Here is our review on the camera bags for taking underwater pictures (taken and modified from an old posting):
In March '05 we went snorkeling at the reefs off of Key Largo. For this trip we had purchased and used the EWA-Marine underwater bag with our Kodak digital camera. We went this route since Kodak doesn’t make underwater housings for their cameras. This was our test run for taken underwater pictures for St John. Here is our experience with this product:
1. It seals nicely and keeps the water out. We took it down to about 15' while snorkeling and had no problems with moisture. We recommend putting in those silica gel packets into the camera bag.
2. It takes good underwater pictures; certainly better then the $20 disposable underwater film camera from Sealife we also used.
3. We could not use either the view finder or see the screen display due to the thick plastic. We ended up just pointing the camera, which made most of our pictures off-centered and we could not see the pictures on the screen after the shot to tell that we actually took the shot or not. This was the worst aspect.
4. The flash performance was also downgraded some by the thick plastic bag. This was something we also read about in some online reviews in regards to using this bag with Kodak cameras - might be the flash placement on the camera. But you generally want to minimize the use of the flash in underwater photography anyways.
5. The lens operation was hampered since it has to push the glass front part of the bag out when the lens moves outward when turning the camera on. Once you put the camera in the bag and seal it, then you suck the air out through a valve. If you suck too much air out then the bag fit too tightly around the camera so the lens can't operate in and out. If you suck less air out so the lens can move freely then the bag is too buoyant. Weights in the bag might have solved this issue, but then you have to figure out how to secure the weights. This issue that gave us strong concerns about straining and damaging the camera lens motor.
6. The controls on the camera are very hard to manipulate when the camera is in the bag due to the thick plastic.
To see some of our underwater pictures that we took using the EWA-Marine housing with our Kodak camera go to:
http://www.pbase.com/robertablake/key_largo
We have read more on taking underwater pictures since these shots were taken and learned that adjusting white balance and other settings can improve the quality of the pictures.
After our experience using this camera bag in the Keys, and based on recommendations from "jmq" on this forum, we decide to buy a Canon digital camera and it's respective underwater housing. We sold the EWA-Marine bag on e-bay (got about $60 for it). We liked having two cameras while on STJ since we generally kept the Canon in the housing and used our Kodak for most of our above water shots. We also used the underwater housing during boating, tubing and snow skiing so its quite versitle.
Our recommendation is if you have a camera brand/model that has a specific manufactured underwater housing then spend the extra money and buy it. The EWA-Marine sells for around $90 and most brand/model specific underwater housings are in the $150 to $180 range. If you don't have a camera where you can get a brand/model specific housing then the EWA-Marine underwater housing (bag) will provide you with a reasonable option for taking good underwater pictures, just be aware of the limitations.