Customer Reviews

Ewa-Marine Underwater Housing for Canon Digital SLR Cameras, Fits EOS-10D, 1D, 1DS, 1DS Mark II, EOS 20D, Digital Rebel, Digital Rebel XT, D30, D60 (150' Depth)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first time I used this housing, it took about 30 minutes for me to set up. I'm sure it will take less for most people, but I had a little trouble, detailed below. The next couple of times I set it up, it was done quickly -- a couple of minutes at the most.

The housing has a solid feeling that inspires confidence in its ability to keep water out. The plastic is thick, so you don't get the feeling that it would be particularly easy to puncture by accident. It's large, though. It needs to be, since it'll hold a large camera and attached flash unit. Once I had it in my hands, though, part of me wished I had bought the housing for use without the flash, due to its much smaller size. Then again, I bought it for snorkeling purposes, not SCUBA diving. A flash is less necessary at the shallow depths I'm using it for.

The camera I have would not fit into the bag all at once -- I had to remove the flash unit, squeeze the camera into the bag, and then put the flash unit in there and attach it from inside. Not a big deal.

The biggest problem that I had when using this housing for the first time was attaching the ring that surrounds the end of the lens barrel, keeping the lens in one place and close to the glass element of the housing. This ring is attached to the camera by a series of interchangeable metal pieces that extend from the ring at the front of your lens to the tripod mount. These metal extensions are attached to each other, and then to the tripod mount, with a square metal piece in between. This square piece has a lip on one side. That lip does not fit correctly on my camera, a Canon EOS Digital Rebel with the vertical grip. Additionally, no combination of these metal extensions seemed to successfully extend to the end of the lens barrel at the correct height for attaching the ring. The only solution was to remove the vertical grip every time I want to use this housing. It's not a deal breaker, but I'm not too happy about that.

Otherwise, the housing works like a charm. I'd recommend getting a weight attachment for it. Even for snorkeling purposes, it floats a little TOO well to be comfortable. If you are staying really close to the surface, you can use the nozzle to suck most of the air out of it, making it a little bit less buoyant.

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Update: 10/06/2008
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I went snorkeling in the Bahamas this past weekend and got some significant use out of this, so I wanted to post an update.

Since my initial review over two years ago, I've upgraded to a Canon EOS 40D. The housing still fits well with this model, even with the vertical grip attached. I removed the larger of the two foam inserts to allow for the extra size of the grip. And here's the greatest part -- the weakest (in my opinion) part of this housing is a non-issue with the larger lenses. My earlier review was based off of the 18-55mm kit lens, and the plastic ring that surrounds the lens was required to keep the lens centered over the glass window. I'm happy to say that with larger diameter lenses (specifically, I used the 17-40mm f/4L with a 77mm thread diameter) this plastic ring and its tripod socket attachment are unnecessary and can be left off. This makes setup SO much easier. Fit the camera in, attach the flash, and go!

With the assumption that you're using this bag with a large diameter lens (approx. 77mm), this is a 5-star item.

I used this product for a swim team photo shoot, taking several pictures of each swimmer underwater. I tested it first, and it was okay, then I shot around 60 kids in about 2 hours on the second use. I found several problems with this product and will like be returning the product. The worst of the problems was leakage. When I opened the case after about an hour of consistent use, going in and out of the water, I found a significant amount of water in the basin of the camera housing. It did get my camera and lens wet, but thankfully did not do any harm to my camera. Furthermore, it was nearly impossible to consistently line up the viewfinder with the clear plastic on the back side of the case. Unless you have Live View through your LCD screen, it is painful to see what you are shooting.

I also felt the deign of the housing was poor in terms of my ability to press the trigger of my Digital Rebel XTi. Due to long reach and awkward angle to reach the trigger button from the finger hole, I opted to not use the designed finger hole and just squeeze down on the normal plastic. Additionally I used a 82 mm fixed 20mm lens and it was too big for the lens area. Lastly any water or fog on the glass of the housing caused my photos to be really blurry or just bad. Overall this may be a good product if used lightly once in a while, but I am disappointed.

Hated this product. Tried it first with snorkeling & the camera doesn't fit tight in the housing so it kept moving around & made it harder to take pictures. Was going to try it with scuba diving thinking the pressure would make it a tighter fit I asked the dive master if he had seen any one dive with this before & he stated he had seen them flood so I was too nervous to try it. I would suggest just getting an underwater camera. I feel like this was a waste of money.

i think is very handfull if you are looking for submarine pictures, its cheap, usefull and fits well to most cameras, at the begining cost a little time to adapt yourself to make click with the plastic (i mean the finger to the click button) but thats just matter of using ir, of course maybe the box is easier to use but is loooots more expensive, so, i recommend it to anyone from amateurs to professionals to have in your stock is always handfull, no problems in getting your camera wet, its very very safe to me.