Michael Doelle wrote:

> Christian wrote:
>
> >The best other u/w camera of the time was
> > undoubtedly the twin lens RolleiMarin developed by Hans Hass back in
> >1952 (when Coustea and de Wouters first talked about the Calypso).
> >This little beauty was as expensive against the Calypso then as the RS
> >was against the Nik V when the RS saw the light of day.<
>
> Oh, didn't know that there was ever an UW Rollei. Cool.

Actually, I made a mistake, I wrote in the "heat of the moment" which
is not a good idea at the best of times.

Hans Hass developed a housing, as against a camera WITHIN a housing,
to accept the twin lens Rollei (in those days called Franke &
Heidecke). It is therefore not directly comparable to the Calypso/Nik
series of cameras as I suggested but Rollei did make both the camera
and the housing.

Incidentally, in those days O Rings hadn't been invented and so, to
put a Rollei  - a ROLLEI!!! - into a housing required a quantum leap
of faith. Even today there are people who won't put their
top-of-the-line cameras into housings.

The best housings today are made by specialist housing manufacturers
of which I consider SeaCam (IMHO) to make the best of the best
(ignoring expense). Of course I'm biased, SeaCam is Austrian ... but
then so is Subal who are probably second best and correspondingly a
little cheaper.

Which is curious, considering Austria is landlocked. Then again
HugyFot, originally Swiss and also landlocked, is now in Germany (as
is Subal) and they'd be my third choice (of aluminium housings).

Ikelite, of the "plastic" housing manufacturers, is far and away the
best (US) and has, well, simply legendary, standards of service.
Bjoern, I'm sure, would at least agree with that last.

Cheers,

Christian
--
I haven't quite worked out the secret of life yet, but I just know it
must have something to do with lunch.