An Interview with SEACAM President Harald Hordosch

By Scott Gietler

I always knew SEACAM had a reputation for high quality underwater housings, but  I knew very little about the history of the company or its owner. At DEMA in Las Vegas, I got a chance to sit down with its founder and president Harald Hordosch and learn some interesting insights into the company.  Below, Harald shares his passion for precision and quality in his products, which he believes every underwater photographer should expect.

Harald Hordosch on SEACAM

I started underwater photography as a hobby, diving in fresh water lakes in Europe. I received my diving license way back in 1972, and I started to house old film cameras. At the time, Hugyfot and Subal were the only housings available for film cameras in Europe, and I thought I could improve on what they were doing. So I started SEACAM, and it became very popular.

It was always very important to me, for SEACAM housings to have the best quality optics and the best viewfinders. We made sure to use the best optical glass, called mineral glass. We make sure to align all of our ports precisely, and make sure the radius of the glass matches the lens.

I also think we produce the best viewfinders for underwater photographers - the viewfinders are important because the photographer must be able to properly compose the subject.

I'm proud that we were innovators with products such as our 9 inch glass dome port, our superdome, our S6 plug / connection, and our S45 viewfinder.

I believe we were also the first to show a small fisheye macro port, 3 years ago. We also invented a remote system 5 years ago for remote triggering and polling of cameras underwater.

I believe that price matches quality, and although we are more expensive than some other housings, our quality matches the price. I consider Subal to be our closest competitor.

SEACAM is preparing a surprise for the underwater photography community, which will make photography easier and much more interesting for beginner photographers. Soon we will present a new line of products, which will of course be manufactured in Austria, like all of our products.

Let's discuss the SEACAM housings. They have a silver design, they are very robust and sturdy housings. We strive to find environmentally friendly non-paint solutions for the outside of our housings. We are the 1st company to start using zinc anodes, which help protect the housing from corrosion. We use very high quality alloys in our housings that don't corrode, and machining these alloys takes more time than inferior quality alloys. In addition to housings, Seacam strobes support our lineup.

Our philosophy is always to improve the quality of our housings, and to innovate. People should expect a lot from their housings, especially a SEACAM housing. They should expect it to last a long time, and they should expect ports to always be compatible.

We are well experienced, we do optical construction ourselves, we are proud of working intensely with professional shooters, and understanding their demands. We do not build things because they are in our mind, we build them because our users ask for them.

SEACAM Official Website