Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

I went diving for the first time and bought this housing to take my Canon T3i underwater with me. I only dove 7 meters/21 feet, but it worked perfectly fine for me. No leaks or moisture inside at all and it fit my Canon 10-22mm EF-S lens perfectly. There was plenty of room for the flash too. I couldn't really change settings underwater while diving, although I could in the housing above water. I was hoping to switch to movie mode at some point, but wasn't able to. In reality, I don't think I would have been able to hold it straight in front of me steady enough while diving in order to do video anyway. That's probably just because I have no diving experience though. I set it to A+ (scene intelligent auto) mode for the underwater shots so I wouldn't have to change any manual settings. I had to let almost all of the air out in order to get it below the surface of the water, even with the lead weight in the case. Since it wasn't a deep dive, I didn't have any problems with the housing shrinking around the camera at all.I was able to take some photos that I'm really happy with underwater and even above water. The glass doesn't seem to blur the image at all EXCEPT for when you're above water and have water drops on the glass. I also used this case while kayaking in the rain and those shots are blurry.

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

I used it in the pool and on an ocean shark dive and it perform well and provided quality images. Easy to fit wider lenses without any cutoff. It's a little hard to use and to look through the plastic at the viewfinder/LCD. Needs to be weighted for better control.

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

Bag took about 14 days to be delivered as promised. I have used it a couple times in the pool and it works great with the Canon 60D, Canon 17-40L, and Canon 580EXII flash.

Originally I purchased it thinking I would use the Canon 24-70 2.8L lens with it, but it does not work well with this lens. The bag under pressure collapses the lens to its 70mm zoom and that is too long for underwater use, so I switched to the 17-40 which has internal zoom and works much better. You cant zoom underwater, but I preset the zoom at 17 and its good to go.

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

I bought this because of the price compared to full plastic or aluminum housings. I wanted to get into underwater photography, as I love to dive and wanted better pics than what little point and shoot u/w cameras could give. I used this w/ a Nikon D50, Sigma 10-20mm, and the SB-600 hot shoe flash. I wanted the larger housing specifically to have a strobe underwater; w/o a flash, underwater photographs are blue or green below about 10'.

I used it on a dive in Grand Caymen, best pictures were taken w/ the flash, (took some w/ and some w/o for experimenting w/ u/w photography) and snorkeling in Cozumel. I have also used it in pool settings. I recommend getting weights. I had problems at first because it requires air before you dive, which compresses into the body, but also makes the bag shrink around the camera, reducing functionality of the camera if you don't have enough air in it. But, the second dive, I strapped on lead diving weights and was able to have a lot more air in it, and not have a problem submerging the system. (Imaging trying to dive w/ a pool floaty toy... weighted it was fine) Also, another word of advice, assemble you camera IN the case. I put the lens in first, then the flash, then the body, attached the lens to the body, then the flash to the body. Its just easier than trying to make rubber rub against plastic and move things around. Also USE THE SILICA PACKS! Warm tropical air and/or breath to fill the housing w/ air, then submerge in cold (er) water, it will fog up. I did not have a problem as long as I had the silica packs in it, but I did in some pool settings when I didn't.

Pros: Price, light weight, flat to pack in luggage, able to use wide and super wide angle lens' and flash. I had no problems diving up to 60' (deep as I went on that dive), and having functionality.

Cons: More susceptible to user error. The design is sound if you follow the instructions and test it before you dive. I had no problems diving up to 60' (deep as I went on that dive), and having functionality. I did not correctly seal it once, and it leaked in a pool test, saw the problem, tightened it up, worked fine.

I'm giving it 5 stars because of what it is. I am not comparing this to a $1000k + underwater housing system. I'm stating the product functions as designed, does what it says it will do, is user friendly, and gets people into u/w photography w/ quality cameras w/o breaking the bank.

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

Well the product is used to protect your camera from water and for diving. I use it for water sports photography.

Well it does the trick and will keep your camera dry which is very important. You can get great images from this product. being in the water for water sports photography really gives a unique look.

Little hard to use but after some time you will figure out the best way to use it. On a zoom lens it is very difficult to keep the zoom backed all the way out because the front of the bag constantly pushes against the lens and slowly spins the zoom all the way back out. A fixed lens or a piece of tape to hold the zoom in a fixed location is the best way to use this bag That I have found.

Comments about Ewa-Marine U-AXP100 Underwater Housing:

The instructions provided are not very helpful but after a couple of attempts to "setup" the bag for the camera it worked. You have no access to camera controls, so program and auto focus is about all you have access to.