Canon WP-DC35 Underwater Housing for Canon PowerShot S90 Digital Camera

The case is great. It fits the S90 perfectly, and lets you operate all the controls with relative ease. You can turn the front control wheel, and you can *press* the rear control wheel in 5 different areas but not turn it. However, this is not a big disadvantage because you can still access all the features of the camera using various button presses, even if you can’t turn that rear wheel. It’s just a little slower.

Canon builds these cases for almost all their compact cameras, and they’ve got it down. You don’t want to go around dropping the case on random rocks, but it’s built pretty solidly, with thick plastic. It’s not leaked on me, nor did I ever have any problems with the very similar case for my Canon S30 that I’ve used over the past 7 or 8 years.

The flash is pretty lousy — it’s blocked by the case, though the included diffuser helps this a bit. But if you do much underwater photography you’re not going to want to use the onboard flash anyhow, and this problem is shared with every single other point-and-shoot case out there.

I wish it was wider angle — the S90 goes pretty wide, but you lose a lot of this once you put it underwater. Some SLR housings have ‘dome’ windows rather than the flat piece of glass that this one has, and that allows you to get the full wide angle of the lens. Too bad Canon doesn’t offer that option here. But considering the price and the rest of the functionality, it’s still a bargain.

Note that Ikelite makes a 3rd-party case for the S90 which is pretty similar, but a little more flexible than Canon’s: for instance, you can screw on a wide-angle adapter lens in front of their case. That setup would clearly be better… but by that point it’s become triple the price of the Canon casing. If you’re going to spend that kind of money, you may as well keep spending and buy a full underwater SLR setup.

Update: I have recently had a problem with the window fogging up *between the two front pieces of glass* — that is, moisture which is internal in the case and can’t be wiped away even from the inside. I assume this is an isolated problem with my unit, but I will edit this review if the problem returns.
Rating: 4 / 5

Simply fantastic — this case is superbly designed, built like a tank, easy to operate, and gives great results.

At first I was wary that my S90 was going to get scuffed by the case, but a solid week of pretty hard use in Baja (I shot 2,600 frames) demonstrated that this was unfounded. During this trip I must have inserted and removed the camera from the housing more than twenty times. The case has little “nibs” — plastic guides whose ends are covered with rubber tips — and these ease the camera into place and hold it firmly without damaging the finish.

When using the S90 in the housing, you still have access to every control and function the camera offers. The design is quite clever in that you don’t fumble with the controls; the various knobs, buttons and levers all work smoothly and crisply. Only the flash is somewhat compromised; you add a frosted plastic diffuser that pops into place on the outside of the case to improve the results you get using flash underwater. I gave up using the flash at all, as the range underwater is quite limited.

I think the results speak for themselves; I have posted four pictures from my recent Baja trip. During one snorkeling trip we were diving with sea lions. These guys are incredibly quick; they come barreling towards you and veer away at the last instant, which makes them very difficult to photograph. When I returned to our boat I was quite anxious to see what I’d captured — and the S90/WP-DC35 combo acquitted itself quite well, I think.

Now that I’m home, I plan to use this combo as my primary camera for use during kayaking trips. I am very pleased with this purchase, and highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good, simple camera for underwater use.

One last thing I recommend you purchase along with the case is a product called Moisture Munchers. These are small tubes that contain a dessicant. I found that there is room in the case for one of these, and that made me feel a lot better about keeping the camera in pristine condition while it spent a week in very humid conditions. During the week in Baja I went through two of these capsules.
Rating: 5 / 5

I had an olympus 770UZ and its case (don’t remember the name); I was used to the bulky, big and uncomfortable housing; whenever I went underwater I was in “christmas tree” mode, with that huge thing.

The Canon case is wonderful!!! I use it for snorkeling and it’s not bulky at all.

All the command but the ring in the back are accessible, but it’s not that of a trouble, I usually leave the aperture at 2 and use the front ring for exposure control, but this is just my opinion. The only *negative* thing that I can say is that there is no front cap and I am trying to find a solution to that.

For the other aspects, I am more more more than satisfied. I am actually planning to buy a spare one!
Rating: 4 / 5