Droid / iPhone / other smartphone housings?

[NJDiverMark]

exactly

 

[scubamarketing]

I forget who it was, but a manufacturer at DEMA that makes "universal" housing said they'll be coming out with one that works for iPhone by summer. I don't see why it wouldn't work for any of the other capacitive touch screens if the sizing was similar.

My guess about why some people get so upset about this idea is they're also the people who resist other forms of modern technology (Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc). And if they can make skiing/snowboarding gloves that can pass the conductivity and allow the touch screens to work without bare skin, I don't think this technology that anyone is that excited about anymore.

 

[NJDiverMark]

The 1 on divers supply goes down to 20 feet an you can still use the touchscreen so with a little tweaking and research I think this is possible

 

[stortecky]

Buy your self a real camera with a case. You will not get good pictures under water with it. with those small lens it will not let in much light. It is going to be very hard to operate underwater. I have a water resistance armband for my Iphone for running and it is not very responsive. Plus I do not think that you want to flood your phone. Just look around on Ebay for a used point and shoot set up for cheap. i think you will be much happier.

 

[Damselfish]

I think people look down on the idea of an UW phone housing for diving not because they're Luddites, but because it doesn't make much sense. If they develop something that works with the screen I can see it making sense for around water activities. Maybe for snorkeling in sunny water. But for diving, well as said it seems unlikely to take pictures worth the bother, given no flash and the tiny lens. While it's true you can spend a fortune on an UW camera, you can also buy things that are pretty reasonable. I suspect even the cheapest UW camera you can find will take better pictures. Plus there's the risk of flooding the phone. "When not if it floods" is a phrase often used for UW cameras but it applies to some degree to any kind of waterproof housing. And then you've nuked not only your camera, but your phone and whatever else you use it for. I'm not sure the risk/reward factor really makes sense.

I wonder if anyone will sell flood insurance for a phone taken diving?

 

[scubamarketing]

While I think you're probably right about the quality not being worth it, I recently moved away from my bigger camera rig to a tiny Panasonic point-and-shoot in a Panasonic housing with no extra lenses or strobes and people are amazed that the pictures I'm getting are coming from such a minimal setup.

I know I'm frequently impressed with the picture quality I get from my iPhone 4 on land, so I guess I'd like to just see what it looks like underwater. If someone made a housing for <$250 for a "camera" a lot of people already own and the pictures were decent, I think a lot of consumers would jump on it. There's a strong correlation between having a camera and diving more regularly, so that would be good for the sport as well.

 

[hobodiver]

here's a housing that works for iPhones/Ipods, but it doesn't let you use the screen.

iDive 300 - Deep Dive Waterproof Case & Speakers

 

[scubamarketing]

It seems like they could figure out a way to trigger the camera functions instead of just music/video since it has this:

Integrated Microprocessor
Allows for push button control of click wheel and touch screen iPod devices

I listen to music while I ski, but I've never had any interest in it while diving.

 

[doctormike]

While I think you're probably right about the quality not being worth it, I recently moved away from my bigger camera rig to a tiny Panasonic point-and-shoot in a Panasonic housing with no extra lenses or strobes and people are amazed that the pictures I'm getting are coming from such a minimal setup.

I know I'm frequently impressed with the picture quality I get from my iPhone 4 on land, so I guess I'd like to just see what it looks like underwater. If someone made a housing for <$250 for a "camera" a lot of people already own and the pictures were decent, I think a lot of consumers would jump on it. There's a strong correlation between having a camera and diving more regularly, so that would be good for the sport as well.

I hope that the people who think that this is a good idea don't take this the wrong way, I am posting to try to give some insight and help with the discussion. But I guess if the only question of interest is "where can I get an iPhone housing rated to 130 feet?", then I don't have much to add. But there is a very big difference between photography through air and photography through water, and that is the key to this question...

My iPhone 4 takes incredible photos on land, I'm so impressed with it, that I rarely use my Canon S90 any more. So maybe the case rated to 20 feet would be a good idea, since that would be about the limit of any usable ambient lighting (the iPhone is not great in low lighting, very noisy, and the strobe photos are not so great).

Any sort of photography at the depths that the OP is thinking of is going to be pretty poor without an good external strobe. The built in flash in the iPhone isn't a true strobe, but it is marginally OK topside.

In underwater photography gear, the housing is often several times the cost of the camera, so buying what might be a pricey housing (to fulfill the requirements of being good to 130 feet, and of allowing touch access to the screen controls) to produce an underwater camera system that at best would give marginal results seems to be a waste of money.

What the OP has proposed to save the cost of a digital camera in days when good ones are very cheap, and used ones are widely available, doesn't seem worth it. Especially given the overall cost of diving as a hobby. Let alone the risk of flooding one's cell phone ($699 since you would be buying in the middle of a service contract), which is likely uninsurable through standard underwater gear policies.

Just my 2 psi...!

 

[davelew]

At DEMA in 2009, I saw an underwater iPhone case/app that made a lot more sense than a camera. It attached a pressure sensor to the iPhone accessory port, and had software that turned the iPhone into a dive computer. I haven't seen that device commercialized, but it seemed like a pretty cool idea to me at the time.