Underwater camera housings
posted May 24th 2008 10:30pm by Juan Aguilarfiled under: digital cameras hacks
Underwater cameras can produce some amazing photography, but who wants to pay for housing if you can make something yourself?
This underwater camera housing on Instructables doesn’t require a specific container, allowing you to choose anything you have around the house that’s watertight and large enough to fit your camera. A finger from a glove is added so you can still operated the controls. A similar project uses an insulated water jug, accommodating any camera that fits inside. Neither of these involve any camera mods.
Maybe you want something less bulky for your camera. This method uses a plastic bag and a repurposed piece of thermoplastic to make a waterproof enclosure. You’ll have to shape, cut, and attach the thermoplastic to a clear window and a bezel that goes outside of the plastic bag to keep it in place. It should work underwater, but this project was designed to keep the camera dry while kiteboarding. They suggest putting an Alka-Seltzer tab inside the bag to let you know of any leaks. If things get really bad, the bag should inflate and float on the surface.
If you want to go the incredibly cheap route, you might consider building this underwater camera housing that we discussed back in 2006. It’s a modified Pelican #1010 case, and the camera is a CVS Single Use Digital Camcorder (a hacker favorite) with an added magnetic record switch.
Even commercial housings can be improved upon. [Andrew Newton] added a macroframer to his underwater rig. There aren’t any specific instructions on how to build it, but the step-by-step images give a good idea of the process. A macroframer allows you to take detailed up-close photos like the one above without needing use a view finder or wait for autofocus.
Now that you’ve got an underwater camera, why not let an underwater ROV do all the swimming for you? Hackaday contributor [Jason Rollette]’s mini submarine is constructed of PVC piping and is controlled by custom software written in Visual Basic; commands are sent via an attached RS232 serial port. With a camera mounted, you’ll be able to take awesome photos of undersea life… or the bottom of your pool. It’s your call.
I’ve always wanted a camera i could use while surfing, hey I want to run this by you guys, I surf a a lot and I’m learning to shape boards, is there any way I could place some LEDs in the foam of a board to make the thing like glow, do you have any clue how bad ass it would be to surf on a lite up board!
Posted at 11:29 pm on May 24th, 2008 by Jack