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(More customer reviews)The Canon WP-DC90 Underwater Housing is engineered specifically for the Canon A-610 and A-620 compact digital cameras. It gives access to all camera controls and is rated to 130', the maximum depth for recreational scuba diving. I have used this housing on one dive trip to Cozumel, shooting 950 stills and about 70 minutes of video during 17 dives. The housing was easy to use and maintain, and fit the A-620 camera perfectly. The image quality of the video was outstanding, and would have been even better if I had had an u/w video light. I did have a u/w strobe for shooting stills, and these photos were also outstanding. The A-620 camera and WP-DC90 housing did a fantastic job for me considering my limited budget.
CONSTRUCTION: The WP-DC90 housing is made of clear molded polycarbonate with an optical glass port in front of the camera's lens. All camera controls are accessible from the housing's buttons and levers, including the main control dial, zoom control, 4-way controller, and record/play switch. The camera's built in-flash loses some effectiveness as it is partially blocked by the lens port, so the addition of an external strobe or video light is recommended. Buy a "slave" strobe, the type senses the camera's built in flash, as this housing and camera do not support TTL flash metering. The camera is loaded into the housing through a large hatch in the back that is sealed by a single rectangular rubber o-ring. This is the only user-seviceable component of the housing, and it (plus the groove in the housing) MUST be carefully cleaned, dried, and re-lubed with silicone grease every time the camera is loaded into it before a dive. Spare o-rings can be purchased from Canon's Parts Department for about $20.
Besides the large rear hatch for loading the camera, the housing has 14 other penetrations for control levers and push buttons, corresponding to the camera's controls. These are all sealed with o-rings that are NOT user serviceable. For this reason, the WP-DC90 housing should be considered to have a limited lifespan for scuba diving. I met a family in Cozumel that had a pair of Canon A-85's in four year old WP-DC30 housings; one of these sprung a leak during through the shutter-button o-ring during a dive; these housings had made about 100 dives total. I don't know if the WP-DC series housings can be returned to Canon for reconditioning (replacement of all non-user-serviceable o-rings), but I suspect that this would not be economically practicable since a new housing costs only $169 retail.
The failure mode for small o-rings like those on the WP-DC series housing involves the gradual build up of salt crystals around the control shafts that erodes the o-rings until they can no longer seal tightly. With this in mind, the WP-DC90 housing and A-620 camera do provide a means of capturing underwater video at 640 x 480 x 30 fps quality, and 7 megapixel stills, in a package that costs only $400 (plus the cost of an SD card if you don't already own one). This is a fraction of the cost of almost any other type of underwater video system, and I highly recommend it if you want a record of your dive vacation at a reasonable price.
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The Canon WP-DC90 Waterproof Case is specifically designed to protect your Canon PowerShot A620 and A610 digital cameras from sea water and sand. Reliable and easy to use, this case offers new shooting possibilities and it can help you realize the full potential of digital photography. Shooting great underwater pictures is simple and your PowerShot camera has many features that are specially suited to the underwater environment. With the help of the WP-DC90 you can create brilliant underwater pictures at depth of up to 130 feet, even on your very first dive.
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