Clear water box for low visibility photos

[WagnerDiver]

Does anyone have any suggestions for building a clear water box to take photos of underwater structures in low visibility water. The one I have now is junk, so I was going to build another.

Thanks.

 

[48mpg]

i dont know the finer details but i may be able to help with basics.

get a camera with a fixed lens, ie 35mm, not 18mm - 55mm. the actual measurement depends on how wide of an area you want to photograph.

get a underwater case for it.

now the hard part is to calculate the size of the other end of the box (the side you would press up against the pier) I would suggest going on a photo website for that. that would be dependent on the lens and how big of an area you want to take a picture of. the bigger the area, the farther away from the camera lens 'the other end' needs to be. make this box a sealable compartment. this is where you will put your clear water.

then devise some way to mount your camera/case to the clear water box so that it is repeatable.

but if you already have one, why not duplicate it. what is wrong with it as it stands?

sorry that was rough, I dont have the photography vocabulary to put it more intelligently.

 

[chrisski]

Try a clear ziplock bag filled with clean water , put said filled ziplock bag on your area that needs to be photo'd and camera on top of ziplock bag, then, snap away.

 

[muddiver]

My understanding is that it is just a cone (or parimid) shaped enclosure in front of the camera lense that is just bigger than the field of view of the camera, which has a connection for a water source. It is the water flowing from a source (garden hose or other tube) into the box that forces any turbidity out when it is held aginst the subject to be photographed. There is probably a better discreption in either the Navy inspection of underwater structures manual, or the American Association of Civil Engineers manual for underwater investigations.

 

[Bob3]

Gee... the last time we needed to use a clear box was ages ago when an insurance company needed to verify the identity of a barge that had sunk in the Mississippi River.
We made up a [truncated] pyramid shaped box but with a rectangular base which was large enough to cover an individual letter/number, tapering down & squared off to just large enough to hold a Nikonos at the apex end.
All edges were sawed & milled square so the box could be glued together with plain old acrylic solvent. We used 3/8" thick material but never handled it out of water when filled.
It had a tapered pipe thread in the side at the small end from which it was filled with clean water right at the surface & a plastic plug threaded in.
We had to triple up the area in way of the threads, and added a couple handles to make it easier to wrestle with & hold a line.
Had to snap a pic of each letter/number but I that was good enough for the insurance company.

It's sat in my buddy's garage for the past +20 years but it did pay for itself on the one job, of course.