Since its release in December 2008, the Canon EOS 5D mark II has become one of Canon’s best selling DSLR. With 21 megapixels and the ability to shoot HD 1080p video on a full frame 35mm sensor (vs S35 which is a film motion picture camera’s equivalent size), it was regaled as a game changer, pushing the era of HD ViDSLR hybrid cameras which do shoot high quality stills and also record good HD video.

With such popularity, all of the major housing manufacturers rushed to deliver a housing for this camera. The popularity of the camera gave Wetpixel the idea of planning a shootout among several brands.  Originally we’d planned to run the Subal, Ikelite, Seacam, Sea & Sea and Aquatica together on a 20 day liveaboard trip. Ryan Canon of Reef Photo & Video arranged for the Wetpixel staff to test the Sea & Sea 5D2 MDX-Pro housing with the Zen 8” glass port. However, last minute problems left the other housings unavailable so I only tested the MDX-Pro on that trip. I later borrowed the Aquatica A5D Mark II and Seacam’s versions for the shootout. I could only fully review the Aquatica since the Seacam was only available for a limited time, but I did manage to dive with the Seacam for 5 dives. For the test accessories, I used a combination of 2 Inon Z240 for macro and 2 Hartenberger 250TTL strobes for wide angle, all shot in manual. I also used Dual LK1 100W Hartenberger HLX halogen lights corrected to 4300°K for video.

(Note: My apologies to readers for this late review. It was suppose to be online 6 mths ago but as explained, the logistics gave out and then I was very busy. Hopefully someone will find this review helpful, if late)

Page 2: Sea & Sea MDX Pro Features and Setup
Page 3: Aquatica A5D Mark II Features and Setup
Page 4: Sea & Sea MDX Pro Field Trial and Zen Dome Report
Page 5: Aquatica A5D2 Field Trial
Page 6: Conclusions and comparison with Seacam 5D Mark II
Page 7: Canon 5D Mark II Field Report

Each of the images in the review are downsized. Click on the image to see a larger copy.

FTC Regulations Dislosure:
All equipment reviewed were either bought or on loan from dealers and friends. The reviewer has received NOTHING from the manufacturer or dealer for this interview. All equipment are returned after the interview. Magic filter for the 16-35 II were kindly supplied by Dr Alex Mustard.

The Housing: Features and Setting Up

Sea & Sea MDX-Pro 5D Mark II

Due to space constraints, we only tested the Zen 8” port with the 16-35mm f2.8L II and 15mm fisheye for wideangle, and the 24-105mm f4L with the dome port for some fish portraits.  We also tested the Magic Filter 82mm with the 16-35mm II, kindly supplied by Alex Mustard and Peter Rowlands.

The MDX-Pro 5D2 is a sleek aluminum housing with a Dark Olive color finish. It looked really well made and obviously had been designed to include minute details.  It uses the standard Sea & Sea port opening, which is large and can fit the fattest Canon EOS wide angle lenses like the 16-35 II.

As I opened the box and cleared out all the packing, the first thing that I noticed were grooves from each set of controls on the housing. Each set of buttons had a raised aluminum sidewall and a groove which was designed in to allow water to flow out. I looked at every set of buttons and all of them had this drainage groove.

The drainage system for each row of controls. Note the visible blue o-ring

One noticeable feature I’m accustomed to but is missing on this housing, is a clear window to view the top LCD where all the exposure/modes information is displayed. To view exposure information, I had to use the INFO button on the rear LCD or peer through the 0.5x viewfinder, which doesn’t allow 100% of the viewfinder view with all of the shooting display.

While familiarizing myself with the housing, I found that the AF ON, * and AF point selection lever controls, were reversed in direction on the housing. All of the housings I’ve ever used had those particular levers facing back for easy actuation. However, on this housing, both levers faced the front. The top lever can be pushed down for AF Pt selection or up for *. The bottom lever hits the AF-ON button. 

The AF ON(Bottom Lever), * (push up on top lever) and AF Pt selection (push down on top lever) control levers

It comes standard with 2 strobe ports, a Nikonos 5 pin on the right and a Nikonos 6 pin for Sea & Sea’s own TTL converter on the left (referenced from the back of the housing).  The 2 ports face upward and are identified by different color port screws.

The grips are standard Sea & Sea with 2 big screws attaching a T plate with a metal plate with a ring for tethers or a most useful handle for handing up the camera to crew (something I’d personally like to see standardized on all housings.) There is one zoom/focus dial on the left of the housing. For manual focus on a zoom lens, you’ll have to get a port with a focus knob to actuate both.

The rear plexi-glass plate allows almost 100% view of the LCD monitor, which is important when shooting video.  The very edges of the monitor are obscured behind the aluminum window, but it’s a negligible loss and typical of SLR housings.  The 4 button Multi-Control stick controls are also on the plexiglass rear screen and goes through the aluminum back.  On the rear cover, there are 2 rubber buttons, which came loose but had no real function, or did they? (More on this later)

The inside view of the AF-ON control assembly. Note the fine detail and quality of the workmanship.

Setting up the housing was simple, even without a manual (because I wasn’t given a manual (thanks for the confidence in my deductive abilities, Ryan but in spite of my ego, I did find the manual was available online from the Sea & Sea website)) However, if I hadn’t grumbled about a hole in the port (like why have a hole in the port when there’s nothing to …oh wait what’s that?) I’d have missed the port lock system, which is basically a metal latch, which slides into a hole in the port. After that, I put my ego in check and read the manual thoroughly. Unfortunately, the port lock system (which is quarter turn bayonet style system) is only on the housing to the first connecting port. Any subsequent extension or port cannot be locked. It also means that every time one wants to change a port configuration, the housing has to be opened.

Fortunately the single o-ring bayonet lock system is stiff and strong, requiring some effort to rotate open. In fact, I almost bent the port locking mechanism trying to pry off the dome port without removing the port extension. Based on effort needed to open the port, I didn’t duct tape the ports to prevent accidental rotation, something I’d do with other brands which have bayonet mounts with thinner o-rings.

The highly visible and thick blue o-ring for the housing.

The o-rings don’t require too much silicon grease and are highly visible bright blue, in case it is clipped while closing the housing. I should add that the 60mm extension ring I tested was from Athena and NOT Sea & Sea. Ryan sent me his tested optimized setup for the 16-35mm II with the Zen dome port, which is a 3rd party brand. Sea and Sea’s own port charts recommends a 40mm extension ring with their NX Fisheye Dome Port only. I couldn’t test that but the nodal point of the 16-35mm is farther forward that I don’t think 40mm is enough for optimal corners. Seacam and Aquatica both list 55mm and 54mm respectively for the 5D mark II housings.

The camera is mounted on a quick shoe tray, which slides into a groove slot and locked down with a switch. There is no real way to mess up camera alignment with the controls.  Sliding the camera requires little effort except to align the zoom gear’s teeth to the housing’s own gear, and also pulling the mode dial up a bit as it does rub a bit. If using a non-USM lens, one also has to switch the zoom control to the shallow groove if using the control for focus, leaving it in the deep groove could damage the lens when using AF, according to the manual.

Closing the housing , I discovered another “small details” feature on the housing. While trying to close the snaps, I naturally placed my thumbs on the two rubber stops I previously maligned. There was a useful function for them, to brace your thumb while closing the housing snap locks and help against slippage. Still, those rubber nibs popped off in the box and being rubber I just snapped them back in. So they aren’t very resilient.

The rubber stops beside the SET button is used to brace the thumb as the user opens the housing

All in all, it was easy to setup. The housing design’s obvious attention to some detail, combined with the bright blue o-ring made it easy to check for debris and clipping while closing the housing. I was confident that the housing was sealed every time and the pre-dive fresh water dip proved it.

Aquatica A5D Mark II

Aquatica’s housing for the Canon 5D Mark II followed their new design philosophy to reduce weight and bulk by using machining the housing from a single aluminum block. The housing I tested came a little later after the Sea & Sea, so it benefitted from my experience with the Sea and Sea, Ikelite and Seacam housings. However, it was also under more scrutiny being the last housing on the list.

Shot with Tokina 17mm

As before, I mixed and matched different components. I used the Inon 45° viewfinder from Backscatter, using their adapter which connects the viewfinder to Aquatica’s VIEWFINDER port hole (they have adapters for various makes) for many of the dives, since much of the diving was going to be macro in Bali.  The ports were the 8” acrylic dome port and the manual focus port with extensions. I didn’t have my 16-35 II so I only tested the Tokina ATX-Pro 17mm f3.5, Canon 15mm Fisheye, 24-105L and 100mm f2.8 macro. The strobes were a pair of Hartenberger 250TTL using the N5 and S6-N5 cable connections.

Scorpionfish shot with 24-105L with +3 diopter. This was a test of the AF to find a small subject in a busy area. It did well.

Aquatica’s housing is distinctively covered with a rough/sandy texture over its aluminum body, giving it a rugged and tough look. It also looks and is the largest of the aluminum housings I tried. The housing is designed to go 90m/300ft and thus the walls are thick, thus the weight is a relatively heavy 2.9kg (6.6lbs).

The 5DMark II in the A5D2 housing.

The extra weight isn’t just the extra thickness. The Aquatica comes with quite a list of features including a port locking device, lens release lever, hydrophone, 2 strobe connectors and all the usual controls for the camera.

The left panel controls of the A5D2

The top controls are all there along with a window for the top LCD display. Controls for the camera back include the full row of buttons on the left of the LCD monitor of the camera (MENU, INFO, PICTURE STYLES, PLAYBACK and TRASH). Like the MDX Pro, these buttons are angled 20° to the left for ergonomic feel. The mode dial extends backward from the rear, with a small window for the user to see which mode the camera is in. 

The right hand controls are ergonomically designed with the AF-ON and AF Pt Selector buttons sharing a lever, which can slide to either function by either pulling the level out all the way or pushed in fully. The * function has its own button at the back of the housing.

On the left side, there’s one big dial for the zoom/focus control. Below that is the lens release actuator, which allows the user to hit the lens release button on the camera without having to open the housing and remove the camera. Out in the front of the housing, the port release button unlocks the port locking mechanism, allowing the user to easily switch ports.

The hot shoe for the strobe OEM by Subal

The test housing had one S6 and one N5 strobe connector. Canon’s eTTL protocol is only available using the S6 connection with a TTL converter like the Heinrich Weikamp or Seacam’s Sea Flash 150/250.  The nice thing about Aquatica has both connections and can custom fit the strobe connections to the customer’s request as part of the housing order. It can even be fitted with optical cable systems like the Inon and Sea & Sea direct from the factory.

Setting up the camera for the Aquatica was a little different to the other housings. The workflow order on how to insert the camera into the housing was different from the other brands. As with most housings nowadays, the camera has to be screwed onto a tray which then slides into. The tray aligns the camera precisely and is easy to install. With the Aquatica housing, the hydrophone option requires you plug in the Mic-In cable before mounting the camera into the housing.

The 2 rods which the camera shoe slides into.

The tray slides into the housing via 2 metal rod guides, which have to be precisely aligned to slide in easily. I had difficulty installing the camera frequently when I had the housing level on its base. Only when I had the housing pointing port down, allowing gravity to assist instead of impeding installation, was it easier to slide the camera.

The manual recommends installing the camera body sans lens, then install the lens after closing the rear bulkhead. There was a time before sensor cleaning cameras where this would not have been a wise move as dust contamination was an issue. The 5D2 and most other newer DSLR have built-in sensor cleaning which can remove much of the dust, and thus it’s less likely an issue. Still, care should be taken on not having the sensor area exposed for too long.

The strobe assembly mounting is a bit trickier. The housing I tested had the S6 eTTL compatible strobe board which is a Subal OEM, which meant the user has to choose between TTL and manual modes by flipping the dip switches on the board.  I’m a little unaccustomed to this layout since my own housing is wired so that the S6 has all cables connected and the N5 just the 2 wires to fire manually.  However, since I shoot mostly manual anyhow, I left the switches in the off position.

The hot shoe assembly is a ribbon style and is attached to the housing via a Velcro catch on the top. The manual suggests first installing the camera then put in the hotshoe. I tried that and managed to crimp the ribbon because it was too stiff to bend behind the tight area between the camera and housing wall. The fit is pretty tight. I tried a few times and finally just removed the Velcro holding the ribbon and hung it outside while I fit the camera. Then I slid the hotshoe in after.  After that, it was easy to replace the rear cover and lock the latches. I should add I’m not sure if this was an aftermarket addition or from the factory.

Field Test:

How the Sea & Sea performed

(Note: The pictures I choose that were shot for this review were lost due to a catastrophic dual drive failure at the end of the trip. Ironically the unwanted picks on a 3rd drive survived. So please excuse the picture quality from the Sea & Sea. It does take good pictures.)

I started with an easy setup of 15mm Fisheye with the Zen dome port. This is a staple setup with any housing and fortunately I was diving under an active volcano so there were plenty of growing corals to test the 15mm with a Magic Filter insert.

Shot with 15mm Fisheye with Magic Filter, Manual White Balance in housing

My first minor glitch came on the first dive and it surfaced intermittently throughout the entire trip. The on-off button uses a hard foam with a groove to actuate the power switch on the camera. This switch gave me a bit of trouble every now and then as it would lose grip on the on/off switch.

Another control that wasn’t always working was the mode dial. Like the on/off switch, it uses friction and a few times, it would slip and not change modes. Pressing harder down gave it a bit more grip but it only happened a few times. Neither issues were major but they did happen.

One of my major considerations for any housing is good balance, which is now doubly important as video is now available in DSLRs. Before, an imbalanced housing would just create wrist and arm fatigue. The addition of video demands more stability, which is difficult due to the shape of DSLR housings. Any imbalance would make handling difficult which affects the quality of video.

Shot with 16-35mm L II @ 18mm

I found the MDX Pro easy to balance due to the Zen dome port, which did not cause the housing to pitch dome up.  There was minimal front aft instability. My strobe arms and strobes are all balanced with divinylcell to be slightly positive. The housing handled very well with just the dome port and no strobes, just about 200g negative. Due to the shape and weight distribution, there is always a bit of lateral and axis instability but nothing too major with the right arm setup. It was pretty easy to shoot wide angle video with the balanced handling.

The housing was relatively easy to operate as well. Without the top LCD window, I used the INFO button on the LCD screen for shooting information including modes, exposure settings and AF modes. At first I felt this was just a battery sapping way of doing things but then I realized that all the essential controls was on the LCD in front of me and I could switch from ISO to AF pt selection with a push of the button. It was easier to use especially during night dives or in dark environments.

Shot with 24-105mmL with +3 diopter.

The tactile feedback from the main controls of shutter and * for AF were firm yet easy to actuate. I could easily feel the shutter lever at ½ for AE lock and metering info. This was important when using video mode as I could get metering info by pressing the shutter halfway and adjust the exposure accordingly while still shooting. The reversed levers for AF control allows your hand to stay more “wrist in” close-in position while holding the housing, with the thumb being more naturally in place as your hand grips the handle. Actuating the AF-ON lever, which is the lower lever. Actuating the * lever was very unnatural for me, flicking my thumb up didn’t have the same strength as pressing down. I needed to move my hand out a bit and push up with my thumb straight. It is a bit awkward using the IMAGE REDUCE function.

The gap between the levers isn’t very wide so if you wear thick gloves or have a thick thumb, you may find squeezing the digit between the two levers difficult. My medium large “slender” thumb had no issue but I was using a 1mm glove. If I used a thicker glove like my 4mm Pinnacle Kevlar, I think I’d have issues sliding the thumb between the levers. This may be an issue for people with big thick thumbs or thicker glove users with thick padded finger tips in cold water.

Shot with 24-105L with snoot.

The 0.5x viewfinder worked well but I had to move my head around slightly to see the shooting data around the image. This is because the viewfinder was almost flush to the housing back and my mask prevented me from peering through the viewfinder freely. Viewing from 2.5” away from the viewfinder was not optimal for someone like me accustomed to enlarged viewfinders, which are farther away from the back of the housing.  I could judge focus relatively well but did miss quite a few times, especially with the fisheye! The AF confirm light was out of the frame while I composed the shot so I assumed the AF had locked when it actually hadn’t. It was the camera’s AF issue but due to the smaller view, I couldn’t really tell critical focus for really wide lenses.

There are Sea & Sea options for other viewfinders including 0.66x and 0.8x but I did not test them. There are 3rd party options like the enlarged 100% or 45° viewfinders from Inon, but it will add to the price but may help those people who need corrective lenses to see properly

Switching to Live View mode to frame and shoot was easy. The clear acrylic window almost gives a 100% view of the LCD screen, with a small portion of the picture obscured by the viewfinder. I could frame the shot while using my peripheral vision to watch for subjects entering the frame. Another advantage of the Live View mode is that one can use it to check focus, with the enlarge tools and window. With access to the Multi-Controller, I could check focus on at 10x magnification on any area of the image. 

Shooting with Liveview mode allows framing while keeping an eye on the subject. Snoot shots are easier but one still has to hope the subjects don’t fidget too much out of the spotlight like the larger anemone fish in this picture

Like all other LCD windows without anti-glare/reflective coatings, this one suffered badly from reflections, especially in strong sunlight at shallow depth. When the conditions are right, the view to the LCD monitor is excellent.

In video mode, the housing requires more compromises. One can preset the SET button to start recording video with one touch. This makes it easy to start shooting video. It isn’t instantaneous but still faster a tape based camcorder which has rested the tape head and has to spool the tape to speed to record. The SET button is down near the middle bottom of the housing back. Some other housing manufacturers have placed the actuating button higher and more to the right to make it more ergonomic.  It’s not a real big deal but a minor quibble about ergonomics, seeing how so much thought was put into the housing’s photo controls.

Reef scene shot with 16-35mm with Magic Filter

Another point to note is the accessory shoe fixture, which limits max weight to 0.75kg/1.7lbs, according to the manual.  This is due to the thinner wall design. This precludes the use of bigger focus lights like the Hartenberger Mini/Maxi Compact lights or adding a 3rd strobe like a Inon Z240. For those with Hartenberger or similar weight focus lights, there are ways to get around this like using a tri-clamp on the handle ball head, so it’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it definitely is a limitation for those with preexisting gear. Being that lightweight isn’t totally positive.

Another design characteristic is the omission of a top window for the LCD display on the top of the camera to compliment the button functions. With the INFO display using the LCD monitor, you have excellent access to shooting information, which more than compensates for the lack of that window. Still, using the LCD monitor drains the battery faster and requires more frequent battery changes and thus removing the camera out of the housing. Furthermore, the rear acrylic has glare issues from reflections in shallow water, which makes it difficult to see the information on screen in bright conditions.

Other observations include the housing finish, which is dark green. Stains from oils (from my sunblock etc) and sea water became visible after a few dives. It wasn’t easily rubbed off but it did not affect the functioning of the housing either. Like I said, a minor quibble for lazy people like myself, who won’t do more than wipe down a housing after soaking in fresh water.

Dome Port Performance: The Zen Dome Port

I did not have the opportunity to test the Sea & Sea ports but Ryan Canon of Reef Photo kindly provided the Zen 8” dome port. The port is ground from BK-7 Schott Borosilicate optical glass and then polished. The anti-reflective coating is internal while the outer part has a hardened coating which prevents internal reflection and reduces flare. The outer coating is also formulated to resist wear from sea water and heavy use.  It is designed with an interchangeable back mount, which allows owners to switch housing brands without having to buy a new dome port. 

Rhinopia shot with 24-105L with +3 diopter

I used 3 lenses with the Zen dome. The 16-35 2.8L II (thanks to Stuart Westmorland for loaning his to me), the 15mm Fisheye and the 24-105 4L IS, which is my favorite lens for not so wide, not so macro general purpose shooting.

The setups were a little more difficult than usual as I wanted to have flexibility in shooting both video and stills. My experiments included combining magic filter (graciously donated by Alex Mustard and Peter Rowlands) with strobes without complimentary filters.

The 16-35L II has a 82mm filter size, which made the use of a diopter without vignetting impossible as I couldn’t find one that was thin enough at 16mm. Thus I used the lens without a diopter, with a 60mm extension tube (recommended by Ryan Canon) With the Zen dome in stills, corners were decent from f11. For a rectilinear ultra wide lens, the corners at f11 and up were good, although not perfect as some signs of distortion exist. I’ll let you judge if they fit your own standards:

Soft coral shot with 16-35L with Magic Filter.

For video, shooting in natural light means having to boost ISO to maintain f8+. I did try shooting at f7.1 but the corners were visibly soft even on the LCD monitor (see pic XX).  The 15mm Fisheye was tested with just the dome port attached. As usual, the 15mm has good corners all the way through. 

Shot with 16-35L @ 16mm, f 8. Note the corners which improve as the f stops go up.

The 24-105mm f4 IS proved to be a useful lens behind the Zen dome port and the 60mm extension port. I used a +3 diopter to help the long end of the lens to focus. Alternatively, if I were shooting bigger subjects, I’d leave out the diopter or use a +2 or +1. The corners at 24mm were very decent although I was surprised to see a bit of softness even with diopter on the Zen. My own tests have the nodal point a bit farther back for this lens and the 60mm port is just out of the optimal range. Still there was no vignetting and it worked up to 105mm, which is good since the lens does extend about 30mm. The reason I like this lens is the 4x zoom ability and the IS, although this still based version does occasionally cause the video to shift wildly when shooting.

Overall, I really liked the Zen dome. The weight matched the MDX Pro to give a very balanced feel, even with the 60mm extension tube. And optically, it worked well with the lenses I shot with, giving good clean corners up to the last 10% of the image, which is very good indeed for a full frame camera.

VIdeo frame capture with 16mm @ f5.6 using the Zen Dome Port

Aquatica A5D2

Like the MDX Pro, I started with the 15mm fisheye with Magic Filters using the 8” acrylic dome port and the Hartenbergers 250TTLs, on the Liberty wreck.

My first dive turned out to be quite interesting as I discovered the ins and outs of the housing.  With my eye 2.5” away from the viewfinder, I could align my eyes to see the AF points but not the data on the side. This is typical of standard viewfinders.  I did not test the Aqua Viewfinder.

The standard viewfinder doesn’t allow full view so framing is difficult

I then switched to LCD monitor mode to see how the LCD window worked out.  With the standard viewfinder, the housing blocks the top portion (about 8-10%) of the LCD screen. However, there is a small area of clear acrylic to see the red dot when recording in Video Mode, which is nice.

The LCD monitor is partially blocked by the design.

A caveat for those thinking of using the quick menu in INFO mode for shoot parameter changes, you can’t! You can get the information but all but without access to the Multi Controller, you have to select the function you want via the specific buttons on the camera and it will display on the LCD screen.

The controls are easily within reach and very easy to actuate, except for the shutter release control. I had difficulty feeling for the ½ shutter point and occasionally shot off frames while trying to get metering, scaring off my subject.  In Video mode, I had a few cases of interrupted video sequences, because the camera stops recording video for 1 second while it takes the still picture.  This was a used housing that I borrowed so it could’ve been out of tune. 
Another control that seemed out of tune was the OFF setting of the power switch. I could turn on the camera without problems but often when I switched it off, it would not catch. I fixed that myself by adjusting the switch alignment. Every other control worked very well without fail.

Juvenile lionfish shot with 100mm 2.8 macro with 20mm extension tube and snoot

I had attempted to balance the housing with float arms to make it as near neutral as possible. The acrylic 8” port is a nice dome but being lightweight with such volume meant it caused the housing to be front light. The housings own weight exacerbated this issue. Using my divinylcell arms, I attempted to compensate for the volume and lack of weight in the front. I had to live with some front torque as I wanted to keep the housing negative neutral.  To balance the housing, I finally positioned both strobes to rest on top of the dome port, which dramatically improved front-aft stability but made horizontal axis stability a bit more wobbly.

Shot with 15mm Fisheye with Magic Filter.

Using the Tokina 17mm ATX-Pro, I used a 18453 (28mm) extension ring which made the imbalance a tad worse. To my surprise, the dome port actually rotated slightly, because boat guy accidentally nudged the dome shade while passing the camera down. The extension ring is held in place by the port lock system, but connections after that unlocked. This happened several times over the 2 weeks, the dome port would by accidentally nudged and rotate out of position.
The bayonet mount from Aquatica requires a good push to insert, then the rotation takes very little effort. Removing the dome also requires a bit of effort. So the risk of the dome port popping off is not realistic. Still it is a bit disconcerting, especially under water.

Shot with 15mm Fisheye with Magic Filter and strobes.

When I switched to the Macro port, the 18453 extension and the 100mm Macro lens with 25mm extension tube, the balance improved. Shooting stills became easy but for video, a tripod is still necessary for close up work.  I switched to the Inon 45° viewfinder with an adapter from Backscatter.  This gave me a full view of the viewfinder and all the shot info as well. It also allowed me to set the housing down on the sand to shoot lower angles.  With the Inon 45° viewfinder attached, the LCD monitor was even more obscured and required the line of sight to be more direct to view the LCD screen. 

Rhinopia shot with 100mm 2.8 Macro and 20mm extension tube with snoot.

I realize it may seem like I’m not writing a lot about the Aquatica, but that’s because whatever issues I brought up are there and the rest of the time, it just worked.

Conclusion:

Sea & Sea MDX Pro

It was easy to see that Sea & Sea spent some thought on the ergonomic design of the MDX Pro housing. From the reversed AF control levers to the drainage channels for control panels to the ability to remove the CF card without removing the camera from the housing, the housing is very well designed and optimized for still shooters.
The video ergonomics for video shooters is lacking (SET button far from right grip) and the lack of accessories like hydrophones is incongruous with the effort seen for the still side of the camera. This is especially ironic since Sea & Sea has a video division with all the necessary spare parts to build upon this.

Another area of concern is the accessory hot shoe 0.75kg/1.7lbs weight limit, which precludes using a bigger focus lights or even strobes on the top for fill. With the slip on design, it’s just not as robust or steady as a treaded ball head fixture. In fact, the manual suggests removing the accessory when carrying the housing out of water.

I only tested the Zen Dome so cannot comment on the Sea & Sea range of ports.  However, seeing how well the Zen dome performed with the 16-35 II and 24-105L using a 60mm extension tube, I question Sea & Sea’s own lens charts recommendation of 40mm extension.

From the S&S lens chart, I can see only 2 extension ring widths, the 20mm and 40mm. I would also caution potential buyers to check with their local dealers on the port extension combinations as Sea & Sea may not have an optimized solution for some less popular lenses.  Lenses like the Canon 17-40L or 24-70L, among others, may need different extension lengths for optimized performance. This is an issue people with many legacy lenses should be aware of . This is true for the entire product line of Sea and Sea.  I have to urge potential buyers to check with their dealers and the wetpixel forums to verify the proper ports extensions necessary.

The added advantage of having a Sea & Sea is that many 3rd party vendors for accessories like 45° viewfinders from Inon and Zen ports etc will have adapters for Sea & Sea housings. It is no longer necessary to just look at the manufacturer’s offering only when purchasing.  Still it is disappointing that Sea & Sea does not have a bigger choice of extensions or a bigger port design.

On the whole, the MDX Pro for the 5D mark II is an ergonomically designed housing with good balanced handling (again only tested with the Zen dome!). The lightweight design made packing it in cabin luggage easier (especially with the recent increase in weight limits for cabin luggage).  The housing was the only one tested with Multi-Control access, allowing the user more freedom with the menu system. Furthermore, with international dealers almost everywhere there is good diving, finding spare o-rings (I bought a 2nd set of O-rings in Indonesia) and other tidbits is easier than most other brands. It’s this sort of thing that makes a very good housing even better.

Price as tested MRSP: US$ 3695 (MDX Pro housing), US$ 1399 Zen 8” Dome, US$799 Athena 16-35 extension ring, focus and zoom gear.

Aquatica:

Aquatica’s design philosophy is noticeably different from the Sea & Sea. Durability and toughness are the keys as one can gather from the textured skin of the housing and 90m depth rating, juxtaposed from compact and lightweight with the MDX Pro.  The thicker walls have a weight penalty of 0.5kg/1.1lbs and a larger housing overall. The extra weight also compromises handling slightly. To balance the front/aft stability, the dome port should be glass, since the acrylic port is very nose light.

The Aquatica housing has many major controls for the camera at the user’s finger tips and is the only manufacturer to include a hydrophone for the 5D Mark II. Features like the port lock with external access and lens release, moving the SET button higher for easier accessibility makes it a competent package.

Most things worked fine and what didn’t work well (the shutter feel and on/off switch) was possibly due to the lack of fine tuning.  Since the test housing was used and had travelled several continents in the 1 year of service, being a bit out of tune is to be expected. There are also a few rough edges like the ribbon wire hot shoe, which is too long. The hot shoe assembly is a bit messy compared to the Sea & Sea and Seacam. The acrylic port is too buoyant and makes the housing front light, which is a nightmare for shooting video.

The most foreign area of the design is the housing’s camera mounting/dismounting system.  Removing the port, removing the lens then removing the camera isn’t what I’m accustomed to, especially to change the memory card or battery. With smaller lenses, I could easily remove the camera with lens. But fatter lenses (eg 24-105, Sigma 12-24) and those with gear attached, it is much easier to install the lens after the camera is installed. It is also easier for removing the camera from the housing by removing the lens.  Problem is that one may have to remove the camera more often for both memory card and battery changes, which is can be tedious, especially in the field.

Overall, the Aquatica A5D2 design is comparable to a technical dive. The tasks are repetitive but crucial to the job. Technical divers are trained to do things a certain way so there are no mistakes. The housing is very much that way too. It isn’t a housing for quick changes of batteries and memory cards, nor is it a lightweight housing.

It’s built to work a certain way. It’s tough, can go deep and works but lacks finesse in the controls.  It demands you follow the doctrine to work well but rewards you with a competitively priced housing system with some unique features.

Price as tested (MRSP): US$ 3218 (with moisture alarm, hydrophone), US$624 (8” acrylic dome with shade), US$459 AF/MF Macro port, US$418 2 x 18453 extension rings.

Canon 5D Mark II performance:

This camera is the only 21 megapixel camera with 1080/30p/24p/25p video in the market today. With very clean ISO performance up to 800 (my personal preferences range from ISO800-1600, depending on the scene) for stills, it is a top performing camera for high resolution stills for image quality in raw.

Like every other camera though, it is not without its flaws for underwater use. The AF is good in terms of subject acquisition, but tracking and low light performance feels “less brisk” compared to others like the 1 series cameras I use. For macro performance, it does a good job at acquiring higher contrasting subjects but it is a little slow catching the darker objects in poorer light. I tested the various AF patterns and the best was still the single center AF point.

With the Auto AF Pt Selection mode, singling out subjects wasn’t always reliable. It would choose the higher contrast background or the brighter moving object (eg. Photo XX). It would not track a darker colored subject as well due to lack of contrast.

AF tracking sometimes doesn’t track a subject that well

With Center AF point, the camera performs better. It is more difficult to track a quick moving subject with one AF point but it is more reliable to focus then recompose if the subject isn’t too fidgety. The center AF sensor is a cross type, making it the most reliable sensor in the AF sensor array. The 14bit sensor also allows for shooters to expose “to the right” by a stop or more in RAW mode, allowing the user to pull back highlights that would be clipped otherwise.

Using the center AF point, one can use the shallow depth of field of the sensor to isolate subjects

The interface is very good especially the INFO mode with has all the shooting information accessible through the Multi Control and dials. The viewfinder while very bright is still only 98% of the image.

The 5D2 has a few glaring flaws. The biggest has to be Auto ISO mode is poorly implemented for video and even more so for stills. The mode does not have on the fly access to Exposure Compensation so you cannot control exposure shooting in video mode if you choose AUTO ISO in manual mode. For stills, it’s even worse in that it’s stuck at ISO400 when you set it while in manual mode. This is a very limiting implementation of a function that can be very useful.

Video Performance:

Besides excellent stills, the camera also shoots H.264 compressed 40mbps 1080/30P video, wrapped into Quicktime .MOV files. In video mode, the ISO performance is excellent even up to ISO1600. Coupled with a fast lens, the lowlight performance beats many higher priced cameras, even production HDCAM ones. However, the video is not professional quality in the strictest sense. The resolution is in the 5-600 line range and the aliasing and moiré is significant. Still to the untrained eye, the aliased image looks sharp because the fake detail from the aliasing because many things in nature do not have fine straight lines which can cause these frequency issues. So the aliasing and the false details work in favor for underwater use, but more for close up subjects than scenery. Combined with the ISO performance, it should be the king of all video cameras ,right? Well not exactly. There are a few important issues that require serious consideration:

1. The camera can only shoot up to 4GB size files. So on average you can only have about 12 minutes of 1080p and then it’ll cut off. It doesn’t continue on automatically but hitting the record button again will quickly start recording again.
2. For video, the optimal ISO performance requires a bit of technical knowledge. In various tests, it’s been found that ISO 160, 320,640 and1250 perform better noisewise vs other ISO levels. The reason for this is complicated but suffice to know that for optimal noise performance, it’s better to use ISO 160, 320, 640 or 1250. Any higher and the noise levels are too high for any reasonable difference in performance. For stills, the trade off using the incremental 1/3 stop settings is loss of dynamic range in the highlights.
3. The same shallow depth of field that cinematographers salivate over the new HD ViDSLR cameras can also be problematic for underwater use. With a 1/2” EX1, you get almost 5 stops more of DOF than with a full frame 35mm sensor at the same field of view. For example, the 2/3” sensor Sony F900 with a 6mm at f5.6 would have the same DOF of the 5D Mark II at 32mm at f15! It makes keeping subjects in focus an important issue.
4. With modern consumer and prosumer cameras, Auto Focus has made focusing easy. The 5D2, however, does not have an active AF (ability to AF while shooting.) The AF it does have is contrast only and is slow and can only work when it’s not recording. Does not having active AF while recording and super shallow DOF disqualify it as a good video camera? No, since many shoot in manual focus mode. But for many, it does limit usefulness. Shooting with manual focus and selecting your shots isn’t easy, especially with macro.

To overcome this issue of DOF and lack of an active AF, the 5D mark II has 2 weapons, the excellent ISO performance and the access to super wide lenses like the 15mm Fisheye and rectilinear lenses like the Sigma 12-24, Canon 14mm and 16-35mm. The wider the lense, the more DOF at the chosen f stop. With underwater, that isn’t always advantageous. With a wide lens, everything looks small, so you have to get closer, except the subject may not cooperate with you. Then there’s still the issue of focus.

This pipefish, shot with the 100mm 2.8 macro, was bobbing left and right and the 5D2 tracked it well with Center AF pt.

Professional shooters don’t use AF modes for video because sometimes these modes can lose focus on the main subject by a passing fish, bubbles or dirt on the dome or even particles in the water. Then of course cameras like the Red One do not have AF and use DOF to keep subjects in focus.

The art of focus pulling is one skill that all cinematographers have to learn with manual lenses. It is doubly hard underwater due to the lack of a good focus monitor and difficult placement of the focus dials. With wide angle lenses, combined using a high f stop to create a larger depth of field, focus pulling isn’t as vital.

However, with narrow lenses, especially when you are chasing for a subject close-up and the subject is moving in and out of the focus range, the skill of focus pulling and choosing the right lens for the subject becomes very important. A major part of that is dependent on the housing. Most housings only have one dial on the housing for either zoom or focus control, but not both, Seacam being the only housing with separate controls. With some macro ports, manual focus is possible via a dial on the port. Dome ports don’t have this feature. This is something that housing manufacturers will need to address with future designs if they are to offer customers the ability to use their cameras to the fullest potential, that is to use super wide zooms with manual focus.

I also did try the Magic Lantern firmware v0.16 a couple of times when shooting video but the requirement of removing the battery to reset to the manufacturer firmware made it impractical for testing a housing. Still, having the blown highlight areas depicted onscreen via the highlight warning shading was awesome for video exposure (when I could see it past the reflections of the glare on the rear window plexiglass. The 5D2 could also use audio meters as the Magic Lantern firmware has. It would make audio monitoring much easier.

Canon 5D mark 2 test video @ Liberty Wreck Tulamben with 15mm fisheye and magic filter Also shown is non-optimized color graded vs uncorrected video.

Here’s a sample video with the 5D2. You can download a better file on the vimeo site.

Color filter with strobes, anyone?

Another potential dilemma for users is how to setup the camera.  Do you first consider for stills, video or both? Obviously with wide angle, the use of a red filter is great for video but what about the still side of things?

Shot with 15mm fisheye with Magic Filter.

To that end, I decided to experiment using the magic filter with strobes. The optimum method is to match the color temperature of the strobes to the filters output. This way, the output of the flash matches the color correction that is filtered with the magic filter.  It’s nothing new but now there’s new urgency to get it right. Since I couldn’t find matching the filters, I just went ahead and dived with the magic filter and my 4500°k Hartenberger strobe to see what happens.

The same soft coral without filter with the Tokina 17mm. There is less contrast but the light loss is also gone.

As you can see, shooting with a filter can possibly work (but not in all conditions), even with strobes which are not matched in color. It will require that you shoot raw so white balance can be adjusted in post processing. The water is much bluer once proper white balance is adjusted for the foreground. I did find that sunballs were a bit more difficult with the cyan ring cast showing up on a few shots. The color filter causes the blue/green channels to clip as the red channel rises, causing that cyan halo. So as long as one is careful not to shoot a direct sunball/burst, shooting with the Magic Filter installed can work well. It gave the pictures an extra contrasty look with a rosier tint, which could be tempered in RAW conversion.

I also shot quite a few shots in 1/250 with strobes, going past the sync rating of 1/200 for the camera.  At first, I thought it was fine but I realized after looking at the pics with 1/200 that the sync is just off enough that I had to dial in more power for the strobe to illuminate subjects at 1/250 than at 1/200. At 1/320, the shutter shows up in the images.  For those whose housings have all pins connected like the Aquatica TTL board, to attain 1/250, it’s a matter of just taping over the 3 pins on the hot shoe. That will fake out the camera into thinking there is no strobe attached.

At 1/320, the strobe synchronization can’t compensate.

Another much talked about test is the use of video lights for shooting stills, especially macro.  I could try extreme macro as I only had the dome port. With my Hartenberger LK1 fitted with 100W HLX (rated 3600 lumens), I could manage ISO 800 at 1/60 and f4 for a still shot. With 2 heads and a guesstimate drop of 1/3 power for inefficiencies, I had over 5k lumens on the subject and could barely light it enough to get higher f stops. One would need a lot more light for wide angle in daylight. I doubt even a 200W HMI could illuminate the test subject to get down to ISO200 and normal shooting speeds.

Shot at ISO800, 1/60 @ f4 using twin Hartenberger 100W HLX halogens.