This item’s great – snorkeling, dives of less than 30 feet, kayaking, and other things where you might worry about a camcorder or camera.
The one thing I would say is that I wish it was rated to 60-100 feet instead of thirty. Obviously video and pictures often wouldn’t be good at that depth – but it would mean I could just carry the camera or stow it away if I was going deeper than 30 feet – as well as most divers, since most divers aren’t really into depth diving. Surfacing and going back down unnecessarily isn’t usually good for dive time, obviously, because the frequent condensing and expansion of nitrogen can cause decompression sickness. Most regular open water divers I think would benefit if it was rated for more depth.
Okay, I can understand it might not make as much profit if it was rated higher. Then again… People might appreciate a higher depth rating if they drop it!
Rating: 4 / 5
If like me, you are looking at this for scuba diving, you will need to look elsewhere. This housing, even though it is made of the same exact materials as the commonly available housings for digital compact cameras, such as the Canon WP-DC22 Waterproof Case for Canon PowerShot SD1100IS is rated only to 30 feet, not 130 as the Canon ones. One can only assume that this is due to a poor design of the buttons and latch mechanism, which would also account for the significant price difference between this housing and the Canon ones. If you are looking for an inexpensive underwater video option for scuba diving, I would get a Canon digital compact and a housing for that instead.
This housing has two other flaws, which appear touched upon by others as well. First, the manual is woefully inadequate if you are not used to underwater housings. It fails to point out that you must clean, lubricate, and generally be extremely careful with the o-ring. As this is an introductory video housing, and it does not come with any o-ring lube, I would expect the failure rate to be alarming.
Second, as another review pointed out, you cannot fit the camera in the housing with the camera strap still on it. This seems to be a design oversight that could have easily been prevented by making the housing a quarter inch wider instead. It would not be so bad if the strap was easier to remove, but as it is impossible to do so without tools, it makes for a frustrating mount within the housing.
If you are only snorkeling then I suppose this housing is acceptable. If you want to actually scuba dive, look elsewhere.
Rating: 1 / 5
Amazon did a great job serving up a low price, (I paid 4X as much for my underwatercase for my Sony digital camera). Shipping was fast and it was package well. The case itself is of good quality (as good as my Sony underwater case). I cannot comment on it’s worthiness yet, because I have not tested it as of yet. My Sony case came with well defined, written, pre-testing and end of use maintenance procedures and a tube of silicon-based grease for the sealing ring, a cleaning cloth, as well as maintenance procedures for the sealing ring itself. The Flip Video AWCT I received contained minimal use instructions, period. I find this to be a serious deficit because improper use and maintenance of the sealing ring by a novice underwater case buyer may cause fatal damage to their videocam.
Rating: 3 / 5
This item’s great – snorkeling, dives of less than 30 feet, kayaking, and other things where you might worry about a camcorder or camera.
The one thing I would say is that I wish it was rated to 60-100 feet instead of thirty. Obviously video and pictures often wouldn’t be good at that depth – but it would mean I could just carry the camera or stow it away if I was going deeper than 30 feet – as well as most divers, since most divers aren’t really into depth diving. Surfacing and going back down unnecessarily isn’t usually good for dive time, obviously, because the frequent condensing and expansion of nitrogen can cause decompression sickness. Most regular open water divers I think would benefit if it was rated for more depth.
Okay, I can understand it might not make as much profit if it was rated higher. Then again… People might appreciate a higher depth rating if they drop it!
Rating: 4 / 5
If like me, you are looking at this for scuba diving, you will need to look elsewhere. This housing, even though it is made of the same exact materials as the commonly available housings for digital compact cameras, such as the Canon WP-DC22 Waterproof Case for Canon PowerShot SD1100IS is rated only to 30 feet, not 130 as the Canon ones. One can only assume that this is due to a poor design of the buttons and latch mechanism, which would also account for the significant price difference between this housing and the Canon ones. If you are looking for an inexpensive underwater video option for scuba diving, I would get a Canon digital compact and a housing for that instead.
This housing has two other flaws, which appear touched upon by others as well. First, the manual is woefully inadequate if you are not used to underwater housings. It fails to point out that you must clean, lubricate, and generally be extremely careful with the o-ring. As this is an introductory video housing, and it does not come with any o-ring lube, I would expect the failure rate to be alarming.
Second, as another review pointed out, you cannot fit the camera in the housing with the camera strap still on it. This seems to be a design oversight that could have easily been prevented by making the housing a quarter inch wider instead. It would not be so bad if the strap was easier to remove, but as it is impossible to do so without tools, it makes for a frustrating mount within the housing.
If you are only snorkeling then I suppose this housing is acceptable. If you want to actually scuba dive, look elsewhere.
Rating: 1 / 5
Amazon did a great job serving up a low price, (I paid 4X as much for my underwatercase for my Sony digital camera). Shipping was fast and it was package well. The case itself is of good quality (as good as my Sony underwater case). I cannot comment on it’s worthiness yet, because I have not tested it as of yet. My Sony case came with well defined, written, pre-testing and end of use maintenance procedures and a tube of silicon-based grease for the sealing ring, a cleaning cloth, as well as maintenance procedures for the sealing ring itself. The Flip Video AWCT I received contained minimal use instructions, period. I find this to be a serious deficit because improper use and maintenance of the sealing ring by a novice underwater case buyer may cause fatal damage to their videocam.
Rating: 3 / 5
Don’t need to say a thing…water tested it’s perfect…and used it with my kite…love it!
Rating: 5 / 5
Yes the item is a bit pricey for a camera case, but it works fantastic underwater.
Rating: 5 / 5