Christian wrote:

> I'm still sad that Nikon did not continue to develop this system and,
> more particularly, ask users how it could be improved. In fact I'm
> even sadder that they never asked anyone about it when they developed
> the thing in the first place thus creating a stick with the carrot
> tantalisingly close but never there. And then they did not admit that
> fact, bite the bullet, but that's Nikon. :(

Nikon makes great products, and I will support them forever because of the
quality, but this is another another excellent reason to support Ikelite.
Ike listens.

Soyong had the first Ikelite housing off the line for the Sony PC1
camcorder. We tried it out on a live-aboard in Burma, and sent Ike a couple
of design recommendations afterwards. A year later, on another live-aboard,
I bumped into a friend who had just purchased an Ikelite housing for his
PC1, and wouldn't you know it but Ike had changed the design in accordance
with the recommendations. I am always glad to work with vendors who listen
to "the (wo)man in the arena" :-)

In another example of their amazing customer service, I recently mailed Ike
about a housing for my Fuji S1 Pro (7 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes and
counting...), and within half an hour he mailed back a picture of a custom
housing he had recently made for one. I then asked if I had to send the
camera over, and he replied in the affirmative. But when he discovered that
I live in Singapore now, he told me to worry about something else, he would
borrow or buy one in the US so I wouldn't have to go through that hassle!

Granted, Ikelite is a bit smaller than Nikon, but their user base is one of
the most satisfied I have ever come across, for any product. And, obviously,
for good reason.

Bjorn