Canon G10 Underwater Housings

Canon G10 camera for underwater photography

By Scott Gietler

The Canon G10 is an excellent topside compact camera, one of the best out there due to it's superior handling and controls, excellent 14.7 megapixel sensor, RAW capability, full manual controls, and wide 28mm lens. However, due to the long zoom range, it may not be as ideal a camera underwater as other cameras, depending on the housing choice.

Like other Canon cameras, Canon TTL works in P, TV, and AV modes. This is true whether using an internal flash topside, Ikelite TTL, or a strobe fired via fiber optics. In manual mode, you must set the strobe power manually.

Soft coral crab, photo by Edvin Eng. Canon g10 + canon housing, stacked Inon macro lenses.

Comparing the Canon G10 to other cameras

Some people feel the 15 megapixels of the Canon G10 was too many, and the Canon G11 has only 10 megapixels. In underwater photography, this is not a big concern, and wet lenses and housing choices should be your main concern. 

I do not expect image quality of underwater photos to be noticeably different between those of a Canon G11 or Canon S90.

Canon G10 WP-DC28 Underwater Housing

With the Canon OEM housing, there is no wide-angle lens support, only a flat port so only shoots at 35mm equivalent. No access to the dial, so changing manual settings takes 2 hands. This housing is light, compact and inexpensive. When zoomed out and using the internal flash, there may be some light falloff when doing close-up shots due to the size of the port, although it is not as bad as with the Ikelite housing.

10bar makes an adapter than allows you to add macro wet lenses to this housing.

Crocodile fish eye, photo by Edvin Eng. Canon G10 with Canon housing, stacked Inon macro lenses.

Canon G10 Ikelite Housing

No wide-angle support, so it shoots at 35mm equivalent. If you pay extra for the Ikelite W-20 wide-angle lens, you will back to semi-wide angle at a little better than 28mm. There are also 3rd party dome ports that will give you back the original 28mm angle of view.

The internal flash is blocked by the port for close-up shots, so an external strobe is required for macro shots. There is access to the dial for manual controls. At this time, no support for wet lenses. The Ikelite housing comes with TTL capability and sync cord connections.

Canon G10 Fix Housing

The Fisheye Canon G10 Fix Housing is an excellent, although expensive choice for the Canon G10. A separate port allows you to attach wide-angle lenses. It also has an adapter for macro lenses, but you can't shoot wide-angle and macro on the same dive. This housing is very compact, and very light. However, because the controls are so close together, it can hard to use with bare hands or thick gloves

The FIX UWL-04 fisheye conversion lens, which has a dome port can give a very wide angle of view. Don't forget to put the camera into macro mode when using a dome port, because of the location of the virtual image. The lens easily snaps on and off via a bayonet mount.

With this housing you will also need to use duct tape to block the internal flash, especially when using a wide-angle lens, to avoid getting the flash in the photo.

Seatool makes a snap on diopter for close-up macro shots with the standard port.

Canon G10 Patima Housing

no wet lenses, but comes with a short port, which can take macro lenses, and a WA port, which gives you 28mm. So you can't shoot macro and wide angle on the same dive.

Canon G10 10Bar Housing

10Bar also makes a G10 housing, details are here

Further Reading:

Underwater Camera Modes

Underwater Camera Guide

Underwater Strobe Guide