Hello new friends!

This is my first posting and I send greetings from the Great Desert Southwest of the USA.

I am considering purchasing a Canon A630 which I have heard good thing about.  The things I have heard about the housing Canon makes for the camera do not seem quitet as good.  The only forum I can find says that the housing leaks.  Do any of you out there have any input on that matter?

Thanks for any help, hope to be in touch wiwth many of you soon.

BK

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I have two canon housings:  for the Canon A85 and Canon S70, both older models than the A630 I know, but I’ve been using them collectively for a couple of years no. So far, no leaks.  The housing for the A640 looks slightly different, but not sufficiently to suspect a different manufacturing process, so I’d be surprised if there was any design problem with the housing.  I know another diver who has a A640, which has the same housing as the A630, and he hasn’t had any problems with his housing either.

A large proportion (probably most) leaks or floods are due to user error rather than equipment failure:  housings are relatively low tech items:  they are moulded polycarbonate plastic for the most part, with a few stainless steel hinges, and all the buttons are sealed by rubber o-rings.  I suppose that all it takes is for one moulded part to be slightly out of alignment, or for an o-ring to fail or not be quite in the right place and you get a leak, however I would have thought that this would be very much a one off type of issue, and if you’re buying a new housing, this would be covered by warranty (i.e. Canon would replace the housing) and the chances of recurrent issues would be very low.

I always take new housings for their first dive without the camera inside, and aim to get to at least 30m to give the housing a good test before trusting my camera to it.  This way any manufacturing issue can be detected without sacrificing a camera (which the manufacturer’s warranty will NOT cover!).  One quite neat tip I came across for that first test dive is to put a wad of blue tissue paper inside the housing.  That way, if there is even a small leak, the blue tissue paper that gets wet goes very dark coloured, and is easy to spot.

What forum has the leak story on it?  You’ve got me curious now!

Personally, I don’t think there is any problem with the canon housings.  Like all underwater housings, they respond best to being well cared for, washed down / soaked in fresh water after each use.  the main O-ring requires regular cleaning, visual checking and light lubrication with the manufacturer’s recommended silicon grease (this is easier than it sounds), and just as important, every time you seal your camera inside, make sure you have visually checked the seal for muck, excess grease, hair, lint, dust or any other impedimenta, and test it in a bucket or bin of fresh water before starting the dive.  Most accidental floods could have been prevented by following these processes.

hope that helps.

Hello fish and thanks for the info.  I found the leak story on the website for Adorama, a camera store website.  Go to Adorama.com and work through the site to the revieew of the housing.

Bruce

Hi Bruce.

Thanks for that info.  I’ve had a look at the reviews you mentioned.  The reviewer doesn’t mention any efforts to return the housing(s) to canon under warranty, which seems a little odd to me.  I know I certainly would be taking it back to get a replacement / repair.  That said, the comments appear genuine.

The point made about the diffuser is a potentially valid one, however.  I’ve only seen this housing in passing (when I was talking to the guy I know who has one), and I now recall that the diffuser arrangement did strike me as looking a bit poor.  He hasn’t commented to me on any problems he’s had with it, but he does use an ikelite strobe with his rig, so he probably has never used the diffuser, because he would be blocking the camera’s flash instead.

The other fairly notable aspect of this camera housing is that the port is comparitively large, and does obstruct the camera’s own flash, especially for macro shots.  To be fair, most housings suffer from this problem to some extent simply because the ports have to allow the camera lens to fully extend, and that is usually a reasonably distance in front of the camera and the position of the camera’s flash.

Ultimately, I guess all u/w camera rigs are a compromise at some level.  With compacts, you get the convenience of a small package, but have to sacrifice some photographic flexibility in certain circumstances.  Perhaps the WP-DC8 is not as good as some other housings, in that there may be more compromises to accept.

I would be surprised if there is a pervasive design fault with the WP-DC8 that causes it to leak though.  Canon must have sold hundreds, more likely thousands or tens of thousands worldwide.  If all or most of them leaked, I’m sure there would be information readily available!

Another camera you might want to look at, although it is probably a small step up from the A630, especially in terms of cost, would be the Olympus SP550.  I haven’t seen one in the flesh, but Olympus housings often seem to have a small edge in terms of practical features, like circular ports with threads so you can easily attach wet filters and some wet lenses, and they usually sport a shutter release lever rather than a button, which may make it easier to find that ‘half press’ position necessary to get the camera to pre-focus.

I suspect that whatever camera and housing you choose, (assuming that the housing doesn’t leak), you will soon learn how to work around any minor issues the housing presents, and you will soon be bringing home pictures that you are satisfied with and enjoy.  Its very easy to get caught up in the minutiae of which camera/rig is best, but within reason, they all allow you to take photos underwater.  The differences probably represent the last 10% to 20% of perfection, if you see what I mean.

Good luck!

Graham

Thanks again Graham.  I have since been looking at the Canon SD 850 IS with Ikelight housing.  The word I am getting is that if you reset your white balance at whatever depth you are at, the resulting photos are very nice.

All in all, for my upcoming trip to Belize I think I will stick with my 35mm film camera with Ikelight housing and strobe and do some further research for a switch to digital.

Bruce

Hi Bruce.

Yep, white balancing is pretty effective when shooting ambient light, but it does have its limits.  Beyond a certain depth there just isn’t enough red channel for the sensor to detect, and attempting to white balance will generate nothing but noise in the red channel, and your pictures will start to look dramatically less nice, for example, they may appear pepper sprayed with red dots!

That’s when its time to give up shooting ambient, and fire up your flash!  The critical depth varies with conditions, angle of the sun etc, but as a rough rule of thumb, in good overhead light (middle of the day type light), you can probably get away with white balancing down to 15m, perhaps deeper if the water is very clear.

Ikelite housings are an improvement on the manufacturer (e.g. canon) housings, being tougher, with generally better port design, better controls (especially for the shutter release), and a more visible seal.  I also think the seal design is better than the grooved approach typically taken by canon housings.  In the end, the ikelite housings should be more reliable in the long term, and ikelite’s customer support is widely regarded as very good.

Hope you have a great trip to Belize.

Graham

Hi
I bought a Canon A640 and DC 8 in August and went diving in Bali and had no problems. I also got some excellent photographs without a slave. I highly recommend the A640 and DC8 for the keen amateur.
Mike

fishonfilm - 22 July 2007 06:32 AM

Hi, and welcome to the forum.
I always take new housings for their first dive without the camera inside, and aim to get to at least 30m to give the housing a good test before trusting my camera to it.  This way any manufacturing issue can be detected without sacrificing a camera (which the manufacturer’s warranty will NOT cover!).  One quite neat tip I came across for that first test dive is to put a wad of blue tissue paper inside the housing.  That way, if there is even a small leak, the blue tissue paper that gets wet goes very dark coloured, and is easy to spot.

Just a quick note (just to add to the test concept or reiterate) on the test dive make sure to play with all of the controls.  Depress them etc.  I had one housing that developed a leak even though I checked and re-checked everything after the first leak.  Actually figured it out, but when I sent it back I got it returned with it “pressure tested” fine.  I felt uncomfortable before a trip and sent it back and retiterated it did not leak at depth, the leaks were only noticable until I started actually shooting.  It was in the shutter release though it otherwise pressure tested fine and was dry as a bone at 95 feet otherwise.  I had mentioned it both times I returned the housing to be checked, but the second time I was more insistant, especially when it was going to be returned again with no problem since it pressure tested fine.

Yeah the tissue trick is a good one