Renting Underwater Photography Gear

I recently had a friend email me asking advice on where to rent an underwater housing for a DSLR. Since this is something I have often thought about using, I figured I would investigate. I first checked a local rental house and was unsuccessful. The next place I looked was a larger rental house, that had been around for quite a bit longer. So I expected them to have the housing since they have an expanded range of products available for rent.

What I found was a bit surprising. They didn't rent any specific underwater housing rigs either. Instead, they rented an underwater kit or 2 that would provide customers a lesser camera for a cheaper price.
In their defense, they had a great explanation as to why they don't invest into this kind of accessory.

"About twice a month we get a call asking us to carry underwater housings. This is a much bigger deal than people realize. Each SLR camera requires a specific housing, and each housing requires several lens covers, all of which become immediately useless in two years when that model is replaces. When we do the numbers , we'd end up charging about a third of the purchase price for a rental."

Here is the scary part:

"More importantly, underwater housings have a very real failure rate, and when they fail, the camera inside is toast... no repair possible. Logic tells us that if you can afford to ruin your camera, you can afford to buy an underwater housing. So for those of us who can't we've provided in the DX-2G kit."

DX-2G 12MP @ $140

What a fantastic business decision! They took the smart way out, yet still provided the customer with a solution. The rate for the model mentioned was about $140 for 2 weeks. Far less than the specific housing I finally found for the camera my friend asked about which was $660 for the same amount of time, not including the underwater housing required for the specific lens that would be used. At that price for 2 weeks, I would almost rather bite the bullet, and spend the $2,000 on a kit in case it was needed for further shoots.
I guess the big thing to consider here is that the "lesser" camera at the cheaper price in the first kit I mentioned is only a 12MP camera. While the more expensive kit will allow much more camera control and will bump the resolution up to 21MP. Now, you just have to ask yourself if that is worth the extra 500 or so dollars, and does the shoot require as large a resolution as possible?

Aquatech Camera Body Housing
possible 21MP @ $ 660
cost of lens housing not included.

Please visit the links below to take a closer look at the kits I mentioned above.
AquaTech DX5 Underwater housing for 5DMkII
Sea & Sea DX-2G Underwater kit