QUICK REVIEW: ISOTTA CANON G7XIII HOUSING

The Italian company Isotecnic is not a newcomer to the field of underwater photography, after all, they have been making underwater photographic products since the 80s. Although originally a local manufacturer, the Isotta product range is nowadays increasingly available internationally. During the last few years, the company has widened its product range and now do housings from GoPros to professional-level DSLRs. The Ferrari red colour of the Isotta housings are sure to be noticed wherever you go. But the company’s housings are much more than just pretty from the outside. The aluminium Isotta housings are made from start to finish in Italy and include all the latest technology.

Isotta G7XIII Housing

The Isotta G7XIII housing is super-solid and surprisingly compact unit specially made for the Canon Powershot G7X MKIII high-end compact camera. This 100m depth rated full aluminium housing has controls for all camera features including a flash pop up lever, in case you have forgotten to do this before sealing the unit. Unlike many housings, the Isotta G7XIII camera offers a handy “pull-back” lever to operate the shutter release. The housing also ships with a dual flash sync unit for external fibre optic connection and an acrylic flash diffuser in case you want to use the camera’s internal flash.

What sets the Isotta housings, including the G7XIII model, apart from the other housings on the market is the rear door design. With Isotta, the housings rear door can be fully separated from the front part (i.e. it doesn’t have a hinge). This makes it very easy to slide the camera into the housing. All Isotta housings come with double O-ring design and a unique rotating lock system that the company swears by. Also included is a moisture detector with audible alarm and red warning light.

Isotta G7XIII Lens options

The Canon G7X camera range has always been problematic when it comes to wet wide-angle lenses. The latest G7X MKIII, like its predecessors, has quite a large and long lens. This means that the housing port also needs to be prolonged and when the camera’s internal lens is in the wide-angle position, it sits far from the housing port glass. Almost all external wide-angle lenses work optically well only when the internal lens (inside the housing) sits near the port glass. With most basic fixed port housings for this camera, there is nothing one can do. Higher-end brands like Nauticam and Isotta circumvent the issue with a removable front port that can be swapped to a shorter unit. Although this will limit the movement of the camera lens inside the housing it also allows the usage of wet wide-angle lenses without a loss of image quality and viewing angle. The Isotta G7XIII standard port is very easy to swap to the shorter port. In my opinion, the £85.00 costs of the short port is a small price to pay considering the improvement on image quality with wet interchangeable wide-angle lenses. Good news is that you can use all current wet interchangeable close-up lenses without swapping to the shorter port.

Final words

The Isotta G7XIII housing for Canon Powershot G7X MkIII camera is extremely compact and solid housing for this powerful camera. It is also quite a bit cheaper than the competition and by far the most affordable housing for the G7X MKIII with a removable port option. The Isotta housings retain a certain hand made look and the 3D printed internal parts might seem bit rough but this allows the parts to be easily adjusted and repaired if needed. Isotta housings are all available in red only. I understand this might put some people off, but I think they are quite handsome in their shiny redness.

Get Isotta G7XIII housing from Mike's Dive Cameras HERE 
Get Canon G7X MKIII + Isotta housing package HERE