uw camera housing?

[tony13]

I have a Canon S500 that's a few years old, last year when I went to Turks & Caicos I bought a Canon WP DC800 housing for it. The rating on the housing says good to 130', now when in Turks it wasn't an issue, but next month I'm going to Truk Lagoon and I forsee doing some stuff in the 130'-150' range. I was told by some people on dive boats that the rating on the camera is 130' because that's the max depth of recreational diving, but the depth rating on the housing is more than what it says. Does anybody know if this is true? Would hate to drown my camera.

 

[rmougey]

If your housing is acrylic, make sure to respect the posted depth limit. You will find that once you drop deeper than the rating, water will seep in around the O-ring.

If you want to take pictures in Truk, either rent a camera with a higher (lower?) depth rating before you leave, or borrow the boats camera. Then see if they it's OK to exceed the rating!

I had a Sony housing, very similar to your WP housing. It was rated to 100ft. I dropped down to 110 and glanced at the housing, little traces of seawater were showing inside. Once I went above 100, no more seawater.

-Rob

 

[tony13]

Thanks Rob,
If nothing else I'll have to keep a close eye on it when approaching the max depth limit of the housing.
Anyone else have any experience with this type of housing??

 

[zahner]

i've had my WP-DC70 at a max of 140' for a short while with no problems (leakage, sticking buttons, etc). But I rarely dive that deep. I would be surprised if 130' is the failure point, I suspect another 10 to 20 feet will not flood it assuming it has been well maintained.

 

[tony13]

Thanks, I read in another site that a guy had his down to 200 with no leakage. He did say that the LCD camera screen went out though, I don't understand how that would happen without any leakage from the housing?

 

[zahner]

the display button might have been forced in by the pressure, that would turn the LCD off, other than that I can't think of why that would happen