JimDeck

Sorry to bust your bubble but the G12 will not work in the FIX G11 housing. The front dial sticks out and prevents the camera from laying flat when installed in the housing. You can close the door to the housing, but I'm too nervous to actually submerge it due to the extra force required to close the door. Because of this the zoom doesn't function and neither does ISO or mode.

The Canon OEM housing works fine as there is extra space in that area of the housing and the front dial is well clear of the front. It's almost as though they knew when they were making the housing for the G11...

Hello, thanks for answers!

The reason I ask is because this site http://www.digideep....OS-550D/7/4027/

claims that the 550 has no function for underwater white balance, while the Canon 7D has.

I wonder where digideep has got this info from?

regards,

Even

I would chalk it up to a mistake. Sometimes it happens. I'll let Andi know.

Unless the switch going from video to stills on your Aquatica housing quits working properly. Then you can no longer change your WB once you are in the video mode and you will quit shooting video the rest of the trip because you can't get the WB correct. This even after you adjusted that one of thirty set screws that keep the housing working because one of the other passengers happened to have an allen wrench small enough to actually work on that one set screw that wasn't holding.

But, hey, it is possible to do MWB on a 7D. At least on that first dive.

You can still do white balance in video mode by taking a still shot in live view video mode. This is how I usually shoot, I don't switch back to stills to do a white balance shot.

Sorry to hear of your troubles with the housing. Let me know if you this has been solved or if you need any assistance.

Jim

You can do it by the same method on other Canon DSLRs. You need to take a picture of whatever you are using for WB (slate, sand, hand, etc.) and then assign that picture to use for WB. Then set the WB to custom. Make sure that the image is properly exposed otherwise your colors could be off. I've done a WB with an overexposed image and it came out puke green underwater.

Being that the Rebel uses multi-function controls on the back of the camera, I can't imagine any underwater housing not having access to WB.

Best regards,

Jim

Backscatter and Reef both do a great job!  

I have had my share of frustrations with both, but after visiting one of the shops I realize how busy they are returning lame ass questions via e-mail and phone from amateurs like myself....Most would rather be diving and shooting!  Give them some credit.

My two cents.

Mike

We do get many calls and emails everyday, sometimes asking complex questions (such as how to do underwater time lapse for scientific research), sometimes very simple ones ("My strobe doesn't work" "Did you turn the slave to on?"). The person asking the question usually doesn't think it's a lame ass question and I hope that any of our customers don't feel that way. If there's a problem we can solve, even if it is simple, to get a customer up and running on a trip, then it's a good question.

More importantly, they are answering emails and phone calls from people who then go to B&H to buy their equipment. It puts them in a tough situation; I wouldn't be surprised if some of the bad experiences were from folks who have done this.

Support your local underwater photography / videography shop!

You're almost implying that it's okay for them to be short with customers. Most of us don't have a local UW photography store. B&H is just as local as Reef and Backscatter and every bit as reputable. I shop online at all three and see no problem with that. If Backscatter doesn't have the item I need in stock and can't get it before I leave on a trip, should I not shop at Reef, or B&H or elsewhere? In fact I ordered from Backscatter, B&H and direct from ULCS this week and got great service from them all. But there are fewer and fewer one-stop shops these days. Especially with something as specialized as UW photography.

All businesses have to deal with answering customer's questions and watching them walk out the door. The smart sellers treat customers like their questions aren't stupid and they want them to come back. If you can't deal with that reality then you better be prepared to deal with seeing customers leave you store and head for another. Sure it's frustrating. But we live in tight times and customers are looking for the best deal and want to be treated like they are just as important as anyone else. If a store doesn't have time to answer my questions I'm sure they don't have time to take my money. It's their call.

To answer the OP's original question, I've gotten great service from Backscatter.

At Backscatter we provide free lifetime tech support on all purchases. We do spend time with the customer and try to figure out the best system that will fit their needs. That being said we do deal with a few people who call us, discuss various setups and the best options for them and help them decide on what to get, only to send them a quote and then they take that quote and buy their gear somewhere else. After they purchase their equipment form another store, we get calls asking how to setup the gear, what is the best shooting technique, etc. Unfortunately we can't answer these questions for them as they did not purchase their gear from us. Some people understand, but sometimes this causes the person on the other end to get upset. We can't support other businesses who sell underwater imaging equipment that don't have the proper training and knowledge to adequately serve their own customers' needs. We put food on the table and a roof over our heads by selling underwater imaging equipment and our advice and expertise on using the gear.

Thanks for everyone's great responses on this thread. It certainly makes us feel good about what we are trying to do as a company, and also as people who are trying to make a living in underwater imaging.


Best regards,

Jim