hi,
I am new to the world of uw photography and need some advice.

I'm interested in a housing for my d2h for tking in water surfing shots (due to its larger buffer and quicker write speed) and the d2x for underwater shots.

the 2 housings i'm leaning towards are the sea cam and the aquaticas.

Has anyone been fortunate enough to have been able to compare the 2?

For surf shots , the sea cam appears the hand grips can be removed and the unit can be used hand held from the housing only, thus rather ergonomic and intuitive as the camera body itself is. Is this correct? (i'd rather not have to shot from any type of grip levers for these type of shots if posssible). can this be done w/ the aquatica as well...how ergonomic is the aquatica housing alone (s/ hand grips)..can the shutter be released s/hand grip trigers (directly from the housing)??

Is there any type of "joystick" type attachment with a shutter release mechanism available to attach to the bottom of the housing?

I'm considering either of the units, but with all things being equal would like to go with the most economical system..

(seacam w/ superdome, ports and gears (for 17-55 dx)=8000$ ; whereas the aquatica appears less than 4500$).


For those who know, please let me know ..

thanks,
jd

We've discussed the difference between surf housings and dive housings a couple of times before on wetpixel... link to previous discussions is here and here... amongst others.

Essentially, housings that are the best for SCUBA are probably not the best idea for full on surf use. Housings are reliant on the magical compression of o-rings to get the maximum water-tightness.
The housing is at the greatest risk of flood in the first few feet of water... it is often said that more floods occur in the rinse bucket than anywhere else.

A recurrent suggestion in threads like this is to go for a proper surf housing, such as those made by Aquatech for the D2 X/H

The Grips on the Aquatica can be removed, but as is the case with any housing this size, they are a welcome addition, I also see why you would wand to remove them for surf photography, the bottom part as threaded holes 1/4"x20 (standard tridod screw thread) so attaching some sort of pistol grip should be a simple affair, as far as comparaison goes, well, there is only me and another guy (Mauricio Handler) who have taken the housing underwater so far, It's still in the preproduction stage (out in a few weeks max). I'm bias since I do substantial amount of work for them but I'm really happy with the handling of the Aquatica housing.

Nothing is impossible but getting a pistol grip with a waterproof triggering mechanism with a waterproof connector trough the housing. that something to keep you busy for a while. accessing the 10 pins release socket of the camera via a "wet" connector is quite easy to built and install in one of the existing flash connector hole. or even having an additional hole drilled by the company to install said wet connector.

Where I run out of option is the grip, this I can't help you with, if you have any supplier existing, feed me some info maybe it can be made to comply...

Cheers

It would be nice to have pre-vacuum in housings to seat the o-ring. And also ensure a seal just like the old system John Fiorda at Pacific Camera made for the Nikonos system. I'd feel more comfy going into surf with my housing set at a 2 atm vacuum.

Joe

THANKS FOR THE INFO!!!

I new I'd come to the right place to get solid advice!

I checked out the Aquatech web site and that style of housing and pistol grip is exactly what i had in mind...they evan have an attachable flash,can you believe it..

thanks again !

best regards,
jd