looking for housing advice - Olympus Pen

[ramcewan]

Planning a trip to do some snorkeling and am weighing a dedicated underwater shooter vs. a housing for my Olympus PEN E-PL2.

1. Olympus makes a nice setup for $599 which is out of budget (couldn't find them on lens rental - but would consider renting if I could - no hits on ebay but would consider used)
   
2. briefly looked at some underwater rated P&S cameras - seemed $299 was price point for decent quality although I saw a few $199 ones. We already have an aging Canon powershot P&S and my daughter has a Nikon. Neither gets much use as cameras on our phones have replaced that function, for that reason alone I am loathe to add a single purpose P&S to the electronics collection.
   
3. started looking at Dicapac bags - WP-S5 ($67) or WP-S10 ($76)seem to be the right choice from B&H but looking at Dicapac's site they have a WP-S3 which is only available in the states via ebay for $88. Seems it might have been discontinued but it is the one matching my camera on their fitting chart. I don't mind spending the extra if it will be a better fit.

So I am leaning towards the Dicapac bags but looking for experience, alternatives, advice, etc. Like I said if I could rent the Olympus housing for a reasonable price it would be a no-brainer .

[ramcewan]

also looking at the Opteka UC-SLR - seems to get better reviews than the Dicapac ones.

http://opteka.com/ucslr.aspx

[Nagasaki]

I'll start by saying I have very little experience with this type of housing. I have an overboard case for my zoom compact and find it surprisingly difficult to get the lens properly positioned in the port. You'll probably be OK snorkeling but a friend of mine tried a EWA-marine housing on a shallow dive and found the pressure prevented him using the controls.

Ken

[ramcewan]

Ken,

Thank you for your reply. I ended up finding a ewa marine that I am going to try. My camera has a live view LCD and I am comfortable using it more as a point and shoot in full auto mode.

[Nagasaki]

Let us know how you get on and post some pics after your trip.

Ken

[Melvin2930]

How's the trip, mind sharing it here? I plan the underwater shooting too:-)