40M Waterproof Casing Underwater Housing for Sony RX100 M2

March 24, 2014 - PRLog -- Meikon-RX100 M2 underwater housing gives overall very good impression. The build quality is very good with attention paid to details. All small parts (buttons, levers, springs) have very good finishing, look high quality and fit (almost) perfectly. This underwater housing is made of transparent polycarbonate that is a material that will endure quite a lot of misuse and will not crack easily (but will if you drop it on a hard surface from high enough). Housing has provisions to access all camera controls except the back control wheel. This may and may not be a problem depending how much you use it. The front ring replaces most of its functionality but it is less convenient to use. Of course, all settings are always accessible trough the menus directly or indirectly.

The housing comes with a flash diffuser already mounted. Flash diffuser is a useful thing as it reduces amount of light reflected off the suspended particles back to the lens (apart from softening shadows). In this case, however, the front port bezel creates a huge shadow what limits flash usability in general.

One thing that seems to be present on all different RX100 housing designs is little space for the flash. For some reason none of the engineers opted for adding more space for the pop-out flash like it is done for many other cameras.

On Meikon RX100 M2 Housing the flash cannot extend fully, only about half way, what is barely enough to use it. In combination with the front port bezel it creates a huge shadow across the frame at closer distances.

To make things worse, when popped out automatically, flash ends up in a position pointing approximately 10 to 20 degrees downwards. The situation can be improved if the flash is popped out and manually rotated to horizontal position before closing the housing.

There is a steel cold shoe on the top of the housing as well as the more sturdy mount screw steel plate at the bottom.

In front of the flash on the outside of the housing there are two fiberoptical direct plug-ins. The housing comes with the flash diffuser mounted and you will have to take it off to be able to connect the strobes. It is simply done as the diffuser click-locks on the housing. It does hold on quite firmly so there is no chance of it falling off by accident (and there is a string tying it to the housing too).

The camera fits snugly in and all controls fit to controls on the housing almost perfectly. The LCD screen is clearly visible even at angles. This "window" on the housing is not protected by any protruding housing element so care should be taken when putting it down or it can be inadvertently scratched.

The housing is small and light enough to be held in one hand even above water what is a big plus for water sports. It sits in the hand very well. There is a three-fingers wide grip on the front and thumb grip at the back that allow for a comfortable grip with just one hand. The movie button sits closely below the thumb grip, just as it is placed on the camera, and might be accidentally pressed while wearing gloves and handling the camera singlehandedly. It did not come in a way while handling the housing with a bare hand or with both gloved hands.

All buttons are easy to operate, they are soft to press and move smoothly. Soft to press buttons on some other inexpensive housings get pushed by water pressure but here that is not a problem.

Back panel buttons are placed right above the buttons on the camera and hence have little space between. The middle OK button is raised a bit above surrounding 4-way buttons which are in turn a mere 1mm higher than Fn, Menu, Preview and Help/Delete buttons. This makes pressing a single button while wearing gloves a problem. To be fair, this is not unique to this housing – Patima and Ikelite are built the same way. Other aluminum housings have outer four buttons spaced out more than they are on the camera.

One thing that will interest divers as well as experienced snorkelers (more the former than the later) is buoyancy. While positively buoyant (floating) housing is a good thing for surface sports it is a nuisance for diving. What you want for diving is a neutrally buoyant camera so if you accidently let it loose it will neither catapult itself to the surface nor quickly sink to inaccessible depths. Since this is not easily accomplished, slightly positive or negative buoyancy is acceptable

A wrist strap and a shoulder strap are included. The wide shoulder strap might come handy if you plan to carry the housing around a lot. Keep in mind though that the housing and camera weigh 757 grams together. The wrist strap, on the other hand, is very useful (and a must) for diving.

Features:

*Dimensions: 121 x 147 x 105 mm (D x W x H)

*Weight: 517g

*Maximum depth: 40m / 130 ft

*Front port bezel: threaded 67 mm, plastic

*Front port cap: yes, new production only

*Strobe connectors: 2 fiberoptical direct plug-ins

*Cold shoe: yes

*Mount screw: yes

*Camera controls: all except back control wheel

*Flash port: yes

*Flash diffuser: included, detachable

Meikon RX100 M2 underwater housing: http://www.dansarosa.com/meikon-underwater-housing-waterproof-casing-sony-rx100-m2.html
Meikon RX100 underwater housing: http://www.dansarosa.com/meikon-40m-waterproof-case-under...

Dansarosa.com is offering dslr underwater housings for Canon 700D 650D, 600D, and Sony nex series, Canon PowerShot, EOS, Nikon cameras, find out user own camera water-proof casings via here: http://www.dansarosa.com/camera-accessories/underwater-wa....