As soon as you start getting serious about underwater photography gear, the question almost always arises at some point: Marelux or Nauticam? Both brands regularly go head-to-head on specialized forums, and the debate isn't ending anytime soon. Here is what you need to know to get a clear picture before investing in a housing.
Comparing Marelux and Nauticam is a bit like comparing an established player of fifteen years with a newly arrived challenger. That changes a lot of things, especially regarding the depth of their product lines.
Nauticam: Edward Lai founded Nauticam in 2008 in Hong Kong, after spending two decades designing injection molds for electronics and automotive industries. Being a diver and photographer himself, he applied this industrial know-how to housing manufacturing. As early as 2009 at the DEMA Show, Nauticam presented its white balance dome, an innovation that earned it a Red Dot Design Award. Since then, the brand has built the broadest ecosystem on the market: compacts, Micro 4/3 mirrorless, APS-C, full-frame, digital cinema—virtually no camera body escapes its catalog.
Marelux: Marelux arrived much later, in December 2021, driven by professional underwater photographers and engineers. It is the first new aluminum housing manufacturer to enter this market since Nauticam a decade earlier.
Marelux chose to focus exclusively on full-frame mirrorless camera bodies from Canon, Sony, and OM System, betting on ergonomics and lighting innovations rather than pure catalog depth to stand out.
This is undoubtedly the criterion that sets the two brands apart most quickly depending on your camera.
Nauticam and its near-complete ecosystem At Nauticam, you can find housings for almost every type of camera: small pocket compacts (Sony RX100, Olympus TG6/TG7), lighter mirrorless cameras (Panasonic GH5, GH7, OM System), large professional bodies (Sony, Canon, or Nikon), and even select cinema cameras (Sony FX6 or Blackmagic).
Marelux makes a more defined choice: strictly full-frame bodies from Canon, Sony, and OM System. Two models in particular built its reputation: a housing for the Canon EOS R5, highly sought after by photographers, and another for the Sony A1, acclaimed by big marine pelagics enthusiasts for its fast focusing capabilities. On the other hand, Marelux does not yet offer any solutions for smaller cameras like Panasonic or certain Olympus models, which remains the most common criticism raised about them.
The total absence of a Micro 4/3 line remains a point of friction noted multiple times on forums, especially by photographers using a Panasonic GH5 or an OM System OM1 who currently have no solution at Marelux.
Good news: the two ecosystems are not completely sealed off from one another, no pun intended. You don't have to rebuy everything when switching brands.
Each manufacturer uses its own system to mount lenses and ports onto the housing. However, Marelux created a small accessory—an adapter ring attached to the housing—that allows Nauticam optics to be mounted. In practical terms, if you already own ports or lenses bought from Nauticam and want to switch to a Marelux housing, you don't have to sell everything and start from scratch.
In this regard, both brands generally stand shoulder to shoulder, which is no coincidence.
Underwater, you wear gloves, visibility isn't always perfect, and you can't afford to spend ten minutes looking for a button. On this point, both brands compare well overall. Many Marelux users appreciate well-placed buttons that are easy to customize according to personal habits, a genuine strength for such a young brand. A few user reports nevertheless mention a minor issue on early Marelux models regarding the dial used to switch between photo and video modes—a detail the brand has corrected in its more recent versions.
Another practical detail on the Marelux side: the opening through which you slide the camera into the housing is wider than Nauticam's. This allows you to mount the lens onto the camera body before placing it inside the housing, rather than having to attach it once the camera is already in place, which many users find easier in practice.
This is perhaps where Marelux plays its most original card: rather than settling for catching up to Nauticam on housings, the brand went all-in on lighting.
The Apollo strobe range, featuring versions like the Apollo III, stands out thanks to a simple yet amazingly practical detail: neon green O-rings, which are much easier to inspect than a classic black gasket when checking for hair or sand before entering the water. Furthermore, the Lumilink system enables strobe triggering without an optical cable—an increasingly sought-after feature for videographers and photographers looking to minimize cable connections underwater. Marelux also developed the Flexibuoy buoyancy arm, designed to easily balance a housing and strobe setup regardless of the total configuration weight. These strobes can also be used on any housing on the market.
It's impossible to ignore this topic, as it comes up in nearly every comparative discussion. A popular forum thread bluntly titled "Nauticam's recent price hikes" sums up the sentiment well: several users highlight repeated price increases at Nauticam in recent years, driven in part by manufacturing costs and its market-leader position. Marelux, as a challenger, generally positions itself a notch lower—between Aquatica and Nauticam according to various reviews—making it an attractive option for photographers drawn in precisely by this price gap.
On Wetpixel and ScubaBoard, two benchmarks in underwater photography, the general consensus regarding Marelux is quite positive for such a recent brand. Several users describe it as comparable to Nauticam in terms of features, with recurring praise for button customization. The main drawback frequently mentioned remains the absence of a Micro 4/3 range—a deliberate choice by the brand, but one that closes the door to a portion of photographers. Nauticam, for its part, continues to command broad agreement regarding build quality and speed in releasing a housing whenever a new camera body is announced, an advantage that remains hard for any competitor to match, including Marelux.
If you use a small mirrorless camera like a Panasonic or certain Olympus models, the decision is straightforward: only Nauticam offers a suitable housing today. If you are starting fresh with a newer body from Canon, Sony, or OM System, Marelux definitely deserves a close look, especially if budget is a factor and you are also interested in underwater lighting.
And if you already own lenses bought from Nauticam, the Marelux adapter ring allows you to switch housings without starting from scratch.
Diveavenue remains at your service all year round to advise and guide you. Don't wait any longer and check out our section—to see all available models, head to our page dedicated to the Marelux brand, and to get started directly with a complete setup, take a look at our housing and camera packs.