Aquapac ( waterproof camera bag)advice

I am interested in anyone's experience with the waterproof plastic bag that holds your camera while you swim/snorkle. Part of me wants it for photos and part of me wants it so I don't have to leave my camera unattended on the beach. I have a Cannon powershot SD 600. Of course I am a bit nervous submerging my camea in water....Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Four words..... I wouldn't use it......... I have a housing and I still worry sometimes. But I have heard nothing but bad things about using those for cameras......

I considered an AquaPac, but ended up just ordering a Canon housing for my SD800. I figured I'd just buy the right tool for the job and only cry once.

You can still find the WP-DC4 for your SD600 online for $170(ish) and sure beats buying another camera later.

You can also leave it on the camera all day since the controls are all available. This makes it do double duty for dust and rain protection.

Dave

Thanks for all your advice, I ssort of figured it was too good to be true a $200.00 housing vs a $30.00 housing hmmmmmmmm....

I also have a Canon SD 800 that I bought for scuba diving and purchased the underwater housing for it. This worked great and as long as you follow the directions you should not have a problem. It is also nice for rafting, etc. This camera took great underwater photos to about 30 -40 ft.:cool:

I purchased the aqua pack a few years back. It does what it says it does and worked. However, having success is another issue. First you are fighting the pack wanting to stay on top of the surface making it tough to hold still. Along with shutter delay of digital camera--makes it hard to get a nice shot.

And the 3rd vacation I used it, a seam split and you guess it, didn't notice until it was too late and destroyed the camera. It was a camera I did not really use, so I wasn't that upset but I would not advise using one.

Good Luck Paul

Thanks for your advise Paul.

Have just bought an AquaPac and according to the literature it is guaranteed against product failure ie the contents of the AquaPac are covered. I plan to take a spare memory card to use when in the water so that if there is a problem I wont have lost my vacation pics as well!

Haven't had any problems with leakage and such - but we found it very cumbersome and hard to push the buttons of the camera through the plastic. Every time I wanted to take a picture - by the time I fumbled for the buttons , the fish were gone. Just purchased the olympus 790 and am very happy with it!:D

I am interested in anyone's experience with the waterproof plastic bag that holds your camera while you swim/snorkle. Part of me wants it for photos and part of me wants it so I don't have to leave my camera unattended on the beach. I have a Cannon powershot SD 600. Of course I am a bit nervous submerging my camea in water....Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

I had bought a cheap digital camera to use in the Aquapac. I am glad I did, because it ruined the camera. I was not in the water all of five minutes and there was about an inch of water in the Aquapac. The camera was dead. I panicked because I had not changed the memory stick before I went snorkeling and I had 100+ pics from the cruise on the memory stick. I was quite relieved when the pictures were fine and I was able to upload them.

:) Hello all-

Thanks for your honest advise on the aqua bag.

We are leaving for a 12 night cruise to the Panama Canal in 3 weeks time and have been thinking about getting an aqua bag to use with my camera.

We will be snorkeling in Aruba and Labadee and I thought it might be nice to use a good camera instead of one of those underwater cameras u buy for 10 bucks.

I'm Glad checked out this board.

Thank you all for your advice, and honesty. Ill stick with not taking a camera into the water at all!

Happy Cruising!

Todd :)

On our recent Panama Canal cruise, one of the ports was Grand Cayman. We booked an excursion to Stingray City. I used an AquaPac (with my Panasonic TZ3 digicam) to take pictures while there. It certainly is more difficult to take photos using the AquaPac than without, but I did get several underwater photos of the stingrays, such as the following:

I have not kept any of my digicams more than a couple of years, so I would only consider buying an underwater housing if I were going to spend a whole bunch of time taking underwater photos.

For the one day excursion during our cruise, the AquaPac did its job just fine. The directions that come with it are quite clear regarding how to test to make sure its leakproof before using it.

Hi,

I´ve bought an aquapac and tried it in my bathtub at home to make sure it worked properly. Anyway I was a bit nervous when I first took my camera in the water with me in Grand Turk, but the pac did a wonderful job. I used it again in Grand Cayman, no problems at all.

Just make sure you try it first without you camera inside.

I´ll take it with me on my next cruise.

I bought one just to keep my valuables in while swimming and in my beach bag to prevent them from getting wet. Even though I watch my stuff constantly, I'm always nervous that it'll get stolen. I'm scared to use my camera in the bag. I might put everything in ziplock bags too to add further protection. We'll see....

Aquapac vs no Aquapac. A bit of confusion here. All I need is something to keep the rain off my Canon Powershot SD1000 while in Alaska. The past few times we have been out on whale watching tours.....it has poured.....so I do want to be prepared in Sept. for taking pics throughout the Inside Passage. If I use the Aquapac, can I still use the optical zoom ??? Any other suggestions....... gg

Aquapac vs no Aquapac. A bit of confusion here. All I need is something to keep the rain off my Canon Powershot SD1000 while in Alaska. The past few times we have been out on whale watching tours.....it has poured.....so I do want to be prepared in Sept. for taking pics throughout the Inside Passage. If I use the Aquapac, can I still use the optical zoom ??? Any other suggestions....... gg

Another possibility is the Popabrella:

http://www.amazon.com/Popabrella-POP100-Photo-Video-Protector/dp/B000HVS5EA

I realize that it's expensive, but the WP-DC13 housing for your SD1000 leaves you with a still-compact, but fully functional camera that scoffs at rain and dust. I used the waterproof housing for my SD800 on our tour of Kiritibati and took photos from the open-seat truck we were riding in during rain or shine with no worries...though we got soaked.

Dave

There's another brand of waterproof camera bags on the market. It's called DiCAPac, and it's available on Amazon and at AccessoryGeeks cot com. There are a variety of sizes, along with charts for each kind that tell what camera models that will fit in each.

I ordered one from AccessoryGeeks (they had free shipping), and it turns out that both of my p&S digital cameras (one a Canon and one a Samsumg) will fit in that size bag.

I performed the simple "waterproof test" recommended and had no hint of leaking. The bag is very pliable and there is no problem pushing the buttons to on either camera when inside the bag. And it has an extension to accomodate the lens that projects out from the camera when it is turned on. That extension has a lens filter that permits one to take very clear photos (I tried taking the same pic with and without the bag, and they were equally clear).

I plan to take both cameras on the cruise, so I will have a backup if disaster should strike. For the price difference ($35 vs. the cost of an underwater housing), and the fact that I do not forsee a need for waterproofing a camera in the future, I went with the bag. The Canon is several years old, and the Samsung was bought at a very good price, so if one of them gets wet, neither is a major investment.

My intention is to waterproof test the bag before every use of it during the cruise. I'll hope for the best, and post how it worked out after the cruise.

flamomo -- have you had a chance to test it out yet on your cruise? I'm curious to hear how it does, as I'm considering it for my P & S camera...

Please buy the housing for your camera,I brought the housing for my camera suggested by pierces for my sd 800,it takes great pics with no worries:)

We brought an Aquapac on our latest cruise and used it so we could take photos at Ti Tou Gorge in Dominica, as well as to the beach and it worked great! No problems with leaking and we used the camera underwater on three different occasions. We didn't take the camera scuba diving or anything and it wasn't used very far below the surface of the water, but I would recommend this product!

I bought one for my P&S to use on our last cruise but we never ended up using it. I tested it before we left and there was no leakage but it does like to float to the surface and I found it difficult to press the buttons through the plastic.

I bought the DiCAPac from Amazon before our cruise. I tested and double tested it. Used it with the older inexpensive camera. As I was very leary in the water, it worked just great. The best part was when we parasailed. As we were dry in the air, we had to take a jetski out to the boat to parasail, then we dipped into the water both when taking off and when landing. But thanks to the DiCAPac I was able to take many many shots while sailing over Orient Bay.

Also used underwater while snorkeling. Was leary at first and will agree that the plastic is a little hard to move buttons thru. But I would just keep the setting where I wanted it and just turn in on when we hit the water. I just took many, many shots and then develped the good ones.

I would at some point love to buy the underwater Camera, but for right now I don't have $300 to spare and the $30 case did the trick.

Just remember to test every time you use it!!

I'll try to post some of my photos later.

OK, here are a couple of shots with my $100 Kodak easy share with the DiCAPac over the top of it.

this one was taken while parasailing over Orient Beach!!

Swimming with the sea turtles on Silvermoons tour in Barbados