Aquashot Issues

Important! Fuji has discontinued the Endeavor 10 camera and will replace it with the E20 in its place. This is not currently compatible with the housing, so I recommend buying at least one more to use as a reserve. Ikelite will probably have a solution in time, but in the meanwhile protect yourself. These are cheap cameras anyway.

Damaged cameras? You may have already run into trouble with the flash buttom being damaged. This is caused by closing up the housing with the flash dial not set to OFF. (This can easily happen if you lend your unit out to friends). Ike has suggested a fix for this of:

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The bent camera front will keep the shutter door from closing, but it can be bent back up out of the way by simply inserting a small screwdriver or flat ruler beside the button and lifting....
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This will indeed work as the camera plastic is very pliable. Just do it carefully. Ike adds that the current housings don't cause this problem.

Red glare on pictures taken with the strobe? This has been a serious problem for me, now causing me to lose more pictures than any other problem. This has appeared to be a problem for black water divers like me; those in the tropics don't suffer from it. Even in Southern California I see it as a much fainter band. What seems to happen is that light reflects off the red deflector back into the main lens port. If the subject matter in the left corner has color, you don't see it - the color overpowers. But if the subject there is dark water, the red wins out.

There is a more lasting solution to the red glare now. Ikelite has simply shifted away from red plastic to black plastic on the parts and were nice enough to send me a set. Using black nail polish on the red should work just as well. It has completely eliminated this irksome problem.

Keep in mind that if you don't screw down the deflector and WC lens as specified, you can have this problem as well. My last macro roll showed a lot of red because of this - I had to take it apart in the water to brush off air bubbles and I didn't put it back together properly.

Previous fixes:
There are two fixes that seem to take care of the problem, for the most part. You should send mail to [email protected] to get each of these fixes.
#0925.38 - a mylar sticker that is installed on the deflector. I don't see how this helped, but it did cut down the intensity of the red streak. This fix was developed last fall and may not be an issue with newer units.

#0925.39 - black decal for inside lens port. The smoking gun seems to be the part of the lens port closest to the flash deflector. With just a black marker pen, I've managed to darken this section. The proper fix is probably a better idea though. Cleaner, and probably more effective.

Air bubbles in the pictures? Anytime you do a shore entry or a giant stride, you're likely to get bubbles inside the lens(es). If anyone has a good technique for avoiding this, mail me! Furthermore, you can get bubbles on it if your exhaust goes right to the camera. Check the front of your camera often during the dive.

Check the Ikelite web site for updates at http://www.ikelite.com/faq/faq_aqua3e_x.html.