First time with Panasonic LX7 and Ikelite housing Underwater

Well I almost though i could say "finally", after months of research and trying out different ideias, I had finally arrived at something i thought would be an ideal setup between quality and price. Knowing how good the little pana LX7 could be and with so many people raving about it's excellent image quality and amazing 1.4 lens, i though i was a good to go.

So it arrived and it was even better of what one could expect. I was delighted. So the next step was the housing. Since I already owned some ikelite flashes and sync cords, and considering the price differences the ikelite was an obvious choice. And to complement it all one, amazing, and brilliantly engineered Inon 28M67 typeII UWL-H100 wet lens. I was set. Finally. And then everything went wrong. If one is going to shoot film then this is more than good enough combo. Just add some light and you have an affordable and excellent video setup. But if you are going for stills have in mind that there a few problems, some of which can make your dive uncomfortable and stressful. Below 10 meters or 33 feet the lever which operates the rear dial is very hard to use since its jammed against the housing by the pressure thus pressing the rear dial and locking up the camera. Also. The aperture lever is poorly placed and sometimes, more often than not, it also operates the aspect ratio of the picture. And to top it all off, but maybe not as important, vigneting is a very noticeable issue, only disappearing at around 35mm equivalent. On the plus side every other control works well, with no issues and maintenance is easy. Ikelite material is cheap but not to bad, and in the end you do get what you paid for. In order to get the best conditions do get a good tray and arms, and balance the system. It will improve handling and improve the final product. And always shoot RAW if possible.

In conclusion, you can probably live with this issues and maybe find a way to get around them, but for stills i would immediately go for something like the nauticam housing, although a lot more expensive, it is remarkably better.