I have tried almost all the major brands of underwater cameras available in the market. Sadly most of them were not to my satisfaction unless they were the premium brands. I still use my aging Nikonos which I find a really hard camera to replace. I’m surprise camera manufacturers have not come up with any product near the Nikonos quality.

I did have a talk with an employee from a major Japanese Camera manufacturer telling me the underwater camera niche is just to small and hard to justify getting themselves to participate. These facts and the reluctance of camera manufactures from getting into the professional underwater camera business brought in the rise of professional grade underwater camera housing.

These new high quality housing from major camera manufacturers enabled divers to use their existing cameras for underwater photography and outside the water. Although these underwater water housing from Nikon, Canon and Olympus look really strong not all of them are the same. In my experience Nikon and Canon still make the best housing that actually stood up the element. Olympus and Sony still comes last it terms of quality and reliability. In my last dive using an underwater housing for the Olympus E-PL1 completely damaged the camera from to must moisture. It seems not all cameras are recommended to be underwater or extreme conditions they claim your housing will protect.

Pentax in the recent months has lowered their prices in their weather sealed DSLR, perfect for a universal underwater housing. Universal underwater housing is also a great solution that can convert any camera for underwater photography. I have had great experience with universal underwater housing from certain manufacturers. I’ve notice a lot of improvements almost matching Ikelite products.

In the end finding the right camera is a balance between reliability and quality. I seem to be finding a hard time getting both which I had with my 15 year old Nikonos.