AquaTech Sport Housing for Canon 7D-Review

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Having taken up water sports (Stand Up Paddleboarding and Kayaking) I was looking for better images than I could get with a waterproof Point-N-Shoot and some protection for a good camera.

Since I own a fair selection of Canon lenses and am quite happy with the system I decided to get something that would work with what I already owned. Since I wasn't planning on doing any deep diving 10 meters or so of waterproof protection ought to be fine.

After some internet searching and deep thought I selected an AquaTech sport housing that would work with a Canon 7D. AquaTech also offers a surf housing that would work with the Canon 60D that costs a lot less than the sport housing. The difference between their sport and surf housings seems to be mainly the amount of function control the user has while shooting.

Naturally I opted for the more expensive sport housing.

Of course since I owned neither a 7D or 60D I needed to buy a body too. :cryin:

It also turns out that the lens port is not included with the housing, it had to be selected to match the lens choice. I opted for a lens port for the 17-40 f4 zoom. It looked to me that that port would also work with my 50mm f1.2 (and as it turned out it does saving me a bucket of money not having to buy a second lens port).

When everything arrived it was time to put it together and check things out.

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There was a plate to screw into the base of the camera body that would then slide into the housing. It was a nice tight fit holding the body firmly in place inside the housing.

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Once the camera body is inside the housing a clear backing plate snaps firmly into place with 4 nice and sturdy double locking clamps. The o-ring seems to protrude just enough to provide a very good seal (and since the backing plate is clear it is easy to inspect the seal to make sure there are no gaps).

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The first time I put everything together I forgot to turn the camera on before closing it up. :yikes:

Good thing it is simple to take apart......

After that the thing is actually very easy to operate. Since I selected the more expensive surf housing I am able to access quite a few controls;

Menu
Quick Control (Q)
Trash
Quick Dial
Set
Still/Video Lever
Multicontroller
Record
AF-On
JPEG/Raw
Playback

Generally (on the advice of a surf photographer) I have shot at shutter priority 1/1600, AWB and -2/3 exposure. But it is easy enough to change settings on the fly. I am also glad to report that the zoom function works well on the 17-40 (although at first I was pushing way too hard for it to work well, easy does it) and the 50mm does indeed work in the same port designed for the 17-40.

I've swam with the thing (it has just a bit of positive buoyancy), used it while paddleboarding and kayaking. It has worked great everywhere except for in the kayak. The whole package is just so bulky that it just doesn't fit or handle well in our racing kayak. If we had a sport or sea kayak I don't think the size of the package would be a problem but our race kayak is just too confined for a large camera.

Having used it now for 6 months I am pleased as punch with the entire setup. I've got enough control for changing conditions, it is easy to use and simple enough so I have had no problems shooting while swimming. And of course the camera has stayed dry as could be!

My only complaint is that I have to go with either auto focus or pre-select a zone before putting the camera in the housing. Nothing I can't work around but if there was something I could change it would be the ability to manually focus.

Best of all, the package has more than paid for itself in sold images (of course what has sold is just the plain bread and butter product images and not the fancy artistic stuff that a photographer likes) in just 6 months and I have lots of demand for more photo sessions! :thumbsup:

[joshopcott]

The first time I put everything together I forgot to turn the camera on before closing it up. :yikes:

Good thing it is simple to take apart......

After that the thing is actually very easy to operate. Since I selected the more expensive surf housing I am able to access quite a few controls;

Menu
Quick Control (Q)
Trash
Quick Dial
Set
Still/Video Lever
Multicontroller
Record
AF-On
JPEG/Raw
Playback

Generally (on the advice of a surf photographer) I have shot at shutter priority 1/1600, AWB and -2/3 exposure. But it is easy enough to change settings on the fly. I am also glad to report that the zoom function works well on the 17-40 (although at first I was pushing way too hard for it to work well, easy does it) and the 50mm does indeed work in the same port designed for the 17-40.

I've swam with the thing (it has just a bit of positive buoyancy), used it while paddleboarding and kayaking. It has worked great everywhere except for in the kayak. The whole package is just so bulky that it just doesn't fit or handle well in our racing kayak. If we had a sport or sea kayak I don't think the size of the package would be a problem but our race kayak is just too confined for a large camera.

Having used it now for 6 months I am pleased as punch with the entire setup. I've got enough control for changing conditions, it is easy to use and simple enough so I have had no problems shooting while swimming. And of course the camera has stayed dry as could be!

My only complaint is that I have to go with either auto focus or pre-select a zone before putting the camera in the housing. Nothing I can't work around but if there was something I could change it would be the ability to manually focus.

Best of all, the package has more than paid for itself in sold images (of course what has sold is just the plain bread and butter product images and not the fancy artistic stuff that a photographer likes) in just 6 months and I have lots of demand for more photo sessions! :thumbsup:

hey man do you still have this housing?

[emils]

Really interesting photographs. I`m just curious, can you get water resistant cover for every digital camera?

[k88viet]

I like this camera, Can i order it on amazon and delivery to canada. i'm planning go to England to join Euro 2020 on next year. i hope can own this before i have planed

[daisyanna]

So nice, It was a great suggestion for me, thank you for sharing run 3