Any experience with Canon underwater housings?

[Jeffr726]

I picked up a Canon 870IS for my upcoming Central and South America trip. I'm going to be in Central America for the rainy season and I'll be spending a lot of time off the bike hiking and exploring. Anyone have any experience with these cases? They get great reviews for underwater photos (not that important to me), but I was wondering how the image quality is on land, and if they have issues with fogging. It looks like it would be great for worry free use, but $170USD isn't cheap.
Newegg.com - Canon WP-DC17 Waterproof Case for the Powershot SD870 IS

-Jeff

[Bjorn]

You'd probably be better off with a dedicated splash-proof camera. Underwater housings make eveything quite big. I'm not sure about other manufacturers, but Pentax started doing a splash-proof camera a few years back. 6 megapixels it was at the time, I think. And if I remember it right, it can even go underwater for up to 30 minutes (though not sure about this).

The camera I'm talking about is at least 1-2 years old, and you should get it for a decent price, far less than your underwater housing.
In case you want more pixels: as far as the megapixel-mania goes, I think anything above 8 megapixels on a compact digital is a complete waste of time, and 6 megapixels is plenty decent A4 sized prints.

Bjorn

[ChinaV]

I have the WP-DC70 housing on a Canon IXUS700. This is basically the same unit you are asking about, just a couple years older. Works perfect under water and on land.

I know the housings are expensive, but they are built like a tank and will not interfere with the regular camera controls. Only effect it will have on your camera is probably reduced flash range.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[boarder]

The canon housings are OK for the price but not anywhere near build like a tank :-) I have used a couple and one failed. Wouldn't take it on a bike.

Bulk is an issue, you won't just pull it out of your pocket and you won't want to put the camera into the housing in a hot humid environment. Even if you use a silica pack it will eventually fog up. During dive trips I close the housing with silica in it in an aircon room whenever possible. Keeps the humidity out in the first place. When not under water I keep it in a bucket of water, out of the sun to avoid fogging.

Bottom line, if you don't care about diving go with a waterproof camera. Olympus has a good one down to 3m and one down to 10m. Should do it nicely.

Since you already have your camera, try the ol' zip lock bag with some silica thrown in and take it out for the pictures. You can snatch the silica from any shoe carton. Can be reconditioned to some extend in a microwave or oven.

[javkap]

Originally Posted by boarder

Bottom line, if you don't care about diving go with a waterproof camera. Olympus has a good one down to 3m and one down to 10m. Should do it nicely.

Olympus 1030SW, just got my. Very nice camera….

Saludos.

[Jeffr726]

I left on my trip about 3 weeks ago and decided to go with the camera I had (canon 870IS) without the case. At $180, I'll just use it until it dies, and get another one if need be. I'd hate to have the camera stolen, and a $180 case to store my socks in. So far I'm really happy with the 870. I went with it because of the 28mm lense, optical image stabilization, and great timer features. I know optical image stabilization has been labeled in another post as a crutch for camera posers, but I like it, especially when I'm twisted around taking a picture behind me on an idling thumper. But mainly I wanted IS because every time, and I mean every time someone else took pictures of me with my old camera, the photos were always blurry. Not any more. As for the timer, for a point and shoot, this was one of the few that had a 30 second timer, and I can use that timer in conjunction with the continuous shooting mode to get 10 shots taken every second or so; perfect for taking self-portrait driveby's. There's a definite convenience factor to the Olympus waterproof/shockproof line, and I'm sure I'll wish I had those features when I get into the thick of the trip, but for now I really enjoy using the 870IS and would recommend taking a look at it.
Cheers,
Jeff