s a bit of a fudge, with only the maximum and minimum apertures available. The higher ISO speeds of 6400 and 12800 can only be achieved
at lower resolution rates but, from an underwater point of view, there could be times when this compromise is worth the capability.
Last year, I reported that the F200 housing had a physical limitation caused by the camera's long zoom range, which results in a rectangular front port. This made it difficult to add any external accessory lenses and I saw this as a big limitation underwater. Nothing has changed with the F80 housing, but the situation has been saved a little
by Inon, which makes a lens mount adaptor.
Unfortunately, the good news ends there: because this will only allow its close-up lenses to
be used rather than its wide-angles, which to my mind is a big limitation underwater.

DIVE says: Shines on land but disappoints in the housing
Value 7/10 Performance 7/10

www.fujifilm.co.uk

Epoque EHD-900Ai

At £199 all in (Cameras Underwater currently throws in a 2GB card for all the models listed here), the Epoque EHD-900Ai is the least expensive camera on review, but price alone doesn’t always reflect performance and capability. Photographically this
is an automatic point-and-shoot with no manual control over exposure or white balance but, for a beginner, sometimes less is more.
The build quality of the housing is robust, the overcentre closure catch is big and safe, and the ergonomics and operation of the push buttons are excellent. More importantly, however, external slave flashes can be triggered easily and there is a 55mm front filter
ring for attaching wide-angle and macro lenses and filters.
When choosing your first compact camera for underwater use, it is always difficult to really know how hooked you are going to become.
The beauty of the EHD-900Ai combination is that it can be expanded with accessories to suit your needs should you get the bug.
The provision of these features makes the Epoque EHD-900Ai a clear winner in terms of value for money.



DIVE says:
Best value for money
Value 9/10 Performance 7/10


www.camerasunderwater.co.uk

Canon PowerShot S90 PowerShot S90 and WP-DC35 housing

Along with Sea & Sea's DX-2G, the Canon S90 stood out. It has a fast f/2 lens at the 28mm end and it is extremely sharp. In terms of exposure control, you have everything you need from fully automatic to fully manual, including a full range of apertures and shutter speeds. These are controlled by a large rotary dial around the lens and a smaller one on the rear body.
The final icing on the cake is that Inon makes a lens mount adaptor that allows its UWL-100 28AD wide-angle lens or close-up lenses to be used. This mount also incorporates a flash diffuser and holder for fibre-optic cables so that external strobes can be fired.
The resulting combination is totally flexible. You can start with the basic camera and housing and then add accessories to make this become a total camera system capable of taking virtually any shots you want.
If you want to build a system right from the start, the Ikelite 6242.90 housing will be less expensive overall as it already has a 67mm front filter thread. This will save you £99.99 on the Inon mount adaptor, but it takes a little more setting up, as a gear ring has to be attached to the camera’s front rotary dial and the external control for this is not as ergonomically placed as the Canon housing. However, it will give you that extra 60m capability if that is important to you.


DIVE says: Top performance from a compact package with total system capability
Value 9/10 Performance 9/10

www.canon.co.uk

Canon PowerShot G11 and WP-DC34 housing

The G11 can be as automatic or manual as you choose, and the important functions such as exposure compensation, ISO and aperture/shutter speed are controlled by external dials rather than having to go through the menu option. This makes these adjustments much easier to control and makes it feel suitable for more professional use.
The WP-DC34 housing provides 40m capability and full control over the camera functions, with one exception: the rear rotary dial, which controls aperture or shutter speed when using manual exposure. It is possible to control these functions by ‘unassigning’ the ‘assign’ button to the top left of the LCD screen, so that when it is pressed, the aperture/shutter speed can be adjusted up and down with the ‘left’ and ‘right’ push buttons.
The rectangular front port limits the use of additional wide-angle lenses, which is a shame for such a capable camera. These deficiencies are compensated for when using the Ikelite 6146.11 housing, but at the expense of weight, size and cost. An optional WD-4 wide-angle port restores the angle of coverage to 28mm.

DIVE says: Big-performance camera with limited wide-angle capability
Value 7/10 Performance 7/10

www.canon.co.uk